News Recap: 2011 College Open Regionals (Southeast)

Home>News>All News Posts > Recap: 2011 College Open Regionals (Southeast)

Recap: 2011 College Open Regionals (Southeast)

Michael Aguilar

Posted: May 3, 2011 06:32 PM

Open Division

College2011 SE Icon
Southeast
Regionals Recap

I have only rarely attempted covering a tournament while playing in that tournament. I will say that it is an extremely difficult task. I say that now only to prepare you that the most information from this tournament will circulate around LSU and the teams that were on fields near LSU due to the fact that I play for LSU.

With the obligatory bias report out of the way, let us move on to the tournament.

Saturday

Round 1

Southeast Regionals wait long to inform those in attendance that this was going to be no straightforward affair. Two teams hoping to make a run at semis were already reeling from first round losses. Florida State DUF was never really close to Georgia Southern, losing 13-5. In the same 3v4 matchup in the second pool, Georgia Tech blew a 6-5 lead in a game to lose 8-6 against Gulf Coast Conference champions Alabama.

Meanwhile, Vanderbilt, Tennessee, LSU and UCF coasted to easy first round victories.

Round 2

There isn’t much point in talking about anything other than the Florida/Georgia Southern game in this round. While every other favored seed was taking care of business with only Georgia coming close to stumbling against Florida-B, the entire FSU Rec Sportsplex was abuzz as the Florida vs. Southern game stayed tight throughout.

The hardcap finally came on with the score knotted up at 10-10 and Southern found itself with the disc in its hands. After some time, a throw went up to senior Nathan Thompson, who had been giving UF’s Cole Sullivan fits all game, and Thompson mac’d the disc only to track it down on a second attempt and give GSU an 11-10 lead. As the Eagles walked to line, ready to play defense, they were informed by the observer that the game was over and they had won.

As their cheers erupted teams started to give each other sideways glances with raised eyebrows. Suddenly, the only team in the region to crack USAU’s top ten all season was in desperation mode and this was anyone’s game. Nationals was back on the table for a lot of teams that may have already counted themselves out.

The hope was palpable.

Round 3

Of course, the Gators had been through this rodeo before. Being on top means you have a target on your back. UF didn’t back down, marching into its 1v2 matchup against Tennessee with plenty of confidence and, though UT played the Gators tough, Florida prevailed 10-8. In the B pool, the 1v2 matchup finished with the same score but Georgia took the win with an upset victory over UCF. By 1:45, both No. 1 seeds already had losses under their belts and the tournament was anyone’s for the taking.

Aside from Mississippi State taking down a reeling Florida State, Round 3 went to seed. With new life breathed into some teams, the fourth round of the day presented an opportunity for some teams to take commanding leads and other teams to win or face near certain elimination.

Round 4

This round provided very little in the way of fanfare as Florida took down Vanderbilt, Georgia Southern stayed undefeated by beating MSU and Alabama rolled over an exhausted Florida-B, who was still recovering from a double game point loss to Georgia Tech in the prior round.

However, LSU managed to keep the spark of excitement alive by beating B pool’s No. 1 seed, UCF, 11-8. In this grudge match from Tally Classic’s finals, LSU managed to get a lead late in the first half, extend it early in the second half and hold on for an impressive victory. Purple Haze’s play was led by senior Michael Schulz and junior Dylan Shannon who absolutely refused to let the Dogs of War notoriously gritty defense come up with the breaks they so desperately needed.

Round 5

Once again, many teams in the field were faced with games that represented stark differences in their outlooks for the next day. The only two of the three remaining undefeated teams, Georgia Southern and LSU, both had huge matchups in the 4v5 games. Meanwhile, Georgia also wanted to hang on to its undefeated record against Georgia Tech. Tech, on the other hand, needed a victory over Georgia in order to keep itself in contention with pool play games against both LSU and UCF looming on Saturday morning.

In Pool A, all three favorites took care of business quickly and efficiently. Florida, Tennessee and Georgia Southern all won with no margin of victory smaller than +6.

