Nation,
The USA college championships just wrapped up this weekend, and the lack of Canadian teams leads to a wane in interest in this side of the border.
However, our lack of interest is not shared by the many players and fans that took part, anxiously watched/followed and covered the event. Many great reports on the men's and women's tournament are on the USA ultimate web site.
On the men's side, Florida won the title with a 15-12 victory over Carleton College. In the past five years, Florida has won two championships, while also finishing second and third. Four semi finals appearances in five years with two titles might not make them a "dynasty" in many people's eyes, but clearly the University of Florida has built a great program and it will be interesting to see if this team can continue to excel at this level.
On the ladies' side, Oregon entered as the top seed in the tournament and won the championship with a victory over University of California Santa Barbara. Oregon clearly was the class of the division this year, allowing no more than 9 points per game in the tournament, with several routs in pool play action. Given the suspension of the men's program last year, we can hope that the women's title will help foster better relations between the school and the Oregon frisbee team.
Congrats to Oregon and Florida on your national titles!
4 comments:
In the constant clamour for increased coverage of ultimate, the finals were also broadcast live on the web via some subsidiary of CBS sports. I managed to get a decent stream in Switzerland (despite some folks in the States complainging about the feed) and unfortunately I recommended the open final to some teammates to watch. That was about the last game of ultimate I would tell anyone to watch. A call-fest on both sides, with about 4 calls per point minimum.
I was surprised that despite basically everyone knowing that Florida was a 3 man team, Carleton still couldn't shut them down (way too many free bails, tons of bail cuts allowed up the line and they couldn't stop a huck from Florida if they tried). It was interesting to see Carleton reel off 4 straight points after half (Flordia looked a bit gassed) and build some momentum only to make a few mistakes and go back down by 2 or 3 which was the way it played out.
I missed the women's final, but from all accounts it sounds like Oregon dominated the tournament.
Congrats to both champs.
Thanks King!
In your opinion, was it a case of Carleton failing to adjust to the the 3 man dominance, or was it simply that they were just unstoppable?
Go211.com will be replaying the webcast of the 2010 USA Ultimate Colllege Championships Friday, June 4th at 2pm ET.
I didn't see much of the Open final, but I heard it described as a call-fest. I've also heard it described as a hack-fest, which legitimately begets call-fests. When there are many calls, but the calls are legitimate, I think that's an interesting distinction when discussing the tone of the game.
By all accounts, Florida's offense was predictable to the point of being almost boring. They relied extensively on hucks, but their opponents across the board either failed to adjust or failed to win personal match-ups.
From Florida's perspective, a deep-strike-based offense made a good deal of sense. They fielded players from an almost exclusive 10-man rotation, so there was a powerful incentive to score using as little energy as possible. And since their opponents gave them very little reason to change gears, they kept with it.
I don't know what defenses were tried against them, but one of the advantages of leading a game is that your opponents get fewer opportunities to experiment with prepared defenses. Carleton's D-line must have done something right during their mid-game run, though.
I did, however, watch the women's final in full, and it was a very different game. There were very few calls, and it was enjoyable to watch despite Oregon's dominance. And it was a kick to listen to teammate Andrew Brown providing live commentary.
If FLA uses a tiny squad, then the call-fest plays into their hands as well.
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