History: 2007 – 2008 Season
Regular Season Record: 20-10
Series Record: 13-5
End of Season Standing: Tied for 11th at the College Championships, eliminated in prequarterfinals (12-15 to Carleton)
All in all, it was a super disappointing season. With the development of Chris, Jake and Geoff to join Josh and Rob as A stalwarts in addition to Vatz and Wes from abroad, it was the best collection of talent yet. Moreover, hardworking rookies like Saunders, Julian, Plunkett and Andrej gave the sense of this is the year for A. Going from playing so well against some great teams in Texas to pissing it all away at Princeton and to some extent Colorado was very disappointing. But, the foundation of hardwork, 3 practices a week, track workouts have been installed into the rookies and hopefully the future will be brighter for them.
Roster:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Head Coach: David Lionetti* denotes team captain Assistant Coach: Stu Kellner |
Awards:
Metro East All-Region: Josh Suskin (5th Year/Grad)
Metro East All-Region: Chris Brenenborg (Sophomore)
Tournaments:
Tim Edmunds Memorial Tournament (Rutgers Univesity): New Brunswick, NJ – September 22nd – 23rd, 2007
Fall Collegiates: Greenville, NC – November 3rd – 4th, 2007
Queen City Tune-Up: Charlotte, NC – February 9th – 10th, 2008
Stanford Invite: Palo Alto, CA – March 8th – 9th, 2008
College Centex: Austin, TX – March 22nd – 23rd, 2008
Roll Call: Poolesville, MD – March 29th – 30th, 2008
West Penn Sectionals: Edinboro, PA – April 12th – 13th, 2008
Metro East Regionals: Princeton, NJ – April 26th – 27th, 2008
UPA College Championships: Boulder, CO – May 16th – 18th, 2008
Alumni Game: Cost Center, Pitt, Pittsburgh, PA – November 6th, 2010
Pittsburgh-B
Regular Season Record: 13-12
Series Record: 2-3
End of Season Standing: Tied for 9th at West Penn Sectionals, eliminated in prequarterfinals (8-15 to Indiana-Pennsylvania)
All in all, it was a super disappointing season. With the development of Bob, Pants and Slobo to join Milo and DTR as B stalwarts in addition to DZ and Trevor from A, it was the best collection of talent yet. Moreover, hard working rookies like Andres, Charland, ODB and Big Pat gave the sense of this is the year for B. Going from playing so well against some great teams in Wilmington to pissing it all away at Edinboro was very disappointing. But, the foundation of hardwork, 3 practices a week, track workouts have been installed into the rookies and hopefully the future will be brighter for them.
Pittsburgh-B Roster:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Head Coach: Ben Ristau* denotes team captain |
Pittsburgh-B Tournaments:
Fall Scrimmages: Pittsburgh, PA – October 5th, 2007
Radford Tournament: Radford, VA – November 10th – 11th, 2007
Presidents’ Day Weekend in Wilmington, NC: Wilmington, NC – February 16th – 17th, 2008
Evan Matthew Reas Memorial Tournament: Delaware, OH – March 1st – 2nd, 2008
Novafest: Villanova, PA – March 15th – 16th, 2008
Steakfest ’08: Shippensburg, PA – March 29th – 30th, 2008
West Penn Sectionals: Edinboro, PA – April 12th – 13th, 2008
Tim Edmunds Memorial Tournament (Rutgers Univesity): New Brunswick, NJ – September 22nd – 23rd, 2007
Pool Play (2-1)
New York University 11 – Pittsburgh 10
Crossover (1-0)
Pittsburgh 15 – Wesleyan 9
Championship Bracket (1-1)
Quarterfinal: Pittsburgh 14 – Princeton 8
Fall Collegiates: Greenville, NC – November 3rd – 4th, 2007
Pool Play (3-0)
Pittsburgh 13 – Richmond 5
Power Pool Play (2-1)
North Carolina State 13 – Pittsburgh 9
Championship Bracket (2-1)
Quarterfinal: Pittsburgh 15 – William & Mary 7
Queen City Tune-Up: Charlotte, NC – February 9th – 10th, 2008
This was a good tournament for us. Sure we didn’t get that big win we need for our mental confidence, but it showed us where we are and I think we are much improved from last year. From someone who thought this was going to be a bit of a rebuilding year, that’s huge. Now I know where my team stands, at least in my mind. The mental aspect of winning will come, especially after our next two tournaments. After that, we’ll only keep improving.
Pool Play (3-0)
Pittsburgh 13 – Virginia 8 recap
Crossover (0-1)
Georgia 13 – Pittsburgh 12 recap
Championship Bracket (2-1)
Prequarterfinal: Pittsburgh 13 – Elon 6 recap
Pool Play: Virginia
Started off on D, Pat had an amazing pull followed immediately by a great layout from Jake 10 yards from the end zone, on the flick side. Fast break O/I flick from Jake in the end zone was too far from me at the apex and shot out of bounds. We proceeded to play with our heads stuck in our asses for approximately 20 minutes, until after receiving a dump in the red zone I called a timeout. We collected ourselves, and Josh threw a backhand break for the first goal of the game. Second point went off the exact same way. Jake got a layout D, threw his lunging backhand air bounce a little hard, I could only get a fingertip on the disc and we were back on defense again. Virginia may or may not have scored this point, or the next. Memory of score is hazy this game. We took half after quite a long time. Defense played sloppy offense, our cutters don’t have a distinct pattern to run and therefore the secondaries clog the field after a few movements. Continuation cuts from our cutters were a problem all weekend, there didn’t seem to be a point where the cutters worked the disc downfield. Even though our d-line has a primarily handler centered offense, cutters must be there for us, and we’ll get more yardage and keep the other team’s O-players moving harder. That being said I believe Jake had 4 turnovers, I got point blocked, and Nick had 3, in the first point, so it’s not like the people usually behind the disc were operating smoothly. Virginia had a lefty handler that was breaking me with his backhand the entire first half, until Nick pulled me off him for a few points. The next time I marked him I don’t think I let off a backhand. Virginia was a decent team at the tournament, going to Chumpionship finals after finishing 3rd in our pool. Coming in as the one seed in the pool we had the benefit of every team gunning for us with their top 7 the majority of the game. Win 13-8.
Pool Play: Miami (Ohio)
This game I don’t remember much at all. They nearly beat our O-line at OSU, and they tried as hard as I think they can against us. Rumor was they got blanked by someone this weekend, but score reporter says they didn’t. D line continued to be sloppy-joppy on the O side. Pat Hammonds had a “sweet toeing of the line” off a 40 yard laser huck by Nick that never came more than 10 feet off the ground. Vatz got real lucky this game, or so his defender said after Vatz burned him in a 60 yard release. Wes Shonk played this game on offense, and everyone agreed that they were very happy with his play. He has some pretty sweet bender throws. I do recall jinxing him at one point, so I apologize, Wes. Win 13-7.
Pool Play: North Carolina-Wilmington
I really enjoyed playing these guys. They remind me of our team. They’ve got talent and they play a real heavy, physical defense. I can’t recall a contentious argument all game, though Jake fooled me once. Christo got some respect from Rusty at the end of the game. And apparently some kid thought I was jacked. Great. Wind also picked up this game. Pitt started out on offense and, like every game on Saturday, we struggled for the first few points. Long O-point where I’m pretty sure I was responsible for the last turn before they broke us. High disc popped out of my hands, laying out for the swill Rusty D’ed the disc before I got control. Went down another break after that. O-line scored and I played the next two d-points, where we managed to get the breaks back. UNCW scored the next point. Stuff happened; we took half 7-4 or 5, Pittsburgh getting a few more breaks. After half D-line started to exert more control over the game, getting one or two breaks pretty much every time they were on the field, up to a 13-6 win. I think the D-line gave the winning point to O-line, and I hate when that happens. Chris played a lot of D on Rusty. We had a pretty good attitude with playing the best players for a certain point, even though our O and D lines are pretty well defined, but that hurt the playing time of certain players. Rob, Josh, Chris came over to D all weekend; Killz went over to O in the windiest situations. Plunkett was pissed ’cause he’s a li’l bitch (kidding, man), but it worked. I felt pretty good cutting on offense, besides that one mistake in the beginning of the game; but my stats definitely looked much better than my actual impact. I’m glad Wes took over on O-face for the Georgia game.
Crossover: Georgia
This game was pretty exciting with the teams trading leads most of the game and 20-30 mph
crosswinds the entire game. On universe point, each team had 3 chances on universe point before
Georgia punched it in.
