Tony Leonardo's Collection of Ultimate Frisbee Writing
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1999 U.S. Club Nationals
Preseason Scouting
Women
Open
Daily RSD Posts
Miscellaneous

1999 Tune-Up

1999 NE Club Regionals

Short Article written for ESPN Magazine

1999 Whitesmoke

1999 College Preseason Rankings
Women
Men

1999 College Nationals
Men
Women
Daily RSD Posts
Interview Transcripts
Team Bios: N.C. State Jinx and Stanford Superfly
Press Releases

2000 Stanford Invite
Saturday
Sunday
Post-Tournament
Press Releases

2000 College Nationals
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Post-Tournament Notes

2000 National Champions Brown University

2000 Ow My Knee

2000 Club Open Top Ten Post

Interview with TK (Tom Kennedy)

 

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2000 STANFORD INVITE: SUNDAY & FINALS
MARCH 4–5, PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA

Go to isthistoyota.com. They have swell cars. Check out the new Celica. It's pretty dope. This message provided by Toyota.

OK, the results are in and the games are over. Field changes, a little bit of drizzle and a lot of mud produced chaotic playing conditions today, and more than a few "upsets" as a result.

In the women's division, the big quarterfinal matchup was Brown (second seeded) versus Stanford, who effectively dropped to eighth seed with yesterday's loss to UNCW. The field was a mud pit. It was close early, as Brown's handle core proved effective. But Stanford rallied from trading points up 4-3 to take half 8-4. A three-point run was sparked largely in part by collecting overthrows and garbage discs, as Hannah and Alicia Mercer came up big. Brown could never recover and get back in the groove and Superfly cruised to a 15-7 (?) victory. Brown dismissed the game, contending that this was their first tournament of the season for the Northeastern team.

British Columbia, or UBC, cruised in the mud. They have a strong handler core, behind Su-Ming, Lars, and others - all told there are 3-4 players who split time with Prime, the Canadian National Champions. UBC is a money team. Solid, solid play both offensively and defensively. They beat Cal-Berkeley easily in the first round and faced Stanford in the semis.

U.C. San Diego played the best they have ever played yesterday, walloping Illinois 15-0 and Colorado 15-3. Today they hoped to continue the streak, behind Corrinne Ginsberg's hucks, Bryn and Meg Parker's handling, and others, of course. UC Davis came with a game to start quarters, but UCSD took off and won.

UNCW cruised by a tough Oregon squad with surprising ease. They were focused intently and ran hard. The win brought them to UCSD. This game proved to be a great one. The first quarter of the game belonged to UCSD. They controlled the tenor of the game, keeping focus on the field, sending discs long for scores, cheering after hot connections. Every point UNCW would score was countered almost immediately. UNCW Coach Zeldin was chomping at the bit, trying to get his team psyched up to play harder and generate chatter. Finally, it paid off, as Seaweed surged ahead and San Diego lost concentration. UCSD seemed to be unable to cope with the heavy intensity trip UNCW was laying on them, as each Seaweed score resounded in cheers and hoots and hollers across the field from UNCW Men's team supporters.

UNCW rode the surge to an amazing 8-6 half-time lead, and put the Fear in UCSD. They tried to regroup after half, but could not, an UNCW stayed on top and won 11-8. Seaweed is for real, and every win strengthens the still-young program. They are definitely a streaky team. When they are on their game, they are tough to stop. The win put the Cinderella North Carolinians in Finals for the first time in a long, long time.

On the other side, UBC and Stanford met in the mud. The Stanford spell had already been broken, of course, but they weren't about to give away games. Already you can guess what I'm hinting at: another Stanford loss, this one at the hands of UBC and their handler core Offensively and defensively, the woman in blue were everywhere on the field. They managed to keep the lanes open and the disc moving, and took half 8-6 before closing out with a 3-4 point win. They were going to finals and Stanford was going home.

The finals were anti-climactic. The fields were moved away from the mud and UBC found a new enthusiasm. They ran UNCW hard and walked off the fields with a 6-7 point victory. This was the first time in four years they won the Stanford Invite and immediately they headed off down the road, as a plane was waiting for them.

Now, onto the men. Really, the seed was planted Saturday morning and I blame UC San Diego and Brown. UCSD was the team that rolled over and died against the Black Tide on Sunday and Brown went up by 6 on the Tide before falling apart like a house of cards in the second half to lose by one in a choker. Those twin chumpers started an Oil Fire and no one could put it out.

UCSB over Washington in pre-quarters, and over Michigan in quarters. Nothing to report from the Michigan side - they are still a level below the top teams. Murray has got to quit throwing the disc away. I counted 3 lousy huckaways in one point against Cal-Poly SLO (by the way, props to Tyler Roddick for winning the pull competition on Saturday. Must be in the genes). Anyway, the Tide rolled.

San Diego beat Santa Cruz, then layed an egg against Stanford in quarters. Brown beat Tufts, and Oregon beat Humboldt. Oregon looked great all weekend, all the way up until the bitter end. Hard playing, running, groovin' and hot layouts. A fun team to watch. They matched up point for point with Brown, to 10-10, before Brown finally pulled it out in the end 15-12. At one point, Oregon should have scored to make it 13-12 and regain momentum, but an unlucky play gave the disc back to Brown and Forch finally re-connected with Safdie for a 3-point lead late.

