2015 Youth Club Championships - Day 1 Mixed Recap
Chris Dascalos
Posted: August 7, 2015 11:56 PM
U-19 Mixed – Day One Recap (full results)
By: Chris Dascalos
Back in Minnesota for the 11th year in a row, the 2015 USA Ultimate Youth Club Championships kicked off this morning with a slight rain, a relatively insignificant wind and the perfect temperature, the type of weather to get any ultimate player excited. This year, the U-19 mixed division features four new teams: Philadelphia Forge, Maine Rising Tide, South Dakota Spearfish and Atlanta flATLine.
In Pool A, defending champion Oregon Flood started off strong against Boston BUDA, but lost momentum after a dropped pull with their newly shaped team, particularly in the face of the loss of a set of valuable female players from 2014. The teams traded points until half when BUDA ran to the finish line, despite the efforts of Quinn Buermeyer who put up an outstanding defensive effort for Flood. Oregon couldn’t hold off the pressure and ended 1-2 after day one of pool play.
Rising Tide started off the morning strong playing Atlanta flATLine and winning a well-played match that ended 13-11 Tide. None of the players on the field could deny that Ben Field and Jared DeWolfe were huge threats on the field, racking up a combined seven goals, nine assists and two Ds for Rising Tide. Unfortunately, this demanding presence wouldn’t hold out for the rest of the day, and the Maine squad finished at 1-2 for day one of pool play.
Seattle, as always, is a powerhouse at YCC and took a lead over Minnesota early in their match with a couple of breaks, but the halftime score was just 7-6 Seattle. They traded with Minnesota after half but eventually ran away with the game. It was one of the best-spirited games of the day, with both teams showing great spirit, despite the rising intensity toward the end. A beautiful flick from Anna Tinker to Justin Ting finished the game for Seattle with a score of 13-11. They carried this momentum for the rest of the day and finished 3-0 on day one of pool play.
Minnesota may have come out with a few fundamental mistakes in the morning, but they pulled it together to play Rising Tide and Oregon Flood. They fought hard for all of their wins but connected more often as they continued to play together. They’re a team that shows much more potential than what was displayed on the field today. Finishing at 2-1 for the day, Minnesota is still in the fight and could still come out on top in the pool when pool play finishes tomorrow.
BUDA came out strong against Oregon in the morning and fought hard to beat flATLine but lost to Seattle in their last game of the day. Sitting at 2-1 like Minnesota, the only thing that separates them is their point differential which is two less than Minnesota. Much is still to be seen from the Bostonians, but we still have another half of pool play to finish.
flATLine being both a young team and new to the tournament may not have known what to expect and finished the day 0-3. While keeping victory in sight throughout the day and fighting strong, it just seemed to avoid them.
Pool B had a lot of excitement towards the end of the day with both the Bay Area Happy Cows and Washington, D.C. Swing Vote steamrolling to a perfect day. The Happy Cows seem unbeatable while still having a great attitude on the field and showing great spirit to their opponents. Tomorrow will show who the better team is when the Happy Cows and Swing Vote meet in the last round of pool play.
The Madison MUFAbots played great today, even though they lost to the Happy Cows, beating both of their prior opponents with a point differential of seven or more. Philadelphia Forge only ranks higher in the standings right now due to point differential, but that is likely to change after they play the MUFAbots and the Happy Cows to conclude pool play on Saturday.
Most surprising were Vermont Green Mountain Mixed (GMX) and Colorado Cutthroat who went 0-3 and 0-4, respectively, on day one. Both teams had communications problems, and as the afternoon wind picked up, it started to expose the weaknesses in the O and D lines on both teams.
Tomorrow will separate the U-19 mixed pack even more and could have some exciting turnarounds. Stay tuned for more of YCC!
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