I always like playing Georgia, too. We had observers this game, which I always appreciate. Pittsburgh started on D against Jojah. Nick couldn’t remember what Swanson looked like; he wanted to put Hogan on him, but he put Hogan on the wrong guy. I knew Swanson from marking him last year and immediately took him. I did a pretty good job on him. He definitely didn’t make me look as bad as Brandon Redding did last year at Nationals. D-line was on fire and we went up two breaks, the first off the back of a great grab by Pat Hammonds on a huck by Jake, who said he wouldn’t be able to repeat the throw in the wind. Pat’s pulls have been excellent all day, especially given in the wind. One of his only mistakes was in this game, where the pull came back to half-field and I believe Georgia put it in on this point. Our O-line came out, and they had the same trouble in the wind as Georgia, and Jojah broke us twice. Score 2-3. O-line scored to tie it up, but our D-line couldn’t capitalize on the next point. At some point this half Josh pulled himself off of the O-line and played D, because he hadn’t been throwing well in the wind (he said). Georgia took half 8-6 after trading breaks and O points. I injured myself this half trying to get a layout D on Swanson. Pulled my right hammy, the opposite of my 8 month hamstring ordeal last year, which is actually a huge relief. Judging by the placement of the injury, and how minor the pull felt, and the knowledge of physical therapy I gained after last year, I should be back in 2 weeks. Definitely will be playing at Stanford. Anyway, after I got injured Hogan took over Swanson, and he played out of his mind. He had two or three layout d’s on the guy, and made me wonder if he shouldn’t have been covering him from the start.
In the second half not too much good happened. Jake bettered his huck from the first half, which is impressive. But overall, it seemed both teams were plagued by mistakes, I remember Christo dropped a disc and Vatz kept over rotating on his backhand hucks, which were pretty throws but always trailed OB. That theme carried on till it was universe point, Pitt pulling to Georgia. Jojah overthrew a huck and we worked it to the red zone, but it was caught out of bounds. Then we got another turn and worked it to the red zone again, but Jake threw an outside in bender (remarkably similar to the first point of the first game) that trailed over Hogan out of bounds. Jojah then scored to win the game.
Pitt has a problem with winning big games, in that we don’t do it. Until we start winning games we put ourselves in position to do so, we’ll always be on the bubble. It’s entirely mental; when I think of how Wisconsin beat us at Terminus last year, or how UNC came back big at Collegiates, I see we don’t have that switch. It’s a good thing we’re going to Stanford and Centex this year, because we need to learn how to close out the big games, and those tournaments will give us a lot of opportunities. Loss 13-12
Prequarterfinal: Elon
I don’t have much to say about this game besides Elon has my good friend Ryan Bleam, who I’m proud to see is playing very well. Win 13-6.
Quarterfinal: Pennsylvania
Ricky proved me wrong when I so confidently told him we would be playing Michigan after Elon. Congratulations, boys, on the great upset. I’m glad we got to see a Metro East team at a tournament, at the very least so we know who you have and how you stack up. Win 12-7.
Semifinal: North Carolina State
This was another hard fought game with another round of 20-30 mph crosswinds.
We had trouble adjusting to their trapping zone, but our D played well enough to
win the first half 8-7. They broke 4 straight to start the second half to make it 11-8.
We scored on O, broke it, and then lost 12-10 at cap.
NC State… wind picked up this game. I wasn’t playing so I’ll try to keep the criticism constructive. NC State’s 4 person zone killed our offensive flow this game. The trap forced us to throw toppers and benders to the open space upwind. It seemed like we couldn’t get the disc rolling from popper to popper after Chris or Chowder had broken the cup, and that killed us. It seemed like we depended on the thrower to break this zone and not our legs, which is something that may sound confusing when talking about a zone offense, but I always believe it’s true. We relied on Christo, or Christo made us rely on him, to break the zone with his throws, instead of moving the disc to the upwind side and never allowing the trap to set up. The last option should be giving the disc to the trap side handler, even if that handler is our most solid thrower. In spite of this, O-line performed admirably in heavy wind during the first half. We took half 8-6, and the D-line took the field after half. They got a D almost immediately but Jake forced a backhand during fast break and his throw popped up into the wind. NC State scored eventually and O-face goes back to the line. Pittsburgh works it up to the end zone and GZ calls a timeout (his second of the weekend) at the end zone line. NC State sets up their trap on the Zettelman and some miscommunication on a dump between GZ and Chowder causes a turn. State breaks again. An O-score, two more NC State breaks, and a point where the D doesn’t challenge NC State’s offense later and it is 11-9 bad guys, game to 12. D-line gets out there for a final push and it’s a pretty sweet line of P.hamm, Christo, Killz, Hogan, Jake, Rob and Bradley (?). I go out to try to pump up the players, but I feel out of place in that situation the majority of the time. We get another break, but it’s not enough as NC State breezes by our zone with a lot of toppers in their next O point to win the game.
I feel the D-line is the one responsible for this game, even if O-line is the one that let off 4 breaks in a row. In this wind, you can’t let the O-line on the field, and D-line made too many mistakes to let that happen: rushing throws in red zone offense, not fast breaking and getting trapped, not getting on the mark to blow up their hucks, and not helping deep, not recognizing the Australian guy can and will throw an accurate topper just as likely as a hammer out of bounds. Loss 12-10.
Stanford Invite: Palo Alto, CA – March 8th – 9th, 2008
The weekend was one of progression, with Pitt using the California sun to get warm and ramp up over the course of the tournament. The Invite is merely a starting point to what promises to be another successful season for Pitt Ultimate. From what I saw, Pitt has all the pieces they need, and will once again be making noise come May.
Pool Play (1-3)
Arizona 13 – Pittsburgh 11 recap
13th Place Bracket (0-1)
Quarterfinal: Central Florida 13 – Pittsburgh 8 recap
17th Place Bracket (2-0)
Semifinal: Pittsburgh 13 – California-Santa Barbara 11 recap
Pool Play: Arizona
So this game was to set the tone for the weekend. Hot and cold, flat, mistake ridden, emotionally distant. Sounds like a bad relationship. So the D-line gets off to a pretty good start, a lot of hot Ds, the D-lines offense wasn’t perfect by any means, but we were moving fast, and that made us dangerous. We take half like 7-3 and should be able to keep up the pressure to ride it out to an easy victory. The O-line got broken about 5 or 6 times in a row. They threw a little zone at us and crumbled. All of our O-line handlers held the disc in the backfield looking for the big play. I believe this killed us. I just remember a handful of times Chris looked off the open quick swing in order to make a big play. That swing is only open for the first 2 seconds, so when the big play doesn’t develop he had to take risky throws to swing it back off the line. The same with Vatz, he held it for two long and had to resort to throwing toppers to get it back across. At least one of these was turned. In practice when the O-line gets the disc to a popper it’s usually off to the races with the wall never being able to catch up. When they got it to a popper in this game it was usually dumped right back to a handler with very little up field progress. One of the reasons we were never in this second half was our O-line got ran all over on D. It appeared as if they did not want the disc back and would ride out our early lead. When this attitude changed it was essentially too late. This game ended in a loss due a lack of adjustment, and our team’s flat attitude.
Of note- I hurt my right knee in the warm up scrimmage. Also of note Plunkett bitched at Stu for subbing him out at the end of the game. Stu yelled at Plunkett saying he was given plenty of opportunities and didn’t make anything happen. If this team was stricter or had more strong handed captains Plunkett would have (and in my opinion SHOULD have) been benched for a period time after this outburst.
Zona Sunburn is a team we can beat. Hell, this is a team we should’ve beaten. Coming into the weekend, I thought they were an over-hyped, early tournament peak type of deal, and coming into the first half it seemed I was right. We took half 7-3 because our D-line rolled, had a little half-time discussion about staying focused and not letting up like we did during our UNC game at Fall Collegiates, and promptly went down 8-9. We traded out to an 11-13 loss, of which I blame myself because I turned the disc near our end zone at 11-12. I believe the mega point line was Rob, Chris, Chowder, Vatz, Eddie, Nick, and Josh. Zona threw zone, and I faked off the cup to throw behind a wide open Rob. Plunkett was pissed he got pulled for the last point, but I deserved to be in that spot, and expect to be in there again on universe point (even if I technically took Wes’ spot this time). I guess they were pretty nice guys, since they didn’t end the game on a pick-where-everyone-stops-except-one-guy situation. For me, 1 drop and 1 turn that game. For the team, a terrible loss to a team we had under control for the first half. This game shows our inconsistency as a team to perform at our potential, as do most of our games at Stanford.
