Posts tagged Pittsburgh
Video Footage
Mar 22nd
Quarterfinals
Quarterfinal Footage from each game! Enjoy!
Colorado Wisconsin Pool Play:
One of the more exciting pool play games, Colorado Wisconsin ended up going down to the wire. Enjoy some early plays and then the last two points towards the end.
Colorado Virginia Cross Over:
Another hotly contested game down to the wire, Colorado would pull away to survive Saturday.
Easterns Final: Pittsburgh v. Florida
Mar 22nd
This wasn’t supposed to happen. Florida was going to fall off. Without Brodie and Chris, it wasn’t like Cole was going to shoulder the load, and Florida’s bench was a bunch of scrubs with barbeque backhands. After 2010, they were done.
Right?
Wrong. All weekend at College Easterns, Florida’s deep game was clicking, its defense was stingy, and its offense kept possession of the disc. With a 15-14 win over Pittsburgh in the final and a 6-1 record overall, Florida used Easterns to show that they have not gone anywhere.
Even more remarkably, Florida did all of this in the first half of the final without their offensive cornerstone. Cole Sullivan was sidelined until the second half due to a second Player Misconduct Foul that he was given in Florida’s semifinal against Carleton, leaving Alex Hill (who returned to the field after Sullivan’s ejection despite having broken his nose earlier in the game), Nathan Sage, and Alton Gaines to shoulder the offensive load.
While many expected this group to struggle when up against Pittsburgh’s tenacious defense, they did not, remaining poised and committed to keeping the disc alive on the dump and hitting taking deep chances when a teammate was open.
Florida was also helped in the first half by Pittsburgh’s decision not to throw a zone or force middle, strategies that may have forced Florida’s interim handlers to make more throws into difficult-to-hit spaces. While the teams went into half on serve at 8-7, Florida, Pittsburgh certainly missed its chance to earn a few breaks in Sullivan’s absence.
Out of half, Pittsburgh’s Alex Thorne stood out quite a bit, getting open at will and throwing give and goes all the way down the field. His work on Pitt’s first point, however, was for naught, as Florida converted a missed breakmark attempt on the endzone line into a break that made the score 9-7.
On the next point, Thorne pulled down a huge sky over the much bigger Sullivan to bring it to 9-8. He would continue to impress throughout the game, coming up with another layout catch for a score and consistently making difficult throws look easy.
At 11-9, Florida called timeout on the endzone line and earned another break after blocking Pittsburgh twice (the first was a Coleman Hoover layout and the second was a sky by Gaines on Pitt’s Tyler DeGirolamo). Throughout the weekend, no team used its timeouts as well as the Gators.
With the score at 13-11 and the horn blowing to point cap the game at 13-11, Pittsburgh threw a zone that took them on a run, bringing the score to 14-14 and looking like they might steal the win.
With an upwind pull that landed halfway back in Florida’s endzone and very close to the sideline, Pittsburgh set a flick-forcing zone. Alex Hill picked up the disc, and while his teammates worked to find open space, Hill saw nothing that he liked and called a timeout.
The Pitt mark had said “stalling eight,” and the count would be coming in on “stalling nine.”
What happened out of the timeout was surreal. Required to set first because they were on offense, Florida lined up Gaines as Hill’s dump. Sullivan, Sage, Travis Catron, Glenn Lenberger, and Jeff Kale, were all 50 yards downfield.
With Pittsburgh setting up the same cup that the came down in, everybody knew what was coming. As the disc was tapped in, Hill stepped back, wound up, and let it fly.
The Easterns fields are surrounded by a group of huge light poles, all standing about 15 yards off of the sidelines. Earlier in the day, Colorado’s Jimmy Mickle had hit one with a pull, stopping Mamabird’s momentum in their quarterfinal game against Pitt.
As though it was designed for dramatic effect, Hill’s huck soared around the nearest light post and began to float down into a wolfpack of Gators and En Sabah Nur players that were jockeying for position.
