Yale Coffee Cup 2008: Saturday

(Excerpted from my own blog)

It’s currently Saturday night at the Routhiers, and it feels so much later than it actually is. It’s awesome to finish tournaments at a decent time, get an early dinner, and relax/rest early.

So last night, about ten of us decided to go down to Jam’s (hi Jam!) house instead of this morning, saving us about an hour of sleep in the morning. After much confusion and hurried planning, we got there at around 10 PM, and went to sleep at around midnight.

We woke up this morning at about 6 AM, got out of our beds (we all had either a bed, sofa, or futon, pretty unheard of for ultimate-team-crashing), had an awesome breakfast made by Jam’s mom, then hit the road for Yale. We got there a little early so as to be there for the captains’ meeting, letting the others leave a little later from Hanover. We actually started our first game of the day pretty much savage, but soon thereafter the rest of our team arrived.

We played three games today with no byes, against Cornell (seeded first overall), Connecticut, and Maryland. All solid A teams. As for the games, we lost each one 13-1. Yep. To our credit, we did learn a lot (cliché I know, but we really did), and it was also the first experience playing competitive ultimate for many of the ‘12s. Even so, many of us upperclassmen definitely could have played better. We weren’t playing to our full potential, playing down is something we can't do. It’s something we constantly have to keep in mind.

Last night, on the way to Jam’s house, our car decided to call Socks (i.e. beloved ’08) and ask him if he wanted to come to Yale and see us. After a pretty miserably ‘Deez nuts’ attempt, he agreed to come, and we kept it a secret from pretty much everyone until he arrived at around noon. It absolutely made my day (probably even my term) just to see him again. He even played a few points with us, and from what we saw, it looks like he's still got it.

As most of our games ended well before the end of their respective rounds, we spent a decent amount of time watching the women and bringing the spirit, which they did for us in turn for the beginning of our last game against Maryland. Most of the guys, who were pretty exhausted, cold and wet, decided to call it a day halfway through the womens’ last game (against Yale Ramona X for the chumpionship, which they won). I decided to stay and cheer the women on, and I also got to catch up with a high school friend who goes to Yale afterwards. It’s so much fun to watch the women play because they play with such precision, and so many of them were playing so well/much better than I'd last seen them last year. I'm such a big fan, and I just can’t help feeling so excited for the womens' team this year.

I also spent some time watching some of the other open teams play this weekend. I saw a great game between Maryland (I caught up with some of the Maryland players I got to know on SB last year) and Connecticut, as both teams were pretty evenly matched and played some pretty awesome ultimate. I also saw Tufts take on Rhode Island in a closely contested game that URI ended up winning. Some great college ultimate is being played already, and it's not even the spring yet. The Northeast could be highly contested this year (not if we can help it, obviously), but mark my words: it’s going to be way exciting with more teams emerging onto the scene this year, no matter what ends up happening with C1/NCUA.

By the way, short note on CCC: the guys in Georgia went 1-4 on the day with a sole win against Clemson. Not the best ultimate they've played, but it's early, and I'm sure everyone was relatively rusty. Nothing to worry about, but it definitely should also light a fire under this team to up it up this winter.

More to come tomorrow night.