Note: Arizona was missing Joe Kershner, who surely would have caused his team to roll us had he been playing. Not.
Pool Play: California-Santa Barbara
I hate these bitches. Eddie said the stat sheet reads I had like 5 turns. I think one was a drop and the others I don’t remember that clearly but this was when I got all that out of my system as my turns dropped significantly in subsequent games (unfortunately I would have another uncharacteristic drop). In the first point of this game I had my clock cleaned pretty badly when some dude got a poach D on my dump that I had to lay out on. I apparently laid out right into his knee while he was moving full speed. Injury and the rest of the game is a blur, no joke. I got back in the next D point. Fueled by hatred I’m sure I did some shit, but other than the pictures Fraggle took, I don’t remember much. We won because we cared. We won because our O-line was efficient, didn’t force things, and kept our D on the field.
Of note: Josh had one of the worst fouls I’ve ever seen called on him. I truly am starting to believe in the more powerful observer/ ref argument after this weekend. Of more importance Stu pointed out that our team gets way too wrapped up in foul calls and need to mentally get over them and not get into long arguments.
Man, we hate these guys. This is the first time I played them, and now I know why. Josh had a terrible foul call against him where he went vertically for the disc and a defender jumped into him. Also, Rory kept throwing while expecting a foul, and calling foul regardless. He had a string of 5 calls on me, and only two them were legit (I didn’t contest). One dude was as spirited as to take back the disc after he stopped play by telling me a foul had occurred and then threw a score to the open side. I very nearly punched him in the face, and would have if he told me play stands (I imagine I would have said something to the effect of “Yeah, it does, and so does this, motherfucker” as I punched him). I played well this game, and got my first layout D of the spring against Yoshi (sp?). Victory, 13-8. One thing that bothered me was after our victory Dre saying “Match Diesel can suck it, now.” Well, Dre, I hope you see why I told you not to bring up blogs, predictions and HATE to the field. It’s neither the time nor the place to think about such things. That time is after the tournament is over and you can say legitimately that you trumped your opponents, and not before the rest of our games are played out. Talking about predictions before the end of the day or tournaments only means we’re not focusing on the next game. We didn’t show Match Diesel jack. Besides, Diesel is an idiot for reasons other than his 0-4 prediction for us. Hi, Michael.
Pool Play: British Columbia
We lost this game before it even started. UBC wanted to win, Pitt thought we would just win because were Pitt. UBC OUTWORKED us, Pitt thought O would be a cake walk and the D would just be given the disc back. Mentally this game felt like it last 45 minutes. The UBC O-line moved the disc very quickly. Mine included, Pitt’s marks were weak, easily broken, and even more easily hucked on. On the handlers I remember being able to deny many dumps, but they would have another outlet waiting wide open. When my guy did get the disc in the back field he would swing it and cut upline immediately burning me the majority of the time to get into the power position. They were hucking freely from the power position, and we were getting burnt deep badly. Even more, we were getting beat in constantly as well. Some of our defenders started shading deep, and some of our defenders never covered the in cut at all. I don’t think Pat shut down or got a D on an in cut all weekend and got roasted in the air all this game. When we got the disc we usually blew our shots, don’t remember the specifics but I’m sure I had a lot to do with those blown opportunities.
Of note: This game happened to us and we let it.
I didn’t have any gas left for this game, and I don’t know why. My opponent was not in better shape, nor was he a much quicker, stronger, better player (or so it seemed). When he had the disc, I just couldn’t touch him with my mark. He got off one flick huck and one backhand huck, uncontested. And once, he burned me off the throw so badly my muscles reached failure trying to catch up to him. That’s really all I remember of this game. Looking at the stat sheet, we only got two D’s this game. Two, and Nick had a throwaway. So one opportunity to break and I don’t even remember if we got it. The UBC O-line moved the disc within 2 seconds every time, and scored within 5 passes every time. Our O-line couldn’t keep us in it, so we got rolled 1
Pool Play: Claremont
After getting a break to start the game I felt that we had mentally reset ourselves from the bye round. The O-line had other plans. They made a handful of dumb mistakes and hucked it multiple times to the person covered by their best player. Not to say he was better than our guys, this guy just got up like no one on our team could. He got at least half the D’s in the first half. This was because the O-line just kept on hucking it, looking for the quick score instead of working it. There was virtually no flow, and our handlers continued to hold onto it for too long, looking for the big play. When the D-line got a point on the field we shredded their zone because we moved the disc very quickly. We were down at half 7-2. Stu sat the O-line after half, letting D play out the rest of the game mixing in 1or 2 o-line players usually Rob, Josh, and Christo, with Vatz and chowder getting in just a point or two. The D-line played both ways with desire. For the first time I really saw a team that wanted it. Pitt moved the disc quickly and played with intensity on D. When we have the motivation we will roll. We somehow brought it to 10-10. Once again specific plays during that run escape me, I just remembered I played nearly every point and was not joking around. We traded the next two points, Claremont still relying heavily on the huck. 11-11, universe point. Pitt gets the discs to near the goal line on a sick D, fast break, its picked up and immediately centered to me, Josh and Eddie directly in front of me they split perfectly, both defended but both open. Eddie open on the break, Josh to the force. I take a big pivot and lay the disc right into Josh’s hands. About 2 feet in front of Josh’s hands comes in a streaker and D’s the disc. Faster than I can comprehend they dish it to someone who jacks it to the same guy who has been skying us all day. Game over.
This team had a Stout brother. He could jump pretty high and was better athletically than our best players. But he didn’t really do much except hang around in the end zone and score goals off of jump balls. He probably had one assist because he skied one of our players not in the end zone. That being said, we scored the first break, and then they scored on a nice huck to Stout. On offense, we kept trying to jack it to whoever was covered by Stout, and that didn’t work out too well for us as we went down 7-2, with Stu saying that if O-line gets broken one more time (at 6-2), they’re not playing again in the next half. Chris said later in the day that he just couldn’t believe they had turned the disc 5 times, and Rob said they were just so frustrated that they kept trying to do the same thing instead of switching to zone after a turn. Well, after half we adopted the mentality of playing our best players to score the point, and we scored the first O point of the half to make it 7-3. Then we adopted the 1-3-3 zone which seemed to frustrate Claremont’s handlers, and went on to break twice more before being scored on via a floater to Stout. That pattern continued up to 10-10. At 11-11, hard cap sounded before the pull, meaning it became universe point. We went 1-3-3, got the D or a drop near the end zone, Josh and I ran a split while Jake had the disc in the middle of the field, we were both open, throw went up and a defender following Rob swatted it down, in the words of Mike G., like he was “hangin’ up a telephone.” Claremont then put up a floater to Stout, who was boxing out Pat Hammonds, and Stout skied for the 11-12 win.
Quarterfinal: Central Florida
These guys are a bunch of clowns. These clowns outworked us, wanted it more, and were more excited to play than we were. I sat out the first D point because my knee was stiffer than Josh and I watching Sky High. Spent a while running around trying to loosen up, figured getting the adrenaline pumping would do it. It did. Our problems from Saturday carried directly into this game. Flat marks, getting beat in. O-line holding the disc too long and taking risky shots. We tried to throw a little zone at them, I thought the cup was containing them very well but the got multiple deep shots off with ease so we had to scratch the zone. Big loss to people we “could” have beaten. I don’t what needs to happen to adjust Pitt’s attitude but we have 6 days before Centex, and if shit isn’t figured out by then, it just might not happen. Of note, I spiked on a UCF guy mostly cause the point just before they had spiked on The Beard. Also worthy of mention, Vatz would have easily been ejected from this game had we had observers or refs.
That shitty theme continued on Sunday, where we lost to UCF. We lost to University of Central Florida. Letting that sink in, since it’s hard to find a team we make fun of more.
Holy cow did I have a lackluster game. 1 drop, 1 turn. I don’t really know how we lost this game by so much since I was so angry I stopped paying attention. I guess UCF is just well oiled at this point, and they took advantage of our mistakes. Pretty sure there was a Callahan goal in this game. Pitt just played stupid, and we lost to fucking UCF. I did injure someone this game, and although I wouldn’t go so far as to say it was intentional I definitely didn’t do anything to stop it in the time I had to react. Simple cut of death, poach Defender just didn’t realize I wasn’t going to stop and allow him to D me up. Pretty much just shouldered him to the ground very hard (the angry part of me), while I accidentally stepped on his foot (the part of me that didn’t have time to react). Then I threw the disc. A few continuations later play stopped due to the injury, and I called the disc back saying, “I know when the injury occurred, ’cause I fucking caused the injury.”
