Princess at Purple Valley

October 20 - 21; Williamstown, MA

Game 1: Dartmouth vs. George Washington University

Dartmouth's Princess Layout began this tournament as the 4th seed in the 4th pool. The first game of the day was against the ladies from George Washington University who appeared to have been there warming up for quite a while. The fields were soaked from the downpour from the previous evening and there was a nice big puddle in the center of our field. We arrived there just shortly before game time, and had little time to warm up our bodies and throws before we were on the field, shivering, and battling against the massive crosswind. With every step people took, a nice little arc of water spewed from their feet. Dartmouth had a slow start adjusting to the wind, mud, and cold but was warmed up and getting dirty by the second half.

Final Score: GW 13 Dart 0

Game 2: Dartmouth vs. Harvard

For game 2, Dartmouth was transferred to a slightly less muddy field that was oriented up/downwind instead of cross wind. The game started out with a few long points. Princess's defense really made Harvard work for their scores. Lots of zone was thrown by both teams. There was some very solid handling by KNash, Tien, and Lydia which caused the Harvard cup to nearly fall apart. Pretty soon, Princess adopted a "huck and z" strategy and soon Beata was throwing gorgeous hucks downwind. Highlights include some great popping by AlHo and Dai, and a BACKHAND huck for a score by Mandy. Sidelines from the men's team were a huge help.

Final Score: Harvard 13, Dartmouth 3ish

Game 3: Dartmouth vs. Wellesley

By this point in the day, Princess was warmed up and ready to go. Lots more zone, with an awesome cup of Clara, Tien, and Blair that forced a ton of turns and desperation hucks by Wellesley's primary handler. Points traded back and forth quite a bit in this game. There were some nice break throws by KNash, beautiful polls by SamKap, great cutting from Allison Caley, and good hucks by Lydia. Not to mention CC's forehand huck to Mandy for a score.


Final Score: Wellesley W; Dartmouth L (but not by that much)

Game 4: Dartmouth vs. WHUFO

Almost immediately, Princess busted out the MILF shirts they had spent the past few days working on, in WHUFO's honor. This was a great game. Princess was moved up high to a field that was warmer, muddier, and had much less wind. All kinds of great things happening on the field; great cutting by AlHo, Gabi, T-ho, Sarah, and Marika, fantastic long throws by KNash, Tien, and Beata, more great polls by SamKap, some great D by Christine, Dai, Blair, and Mandy. Trying to run in the mud was super hard and made for lots of trips, slides, and even layouts (thanks men's team for helping us learn about the glory of sliding in the mud on Friday's practice).

Final Score: Dartmouth 13, WHUFO (??)

Party TIIIIIIIIME



Princess decked out in flare for the theme holiday. This meant anything from Arbor Day (hi Dai and mysterious friend from Williams) to black spandex celebration day (Marika) to Mardi Gras (T-ho) and New Years. Following tradition, the women created a frighteningly graphic cheer to "I'll Make a Man Out of You" from Mulan dedicated to WHUFO's mom. Apparently the performance generated some excellent faces from WHUFO's women. Lyrics will not be posted. Good music, good groovin' - what else could you ask for?

Game 6: MIT vs. Dartmouth

This game looked like it was going to be rough. MIT beat us to the fields and had a hoard of grad students (all looking like wyly handlers) warming up. It was cold again, muddy again, and we were on the same field as the first game from Saturday. The situation did not look promising. However, Dartmouth got fired up very quickly and ended up playing our best game of the weekend. Dartmouth played tight defense, causing turns everywhere. There were lots of high stall counts and dumps that just couldn't get open. Some awesome defense by Dai. A few great puts by Nora and KNash. Lots more good cutting by AlHo and SamKap. Some funky head fakes by the MIT women. I think it's safe to say that the highlight of this game (hands down) was Allison Caley's HUGE layout in the endzone for a score. The disc didn't look even within her range and suddenly an amazing layout was followed by Princess rushing the field, followed by a bewildered Allison whose only comments were "oh my gosh that hurt!!". But beauty is pain, right? Anyway, this was a great game. Everyone really stepped it up a notch on offense and defense - smooth flow, contesting discs in the air everywhere, and forcing MIT to make some bad decisions.

Final Score: MIT (13), Dartmouth (6ish maybe?)