Cal-Berkeley looked strong, beating UNCW and putting up 10 on Colorado in quarters. Colorado has some real superstars on the team. Nate Miller being the one to remember, but Mark Driver, Matty Lipscomb, Forest, and Bob Krier are all money and they finally ran Cal down.

In semis, Colorado looked ready to rumble. In fact, their co-captain Mike Rafoul told me before the game that they were looking forward to "take Brown down" as a revenge for their earlier loss to Brown in the Fall. No way Brown was going to back down from the challenge. Brown surged to half, 8-5. But Colorado stuck around and started to apply the pressure in the second half.

Nate Miller, or 'Tater', made three huge defensive stops to set Mamabird to tie at 11s. At this point Brown went into defensive lock-down mode. But offensively, they were dreadful. Two straight throwaway hucks from Justin Safdie (why is he hucking? he's a deep threat!) turned into two scores for Colorado, and several more Safdie miscommunications with Forch, resulted in a slew of turnovers to end the game for Brown. At times it looked like each player on the field for Brown was playing a different game. The groove was just not there. Colorado took advantage down the stretch and won 15-12, going away.

Brown credited the loss with opening season sea-legs. They hadn't been outside much in competitive Ultimate. Plus, they were trying out a new coach, Nathan Wicks, and he was trying to find a subbing groove just as much as the team was trying to find a way to win those tough games.

In the other semifinal, the rejuvenated Black Tide kept busting out with "The Black is Back!" en route to blasting Stanford off the fields with a 9-3 burst. The Tide was, in a word, juiced. They simply smoked Stanford and played with more intensity and more heart than any team this weekend. Stanford fought back valiantly, coming within two at 12-10 or thereabouts. But the hole was too deep, and Black Tide had returned to their former glory and they were Confident, Cocky, and in Charge. Game to the Black Tide.

You knew finals was going to be a good game. Colorado had already smoked UCSB earlier in the season, but this here was an entirely new Black Tide team. They were ready for a game and Colorado provided one.

The first surge, just like they have done so well in years past, belonged to the Tide. They cheered and rallied and strutted and raged to a 3-1 lead and forced Mamabird to call a time-out. From there the tone had been set. The Tide was not going out. Adam Glimme, Ernie Alban, Dan Schnieder, Jamie Hussein and Burfiend led the charge, especially Burfiend who played the big man role well, clearing players out and demanding the disc in the first 2 out of 3 scores

Colorado regrouped and tied the game, then went ahead 5-4. But the rhythm favored the Tide, as they too regrouped, and settled into a solid game - provided they could keep the intensity up. Tied at 6's, UCSB got another surge to take half 8-6.

Again, Colorado kept it clean in the second half, playing tight, controlled offense without big risky hucks. They are known for this and their stifling defense. Colorado tied it at 9's, then took their first lead on a huck to Eric Albright, but it was called back on a travel. Fear not, the disc came right back to him immediately. I like that - showing confidence in your receivers and giving a big 'take that' to the opposition.

That score took them ahead 10-9 and fired-up the partisan sidelines. Then to 11-10, then Ernie Alban gave UCSB the uplift they needed, unleashing a monster 80 yard looping huck, like a pull, that sailed 20 yards out of bounds and came back in 10 yards into the endzone and 9 feet off the ground where Tommy snagged the disc for a beautiful score.

Colorado got it back, 12-11 but failed to extend the lead beyond one. Too many turnovers and not enough momentum to carry the late points so important in a game. Instead, UCSB scored the next three behind Glimme to advance to game point at 14-12. Colorado scored easily, finally, on offense to 14-13.

Then it looked like Colorado got what they finally wanted, cutting off the Black Tide optimism when Mark Driver stalled Tommy in the middle of the field. Colorado scored and it was 14-14. But in some way they were playing to get back in the game without getting the win. Black Tide felt confident, and they moved the disc despite hot Colorado defense, keeping the diving Lipscombs and Millers and Forests at bay before finally scoring in the short corner to go up 15-14.

The next point was a close one. Colorado moved it downfield quickly, but uncorked a big low-flying forehand to Butter - who was covered but had a step. The disc sailed just a foot long. Black Tide took the turnover, moved it up...and then Dan Schneider got hurt on a deep huck and a clash of bodies. Injury time-out. He limped off the field. And Tommy at 6'5'' put himself in. Bob Krier, at 5'9'' had been guarding Schnieder. But instead of subbing out, and Driver at 6'0'' and Miller at 6'3'' were waiting on the sideline, he stayed in the game and guarded Tommy. The whole field and everyone on the sidelines knew that this was a mistake. It was a mistake that cost Colorado the game, because 10 passes later Tommy cruised easily into the endzone and caught the tournament-winning disc.

The player of the tournament was almost certainly Adam Glimme. From his defense of Forch on Saturday in the upset win, and his consistently big presence in the semis and finals (several big blocks, catches, and thrown scores) brought Black Tide this victory. "You know, two weeks ago I hardly wanted to play with these guys. But now it's just like old times again!" spoke Glimme. "This was our first tournament where we showed the heart and intensity to win."

Old times again? Better watch out. Black is Back.

Thanks to Observers and Staff and the party had a good DJ at the House of Narnia, and Dan Maidenburg, Karen Hyun and Jon Shepard and get props for running the tournament smoothly and efficiently, despite a wicked field denial on Sunday (newly reseeded, and it rained Saturday night). Also props to the Toyota people, mom, Allah, and the House of Hoyle on 2nd Avenue and 2nd street.


This was posted to RSD, I believe. The final writeup is also included in the piece for the UPA.

 

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