Semifinal: California-Santa Barbara
I am really starting to run out of things to say because it’s all the same story. Pitt went down 3-7 at half. We FINALLY got a little wind in our sails and started to play balls out. We pulled out a 13-11 victory here. So the real question is why can’t we play the way we did in the second half of this game and the second half of the Claremont game all the time? That’s the season making or breaking question. I got maybe 3 Ds this game. I had a poach D in the late part of the game that really just felt great. My guy was clearing near the lane, I turned back to look at the handler and just knew exactly where and when he was going to throw it just by looking at him. I waited a second, peeled off, and the guy threw it right to me. Just felt that D coming. (Toot Toot). On the 28x back to Oakland the Houseman said he was really surprised at how well Ravi played, getting 2 huge Ds in this game. Probably more that I just don’t remember. Either way Pat and I told Julian that yeah Ravi was sweet as hell but we weren’t surprised at all by his two layout Ds. Ravi is getting a good deal of Pt now, and he may not get a ton of Ds, boy does he get some big ones right when we need them. Ravi is simply clutch and explosive. I think the fact he is so small may even help him because he is underestimated by the other team.
I love playing these guys. It’s good to see a team that gets Pitt riled up, because then we start to play like we don’t have our heads stuck up our asses. Unfortunately, this didn’t occur until after the first half, as we went down 3-7. Big golf clap to the Bird for sticking with us and basically forcing us the get excited about the game, as Pitt seemed intent on glumly resigning to the Metro Least mentality. Rory did the same foul stuff on me that he did in the first game. I just don’t know how all of those fouled breaks get exactly where he threw them. Needless to say, I didn’t contest a single one. I did back off and allow Ravi his shot at Rory, and the Caveman did what the Raveman does, which is get everyone excited with his full extension layout D’s. One layout D on an in cut from Rori was particularly impressive, and was most likely the last nail that drove into UCSB’s coffin, as we pulled back into the game and then into a 13-11 victory.
Unfortunately, in the middle of this meaningless game I re-injured my hamstring. It seems like I only set myself back a few days, but time is very short from now to Centex. I will be practicing dead or alive on Tuesday and Thursday, however. This team has a lot of building to do.
Final: California-San Diego
I was hanging out with Plunkett in the injured corner, so I don’t have much to say here. My only speculation is that perhaps it’s University of California teams that we just love to beat because California is so much nicer than Pittsburgh; or perhaps it’s the history with both UCSD and UCSC that causes us to hate them so much we can’t lose. Personally, I hope it’s the latter. Now that Pitt has this experience at Stanford under their belt, we are going to re-start the HATE full force and start winning some games. I can only hope to play a few of these teams again. Victory, 13-8.
College Centex: Austin, TX – March 22nd – 23rd, 2008
We finished 6th place out of 24 teams. I’m glad as a team we have these experiences of Stanford and Centex, so we can see where we are, where we make mistakes, and who we are as a team. All I know, coming out of this weekend, where we played phenomenally as a team, is that multiple people, including myself, are not happy with how they played, even though it seems the majority, like me, played their best in the season. We are not where we want to be in terms of conditioning, individual play, work on the field, and results on the field. We are not where we want to be, but we’ve got till May to get ourselves to that spot. From this weekend, we know we can do it; and from three weeks ago, we know we can fail. Let’s get working, Pittsburgh, because there are teams out there working harder than us and that is unacceptable if we want to assure ourselves our goals. Work like a Semifinalist if you want to make Quarters, work like a Champion if you want to make Semifinals, work like no team has ever worked before if you want to win a National Championship.
Pool Play (4-1)
Pittsburgh 11 – Brown 9 recap
Championship Bracket (0-1)
Quarterfinal: Colorado 15 – Pittsburgh 12 recap
5th Place Bracket (1-1)
Semifinal: Pittsburgh 15 – Wisconsin 13 recap
Pool Play: Brown
Boy, do we hate Brown. We came in to watch their 20 minute double-omega point win over UCSB (who went 0-fer). The interesting factor was more wind as the day progressed. During this round the wind finally picked up.
Brown played slow, methodical offense. Dump, swing to the break, swing to the open side, open side cut, dump. D-line got suckered into the pace, and wasn’t ready when the cutter/handler finally made a move for a big gainer. This is what killed us all game. Zone played into their hands, and our man defense was just put to sleep. They dictated to us how they wanted to play for the entire middle of the game (after we’d gone up a break in the first point). The first point was a long one, too. At least 3 turnovers by the D-line before we punched it in. Brown then scored on the upwind o-point, which is something we allowed too often in other games. I don’t really remember many other details, I’m pretty sure O-line got broken a few times to allow Brown the one break lead, and Brown may have taken half 5 or 6 to 7 in this game. During the second half Brown adjusted to our fronting, and started to huck the disc downwind much more effectively, which contributed to a shortage of breaks in this game. Regardless, Pitt eventually took care of business and won 11-9, again with the D-line winning the game on an upline throw from Jake to Nick. Jake turned out of be the game winning thrower of the last three games. Whoo-pee! This is also a game where Charlie got to play a little bit more than usual, as an upwind handler. Nick and I were talking to him a bit on the way back home and he said he was surprised at his playing time. I’m glad we got the chance to get him in, often during important points like starting Brown or upwind against Wisco.
Pool Play: British Columbia
Against UBC, we switched up our Defensive style a bit. Nick and I switched cutters for handlers. We put Jake against the big handler along with Ravi and Julian. It worked well, as we kicked off the game with a break off a help deep D by myself. I’m not sure if it was this point or the next upwind break that I released my first huck of the season, a perfect (it really was the best huck I’ve ever thrown) 75 yard flick to Hogan. Anyhow, we went up early but UBC came back with a few breaks and took half 5-7. I don’t exactly remember what retarded shit the O-line did, but I’m sure it was something special. For the first half, I noticed our matchups were working well for us, as UBC did not look nearly as clean as they had at Stanford and were throwing away hucks. They definitely had a few clean zone offense points, but they were playing pissed at themselves because they’d lost to Brown on universe the round prior. They were yelling and being chippy from the first point, and we seem to play better when teams are being bitches back at us (we’re total bitches, too). Coming out of half, we took advantage of their mental lapses. D-line brought us back in the game, and I’m happy to say D-line also took the game winning point via means of a Jake to Nick upline cut. Game: 13-11. Most other details are hazy. Zettelman got a huge point block this game to save the offense from a break. Zettel is a big pickup for the O-line, as one of the most athletic and sticky-handed receivers we have, he also plays good defense.
Pool Play: Texas
The Texas game started off on Defense and Gold, which was a theme of the weekend as Weasel went undefeated on Saturday. Texas was an interesting team, definitely legitimate. We matched up well against them, both in terms of personnel and theory. Texas isn’t a team that wanted to jack the disc deep at every opportunity. They wanted to work it under and around with their handlers. Stephen Presley is their big guy. Ravi and I switched up on him, depending who was on the line. I feel we both managed to ex him out of his game, although Ravi did a better job of it. Ravi outworked Stephen and I mismatched him in height and weight, although I didn’t get two sky balls by being out of position. Stephen had the interesting habit of taking the first cut off of pull play the same way every time. He would start off slow, sprint exactly 20 steps deep before slowing down, juking in then deep and turning back in for the final cut to the open side. It was fun to position myself accordingly and just shuffle for 4 seconds before shutting down his in cut. Anyway, this game started off with Texas scoring the first point of the game on O. They chopped through us and outworked us. Pitt took the second point off of Christo’s back as he made a huge play downfield and an equally huge huck. 1-1. That was the theme of the first half, being carried by huge plays from the O-face, which allowed only one Texas break off a dropped blade pull by Vatzer at 2-4. Off that Texas break, they did Texas, Texas Yee-haw. A few points later, when D-line evened the score, we still did Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Yinzers just as heartily as ever. We traded to half, 7-8. Of note are Geoff Zettel’s amazing sky and Christo’s o-point saving grabs. Out of half, O-lines and D-lines (there may have been one more break by both teams) trade to 11-11 (big props to the O-face), then we break on man defense to 12-11. Then we throw zone the first time all game on our omega point, and Killz shadow D’s the floaty swing Texas puts up 5 yards from their end zone. Swing to Jake, who puts up a prayer to the back right corner of the end zone, and Hogan tracks down for the win. Congratulations to Rob, Jake, and Hogan who made appearances on UV COTD. We hand Texas their one loss of the tournament in the first game as we shake and we have time to spare before our game with UBC.