At first, it looked as though Sullivan was going to make the grab. After all, he is known more for his ability to box out and will himself to a disc than he is for being a big leaper. When he jumped, though, Pitt’s DeGirolamo applied enough pressure to make Sullivan tip the disc but not bring it in.
Luckily for Florida, however, Sage was trailing the play and the disc floated easily into his hands; after catching it, an easy two-yard backhand to Catron made Florida the 2011 College Easterns Champions.
“Given all of the adversity we had, this win felt even better than usual,” said Florida’s Hill. “Nothing is going to come easily, but now we know we’re going to be there.”
Easterns Quarterfinal: Pittsburgh v. Colorado
Mar 21st
Pittsburgh v. Colorado
Though Pittsburgh broke to start the game and looked more focused in the first few points, Colorado was quick to respond by turning in one of its best defensive performances of the season, fighting back to go into half down only one break, 8-7. More >
Pittsburgh Interview
Mar 21st
Pittsburgh Coaches are interviewed after their team defeated Colorado in the quarter finals.
Injury Report Update
Mar 18th
The Injury Report will continue to be updated throughout the weekend.
As of Friday afternoon, here’s the injury report.
Out:
- Nick Stuart (Carleton), hamstring
- Hidde Snieder (Colorado), groin
- Miguel Palaviccini (Florida), PhD defense
- Sam Kanner (Cal), achilles
- Robert Goode (Wilmington), shoulder
- Matt Bailey (Georgia), out for Saturday, unsure for Sunday
Questionable:
- Julian Childs-Walker (Carleton), back
- Justin Norden (Carleton), groin
- Josh Wardle (Oregon), hamstring
- Andrew Vogt (Harvard), wrist
- Russ Causley (Wilmington), knee
Banged up, but probable:
- Tyler DeGirolamo (Pittsburgh), shoulder
- Cody Bjorklund (Oregon), ankle
- Dylan Freechild (Oregon), not sure
- Brian Kiernan (Virginia), knee
- Andrew Hagen (Cal), not sure
UltiVillage Easterns MVP Award
Mar 17th
I just got word from Easterns tournament director Greg Vassar that UltiVillage is going to sponsor an Easterns Most Valuable Player Award.
The winner will receive an UltiVillage Elite Team Partnership Ring of Fire jersey (which, if it’s like the team jerseys that they had at Worlds, will be sick) 9 Elite Team partnership discs, and a copy of the Club Championships DVD from 2008, 2009, and 2010.
At the moment, the criteria are up for discussion, but the decision will ultimately be up to me. My plan at the moment is to take as many informal votes from players, coaches, and spectators as possible, combine the aggregate, and name the winner.
As fans, what factors do you think are most important in naming a tournament MVP?
Just for fun, here are a number of players that have been impressive thus far: More >
Did You Know? Pittsburgh at Easterns…
Mar 14th
In 2004, Pittsburgh En Sabah Nur finished fifth at West Plains Sectionals, failing to qualify for Regionals. At that point, Pitt had only one Regionals appearance to its name, a 2003 showing where it failed to win a game.
Fast forward to 2010, and Pittsburgh finishes in the National Semifinals. The time in between has been filled with steady improvement that includes six straight Nationals appearances with increasingly higher placements nearly every year.
But beyond its Nationals qualifications, Pitt’s rise has been marked with signature wins and tournament victories at pre-Series events, none bigger than 2006′s 17-14 victory over perennial Nationals qualifier Harvard in the finals of College Easterns.
Pittsburgh: College Easterns champions in 2006
The Top Half
Mar 12th
By seeding, here are a couple thoughts on the top 8 teams that will be at College Easterns next weekend…
1. Carleton College (15-2)
- With tournaments at Warm Up and Stanford Invite, Carleton is the undisputed class of the Open division. Senior Grant Lindsley teams up with sophomore Julian Childs-Walker to form a cutting unit whose speed is overpowering, and senior Alex Evangelides and sophomore Simon Montague are cornerstones of a defense capable of grinding out turnovers.
