USA Ultimate

Kennett Square, Pa - Much like Mike Tyson used to enter the ring in his heyday, the Amherst (ARHS) Hurricanes entered the 2011 USA Ultimate High School Eastern Championships tournament at sun-drenched Walker Field near the Brandywine Polo Club outside of Philadelphia, PA, as an intimidating force.

And much like Tyson in his prime, the Hurricanes took care of business.

Amherst (MA) joined Columbia, YHB (VA) and the University School of Nashville (TN) as pool winners, while Radnor (PA), Memorial (WI), Needham (MA) and Holy Family Catholic (OH) won cross-over games to advance into the quarterfinals heading into Sunday.

"We start preparing for this tournament on our first day of practice," Amherst coach Tiina Booth said. "We don’t talk about Easterns, but everyone knows that this is the event we are working towards. We just try to play as well as we can no matter who we are competing against."

Amherst opened with a 13-3 win over Neuqua Valley (IL) before facing a Grady (GA) team that drove 15 hours from Atlanta the day before. Making matters worse for Grady, it had just lost its first game of the day in gut-wrenching fashion, falling to Radnor 11-10 at universe point.

Amherst defeated Grady, 13-2, while Radnor found itself in its second consecutive tight contest. The Raiders held off Neuqua Valley, 10-7, to set-up a rematch of their Born-to-Dive tilt with the Hurricanes. The result wasn’t much different, however, as Amherst held off a feisty Radnor squad, 12-7. The Raiders, though, pulled to within three in the second half before succumbing.

"I knew that Radnor would be a challenge," Booth said. "They’re a really good team. It was good for us to play a team of that caliber on Saturday. I’d rather have some challenges on Saturday than just having everything go easily."

After Neuqua Valley defeated Grady, 13-3, Pool A proved to be the only pool to hold seed.

In Pool B, Columbia (NJ) retained its top seed after convincing wins over Calvary Baptist Day School (NC) and Middletown (CT). LC Bird (VA) gave Columbia its toughest match of the day in an 11-6 defeat. But the first real upset of the day belonged to fourth-seeded LC Bird after it knocked off second-seeded Middletown, 12-3. But it was Calvary Baptist Day School that emerged to take second in the pool after taking an 8-7 win over LC Bird at universe point.

PHOTO CREDIT: Kevin Leclaire

Pool C set up nicely for YHB. Last year, YHB came into Easterns as the top-seed in the pool with second-seeded Needham, only to be upset by the Connecticut team. After YHB and Needham won their first two games, the rematch was set, only this time the situation was completely reversed.

"We try not to talk about who we are playing, we talk about how we are playing, but as soon as the pools were released, everyone kind of had that game in the back of their minds," YHB coach Will Smolinski said. "It was the exact same pool, the exact opposite situation."

And the exact opposite result. 

YHB downed Needham, 13-7, to take the pool. Needham secured wins over Memorial (CT) and West Windsor-Plainsboro North (NJ) to place second, while Memorial downed West Windsor to take third.

In Pool D, the University School of Nashville needed a 10-9 universe-point victory over Holy Family Catholic to secure first place. Holy Family handily defeated both Haverford (PA) and Stuyveant (NY) to place second, while Haverford held off Stuyvesant, 8-6, to finish third.

That set up the cross-over games which decided the last four spots in the championship bracket.

Radnor faced Philadelphia rival Haverford in what turned out to be an outright slugfest. The Raiders opened up a three-goal lead before Haverford began chipping away. Haverford pulled within 5-4 but Radnor scored the final three goals of the game to advance.

Memorial outlasted Calvary Baptist Day School and Needham edged LC Bird, both by 10-7 scores, as Pool C sent three of its four teams into the quarterfinals. Holy Family held off Neuqua Valley, 13-8, to earn its spot in the championship bracket.

Amherst will square off with Memorial with the winner facing the team that emerges from the Needham vs. University School of Nashville game, while Radnor and Columbia will battle for the right to face the winner of YHB and Holy Family.

"I think it will be an even matchup," Radnor captain Trent Dillon said. "Our guys will be just as fresh as their guys. We’ll be ready to duke-it-out with them. They are, in my mind, the No. 2 team in the country. And we have a shot to take them out right now."

Sounds a bit Buster Douglas-ish.

Amherst entered the tournament like Tyson, but can the Hurricanes continue to dominate high-school Ultimate this side of the Mississippi?

"A lot of the kids that are on the team now have been on the team for years so they’ve been through this before," Booth said. "It’s just part of taking care of business. We do our best to minimize those types of pressures. There’s pressure on us to play well, but that’s all the pressure I really want. The other stuff we do our best to ignore."