Pool Play: North Carolina
Finally, a game where we took half, and by a good margin! Much good it did us, as we lost via a 0-6 run by UNC at 10-7 (breaking O 4 times, breaking D 2 times). UNC is easily frustrated by good defense, and will give up breaks off of pressure D, but damn they have some desire to win games, and at those times they outwork the shit out of us. It’s happened twice, now, and hopefully we’ll learn our lesson and start to work to close out games where we are in control. I guess that’s what happens when you start looking at the big picture before the play truly ends and don’t play every point singly. I don’t have much to say other than Noah has become a much better player than the very good player he was originally, and I guess that for the first time in a while Georgia is on the outside looking in on the AC.
Pool Play: California-Santa Barbara
UCSB, no matter how poorly they are doing at a tournament, will always put up a fight for us. There is definitely no love lost between the two of us. Again, memory is pretty sketchy in this game, but this is because I had to take a few points off to get my legs working again. I played the first 3 or four D-points, sat for 5 or 6 total points, and then came in ripping and roaring to my first layout goal of the season off a huck from Jake, taking half 7-6. Like I said, UCSB will always give us a fight, as broke and broke again till 9-10. At 11-11, Pitt needed a break, and D-line delivered off a slingshot from Jake to Nick. This time, D-line couldn’t close out the game, so we gave it to the O-team at 12-12. UCSB threw zone, Pitt tore it apart to win 13-12.
Quarterfinal: Colorado
We started this game off right with an upwind and downwind break. Oh, it got to about 20 mph winds on Sunday. Colorado looked stunned, as I’m sure some of their players were happy on Saturday to see us as their first game of the day. O-line took care of business on the downwind point 3-1. Defense came out again ready to rock but Colorado broke the shit out of our marks with tight inside backhand high-releases, a throw they continued to abuse us with all game. 3-2. At this point, Colorado evens it out with an upwind break and the downwinder, 3-4. Our D-line marks aren’t stopping anything inside or big around, and our zone isn’t stuffing their toppers in the wind, however; we do manage to break once more upwind, at around 6-6. But we don’t get the downwinder, so Mamabird breaks us downwind, 6-7. Half on serve at 7-8? The second half, we missed a lot of opportunities to break. Ravi got a huge point block 20 yards out of the upwind end zone which we didn’t capitalize on. Another point, there was a miscommunication on D, but Colorado threw it away/dropped it near the downwind end zone, and we didn’t put it in. We definitely got at least one more upwinder, but we didn’t get the subsequent downwind break. And we definitely got one downwind break, but that basically just set the O-line up to get broken. Anyway, Colorado pulled away by an upwind and downwind break late in the game to win 12-15. On a positive note, it seemed clear in this game and in the next that Pittsburgh players are not afraid. We are damn good players and we can, will, and have stuffed/ridden over some of the top in the nation. We also got stuffed/ridden over quite a few times, but that’s the game. At least we played it here, unlike Stanford.
Semifinal: Wisconsin
We won this game because we wanted it more. We were having trouble with our marks all Colorado, and we made a push to fix it here. We looked better on defense because we put everything out on the line, shutting down cutters, forcing handlers to look for the dump. One of the big things that hurt us on defense was failing to shut down the upline. At the near end of the game, we went up two breaks on pressure defense, laying out, and marking hard, and Wisco crumpled. O-line put it in for the W, 15-13.
Final: Minnesota
Now, let’s not get too cocky. We haven’t proved anything until Nationals is over and we’re looking back. I said it before, but consistency is our biggest fault. Centex, we were very consistent, played both halves close and had to keep up the intensity because of it. As soon as we get a whiff that the game is going to be easy, that our opponent is going to roll over and give it to us, we start to fail. It happened in the UNC game and then we got broken six times. It happened here, we went on a marathon first point, but got the break, then O-line cruised through the defense and we thought, well we’ve got this game bundled up, seeing as we’re so sweet to beat Wisconsin. Fuck that shit, we played uninspired, tired defense and offense, and we lost to Minnesota, again! They are 2-0 against Pittsburgh in two years. No wonder people give the Metro East crap for being the weakest Region. The third best Central team is 2-0 against the best team the ME has to offer. Although, Nick and I were talking about it and I’m glad we can’t have the “We’re the shit because we went to Centex and only lost two games the whole weekend to the finalist and semifinalist and beat Wisconsin in meaningless consolation” mentality. We are still a team very much on the edge, and I’m glad we have this upcoming tournament, a solid month of practice, and Sectionals before we head off to Regionals and, hopefully, Nationals. If we can lose to UCF or Minnesota, we can lose to anybody.
Roll Call: Poolesville, MD – March 29th – 30th, 2008
Both days were pretty cold (mid-high 30s) in the morning, warming up to mid-high 40s by the afternoon. Wind was strong on Saturday, but calm to moderate on Sunday, increasing as the day went on. Pitt walks away with its first tournament victory of the season.
Pool Play (3-1)
Pittsburgh 13 – Maryland 11 recap
Championship Bracket (4-0)
Prequarterfinal: Pittsburgh 15 – Michigan State 8 recap
Pool Play: Maryland
Not much to stay here because I wasn’t in the game much. I talked to Reuben a bit after the game. He is one of their main handlers. He told me he had a really rough first game with a lot of mistakes. A main handler being off can really throw off a team’s game. More so his job was made difficult because we were shutting down a lot of the cuts putting pressure on the handlers to maintain possession. Needless to say they did not. Maryland stepped it up a little bit in the second half to make it more of a game. Pitt was just going through the motions and didn’t get a lot of breaks in the second half. If I recall, we took half 7-3 or 4, went up 12-8 and ended up winning 13-10.
Pool Play: Pennsylvania
This game was a wake up call for Pitt. Not to discredit Penn, because they did play well, but we lost this game rather than them winning it. Our marks were really weak, our D-line refused to work to keep good positioning, the o-line handlers tried to win with their throws rather than their legs. The O-line did not really play hard D after the turns. We played flat and Penn shoved it down our throats.
Pool Play: Wesleyan
This team was a bunch of clowns that we ran train on. We were angry and they weren’t that good. Of note, Nick had a travel called on him. I told the guy who called it that Nick was actually a lefty and then he proceeded to take back the travel. Wow.
Pool Play: Ohio State
These guys are pretty good but we are better. We were still fired up and the Pitt D-line applied some serious pressure. Our marks were much better, we were shutting down cutters, and we just wanted it. The D-line was being stingy with the disc and we scored when we got the disc. I was happy that in the last two games I had almost no turns (none that I remember, but my game memory is always shaky) and I was playing some savvy D with a few poach Ds. The o-line was playing solid but still I think they didn’t move the disc fast enough and relied on their throws rather than their legs.
Prequarterfinal: Michigan State
It was cold. I don’t like the cold. So playing in under armor, a t-shirt, 2 jerseys, and a hoodie we took the field. This was a pretty good team. They really relied on their main handler to do the work for them. He was getting a lot of break throws off that opened up their flow and lead to them scoring. We also got beat in to the force a bunch of times. The o-line kept us in the game pretty well and the D line started to make adjustments and get some breaks. We accelerated through this game and won by a decent margin but I feel like we did not play good fundamental D for a good portion of this game.
After half, we learned that MSU requested observers for our game because apparently the first half was “chippy.” If by chippy they meant they didn’t know the rules and needed 3rd party help then they were right. All I remember is the guy who picked up a disc in the end zone, turfed it and called it a goal because he was in the end zone.
Quarterfinal: Boston College
We won easily. We then had a bye. Had some hot chocolate, talked to Bailey Saul, got warm with the team on a couch in the tent.
Semifinal: Western Washington
These guys were probably the best team we played all weekend with some ugly uniforms. Pitt would not be stopped though. We had gotten really ramped up for this game and came out on fire. I don’t remember much of this game other than we had a few kinks in our zone defense and the O-line looked solid.
Final: Ohio State
I think the game started off with the o-line getting broken twice in a row and Stu put the D line in for a point. We scored that point but most of all I was glad that we had changed the lines up early before got into a big hole. I know the O-line doesn’t approve and get pissy about being taken out but I really think it’s a good idea to give them a rest and change things up sooner than later. We got the next break very quickly and tied it up (still down a break). We then traded for a bit and Pitt eventually rattled off another break to take half. Defense had a few kinks but we were playing balls out and when we are that fired up we are damn good. The O-line had a little bit of trouble at the end of the game, but they played incredible and inspired defense any time there was a turn. Anyway we won. Sweet.
