2000 COLLEGE NATIONALS: SATURDAY & SEMIS
MAY 26–28, BOISE, IDAHO

Thrills! Action! Excitement! Nothing but everything in today's action. From game to game the play was intense and getting intenser. It started off with yesterday's Cinderellas, Wisconsin against Salisbury State, facing each other in pre-quarters. Wisconsin had knocked off Brown, Salisbury took out Michigan and should have beaten Colorado.

But this game was all about those kids from down Maryland way and they played superb, fired-up, and pasted Wisconsin by six or so.

I'm sorry - but I gotta go straight to the action. Big C Vs Big C that is, with mad skies and controversy in the men's semifinal.

As expected, Carleton and Colorado advanced to the semifinal and tangled from point one on. Both teams grit it out on short handles, avoid spreading the field too deep, and rely on speed, determination, quickness and disc handling ability. Colorado supposedly runs some UC Santa Barbara plays and like most teams nowadays, run a cag (handler back) offense and circle players out deep and in short. But they don't seem to huck it as often as vintage Black Tide.

Carleton favors a homey too, with cuts coming sideways and then flaring out depending on the defense. Sam O'Brien, Goocher (Michael Hanslick) and Jeff Huang handle while monster Alex Nord makes the cuts, or big guys Thomas Sebby and Brody Felchle. Remember that name Brody, because Carleton likes to send it to this guy even more than to Nord, the un-nominated Callahan candidate. Indeed, with so much focus on Nord, teams may tend to overlook Brody and Carleton makes sure to make them pay.

The game was a two-point swing the entire time. Carleton was up early and in danger of breaking into a three or four-point run. Instead, Colorado clawed back to 7-6 before the wind and rain changed the game, enabling two quick scores for Mamabird and a halftime lead 8-7.The wind and rain, snuffing out the Big Sky, lasted until almost the end of the game but ebbed in between and was not as much a factor as it could have been.

Carleton received the pull to start the half and scored, then it was knotted at 9's, then 10-9 Colorado. It seemed like a momentum builder when Colorado's Bob Krier skied and batted away a disc midway between takeoff point and destination. But a rare sideline turnover gave Carleton the disc back and two passes later little big man Sam O'Brien stroked a forehand to Nord laying out in the endzone for a 10-10 game.

It was eerie almost. These teams matched each other perfectly. For every Carleton deep huck, Colorado responded. Every huge snag Colorado made, Carleton got one on the next point. Hand blocks, foot blocks, layout d's, and bad throwaways were all evenly traded like the teams were playing in some sort of parallel universe.

Next point, Colorado sends a pass directly to CUT's Felchle. After a scary series of swings, preserved by a great lefty snag by Goocher, O'Brien again felt the urge to look for the score, flipping what looked to be a bad pass into the endzone. Brody went full horizontal and would have landed out had he caught it, instead it sailed around him and Nord picked it off the carpet for the score.

So the next thing that happens is Colorado works it once, twice, and spies Krier deep in the endzone with a step or three on his man. They send it up high and Carleton's #29 goes up just a little early but Krier goes up a foot higher, makes the grab and comes across with his waist hitting the kid's shoulders on the way down from the stratosphere. A truly awe-inspiring grab because Krier was way above the defender, who had the position. Tie game 11 all.

So Colorado comes in zone defense and CUT works it once, twice, and Goocher spies Brody deep and sends it up high, and Brody, a real body that looks like it would be comfortable as a defensive back or a right fielder for the A's, went up big, way up, sandwiched between two Mamabird defenders and came down with the disc. Monstrous. This for that, big for big, thrill for thrill. In the second half, it was bring the big plays or go home.

OK, here my notes drift to watching Nikki Miani looking, looking, patiently through the Georgia zone and then zinging a backhand through the teeth, through the outstretched fingers of Georgia, directly into a teammate's hands two feet on the goal side of the goal line and suddenly celebration. UNCW is going to the Finals.

Back to Big Action under the Big Sky of Clouds -- a big throwaway couple of points for both teams and then I think we got us something of a tie again, I don't know, let some official stenographer record the action. I go it was 13 all, but it could have been made 12 all.

