USA Ultimate

After a week of persistent rain, fierce thunderstorms, and hail, Day 1 of the 2011 USA Ultimate High School Eastern Championships beamed a magnificent royal sky that would have made Kate and Will proud.  As a result, the most common ailments of the day were over-heating and sunburn (except for the Holy Family bus which was stuck in mud for an hour).  There were lots of exciting performances from the very athletic girls, with every team exhibiting commitment to excellence in both play and Spirit.  

Results yielded very little surprises, with every team holding seed in every pool, with one exception.  Watchung Hills (from Warren, New Jersey) did win Pool C, but Holy Family Catholic Home Educators (a home school group from Cincinnati, Ohio) edged out Radnor (from Radnor, Pennsylvania), 11-6.

In the Crossover games, three of the matches yielded lopsided results, ending 13-1: Amherst (from Amherst, Massachusetts) vs. Watchung, and Columbia (Maplewood, New Jersey, where Ultimate was created) vs. Andover Varsity (Andover, Massachusetts).  Also with a wide spread was Holy Family’s win over Stuyvesant  (New York, New York), 13-6.  

PHOTO CREDIT: Kevin Leclaire

However, the greater level of parity in high school girls play was reflected in the other three games, which had close scores.  YHB (Arlington, Virginia) topped Allderdice (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), 8-5, and neighboring schools HUDA (Haverford, Pennsylvania) vs. Lower Merion (Ardmore, Pennsylvania) settled on 9-6.  Radnor, making up for their pool demotion, won an upset of their own in Crossover play by winning over Mount Lebanon (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), 7-5, in part due to the stunning Callahan by co-captain Amy Moore.

An interesting local note:  Haverford, Lower Merion, and Radnor, plus a Catholic girls school, Cardinal O’Hara – which did not make it to 2011 Easterns – are all located very near each other just outside of Philadelphia, comprising the PHUEL (Philadelphia High school Ultimate Educational League) Girls Division.  Over the previous two years, Lower Merion dominated, due to a few extraordinary players.  Prior to that, O’Hara seemed unstoppable.  Those authoritative players are now off to college (one is headed to Division 1 Nationals next week, now with Tufts EWo), but their successes helped recruit a wide range of new players.  This year, the coaches generously agree that their teams have all reached an unparalleled parity, in which any one of them is as likely to win as the other.  Two of the local teams are still in the quarter-finals bracket. 

Due to this week’s wet weather, some of the fields were unusable at the Brandywine Polo Center.  Today, the girls played at Brandywine – although some of their previously scheduled fields had to be shuffled, which everyone took in stride – while the boys had to move to nearby Walker Polo Fields (740 Byrd Road, Kennett Square PA 19348).  Sunday, the girls will play at Walker and the boys will be at Brandywine.  However, both final games will be at Brandywine, at 2:30PM.