USA Ultimate

 

 

Although I spent the majority of the day following the championship bracket, I got to catch a little of the consolation play. The level of play stayed extremely high between these teams, and many of the games were hotly contested. Xavier rode their speedy deep game into the finals against Fieldston, a focused team that played very strong all weekend, despite dropping to Longmeadow in pre-quarters. Kudos to Fieldston for their consistent focus and determination en route to their 9th place finish.

 

 

The quarterfinals consisted of a handful of perennial Regional competitors along with a few new faces. Hampton came out of Pool C looking strong in their 11-9 pre-quarters win and took on Columbia High School in quarterfinals. The game stayed close early, as Columbia thrived on Sacha Kaiser’s deep throws. Hampton played a patient game, often working methodically down the field on in-cuts, but taking their deep shots when they had them. Graeme Kernick was impressive on defense for Hampton, making a number of big plays on hucks. Coming out of half with a 7-6 lead, Hampton clamped down and finished with an 11-8 win. Elsewhere, John Jay and Amherst faced off to play the winner of the Hampton Columbia game. Amherst played a strong 1-3-3 zone that seemed to put John Jay out of their comfort zone. Their execution after forcing turnovers was impressive and the Hurricanes cruised to a 13-1 victory. Needham, the last of the 1 seeds, drew first time Regional competitor Sharon High School in their quarterfinal matchup. Though Needham broke three times out of the gate, Sharon pulled back to 3-2 thanks to aggressive marking and solid downfield defense. Needham would find their legs again, breaking repeatedly and taking a 13-4 victory and a spot in the Semifinals. The 4th quarterfinal game was perhaps the most exciting, as Longmeadow and Pennsbury battled it out in an athletic showcase. Both teams displayed their deep game and proved that they could strike quickly from any spot on the field. Longmeadow broke to go up 6-5 on a hammer from Alex Schmitt, who handled the disc very well for them all game. A big grab by Alex Greenberg put Longmeadow up 8-6, but Pennsbury got a couple of breaks back soon after. Jared Radziwon was almost unstoppable going deep for the Falcons and Sean Mott repeatedly put nice hucks out for him to run down. The hard cap sounded at 12-12 and Longmeadow, who had the disc, worked it up the field for the winning goal.

 

 

Hampton came into their Semifinal matchup with Amherst riding the energy that brought them a win over Columbia. After scoring an offensive point, Hampton generated a turn and worked in the break. Amherst focused in on offensive on the successive point and converted a deep look into quick goal. On the following point Johann Becker made a nice play on an in cut to get the D for the Hurricanes and then scored the goal to bring the game even at 2-2. From then Amherst seemed confident and calm, again using zone defense to their advantage. Hampton’s talented throwers threw some nice deep looks, but Amherst’s athletic defenders made play after play downfield. Thanks to their effective offense, the Hurricanes broke with ease and won 13-3. In the other Semifinal Needham took on Longmeadow. Although Longmeadow broke to start the game, Needham looked to be a bit less tired and broke back to take a 2-1 lead. Ben Sadok played excellent defense for Needham, getting multiple layout blocks in the first half. Longmeadow’s Kevin Rzepka threw a number of nice hucks early in the first half as Longmeadow tried to hang tight with Needham. As the second half begun though it appeared that Needham had legs to make a run and they did just that on the way to a 13-5 victory. 

Day 2 Photos by UltiPhotos.com