USA Ultimate

Quarterfinals

Iowa 15	Oregon 10		Carleton College 15	Stanford 7		Wisconsin 14	Harvard 8		Colorado 12	Pittsburgh 7

In the College Championships quarterfinal round, it was Iowa over Oregon, 15-10, Carleton College over Stanford, 15-7, Wisconsin over Harvard, 14-8, and Colorado over Pittsburgh, 12-7.

On paper, the marquee match up was Colorado and Pittsburgh. These were the tournament’s top two seeds coming into the weekend, and while Pittsburgh owned a 2-0 pre-Series record against Colorado, each of their previous games was close. 

This one was not. Colorado jumped out to a 5-0 lead on the strength of physical defense that forced Pittsburgh to throw the disc into tightly guarded spaces, and with its offense connecting on deep shots, Mamabird never really looked back. Pittsburgh was able to trade points with Colorado after an 8-3 half, but the effort was too little, too late.

PHOTO CREDIT: Andrew Davis [freeheelimages.com/usau]
 

Elsewhere, Iowa’s quick-hucking transition offense benefited from Oregon being unable to hold onto the disc, usually needing only one turnover to convert the breaks that allowed IHUC to close out the game. Wisconsin and Carleton led comfortably in their games against Harvard and Stanford, respectively.

Semifinals

Carleton College 15	Iowa 10		Wisconsin 14	Colorado 10

In the first semifinal, Carleton and Iowa squared off in a rematch of 2011’s North Central Region 2nd-place game, wherein an Iowa win left the national frontrunner as the 3rd-place team out of the region. In that game, Iowa went up early and was able to hold its lead by hucking early and playing a zone that Carleton could not break.

This time, the story was different, as Carleton defenders prioritized stopping the deep throw. Regardless of how far Iowa cutters were from the disc, a CUT player was in tow, and when Iowa’s offense was unable to get open underneath, Carleton capitalized on its break opportunities. The score was 8-4 at half, and while Iowa was able to get it to 14-10 after going down 14-8, that was as close as it got. 15-10, Carleton.

PHOTO CREDIT: Kevin Leclaire [ultiphotos.com]

The day’s second semifinal, which pitted Colorado against Wisconsin, was the most entertaining of the day. Colorado opened with a long huck from Matty Zemel to Hylke Sneider, which was followed by a three point Wisconsin run that featured a deep shot of its own and an impressive layout grab by Ben Feldman on a disc that seemed certain to be down. Wisconsin was able to break again to get to 7-4 and took half, 8-5.

Out of half, a Feldman huck to Pat Donovan made the score 9-5, and on the next point, Colin Camp went deep after a turn to get it to 10-5; both Feldman and Camp had huge games for the Hodags. The teams continued to battle, but Wisconsin’s offensive line refused to let Colorado back in the game. While Mamabird was able to break to get the score to 12-9, Wisconsin, it was as close as they would get. The teams traded to a 14-10 result in favor of the Hodags.

"This is a marquee win for us," said Wisconsin coach Hector Valdivia. "We’re peaking. Feldman and Camp just played their best games of the year, and our offense just isn’t turning the disc over."

PHOTO CREDIT: Scott Roeder

On tomorrow’s match up with rival Carleton College, Valdivia is confident. "20 miles per hour gusts sounds a lot like our regional final against Carleton. We’ve got the better overhead throws and hucks in the wind, and our defense is going to force turns."