Tie game, and CUT is moving downfield and gets it to Nord, who seems to have fallen into the habit of trying to become a handler, a thrower, a goal scorer on both ends. Me personally, I think this isn't the smartest thing. Safdie did it and nearly ganked away his chances at Callahan. Tim Murray switched to hucker instead of sky monster to little fanfare, Cribber is the main criminal behind this mentality, and now Nord appears to have done the same, leaving Brody the duties of deep man only.

But to Alex's credit, it seems to be working. He didn't make any egregious turnovers or bad decisions. It seemed close at times, but I don't recall anything real bad. Instead, on this next point, he lofted a high release, over-the-shoulder breakmark backhand 20 yards up the sideline to lay nicely into Sam O'Brien's hands as a driving Matty Lipscomb went by. CUT by one.

It could have been a turnaround play, but as this game went, it was not to be. Carleton came in zone defense. Colorado worked it around and finally a sloppy miscommunication (Carleton's zone was a little sketchy at times) produced a wide-open Nate 'Tater' Miller with 15 steps on the entire field. Someone sent him the disc. But it floated in the air badly. Nick Reich for CUT came desperately down the field to try and at least get close enough to see the disc. It floated right to Miller and he stood still exactly, waited and jumped straight up and this Reich kid was madly in the air on the come-back, jumping up to take a swipe and coming down his fingertips nipped the disc away from a stunned Miller. It was all Miller's disc, this Callahan candidate from Colorado (a lot of pressure to be Callahan candidate for these teams) but Reich made a stunning play and now CUT had a chance to go up two.

But five passes later Brent Zionic made a huge foot block (coulda been hand block) near the endzone, and Colorado scored easily after a timeout. 15 all. or 14 all. Where's that official?

Colorado pulled and then ten passes into a patient Carleton offense (before the big huck) someone, I think Nord, telegraphed a pass and someone, #29, I think Krier again (for some unfathomable reason Colorado didn't list player numbers in the program, like some other schools, most notably UCSB. I find this to be stoopid and annoying, for good reason too, because fans, however lacking they are for Frisbee, can't enjoy a good game without a "who was that?" every 10 seconds.) came diving a huge two steps ahead of his man to kill the drive with a sick defensive block. I mean, he was way out in front of that one. But then eight passes later in the swing of things, Nord hand-blocked Tater much to Tater's dismay and O'Brien again picked up the disc and put it to Nord with Tater draped over him for the emotionally charged score. The thrills just would not stop.

16-15. Or maybe its 15-14. Whatever the case, the game is hard capped to one more point. Colorado is facing a season-ending must-score situation for the second time in the game. CUT pulls, Colorado is going downwind (toward the endzone where all the action was) and has a beautiful play called, a swing passe then and a rope is strung out to #9 and he makes an impossible finger-tip grab on a wet disc traveling with high velocity. Amazing. Thrilling. Two passes later that disc gets into the endzone to Krier and its tied up again -- next point wins. Veteran Krier was really making a statement, coming up big for Mamabird in the these final tense points.

OK, now controversy. CUT goes downwind, runs a side stack that successfully moves the disc to midfield without a hitch. But then O'Brien, who had been getting lucky with several unwise hucks all game, decided yet again to abandon all consideration and put the onus on his main man, the kid they call "Star" up in Minnesota, Alex Nord, deep in the endzone. O'Brien puts up an absolutely horrendous forehand, floating and floating like a pull with too much air underneath. Nord is loping to the back corner, along with no less than three men in yellow for Colorado. None, however, measure within a half a foot of Nord's 6'4" frame. The disc floats in a languid curve back to earth, in the vicinity of Star. Nord goes up to try and make the grab, it looks like, and a body bumps him, or he jumps into a body, and falls down and no one makes a play on the disc. It was almost ridiculous, really, because it was a hospital pass with only victims. I don't think Nord would have gotten the disc. I think he may have jumped up and a Colorado defender, one of three, was already occupying the space. I think it could have been a bad call, or legitimately, someone ran into Nord and knocked him off kilter and it was a good call by Nord. Ugly play, but maybe a good call. Or maybe the defender was there and Nord couldn't get position. Instant replay anyone? Not going to happen. Instead -- to the Observer. Unflappable Mike G. After a short discussion between the players and Mike, he made a ruling -- foul. The call is upheld and folks, we are going down the field, right to the goal line where Nord will check it in for the game. Time out.