Game 7: Dartmouth vs. Middlebury

This was another fun game. Highlights included great defense by Tien and Marika. In one point, Tien had five D's or something crazy on her girl. Some beautiful break throws by Katie Nash. More good cutting by the Allisons. But the highlight came later in the game when Alho hucked to Mandy, who hucked to T-ho who scored with a huge layout in the endzone. (More Princesses rushing the field). Also, Dai was laying out all over the place playing awesome D.

Final Score: Dartmouth (some), Middlebury (more)

Game 8: Dartmouth vs. UVM

Dartmouth was unsure about playing this last game, so we agreed to a game to 7 against UVM with no subbing. The first point was beautiful - handler to handler to SamKap to Alho for the score. Alho caught the next score too - pretty much she was just beasting the endzone. My favorite part was when Marika stalled out UVM's primary handler (they walk shockingly alike). She also threw the score to T-ho in the endzone for the last point of the weekend. Nice work rookies! The game was finished off with a dance party with the UVM ladies - that's how we roll.


Final Score: Dartmouth 7, UVM 1

To sum up: Lots of great things happened. The improvement from game 1 to game 8 was incredible. We had a chance to work on our zone and regular offense/man defense, to experiment crosswind, up wind, down wind, whirlwind, and to practice laying out in the mud. Our handlers stepped up big time in the crazy wind, lots of great cuts, and all four of our rookies (Sarah, T-ho, Gabi, and Marika) played great this weekend.

Oh and...

... Dermott booted upwards of 15 times on Saturday. The last one was during the fifth fucking round... Unbelievable.

Williams Purple Valley 2006

Game 1: Dartmouth vs. Amherst

As the convoy of Dartmouth cars rolled up to Williams, we could see two things. Firstly, these fields were not long for this world – it was like playing on some type of loose, muddy ground. Almost exactly like that, in fact. Anyways, we rolled up and got into the game, somewhat. Points were traded, breaks were gotten and lost… to be honest I was still pretty blacked out during the first half. The most important moments came towards the end, when the cap was put on and an Amherst player pulled down a huck a few feet out of the endzone and tried to call a timeout. Devlin, with visions of Aaron Bell and Ego still fresh within him, immediately called them out on this violation of the rules. Do you think Chris Webber ever forgot this rule? Neither did the Dart.
So we get the disc back, marched it down and scored. Apparently this was on Universe point (it was certainly game point for us), and the fact that nobody is really sure tells a lot about how involved our sidelines were… don’t worry, it got better. But yeah, sort of bizarre to see the team start celebrating and not understand it for a second.
I should also mention that this game, while a bit sloppy on D, did feature some great help deep. Amherst was a fairly one-dimensional team, at least this early in the season, and had little interest in anything other than playing the field position game. Last back calls and drops for help were all in order.
We win, 10 – 9 according to my sources.

Game 2: Dartmouth vs. BUFO

Not. Particularly. Close. This game was fun… they have B team uniforms which are not only different from WUFO’s regular jerseys, but not even the same color. Seems like a pretty large investment. And their primary handler wears a different color uniform, almost like a goalie in soccer or that one player in volleyball, who, ya’know, wears a different color uniform. What’s the deal with that? In this particular case, the orange wearing handler had some decent chucks, but pretty weak fakes. Think about someone taking a disc, holding it in neither a backhand nor a flick grip, and making a windmill motion in front of him. Kind of like he was trying to clear out the air.
We win, a lot to a little.

Game 3: Dartmouth vs. Brown

Oh, God, so awesome. We came out firing, they came out hucking, it was a great back and forth game. We went up a break or two early, mainly traded to get to 6-5 good guys, with the disc on their endzone, almost punched it in to take half, but couldn’t quite pull that point out. They got the turn and the score, then scored again and took half.
We regrouped at half. Remember, this was still somewhat a tryout tournament for the Pain Train, and we were working in all of our new parts. But after some inspiring words, we came out firing again, layout Ding our men, shutting them down deep, challenging every reset. The Pain Train got gritty. They made it to 12 first, but we came back to tie it up and send it to Universe. They received the pull and marched it down to close to the endzone, then called a play for their new fast (kind of) receiver. Unfortunately, they did not look up long enough to realize that Rem was covering him, because I have got to believe that Vandenburg knows enough not to test him. One ridiculous layout D in the endzone later, we were marching back up the field, a run capped by Cobbles holding the disc just outside of the endzone and Ranger destroying his cover on a Valhalla call. Man, just a huge win.
13 – 12, if you believe the hype. Don’t forget that C-Mo wasn’t there for Brown, instead off practicing for some DoG team… This one was fun though.