West Penn Sectionals: Edinboro, PA – April 12th – 13th, 2008
Saturday temperatures in the low 40s with light rain, light wind. Sunday temperatures in the mid-low 30s with no precipitation, moderate wind. Pitt’s fourth West Penn Section title in as many years. There aren’t many notes from the games we played. Pitt-B scored the most on us on Saturday, at 4. Penn State-B, Bucknell-B, and Gettysburg scored 5 combined points. The real fun was again wiffleball and messing around, which was occasionally interrupted by a little sport called Ultimate.
Highlights of the day: Stuart getting hit in the ear with a wiffleball, mac lines in the wind, Mr. Bellinger being the best outfielder ithotg, and Jake’s bet with Gettysburg, for a drink at the bar, that they wouldn’t score more than 3 points.
Pool Play (4-0)
Pittsburgh 13 – Pittsburgh-B 4
Championship Bracket (2-0)
Semifinal: Pittsburgh 15 – Dickinson 7 recap
Semifinal: Dickinson
Dickinson on Sunday in Semis was a surprise, only because I’d never heard of them before as an Ultimate team. They ended up having a lefty handler with a decent flick and a big man named Gutter who came down with a lot of trash. They’re play was reminiscent of a lower-tier Claremont, used to putting up and coming down with swill. They kept it close in the first half 8-6 and we outscored them 7-1 to take the game to 15-7. The other surprise about Dickinson was their friendliness.
One of their guys came up and actually talked to me for a while about us being good. He said that we were on a completely different level from anyone else he had ever played, and that the best team they had played before us was PSU. Needless to say, I felt pretty awkward and walked away almost immediately.
Highlight of the game: Weasel’s imitation of Jake in the huddle.
Final: Edinboro
Boro didn’t keep it as close as Dickinson in the first half, it was 8-3. Stu made the right call when he said we could have taken half 8-1 if the D-line was on their game and more conservative with the disc. I don’t remember much of the second half, but the All-Senior D-line put it in for the win, although I put much credit to Brad and I for our cheering section on the sideline- not. “I don’t care what you say, you can say fucking yellow bat for all I care.” God we are so obnoxious and I love it.
Highlight of the game: Weasel comes up to the D-line saying we’re going to run 1-3-3. Jake says to the line, “All right guys let’s run 1-3-3.” Pat believes man will do the trick on the upwind defense, so Weasel says, “Let’s go man.” Jake, being as obnoxious as possible, replies with “Fuck you Weasel, we’re going man.” As Weasel is walking back to the sideline, Nick convinces Weasel to go zone, so Weasel calls out the 1-3-3 and shoves it in Jakes face.
Metro East Regionals: Princeton, NJ – April 26th – 27th, 2008
Despite a disappointing loss to Delaware in the semifinals on Saturday, where Pitt played perhaps our worst game of the season, we ended up second place and taking the “Pittsburgh Cup” (aka the back-door championship) and earning the right to our fourth trip to Nationals in four years.
Championship Bracket (2-1)
Prequarterfinal: Pittsburgh 15 – Hofstra 9 recap
2nd Place Backdoor Bracket (3-0)
Quarterfinal: Pittsburgh 15 – Cornell 10 recap
Prequarterfinal: Hofstra
Hofstra had Dave Brandolph, a 5’6 player, and a 7 footer to play with. In a surprisingly tight game due to height mismatches on the 7 footer and sneak shots to Brandolph for goals by Hofstra, Pitt only pulled out the dominance that was expected during the second half.
Quarterfinal: Princeton
Princeton upset Cornell in order to play us and very quickly realized that it wasn’t such a pleasure. They didn’t have anyone who stood out extremely well as playmakers, though I got to play against solid Pike teammates George Brell and Mutton. All in all, we rolled to a 15-2 win and were disappointed not to be given a game to sharpen us up against our semifinal opponent.
Semifinal: Delaware
At this point, it is important to note we were missing Julian. Slater killed us this game with full extension, low release hucks. Keegan made two very impressive skies, but mainly caught goals in open space. Miggs was working as the reset man and was not stopped at any point in time. On the Pitt side of things, we dropped 4 goals, 3 for defensive breaks. That is not counting other drops and turns that occured in the first half. It wasn’t until we were down late in the game, and needed a 7 to 2 run in order to tie at 15’s, that we began to apply typical Pitt pressure. We managed to scrounge up a 5 to 1 run to lose the game in the hard cap, 14-12. All in all, it was a huge blow to be eliminated from Regional finalist contention for the third straight year. It teaches nothing if not humility.
Quarterfinal: Cornell
For the second straight year, we ended Cornell’s season as Cornell became the new George Washington. This game was hard fought, but they couldn’t keep up with us this year after the loss of Doug Miratonda and a few key players. It would take them another year to regroup with force and take revenge on us. Art skied me and his parents smirked and waved, but that was the most memorable thing in the game.
Semifinal: Edinboro
After Josh Suskin had out read Edinboro defenders four goals in a row, it was Sunday at 14-13, game point Pittsburgh, and the defense needed to have it. The line was our top tier of defenders, including Josh and Rob. I ran down the pull fast, and it was a good one, right in the middle of the end zone. Players on the sideline were with me, urging me to run faster, congratulating me when I got to the handler I was covering first. He was a chump, had been a chump all game, so I had a great view when I poached off him of the absolute denial that was about to occur. Edinboro actually thought they had a chance at winning this point, they’d kept it close all game, had just gotten a break one point prior. Their first pass they softly swing the disc to the flick side handler like we’ve been allowing them to do all game by lazy defense. Not this time as Nick swoops in and bids but the chump #2 still catches the disc. But all of a sudden there’s a lump in my stomach because I know there is no chance Boro is scoring this point, and I look back to see my guy shocked and motionless, so I turn without worry to be aware of the disc and the field. I watch chump #3, Lenny, coming in completely blanketed on his break side hip by Josh, and as he rounds over to the open side and the disc gets jammed over Nick getting up to the mark. Lenny reaches out alligator style and Josh bids around Lenny’s hips and through the jaws and the disc slams into the ground. Pitt goes nuts. Josh picks up the disc and swings it. And then we score two passes later and we win the game and everyone rushes the field and cheers.
Final: Maryland
We finished the Edinboro game in time, surprisingly because it felt long, to watch ten minutes of the Maryland-Delaware final. I’m sure the team was split on who to root for, the easier to beat, tired Maryland or the revenge shot against a tough Delaware team. Maryland was making a run for the game, scoring twice while we watched to bring it within one. The soft cap was minutes from going off and the crowd was buzzing. Delaware recieves, works it for a while, a D or turn occurs, and Maryland works it towards the roadside end zone. Rueben makes a nice upline and the disc goes up for him. He leaps, the horn blows, he lands, or the horn blows, he leaps and lands, or he leaps and lands, the horn blows. It’s too hard to tell. Which it truly is doesn’t matter because the TD decided that the horn blew before he landed. The game was over, 14-13 Delaware. Such is the drama of College sports, at any given moment, something huge could change everything (quoth ari weitzman).
After Maryland lost to Delaware, blood was in the water. We felt it and they couldn’t put up a fight against our bloodlust. We win 15-4. Burnim, Ultimate, and Reuben’s seasons ended. Pitt returns to Nationals for the fourth straight year, which is currently one of the longest streaks in the nation.
UPA College Championships: Boulder, CO – May 16th – 18th, 2008
“I thought you would enjoy knowing that the guys from CBS College Sports thought Pitt had the best looking uniforms…” -Sandie Hammerly
Pool Play (1-2)
Arizona 15 – Pittsburgh 10 recap
Championship Bracket (0-1)
Prequarterfinal: Carleton College 15 – Pittsburgh 12 recap
9th Place Bracket (1-1)
Semifinal: Pittsburgh 15 – Delaware 8
Pool Play: Arizona
Featuring Rob Dulabon carrying us on his back on offense and defense. His hard work and “win with your legs mentality” was a sight to behold this game, he was the main cutter and sadly he got the most D’s out of anyone this game. It’s hard to believe this guy didn’t get all region recognition, as he is our best player on both sides of the disc and the leader on the field and off. We started down a break or two in this game, but we rallied late in the first half to go up. We went down because we were making simple mistakes and bad throwing decisions, and we were not able to bring any intensity on the defensive side of the game. After half, we must’ve cooled off because we started playing the same as the begining of the game, perhaps worse as we let off 5 breaks in a row for a 15-10 loss, including a very rare D-line O-point break. D-line did not put in the disc when it was given to us, and did not take the disc away. I’ve said it a few times, but I hate Arizona the most out of any team at Nationals, though I have no problems with their play or players, because we just gave them both their victories over us. Earlier in the year Vatz suggested that maybe I just hate us, but no I’m pretty sure it’s Arizona.