Immediately, Colorado's coach and players are over to Mike G. There was no foul, he did not have position. That's a bad call. Politely, a few players are fierce. We get a check back in of the disc, the count goes up to 7 or 8, the play is busted when Colorado covers the guy juking in, and Nord sends a nifty breakmarkish backhand floating off the ground to the short corner where O'Brien has a step on his man and its game over, CUT wins, CUT wins. They are going to finals for the first time since 1997.

Afterwards, for nearly twenty minutes, a gathering of Observers and Colorado players and others encircle Mike G for a discussion over the call but Mike defends it to all comers and that's the way she ended folks. For more discussion, log on to our live Mike G chat room...

There was a lot more action today, a lot more going on than that. Heck, every team played at least two games. There was one team, actually, who almost ended up on the short end of the stick on game-playing, at least in the fashion they are accustomed to, and that was UC Santa Barbara.

A quarters game with UNC-Chapel Hill was not supposed to be like this, figured the veteran boys from California. Heck, midway through the game, with UNC holding a two point advantage, Brown had already dusted off what was left of defending champs NC State 15-4. It was supposed to be like that for the Black Tide too. Nope. If one lesson is certain to be learned, from Salisbury, Maryland to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, to Madison, Wisconsin -- it's do not overlook your opponent at Nationals.

Oh -- before I forget -- Michigan has argued, and I promised to investigate, that the Salisbury statement that someone overheard Michigan players saying they had an "easy" game Friday morning was actually made by a Tufts player, and not a Magnum rookie as contended. "We don't even let our rookies out of the room!" said Murray later on.

"That was the best defense anyone has every played on me. He brought it," credited an awe-inspired Tommy Burfiend, almost summing up the sentiment for the whole team regarding the play of shaggy Ray Parrish, the Chapel Hill superstar. But wait -- there's more! This game was just as exciting, if not more so, than the semis matchup I was just describing. But where to start?

This game was intense and no one was as fired-up as Parrish. Let's see....UNC had taken a 10-7 lead after half. But UCSB ran off six for a late 13-11 lead. No matter, UNC didn't give it away, they tied at 13s and that's when I showed up.

When a top-seeded team fails to demoralize or out-punk a worthy opponent it spells trouble. This is what happened with Wisconsin and Brown. The teams at nationals are all capable of playing insane Ultimate and will do so if the feeling is right and the groove is on. For UNC, and Ray Parrish, it was there and UCSB couldn't shake it out of them.

Parrish was stoked. In the first half, everyone was on game for Chapel Hill except for Rhett Nichols, but he made up for it in the second before Parrish came down with some of the sickest grabs of the tournament. First he skied two Tide players a foot from the endzone. Much tension arose from hard Santa Barbara marks and UNC jawing. But then UNC sent the disc back to Parrish, way up and over Tommy, over everyone is seemed but Parrish went three feet off the ground to snatch it and land one foot over the line in the biggest catch I've seen all year. It was inconceivable that a player would even attempt to go for that disc. He was WAY up there, and the score evened the game at 14s.

Three passes later, UCSB sent one up the line to Tommy and he had three steps on Parrish, position, and a head of steam. Out of nowhere, in the most insane layout block I've seen this year, Parrish came across Tommy's body without going through him and got his big paw on the disc before Tommy knew what had happened. I was 10 feet away staring at Tommy and Ray's hand bludgeoning the disc and was amazed. Both came tumbling to the ground and no foul was called (the angle was such that Parrish had to perfectly time his bid so not to go through Tommy, but still he got a shoulder on the body).