Game 4: Dartmouth vs. Kraftees (WUFO Alums)

The sun quickly setting, we finally left the completely destroyed fields and headed down to meet the Kraftees. They had a wide variety of talent, from the recently great to the truly crotchety. It was cold, we remembered that this was indeed a tournament to tryout the new guys (a fact that may have escaped our notice during Universe with Brown.) Lots of hammers went up, they caught most, when we really turned it on we scored relatively easily, but after a long day the weather was limiting our athleticism, probably the main advantage we had. They pulled out the win, but this loss didn’t particularly hurt. Taking second in our pool was more than enough, and we headed towards the food and the party with heads held high.
11 – 8, Senior citizens.

The Party: Dartmouth vs. Williams Security and ID tags.

That cool band from last year was there again. Cops were inside the party. There was no Hat Game. Apparently the girls cheered La WUFA, but got drowned out by the BMo guys chanting USA, USA. Why do they do that? I am so confused. Is it because of that one guy’s hat? We must get to the bottom of this issue.
My lack of enthusiasm for the party this year most likely came from my enrollment on Team Sober for the night. Not good times.

Game 5: Dartmouth vs. UNH

They scored the first point somewhat easily, and looked to be an actual threat. They often forgot to set dumps, and played with an odd mix of fairly good spirit and a propensity for cursing wildly in situations that didn’t really require it. We beat them pretty easily, but more importantly played really solid Pain Train ultimate. It was a great way to start off the day, even if we did lose Socks (despite his best efforts to sneak into drills) on a nasty collision with Freshman Alex Kell.
This game we really got back to our almost exclusive use of the Ho Stack, which worked magnificently. They constantly tried to bracket us and every time the flooding-one-side-make-one-man-cover-both-cutters move worked to perfection. We had both good in-cuts and high percentage deep looks, a nice mix that did not allow UNH any time to focus on taking one dimension of our game away.
13 – 8, I think. Not close.

Game 6: Dartmouth vs. Middlebury Alums

Wow, that one guy on Midd is tall as shit. I mean, seriously. This game was a bit more intense than most Midd games are, we ran with them the whole time except for right after half, when we couldn’t get anything going and they went on a 4 or 5 point run. After scoring once, we regrouped and decided to start winning the games to 3. We scored once, and then sent down some quick pressure on their handlers which, combined with an amazing pull, didn’t allow them out of their own endzone. The disc would stay there, as Mackey got big and just absolutely ripped down a Callahan from Tally McTallstein. We kept up the pressure, changing our defensive sets and really leaving it all out and clawed back to 11 – 14 before they scored the winning goal. Another alumni team, another loss. Not too big a deal – it allowed us a match up against….

Game 7: Dartmouth vs. Harvard

This game started off with a sweet poach D by Chimpo on Harvard’s first or second throw, which we converted for a quick break. Tone, consider yourself set. The boys from Cambridge desperately miss Chen and Marsh, but are still a formidable team. The same dump and swing is their bread and butter, but without the miraculous play of those two it doesn’t look as easy as it used to. Their new receiving corp is also a bit thin, featuring kids who either got sick D’d by Mackey any damn time he wanted or just looked shook. One interesting development is their new Beau Jr., some tall ass kid who pulled down a ton of scores that nobody else could reach and whose pulls are fairly decent… but at least they are not crazy blades a la Chen.
We pretty much just converted on everything this game. We had jugular calls from 20 yards outside of our own endzone go for scores, we had more poach Ds (Zargham was up in that bitch) and one just unbelievable layout D by Watson on the first throw, as he sprinted the entire way down the field and seemed to change directions more than 3 times in the air as he whipped around Scared Handler X. Sick nasty, JWats. (There, are you happy? This kid has blitzed me at least 3 times since PV. “where’s the recap lamar?” “are you close to finishing it?” “don’t forget to write the recap, lamar”. But I digress.)
So that sick D from Wats put us on a run of breaks to end the game. Up 12 – 9 after two straight breaks, we went down with a clam, switching up defenses on the last point. After frustrating their handlers for a few throws, Harvard said to themselves “Hey, we run clam all the time, isn’t there some way to beat this?” and then proceeded to do exactly the right thing, bringing in the close and deep open side defenders and then sending a blade behind them. But for the second time against a regional opponent on game point, the opposing handlers forgot to look out for the fast kid wearing number 1. Rem came from roughly two football fields away (I think he was sitting in Papa Charlie’s when it went up) to fully extend and get his hand in between two Harvard receivers and break up the pass. We picked up, worked it easily and converted on the third straight break to take the game 13 – 9.


