Nation,
Review of this weekend's east regional action.
Canada had the chance to send a record number of Canadian teams to UPA finals this year, and it would be largely due to the North East region clubs who had shown promise at sectional tournaments.
As the weekend progressed, the results showed such a breakthrough would not happen. While some players offered up excuses for their team's results (Injuries, full team would have qualified, format, etc) the vast majority were professional and took their results with class and spirit. Every team has injuries. Every team is missing a key piece of talent from their roster and battling some type of adversity. In the end, you have to suck it up and avoid loser talk!
Congratulations to all teams who participated and the teams (American and Canadian) that advanced!
Dominance from Ottawa' GLUM on day one. They had a easy first match in game one, then beat top seed DoG 15-14 in a huge statement game. They went on to go 5-0 in pool play and faced off against DoG in the 1st place final.
By several first hand accounts outside of the team, Ottawa should be proud of a dominant 15-7 victory over DoG. GLUM was impervious to the zone defense thrown at them, and lead convincingly throughout the match.
As feared, the format called for teams to be at their playoff best from game one. The rundown on our solid Canuck teams is as follows:
- RIP had an impressive Saturday run and made it to semi-finals in the 1st place bracket. They lost in the semis to eventual champion Slow White and their qualifying efforts stalled. They lost again to NTC's Puppet Regime and Enough Monkeys to finish in 6th.
- Gecko from Sherbrooke went 3-3 and finished 9th
- MONSTER from Toronto went 2-3 and finished 11th
- Bytown Flatball Club was quickly eliminated from UPA Finals contention but competed strongly in the 13th bracket and finished 2-2 with a 13th place finish.
We knew one Canadian team would make it to Florida, and we had high hopes for another to join GOAT at UPA Finals. Here's the rundown
- GOAT goes 6-0 straight to the final, but loses 15-6 to Ironside and takes the second bid. The team gave full credit to Ironside for their win and will be working hard to prepare themselves for UPA Finals
- Phoenix of Ottawa finished 6th. After going 1-1 in pool play, they defeated Red Circus before losing to PONY in Quarters. Still alive, they beat darkhorse Dark of Light before losing to Bodhi for the second time on the weekend and being eliminated.
- Mephisto of Montreal had a very tough weekend for a defending CUC champion. They went 2-5 and lost to relative unknown Dark or Light to settle for 8th.
- Red Circus of Halifax upset Colt. 45 in pool play and eliminated Hartford's best from playoff contention. Circus went 1-3 on the weekend, losing to Phoenix in quarters. Ironically, they scored as many points against against Ironside as GOAT did (file in the small victories) .
As expected, the Toronto/Ottawa combo team Capitals was able to hold seed and win the region.
We didn't know how dominant the Capitals would be, and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. They went 5-0 in pool play, and had four games where they allowed only one point against. FOUR GAMES. That's a great killer instinct.
Straight to the Finals, the Capitals beat a very good Brute Squad 13-10 and won the region. Brute Squad then won their 2nd place game over Bent and took the last bid.
Storm from Montreal lived up to their 5th place seed but couldn't break through in the playoffs. They earned a chance for 2nd place, but had to beat a high seed in the other pool (Lady Godiva) and could not get past them. They ended up tied for 5th. So ends a very good season for Montreal ultimate, and some of the steps taken this year (like a b team program) will be huge for their chances next season.
3 comments:
Steve, RC lost to Phoenix in the pre-quarter match up. The game was 8-6 at half before Phoenix managed to break away.
Mephisto had a very exciting Quarters game against Bodhi. We walked over after our quarters was finished and were pleased to see Montreal up 2 or 3 (10-7 maybe). Bodhi managed to claw their way back for the win, but it was no doubt some of the best ultimate I've seen from Mephisto this year. Big ups to Shaggy, Eric, and Dan for their play and leadership. Looked like the team was tiring toward the end of the game, otherwise they may have been able to pull off the upset.
Dark or Light is a team of students and alumni from Amherst High School coached by Tina Booth. They have several very athletic players and are well coached. I'm not sure I would call their results surprising, as they've been "surprising" teams for a couple of years now at NE regionals. I believe our score with them last year was 15-13.
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