Open Division - Day 2 Recap
Andy Wade
Posted: May 30, 2010 12:20 PM
Saturday's Open highlights
• Goodbye, Wisconsin, Later, Colorado, Adios, Oregon. All three recent champions failed to make quarters. Wisconsin didn't make it out of the highly competitive Pool C, and Colorado and Oregon fell in the prequarters Saturday afternoon.
• Pitt and Florida are the new favorites. Utterly dominant in pool play, both teams could afford to rest starters and lose meaningless games in the last round. Both teams are rolling, but the question remains: How will they respond to adversity? At some point, both Pitt and Florida will need to dig deeper than they have all weekend to stop an opposing team's run ... Maybe a team like Carleton, which is starting to play its best ultimate of the weekend.
• The heat is on. Colorado especially felt the effects of the searing, 90-degree temperatures. Mamabird's Jack McShane, was hospitalized for heat exhaustion.
• Saturday's biggest rebound: UNC-Wilmington was shut out in the second half in its morning game vs. Carleton. UNCW somehow managed to regroup and edge out Harvard. Not done, the Seamen outplayed Colorado in the prequarters, winning 15-11.
• Saturday's best head-to-head matchup: Georgia's Peter Dempsey and Cornell's Andrew Ji. Layout after layout, side by side. Such a pleasure to watch two competitors giving their all. Cornell earned its bye into the quarters with a huge comeback over Georgia.
• Kudos to Middlebury for playing tough and knocking off an inspired UCSD team even though the Pranksters knew they couldn't qualify for quarters. Even after captain Dan Glatt was carried off the field due to a quad cramp, the Pranksters never rolled over. A win would have propelled UCSD into the prequarters instead of Oregon (thanks to their wild 17-16 win on Friday), but the Air Squids couldn't stop the playful, pink Pranksters.