Alas, Parrish couldn't do everything. He got the disc and tried to place a soft huck into the hands of a teammate but it sailed too long. Too much juice in those veins. So UCSB works it up to the line, calls timeout on an eight count. Time-in and a dump and a swing and a score...but a contested stall count! With Chris Van Holmes on the case as the observer, it was ruled a stall and UNC had another chance. They spot Parrish with steps and send it but he goes up early and a defender undercuts him, takes out his lower body and it seemed like a certain foul -- everyone knew it, but Parrish made no call. Patiently UCSB worked it up before Tommy found Dan "Amphetamine Hedgehog" Schneider in the endzone for the lead, 15-14.

Tide put in its sick defenders to try and finish UNC. Ernie Aubin, Buzz Hellyer, Adam Glimme, Schenider, Tommy, and Jaime Houssain. But UNC works it and finds Nadav Davidai for the score and its all tied up at 15s, next point wins.

"One more point and we seal this victory with defense! We want this more! We get this on defense!" exhorted a fired-up UNC huddle on a time-out before the pull. And the pull....and the handling...and UNC defense is tight, too tight....and Hedgehog sends a short pass to Tommy coming in and it goes four feet over his head and Parrish's head, and no one is there to get the overthrow but Ernesto Aubin, perfectly, and one beauty huck later it's in Tide's hands for the game-winning score.

A busted play for the game winner. A disappointing loss for Chapel Hill. And then almost a busted jaw. Parrish can get vocal (and he did flick off the mostly-NC sideline after the huge layout block), and everyone knows Nichols is a hot-head, and some game tension was still left over when Glimme turned to Parrish, lying on the ground shocked, and let him knew who won and who was a motherfucker. Parrish stood up immediately and advanced and beckoned with his finger, 'come here and say that.' The Observer missed all the action. Glimme darted down the field. It would have been a bench-clearing brawl had those two gotten within ten feet of each other. In the hand-shaking line, UNC Coach Kreivenas layed into Glimme with an expletive-laced retort of his own and refused to shake his hand. But nothing further happened. A nasty end to a great game, but both teams had been riding high on emotions.

In the next game, a worn-out Tide squad was rolled by Brown 15-8. There were no expletives exchanged.

I quickly asked captain Houssain if UCSB was prepared for such a game from UNC. "I don't know dude. You got a story there. We didn't expect that."

On to the women! So I found out that the reason Georgia's scores were so low on Friday was because they were resting their top stars and beating teams with other players. Georgia has some real money players, veterans from last year's semis run and full-time players with Atlanta club team Ozone. So coming off a bye they faced Colorado and Colorado had no idea what to expect and before they could get a grip on it, those Ho-Dawgs were zipping big forehands and backhands for scores and no one could stop them. They closed out eventually with a 3-4 goal win to return to semifinals and a match with Regional rival UNC-Wilmington.

Is UBC the only team in the country that can beat UNCW? Naw - somebody else might have their number. But Georgia is not one of them and the reason is the UNCW zone. Coach Zeldin told me yesterday to watch out for his zone. "We got a real good zone," he said and I found out today in that semifinal what he meant. Three girls play a contain cup. Not a very aggressive cup -- very chill. On both sides, the wing will move up into the cup if necessary, and then swing back out. In the back, the three girls matchup with defenders instead of guarding specific spots on the field, thus preventing the deep threats.

It was a 4-2 Georgia game with UNCW playing a mix of defenses. And then out came the zone and Georgia could not adapt. They fell victim to an amazing string of six straight scores from Seaweed and half suddenly belonged to UNCW when Georgia had once looked so strong.

And that was pretty much the difference in the game. UNCW is too good to blow a four-point lead, too confident, smart, well-coached, and just solid. Wasn't going to happen. The final score was by about the same margin, and it ended with co-captain Nikki Miani putting that rope to her teammate for the win. The team crowded around in celebration, Georgia didn't seem to know what hit them, gather for pictures and Zeldin and crew departed in a hurry to prepare for the biggest day of their lives.