In Pool B though, chaos reigned again. UCF, clearly frustrated with its play so far in the tournament, let Georgia State hang around until late, winning by a narrower than expected 12-9. One field over, Georgia Tech earned a fairly “easy” win, over UGA 11-8. All region lock, Nick Lance, led the way for Tribe by dishing and catching scores routinely. The next field over from that upset, left Gulf Coast Conference rivals, Alabama and LSU battling it out to settle their season series. Alabama jumped out to an early lead and continued to extend it throughout the game. However, just before the soft cap went on, something clicked for LSU and the boys from Louisiana turned on their defense. Before Yellow Hammer knew what hit it, LSU had earned 5 breaks in the second half and managed to take home a 14-12 victory.

End of Saturday Records:

A: 4-0: Georgia Southern, 3-1: Tennesse, Florida, 2-2: Vanderbilt, 1-3: Auburn, Mississippi State, Florida State

B: 4-0: LSU, 3-1: Georgia, Georgia Tech, 2-2: UCF, Alabama, 0-4: Florida-B, Georgia State

Sunday

Round 1

Early in the morning, the 6v7 games happened while most other teams were still asleep. I don’t have much to say other than congrats to these teams on making it to Regionals. A shoutout especially goes to Georgia State, who hopped on with short notice and, in only their second season, put up a lot more points than one would have expected.

Round 2

At this point, it was easier to count who was out than attempt to think about who still had a shot at making semis.
In Pool A, Florida, Tennessee and Georgia Southern started the morning off strong. Winning their games against overmatched opponents easily.

Pool B, on the other hand, once again refused to let things go smoothly. Though the games followed their initial seeding, The outcomes certainly threw a wrench in the works considering Saturday’s play. Jojah started the morning hot and steamrolled LSU with power offense and high pressure defense. In the meantime, Georgia Tech hung tight with UCF, even dropping an uncontested pass in the endzone for the win, before losing on double game point to put Pool B in a position in which a five way tie for first was possible.

Round 3

With the five way tie looming in Pool B, whatever happened in Pool A, barring Florida missing semifinals, would likely take a back seat.
Sure enough, Pool A went to seed with Florida securing the point differential it needed to advance over both Georgia Southern and Tennessee. Tennessee took second in Pool A and Georgia Southern, despite a 5-1 record and a victory over Florida, was relegated to the sidelines. A tip of the hat goes to the Eagles, who battled as hard as any team at the tournament and should be proud of their season.

Pool B found itself only Alabama and Georgia Tech victories away from an epic 5-way tie to finish pool play. UCF, who was depending on the five way tie for a shot at semis quickly dispatched Florida-B and was left simply hoping for the improbable. Georgia Tech did its part, after battling back and forth with LSU and letting Purple Haze take a 10-8 lead, Tribe capitalized on several fundamental mistakes to take a 12-11 double game point victory. This left LSU rooting for Georgia to beat Alabama in order to avoid bringing more teams into the tie-breaker.

Tech, on the other hand, jumped to the Georgia sideline to root on Alabama, knowing that a Yellow Hammer upset would give Tribe an outside shot at semifinals. Alabama had ridden senior Tim Brady to the limits of human ability and, on found him in the endzone to force double game point deep into the hard cap. Jojah received and marched the disc up the field to take the win and send Alabama, Georgia Tech and UCF all home packing in one fell swoop.

Semifinals

The only semifinal I have any knowledge of was the one I played in. LSU entered the semifinal with little left in the tank. Playing on a shortened roster that got even shorter when several players left early Saturday for Baton Rouge, Purple Haze were grinded down by the Gators.

Florida took the first point for a break score and earned several more throughout the first half to take a commanding lead at halftime. Though LSU never quite got completely out of the game, it was never quite completely in the game either. When it was all said and done, Florida’s depth and skill was too much and the Gators took LSU down 14-9.

In the other semifinal, Georgia beat Tennessee 13-9.

Finals

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQytUyiDSks

Florida beat Georgia 12-10 in a game that was never out of reach for either team.