Pool Play: Wisconsin
I’m pretty sure people were afraid to play this team again. They have a history of rolling through the series, and we’ve got a history of getting rolled by them in the last 3 years. I don’t know why we were scared, but it showed in D-line’s inability to break. Wisconsin outworked and outplayed us, like they have successfully done to the rest of the country for years.
Pool Play: Stanford
The last game of pool play ended up sending Stanford, a team in the Semifinals just last year, to the consolation bracket. Pittsburgh not only hung with Stanford early, but went up and traded points with Bloodthirsty to take half 8-6. Pitt had brought in Rob Dulabon and Josh Suskin on defense because they were bringing fire that no one else had. They may have played 11 points in a row this game and never stopped working. They didn’t even realize it until afterwards.
After half, Sherwood was ready to take over as he completed a full-field huck to Ben Kenigsberg to pull within one, and capitalized off a quick turn to tie it at 9s. Stanford’s Nicholai Schlag came up with a poach D, and Sherwood found Tom James to go up one. Just as Stanford was making its charge, En Sabah Nur responded with three in a row to regain the lead. With Pittsburgh receiving the disc at 14-13, David Vatz went for it all with a 50-yard backhand, and Josh Suskin made the grab over Sherwood for the win.
Pittsburgh’s Nick Kaczmarek said it all finally came together for Pitt against Stanford. “We had a lot of individuals trying to make plays the first two games, and it really hurt us. In this game, we came together as a team,” he said. “We had a rough day getting there, but it’s a hell of a lot better than going out on a loss and slipping out of Pre-Quarters. -mostly written by Chris Spittal
Prequarterfinal: Carleton College
Pittsburgh and Carleton both came out ready to play Saturday morning, as teams were matching each other punch-for-punch. Just as Carleton would go up a break, David Vatz, Nick Kaczmarek and Josh Suskin would work the disc down the field for the answer, and tied it at 7s before Cut’s Grant Lindsley hit Patrick Bayliss with a 40-yard back hand to take half. In the second half, Pittsburgh did just enough to stay close at 12-11, but soon began to fade. “We feel we have a pretty deep D line, so we were able to throw a lot of fresh guys at them with a lot of legs, and keep running them,” Bayliss said. “They were playing a little bit shallower than we were.”
With Lindsley, Bayliss, Sam Kanner and Sam Roberts running things for Cut, En Sabah Nur just couldn’t keep up. Carleton took advantage of some easy drops by Pittsburgh, and Patrick Roberts came down with a floaty huck in a crowd of 8 for a huge D that led to the winning score as Cut pulled away 15-11.
“They have some really great players, but if you have fresh legs running at you point after point, you’re going to make some mistakes and start turning the disc,” Bayliss said. “So we were able to keep throwing some bodies at them and get some turns.” -Written by Chris Spittal
Final: California-Santa Cruz
Ah, well. This is what I would say is the second game (for sure) the D-line lost for us this season. The first was Delaware at Regionals. Predictably and unfortunately enough, we only blew the most important ones, for a chance at a Regional title and for 9th place at Nationals. At the time, it seemed we just couldn’t stop Danny Karlinsky with his backhand hucks, we tried three defenders/markers; but in hindsight, the real problem was we weren’t playing team Defense again. It slipped away somewhere and we didn’t find it all game. Danny was their best player and the hardest to contain, but we didn’t get help deep defense even though we knew they were just going to huck over and over again, we didn’t make big sky D’s we needed, and we didn’t increase the pressure on the other UCSC players, the ones who were going to have to catch Danny’s throws. This was a game where we were up two breaks and in control coming into the second half, and then we were quickly down 2 breaks and unable to come back.
Alumni Game: Cost Center, Pitt, Pittsburgh, PA – November 6th, 2010
Alumni Game (0-1)
Final: Pittsburgh – Pitt Alumni
Pittsburgh-B Tournaments
Fall Scrimmages: Pittsburgh, PA – October 5th, 2007
Scrimmages (1-1)
Pittsburgh-B 15 – Carnegie Mellon B 2
Scrimmage: Carnegie Mellon
This was a hard fought game that had CMU leading most of the game. Their skill players played better than ours and led them to victory. A lot like last year’s Sectionals game where both teams played well and pushed each other. The game spoke volumes of our potential this year.
Radford Tournament: Radford, VA – November 10th – 11th, 2007
Pitt B went a small tournament in Radford with the future of the B team. A weird format allowed Pitt B to drive to Virginia on Saturday morning, and after driving through Bumfuck Virginia, finding a dead end, believing that we were in a horror story, the first van full of B players managed to find Radford.
Roster: Camilo, Pannone, Steve Heaney, Pat Daisley, Slobo, Gorham, Dave Goldberg, ODB, Andres, DTR, Moosejaw, Marty, Ethan, Dan, Bob, Asher.
Pool Play (3-0)
Pittsburgh-B 15 – Radford B 1 recap
Championship Bracket (2-0)
Semifinal: Pittsburgh-B 15 – Guilford 5 recap
Pool Play: Radford B
Our first game was against Radford B, with only 9 players to begin with (Milo’s car got lost), we set out to finish the game before the other car got to the tournament. Simply doing the Rhino drill to warm-up was intimidation enough as we began to hear murmurs throughout the crowd about how good we looked. We came out hard and never looked back, managing to take half 8-0 before the Milo’s car finally arrived. With their arrival, we maintained our intensity and finished the game 15-1. We sent a statement to ourselves and to the rest of the teams that we were not going to take this tournament lightly.
Pool Play: Radford
The domination continued into the next game as Pitt kept up its intensity and continued to overwhelm its opponents with line after line of intense physical players that brought their game. Pitt B beat Radford 15-3 in front of their home crowd. I think this is the game where Andres Pacheco became Tampon after taking a huge huck to the nose. Bled like a mother, but he got the D.
Pool Play: Roanoke
The next game was against Roanoke, it was pretty sweet to play under the lights. Some highlights were Slobo D-ing the shit out of some 6’4 guy on Roanoke, then having that same guy make a huge layout D on Slobo. All in all, it was just another dominating and overwhelming performance by the superior team. We ended Saturday 3-0 with a lot of confidence. Then we had to drive like 45 minutes away to get to our hotel…stupid Milo.
Semifinal: Guilford
Sunday rolls around and we’re already in Semis. We play Guilford. They’re a handler movement team and got a couple points off of stupid turnovers and lazy defense. But we buckled down and Guilford just buckled. We easily finish them off 15-5.
Final: Radford
In finals, it was against Radford again. We knew they’d be fired up and ready to avenge their loss to us on Saturday. We knew that it was coming and made sure that the team was ready and fired up. We traded points for a while, then we really turned up the intensity and brought the Pitt B hammer down and finished out the game 15-5. Nice way to finish the fall season and Gorham’s college career.
Presidents’ Day Weekend in Wilmington, NC: Wilmington, NC – February 16th – 17th, 2008
Played very well against some very good competition and showed a lot of resolve in the last game of the tournament to score 4 in a row. The team has the chance to do very well come Sectionals. Roster: Camilo, Dave Goldberg, DTR, Slobo, Bob, Pannone, Bob Char, ODB, Asher, Andres, Big Pat, DZ, Moosejaw, Trevor, Richie
Pool Play (1-4)
North Carolina-Wilmington 15 – Pittsburgh-B 7 recap
Championship Bracket (0-1)
Quarterfinal: Elon 15 – Pittsburgh-B 10 recap
5th Place Bracket (1-0)
Final: Pittsburgh-B 9 – St. Mary’s 7 recap
Pool Play: North Carolina-Wilmington
We came and played hard against them. The offense played well. The defense played balls out. It was a great first half against a good UNCW team. They took half 8-6, so we were in it at half time, feeling pretty good with ourselves, starting out on O. I think they got the break. Then, they just started getting turn after turn against us. I don’t remember specifically what happened, but it seemed like they turned it up while we relaxed a little and they just smashed us in the second half.
Pool Play: Carleton University
This was a hard fought first half. We traded points. They would huck it deep, we would huck it deep. They’d march it up, we’d march it up. We managed a break and took half 8-6. I think they came out on O and scored on us and then they threw on a weird zone. The popper-covers wouldn’t face the disc, just face-guard the poppers. We really got flustered and they took 4 or 5 off the bat with the zone as we tried to figure it out. We managed to figure it out but by then it was 11-9 and they continued to capitalize on our turnovers with big hucks to finish it off.
