< spring break, the Carleton Ultimate Team (CUT) traveled down to Austin, Texas to compete in the 2012 Centex tournament, one of the premier ultimate frisbee tournaments in the country.
Initially, CUT came out slow on Saturday. Although it picked up an early 13-11 win over Arizona State, CUT subsequently fell to Minnesota, 7-12, in a sloppy game just before lunch.
After a lunch time bye, however, the team came out firing and played much better than in the morning rounds, taking down Georgia Tech 13-8 and finishing off the day with a win over Dartmouth 13-10.
The loss to Minnesota meant that CUT had a date with the University of California in Sunday morning pre-quarters round. Unfortunately, despite a string of breaks late in the game, was not enough to make up for a sloppy first half and CUT ended up losing 13-14 in a time-capped game.
Despite being knocked out of the championship bracket, the team rebounded with a 13-11 win over the University of Washington. By this point, the injures were starting to pile up, forcing the team to shuffle around their lines.
The third game of the day pitted CUT against Michigan State in a game that saw multiple defensive runs by both teams. Although it was a close game, ultimately, Michigan State pulled away in the end, defeating CUT 13-10. As a result, CUT was left with one final game against Missouri, which it won, 15-8.
CUT’s rookies also stepped up big in the last two games of the day, helping to carry the team through to the end. While their eleventh-place finish was not the greatest in CUT’s history, the weekend saw solid performances on both sides of the disc, as well as teaching the team some lessons which they will carry into the spring season.
The beginning of spring term means that the USA Ultimate College Series is right around the corner, starting 3rd weekend with the Conference Championships in Mankato, MN. Following this round, Carleton will host the North Central Regionals over midterm break, which is sure to provide and entertaining show.