So that’s where we are at now. Way happier leaving this tourney than we were a few weeks ago after Yale, with two big wins against Regional opponents under our belts, as well as three less important in-Region wins and two losses to Alumni teams (one of which, Midd, went on to win the whole thing). We have still got a lot to work on, and no teams are peaking yet, but PV was exactly what we needed to get back on track mentally. Get at me, Dartmouth.

Yale Coffee Cup 2006

Sept 30 – Oct 1

The first installation of Dartmouth Ultimate for the 2006-2007 season met on the steps of Rauner Library at 7 o’clock on Saturday morning. Most of those expected to show up did, which is really all you can ask for in the fall (Where were you, Coenstein?). With a grand total of 4 practices under our belts, we felt ready to represent down in CT, and piled into the Tumbler, the Lil Blue Pill, the Carr’s Carr, the Nate Raines mobile (I’m still working on one for that) and the Terrorists-Have-Won (aka the Church, apparently. A DoG reference from Billy McCarthy, perhaps?)

Game 1: Dartmouth vs. Columbia

In Dartmouth’s first game, we took on New York’s Columbia University team. This year’s Yale Coffee Cup was split into 4 pools of 4 each, with two of the pools composed solely of Ivy League teams, because the TDs get off on snobbery, apparently. The ‘Fall 2006 Ivy League Ultimate Champion’ (which is sort of like winning a Regional Emmy, I think. Or maybe being the Ivy League Football Champ.) would then go on to face the winning peasants from such mediocre institutions as Williams, MIT and Brandeis for the championship.
Anywho, Dartmouth took it to Columbia fairly solidly. The game featured an early opening of our deep games, with David ‘Schmidty Dave’ Schmidt, Watson ‘JWats’ Sallay and Matt ‘Mackey’ Mackey hauling down a fair share of contested bombs in or around the endzone. Handling came courtesy of Ariel ‘Burial’ Eckstein, Sam ‘Cobbles’ Haynor and some idiot ’09. Dartmouth’s defense struggled a bit downfield, as almost all of their scores came from points without break throws, where receivers just beat their men to the open side. However, good pressure on the marks and dumps cut off a lot of Columbia’s options, and the Dartmouth offense mostly clicked for the win.

Game 2: Dartmouth vs. Princeton

Princeton is not often considered a powerhouse in the realm of competitive ultimate. However, Dartmouth came into this game knowing that they had just upset the topseed in our pool, Harvard, fresh off a trip to Nationals last spring. The game plan for Princeton became immediately obvious – quick handlers throw up field, catch the horizontal pass as they streak past the receiver and hit a bomb. Easier explained than guarded against. This game went back and forth, with neither team getting ahead by as many as two breaks, mainly due to solid man-to-man D by the Pain Train and decisive cutting on offense that allowed us to get open underneath for big gainers.
After agreeing that games should be played to 13, Dartmouth gave away a few chances to seal the door towards the end. Instead, Clockwork Orange (Princeton’s nickname) stuck around, answering back every time we scored until the score got to 16-16 and, after some discussion, both teams agreed that the following point would be Universe (aka Next Point Wins). Clockwork pulled the Pain Train, who made quick, if needlessly exciting, work of the last point. As both Charlie ‘umm, Cookie, I think?’ Guthrie and Chris ‘Chimpo’ Cahill streaked deep, Dermott ‘Dermo’ McHugh put a big huck under the laid out body of the Princeton star, known only as ‘Pink Hat.’ Well, the throw, later revealed to be intended for Chimpo, was hauled down by a twisting Chuckie, who then let a floaty backhand off into the endzone for the Captain, who was making a textbook S cut. As his man boxed him out and Charlie’s tried to climb up his back, Widdle Wimpo climbed the ladder, got HUGE and ripped down the winning score. 17 – 16 Dartmouth.