Pool Play: St. Mary’s
Small team of 8 from St. Mary’s. We really opened up the rotation and let the rookies get a lot more PT than they were getting in the previous 3 games. We basically traded points until we realized it was 13’s and we put on a solid line to finish the last 2 points.
Ask MJ about the sting operation and you’ll get a story.
Pool Play: Elon
Another tough game for us. We traded points then they got a break and took half 8-6. After half they got 1 more break then we traded until the game was over basically. They hucked it and marched it, we hucked it and marched it. They tried running Z on us but we tore through it quickly without any problem so they went back to man.
Pool Play: North Carolina State X
We came out pretty good against them. We went toe-to-toe in the first half until a turnover near our goal gave them an easy break to take half 8-6. After half, we came out on O scored amd then they answered and got break after break after break on us. They weren’t doing anything. We were just turning the disc over and they punished us for it.
Quarterfinal: Elon
First point, we get a break. Then they score. They get a break. Then, they continue to break. Very frustrating game. I feel like everyone was pressing just a little bit for no particular reason. That little extra made us force a lot of things. We just kept turning the disc over and they kept hucking it off the bat. We couldn’t stop them. Everyone seemed fatigued/tired/injured/whatever during this game.
Final: St. Mary’s
Captain’s Claused it to 8, win by 2, hard cap at 10 so we could go to Sonic and get home kind of early. We come out and get 2 breaks off the bat. Then they answered by getting 2 breaks of there own. We would trade points, until they get 2 more breaks to make it 7-5. We put on a universe line (MJ, DTR, Pants, Slobo, Richey, Trevor, Myself) and score 4 in a row to win it 9-7. Pretty nice way to finish the day.
Evan Matthew Reas Memorial Tournament: Delaware, OH – March 1st – 2nd, 2008
This tournament, as a whole, was disappointing. The weather and the fields were miserable with standing water, snow and ice, and freezing temperatures. On top of that, losing to OSU-B was a big downer too. Yet, in Semis against the top seeded team, Pitt B finally showed up and played very well against Ohio Wesleyan pushing them to Universe with a chance to pull off the upset. However, after opportunities for both sides to score, Wesleyan manages to put it in and move on. Roster: Camilo, Andres, ODB, Bob Char, Jake Brett, Slobo, Dan Nee, Neup, Pannone, Jason, Trevor, McCabe, Richie, Ethan, Asher, Goldberg, Talle
Pool Play (2-2)
Pittsburgh-B 13 – Earlham 8
Championship Bracket (1-1)
Prequarterfinal: Pittsburgh-B W – Wooster F
Novafest: Villanova, PA – March 15th – 16th, 2008
On the last weekend of Spring Break having not gone to WUFF Camp, we decided that going to a tournament near Philly would be the next best thing. With a full complement of players, Pitt B came in relaxed and excited. Some parents were there. We unveiled our jerseys. It was close to home. Unfortunately, Sunday was rained out due to cloudy skies and no precipitation. Roster: Milo, TallE, Slobo, McCabe, GZ, DZ, Bob, Ethan, Pants, Big Pat, McGurrin, Asher, Charland, and Andres.
Pool Play (4-0)
Pittsburgh-B 13 – Rowan 6 recap
Pool Play: Rowan
Our first game was against Rowan. We came out tense from being cold, a first round bye (that we didn’t know about ughhhhh), and the wind. However, once we got our legs moving, it was basically game, set, and match against the mohawked team.
Pool Play: Villanova
Our second game was against the hosts, Villanova. We knew that they would be excited in front of a big biased crowd and we needed to neutralize them quickly. We came out super hot, scoring 5 in a row before they managed to score 1. All the girls with their signs folded up and looking totally awkward was pretty amusing. We managed to take half 7-2. Second half, we continue to push our will making it 11-2 in no time. Then, something happened and the game just fell apart from us, they finished the game on an 8-2 run. It was a pretty hairy situation, but we managed to keep our composure and win the game. McCabe had a pretty clutch goal to bring it to game point for us and that seemed to relax us more.
Pool Play: Philly U
After the Villanova scare, we vowed to buckle down and play hard for the rest of the tournament. Philly U was the first victim in the pain train and we used our superior athleticism, brains, looks, skills, everything to just crush them 13-2.
Pool Play: Catholic
Catholic had one decent player and everyone else around him was mediocre. We shut down the primary and everything else just fell apart for them. A fairly easy win for us. Finished the day 4-0 and looked like badasses at the tournament BBQ.
Steakfest ’08: Shippensburg, PA – March 29th – 30th, 2008
Steakfest. The tournament we needed to do well at to really test our mettle as a contender for a spot at Regionals.
Pool Play (3-1)
Pittsburgh-B 11 – Penn State B 8 recap
Championship Bracket (1-1)
Prequarterfinal: Pittsburgh-B 15 – Ithaca 8 recap
5th Place Bracket (0-1)
Semifinal: Indiana (Pennsylvania) 15 – Pittsburgh-B 8
7th Place Bracket (0-1)
Final: Franklin & Marshall 8 – Pittsburgh-B 6
Pool Play: Penn State B
We started out very slow against PSU B. It was windy, cold, we were not focused and just expected PSU B to roll over. That wasn’t the case. PSU B came out fired up and looking for blood over (whom they think) is their biggest rival. Pitt B played sloppy with many turnovers in the end zone and bad decisions. PSU B capitalized on these mistakes, and the first half was a back and forth ugly game. A nice layout grab by Bob for the goal gave Pitt B the half 8-6. After half, the ugliness continued as we kept throwing the disc away and managed to trade points until the cap went off. We win, 11-8.
Pool Play: Johns Hopkins
Johns Hopkins was another handler heavy team. With their 3 handlers, they swung the disc well and moved it up-line very efficiently. We vowed to play a much better game against Hopkins and we definitely did. Our offense looked crisper and we had Bob, Slobo and DZ really buckle down and play physical against their handlers, basically halting their offense. It was a much better performance against Hopkins than against PSU B. We win 15-6.
Pool Play: Rochester
Rochester was a very huck heavy team. They had a Banyas-like guy who just hucked it left and right to their guys deep. We focused on having a hard mark on him and really forced their guys in, where they consistently turned it. Our O line and D line played well and punched in the disc whenever we had it. Played well enough to win, 15-7.
Pool Play: Franklin & Marshall
F&M. Very deep team. Their handlers are very squirrely and our handler covers couldn’t keep up with them. They also ran a trap zone on the upwind side, making it very difficult to break out of. Our handlers didn’t swing the disc well enough at all and that problem cost us the game. We had opportunities to get back into the game, but turnovers and poor decisions really took the wind out of our sails. We lose 8-15.
Prequarterfinal: Ithaca
We needed a pre-quarters game against Ithaca in order to continue in the bracket. We came out very prepared, fired up, ready to play and broke them mentally before half time. We played aggressive D and scored almost every O line point. Pannone played extremely well this game and tournament by really growing into a threat deep and in. We win 15-8.
Prequarterfinal: Towson
Towson. Important match up against a decent team to make it into semis. We came out so pumped up, broke them 5 or 6 times in a row, and really deflated them. At half, you could tell that they were down and out. However, they made appropriated adjustments coming out of half and really buckled down on the O line, forcing some careless turnovers and bad decisions. They capitalized on all of them and the D line just couldn’t get a break. After being up 5, we watched it disappear through our hands, and lose 11-15.
West Penn Sectionals: Edinboro, PA – April 12th – 13th, 2008
Sectionals, the most important tournament of the year. Shitty weather in Edinboro. Shitty Fields. Shitty everything.
Pittsburgh-B team photo.
Pool Play (3-1)
Gettysburg 13 – Pittsburgh-B 10 recap
3rd Place Bracket (0-1)
Prequarterfinal: Indiana (Pennsylvania) 15 – Pittsburgh-B 8 recap
Pool Play: Gettysburg
We had our chances against Gettysburg to win the game and get an easier route to Regionals. However, we failed to capitalize on their mistakes and made too many of our own and they managed to win 13-10.
Pool Play: Pittsburgh-B
Uh…Nationals team.
With the Catch.
Pool Play: Penn State B
Again, we played down to their level, but managed to eek out the win 13-10.
Prequarterfinal: Indiana (Pennsylvania)
A day one record of 2-2 put us in the prequarters matchup against IUP. We vowed to come out fired up and ready to play. Taking a 5-1 lead, it looked like Pitt B would roll IUP. But IUP threw a zone in bad weather and drop after drop after drop just ruined any chance Pitt B had of winning the game. We just pissed it away. Pissed it all away. IUP wins it 8-15.