In pre-quarters, UC San Diego finished off a demoralized Oregon team and then fought valiantly against UNCW. But Seaweed was too disciplined and too focused to give up the game. They had already faced Psycaughit several times this year and knew how they play (big hucks). UCSD really kept on them however, keeping a lead midway through the game. Finally, UNCW recovered steadily, with help from the zone, and edged ahead just as the cap was called.

"What happened? We were playing so good..." expressed one sideline player as the lead evaporated. Indeed, they had run out of stellar play at the same time UNCW started tightening the screws. It was a 12-9 UNCW victory in the end.

I discovered why UC Davis was the number two seed in the tourney despite a lackluster season. For early tournaments they sent a rookie team while superstars Melanie Carr and Kari DeLeeuw stayed put. So they lost a lot of games, but built up a lot of confidence. This Davis team was started up (or restarted) by DeLeeuw and Carr, both grad students who had led the Cornell Wild Roses to two Nationals in 97 and 98 as undergraduates. Indeed, Carr finished second in Callahan voting if I recall and is a major player, as is DeLeeuw. Both have great hucks and make the big tough catches. Davis is almost a two-woman team.

But a roster of more Grad Students and some youthful talent helped them take a win over Brown (winners over Swarthmore earlier) in quarters. And all those Carr and DeLeeuw hucks and catches didn't hurt. Those two are like Viking twin sisters of disc.

Brown is still, amazingly, a young team. Look for them to adjust next year and open up with a hucker or two. Hucks seem to work well in the women's college division.

Bucknell was almost the Cinderella today, falling to Colorado 10-8 in a game that was tied throughout. With a squad of ten women or so, Bucknell proved much more formidable than Kali expected, and then Colorado fell into a cycle of self-blaming as drops and throwaways and miscommunications spread unabated. The Bucknell Peace Frogs didn't seem to notice and they kept scoring until finally, with a chance to take the lead after the whistle was blown, threw away a sure point after a successful upwind huck to their tall threat. Colorado finally scored the point, got a lucky turnover and converted and it was over.

They advanced to play Georgia and that's when the Dawgs were let loose and rumbled to victory.

Tufts beat Illinois, then lost in a good game to Carleton. And Syzygy? Faced Davis in semis and just out-gutted them I think, and out-cheered, and had a lot of strong players compared to the two big stars out of the Pleiades seven.

It was an upset, #3 Carleton over #2 Davis, but c'mon -- Carleton was in finals last year! And are again this year. More on them tomorrow.

More men: Notre Dame won their first ever Nationals game over Princeton to finish higher-than-seeded at 15. Way to go Papal Rage! I believe that Rice won their third-ever Nationals game with a 14-13 win over Tufts in overtime. NC State had escaped UC Santa Cruz 16-15 in pre-quarters after a huge endzone layout stick by Jimmy Holtzman. Both teams were tired after that and both scored only four points in the next game, which for UCSC was a loss to Michigan. Michigan is on track towards attempting to finish 9th again and save the region from dismality.

Oh yeah Stanford. Eisenberg made some big plays down the stretch and Jon Zalisk was playing, but they could never overcome an early CUT lead in quarters. They went down 15-12 but played the type of Stanford Ultimate everyone has come to expect.

Salisbury earned the right to rematch with Mamabird but no way in this world was Colorado going to get embarrassed again. "Emotionally we're not there, but those guys are." said a Salisbury father and assistant coach. "We're prepared mentally and playing a whole lot harder," explained Colorado captain Mike Rafoul. The game was over at half, 8-2 in favor of C.U.

Colorado has a bunch of superstars and they are an infighting, yelling type of team motivationally. Once they are challenged to bring it up to that level, you can bet they'll be prepared.

Uh.... Tufts women are mostly Juniors and will be back next year and strong, so they say.

Tufts men are well-coached and run hard and are young. I thought they were a good team. Might make the show again next year. Winona State had a rougher-than-expected Nationals showing, losing a disappointing game in the loser's bracket to somebody.

I am outta here.

This was written for Ultilinks.com.

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