Game 3: Dartmouth vs. Harvard

After the win against Princeton, Dartmouth approached the Harvard game with confidence. Despite several close games (read: one) last Spring, Red Line had derailed the Pain Train every time the two met since the final Fall Tournament last year. Without super-duper stars Jack Marsh and Will Chen, Harvard was adjusting to a new style of play. Apparently, this style was ‘Find a way to injure the other team without actually doing anything malicious to them,’ because by the end of the game, vital components like Dermo, Mackey, Socks and (temporarily) Watson were all sidelined with injuries.
The Silver Lining to such unfortunate accidents was an opportunity for newer players to start discovering their place on Dartmouth Ultimate. Adam Gardner ’10 handled for much of this game, as did Kevin Pfeiffer ’09. Jack Sisson ’09, our very own ‘Red Shirt,’ also stepped up his game on the cutting side, and Billy McCarthy was always ready to sprint around on the points we threw Zone defense.
Anywho, in the second half Harvard simply executed better than Dartmouth did, and came away with the win 13 – 10. Now, things get frustrating. Because Princeton beat Harvard beat Dartmouth beat Princeton, there was a three way tie for 1st in the pool. So, per tournament rules, it came down to score differential. Harvard lost to Princeton by 4, and beat us by 3, resulting in a net of negative one. Princeton beat Harvard by 4 and lost to us by 1, so they ended plus 3. We ended negative two… so if we scored one more point against Harvard, or shut down Princeton a bit earlier, we get second in the pool. Instead, we finished 3rd.

Game 4: Dartmouth vs. Yale

Frustrated by the mysteries of mathematics, Dartmouth entered the quarterfinals of the Chumpionship with every intention of making the host team pay for what we had just barely missed out on. Instead, we came out flat. Superfly (I could probably figure out how to make an umlaut, but that’s not worth the effort) took the first 3 points and instead of firing it up and responding in kind, Dartmouth seemed content to just hang around, letting Yale and their mediocre cheering section take half 8 – 5.
This would not stand. The second half saw more aggressive line calling by the two captains, and Dartmouth clawed back into it, piecing together the Yale strategy and confounding them with a 1-3 zone, hallmarked by the return of Pete ‘Socks’ Bonano as the puke. Several new Pain Trainers played critical roles in these zones, with front walls featuring Schmidty, Billy and Ariel quite often, as well as Kevin Pfeiffer who laid all of his energy out on a first half zone point.
By the second half of the second half (some would even call it the fourth quarter, but those people are idiots and should not be trusted), Dartmouth was in shape. We broke Yale several times in a row towards the end, including one point where a Mike Zargham huck that was somehow both too floaty and too bladey was ripped down by Jack Sisson for a score. Dartmouth won 15 – 12.

That Night:

Ms. Guthrie very graciously put up with an invasion from Hanover for the night, stuffing us with amazing chili for dinner and what must have been two or three pigs worth of bacon the next morning. Could not have dreamed of more, including a TV screen actually bigger than the one in the Terrorists-Have-Won, three air mattresses and adorable dogs. We are, collectively, suckers for pets. Although Cobbles may have given one of them Mono.

Game 5: Dartmouth vs. Penn

We approached the semifinals of the Chumpionship with a good mindset. We warmed up well, drilled, got touches, everything you hope to do before a game. It didn’t matter. We just had a ton of problems with Penn’s deep game and mis-executed often on offense. Adam Gardner’s cutting and man-to-man D both shone through, as did Watson’s infamous D, which culminated with a layout boxout out of bounds onto a poorly placed gravel path. One way or another, we got smoked.


We’ve got a long way to go. However, we also have a long time to get there. The team that represented Dartmouth Ultimate at Yale Coffee Cup has had a total of 4 practices and featured who have either never played together or not done so in months. Factoring in the temporary losses of Dermott, Devlin, Mackey and Socks as well as the absence of Captain Sam Routhier, Dan Yi and Rembert Browne, and the 3-2 record leaves us little to be worried about. We know what we have to work on, and we will.