- Carleton’s only real weakness so far has been its ability to convert their opponents’ turnovers into breaks. While their D line is packed with experience in Evangelides and Christian Foster, CUT has at times had to move offensive players over in order to ensure that its defense scores.
2. Pittsburgh (5-2)
- 5th year players Chris Brenenborg and Eddie Peters have been good for a long time, and given that former youngers Alex Thorne and Tyler DeGirolamo are now juniors, this is the year that Pitt is hoping to bring it all together. Their only tournament thus far has been Stanford, and while they lost a close game to Oregon in pool play, En Sabah Nur mounted huge comebacks against very good British Columbia and Colorado teams en route to a finals appearance.
- Pitt is a team with a reputation for riding their emotions, which is why spectators should be watching any of their games against other top seeds. While they are the only top 5 team at the tournament without a national championship to their name, Pitt has built itself on not backing down to anyone, and every year they seem to add another key victory to their program’s resume.
3. Colorado (12-4)
- Fast, physical, and intense, Mamabird is coming off of a near-miss at Warm Up and a botched semifinal at Stanford. Colorado will certainly be hungry to win its first big pre-Series tournament since Centex in 2009.
- Though only a sophomore, Colorado’s Jimmy Mickle has been playing at an MVP level all season. He leads the D line with huge pulls, strong play in the air, and very effective break throws; look to see how he continues to mesh with Colorado’s universe line.
4. Oregon (9-2)
- When most people talk about Oregon in 2011, they start by mentioning who they graduated in 2010. Consider, though, who the team has gained: John Bloch and Jordan “Dozer” May are back after taking time away from ultimate, and talented freshman Dylan Freechild has moved down the road from South Eugene High School. Add those to captain Cody Bjorklund, and a bevy of others that have been under-the-radar good for quite some time, and Oregon’s roster is in a better place than you may think.
5. Florida (6-3)
- Nationals winners in 2010, many have written Florida off because they graduated Brodie Smith. But while they played poorly against Colorado and Wisconsin at Warm Up, the Gators showed that they will continue to compete at the highest levels. Most teams have not figured out how to stop Cole Sullivan from getting the disc and breaking the mark, and with defenders so wary of the heralded Florida deep game, life is pretty easy for the team’s cutters.
- Florida is most challenged when teams play them honest rather than try to poach or double team. Look to see how their less experienced players do when the disc is in their hands and the dump is well-covered.
6. Wisconsin (8-7)
- Yet another recent top dog that many are ready to write off, Wisconsin is slowly finding its identity as a young team. They are particularly adept at coming down with their own hucks into traffic, and with that as a building block, they are dangerous when cutters give each other room to work underneath.
- Wisconsin has also proven itself as a team very capable of playing up to big opponents, as evidenced by their wins over Carleton and Florida at Warm Up.
7. Harvard (9-7)
- After a rough showing at Warm Up, Harvard righted the ship at Stanford and made semis with a huge comeback over Oregon. The team’s starting seven has yet to play together, but in the meantime, George Stubbs has made up for it by playing at a level worthy of the Callahan.
- Even when at full strength, Harvard is not a deep team. If the top 7 are struggling, Red Line’s role players will have to step up huge in order to fill the gap.
8. Virginia (5-4)
- It is unclear which Virginia team will be at Easterns: the one that could not complete its comeback against Wisconsin, or the one that looked in control against Colorado. As one of the only teams at Easterns without a coach, Night Train is a bit more susceptible to the highs and lows of competition, but with a number of strong 5th years, seniors, and juniors, the team is well aware of what it needs to do in order to succeed.
Tomorrow, look for more on the next 8, which is seeded as follows…
9. California (12-7)
10. Minnesota (4-4)
11. Michigan (7-0)
12. Iowa (8-0)
13. Ohio (13-1)
14. Georgia (5-2)
15. UNC-Wilmington (6-9)
16. Cornell (2-7)
