USA Ultimate

		2011 Club Championship Day 1 Recaps: Masters Recap (Spillum) Mixed Recap (Ziv) Open Recap (Toner) Women's Recap (Levine)

Thursday: All Aboard the Upset Train

Pool C, expected by many to be the most exciting grouping of Thursday, did not fail to live up to its high expectations.  Machine kicked off the exciting upset train with a 15-12 win over Furious George in Round 1.  Andrew Sheehan turned in a remarkable defensive performance while Andy Nielsen distributed the disc well for Chicago.  Furious looked to be on the road to recovery by going up 4-1 in their following game against Southpaw.  Southpaw, however, ruined that journey with a 7-0 run on their way to a 15-12 victory.  Furious managed to capture a 17-16 win over Ring of Fire in the final round of pool play, but Ring still clinched the pool title.  The real game to watch in that final pool play round was the battle for Pool C’s final power pool spot between Southpaw and Machine.  Following many a cramp and game delay, Machine’s Mike Shiel torched his mark on an up-line cut to score on double game point (17-16) and propel Machine into power pools.  To be clear, the C pool’s first seed finished fourth, the second seed finished first, the third seed finished second, and the fourth seed finished third.

[PHOTO CREDIT: Brandon Wu, facebook.com/ultiphotos (full coverage)]

[PHOTO CREDIT: Brandon Wu, facebook.com/ultiphotos (full coverage)]

Pool D’s marquee matchup saw Doublewide avenge its South Regional final loss against Chain Lightning to the tune of 15-6.  Doublewide captain Max Cook noted that his defense’s backhand force (a change in strategy from the Regional final) frustrated Nick Lance, Dylan Tunnell, Greg Swanson, and other Chain throwers with notoriously explosive and accurate flicks.  Doublewide’s offense was also far more patient than it had been all year, utilizing aggressive handler movement much more than the deep ball.  As Doublewide wrapped up the Pool title, Madison Club took down the Pittsburgh-based Oakland Haiders to head to into the lower pools with a victory.

Pool A’s "upset" saw GOAT toppling Colorado’s Johnny Bravo 15-13, with help from John Hassell’s veteran leadership and disc skills.  In Pool B, Sub Zero had upset on its mind against Truck Stop when they took half, 8-5.  But after grinding back to 9-9, Truck Stop went on a 6-2 run to close out the game behind the stellar defensive play of Matt Gordon.  Sub Zero couldn’t recover or avoid the upset bug against Tanasi, as they blew a 10-8 lead before losing 15-11.

[PHOTO CREDIT: Brandon Wu, facebook.com/ultiphotos (full coverage)]


[PHOTO CREDIT: Brandon Wu, facebook.com/ultiphotos (full coverage)]

News & notes:

• Jerrod Wolfe, one of Doublewide’s starting offensive cutters, went down with a serious knee injury in the second half of Doublewide’s matchup against Chain Lightning
  • Doublewide will gain standout cutter and defender Jake Anderson tomorrow
     
• Tomorrow’s first round Pool F match-up between Doublewide and Truck Stop will be a match of the Colorado Cup finals in which Doublewide won 15-11
   
• Tomorrow’s first round Pool H match-up between Sub Zero and Madison Club will be a rematch of the Central Regional semifinals
  • Sub Zero leads the season series (2-1) with that 15-12 Regionals victory and a 13-12 Colorado Cup victory; their only loss to Mad Club came at Sectionals (17-15)
     
• Robert Runner, a starting defensive handler for Chain Lightning, will not join the team until Saturday
   
• Ten Machine players went down with cramps during Chicago’s 17-16 victory over Southpaw
  • Machine will gain impact defender AJ Nelson tomorrow
     
• Ironside finished Thursday with the fewest goals against (20)
   
• Among Thursday’s top 8 finishers, Machine finished with the most goals against (43)
   
• The Machine/Southpaw matchup saw the first ever injury call by an observer at Nationals, with the search for a replacement observer taking roughly fifteen minutes of game time