<, four of Carleton’s Ultimate teams descended on Maple Plain, Minnesota to participate in the first tournament of the UPA Championship Series. Saturday’s weather saw sunny weather with a steady wind leading to many upwind-downwind games, while Sunday had light rain with about the same level of wind. Carleton’s top teams, CUT and Syzygy came into the tournament as the number one seeds, and neither team disappointed. Both teams rolled to easy pool play victories; with CUT beating Minnesota State-Mankato 17-2 and St. Johns 17-4. After winning their pool CUT easily won their quarterfinal match up against St. Thomas 15-3 to end Saturday play. CUT saw lots of play from their rookies, and with the savvy play of their veterans, looked near unstoppable. Syzygy started off the day against fellow Carleton team Eclipse in a spirited match that ended 15-2 in Syzygy’s favor, they then proceeded to take down St. Benedict 15-3 and the defeated St. Olaf, the tournaments 3rd overall seed, 15-2.
While CUT came in as the 1st overall seed their Hawaiian shirt-wearing counterpart GOP was seeded 6th, only needing to hold seed to make Regionals. However, GOP decided to do a bit more. Following the example of their fellow Carleton teams they cruised to two easy pool play victories over St. Thomas-B 15-2 and University of Minnesota-B 15-1, before winning a tough game against St. Olaf 13-11. Eclipse hoped to do the same. After losing 2-15 to Syzygy, Eclipse fell 4-11 to St. Olaf and then in the last game of the day lost to St. Benedicts 11-15. After going 0-3 on Saturday, Eclipse would need two wins on Sunday to qualify for Regionals.
Eclipse lost their first game of Sunday to Minnesota-Duluth 8-11 and found themselves in the position of needing two wins with two games left. Eclipse responded, beating Gustavus 11-3 for their first win of the tournament. Next they faced rival Macalester in the game to go. Though they fought bravely, they fell behind, and as the wind picked up were unable to come back, losing 7-12.
By winning their pool, Syzygy started Sunday play in the semi-finals versus Winona State. After winning easily 15-2 they faced St. Olaf again in the finals and cruised to another 15-2 victory. At the end of the weekend, Syzygy had outscored their opponents 75-11 and looks poised for a strong regionals run.
By both going undefeated on Saturday, CUT and GOP put themselves in great positions, with their first game being a semi-final match up against each other, both teams only needed to win one game on the day in order to qualify for Regionals. This hotly anticipated semi-final match up was expected to contain some great play and great heckling. CUT scored first, but GOP quickly responded. After two more quick CUT scores, a marathon point ensued as both teams got multiple D’s, including layouts on both sides. After what seemed like six turnovers by each team, GOP was able to score with a mid rang huck to McNally to make it 3-2. It appeared that a close game might ensue. However, CUT quickly got it together, and although the game remained competitive CUT proved more consistent and skilled and won 15-4. This put CUT in the finals and GOP in a game against St. Johns. Both teams rolled to easy victories as CUT won 15-5, winning the sectionals championship for yet another year, and GOP won 15-7. After securing their bid to Regionals, GOP had placement games against Minnesota and Winona state, which they lost and won respectively, thus giving them a fourth place finish in the section.