2001 Black Tide Tournaments

Saturday Results:
vs Stanford B 13-1
vs U of Arizona 13-7
vs Idaho St. 13-4
vs Condors 9-13
vs Stanford A 13-9 (exhibition game)

Sunday Results:
vs Cal Poly 13-6? (quarters)
vs Davis 15-10 (semis)
vs U.C. San Diego 16-15 (finals)

The Tide won all of their games over the weekend, except the one against the Condors. The final game was a heart stopping one, as they were behind 14 to 11 and then came back and won 16 to 15 against U.C. San Diego.
Missy Fiske

In the semis, Davis v. SB, both teams were a little sloppy at first. But SB pulled it together and went on I think a five point run before taking half 8-3. We managed to pull our heads out and played right with them the rest of the game. We brought it back to as close as the game would get at 10-13 before SB won 15-10. Santa Barbara looked good, but they were not without their share of unforced errors. They made up for it with their D though and were able to shut down our offense for the first half at least. They seemed to have trouble shutting down our deep game, and we scored quite a few times off of hucks in the second half. That goes both ways though, and I would say their offense was executed the best of any team I watched or played against during the weekend.
Kevin (Davis Ultimate)

Tempe went reasonably well this year. We faced some initial injury setbacks prior to the tourney that put a slight damper on our expectations. We came out hungry on Saturday and upset the #1 seed in our pool, Jack, a Seattle-based Sockeye squad 13-11. We lost game two 11-13 to Frayed Knot, a basically masters team from Boston and Chicago. Too many unforced errors that they easily converted. They abused our mark, ran a lot of isolation plays and took us despite a game effort. Experience beat youth in this match up. In the third game, we lost the plot and Thermonuke (eventual pool winners) rolled us 6-13. We ended the day with a close win over Liquor, Guns and Ammo (TDK's bay area club team) 13-11 that helped our final standing in the pool. It was quite a game which we pulled out under the lights.

We finished 2-2 on Saturday, third in our pool, BUT 9th overall (3 pools). Our point differential was 2 points worse than the 8th seed, Univ of Colorado. So, we ended up the top seed in the Division I B bracket.

On Sunday, we had a bye until noon and faced off against Peligroso, an LA/SD team with several Squids on it. Due to injuries we were running with only 13 players and very little fire and got beat 9-13.

On the weekend, there were a lot of things learned. We were matched against some of the best players in the country and held our own. Our defense needs work and our offense was not as sharp as in the SB tournament, but that is what practice is for. The weekend awarded a lot of playing time to young players, and experienced alike, and the entire trip was beneficial to the team as a whole.

(Webmaster's note: The Black Tide win/loss record at Tempe the past two years has been 2-3 and 3-3.)

Saturday Results:
vs Cal Tech 13-1
vs Utah State 13-0
vs Yale 13-2
vs OSU 12-6

Sunday Results:
vs Harvard 12-10
vs Berkeley 13-7
vs UCSC 13-3
vs Humbolt 13-8

(Note: First two days - 4 second-half points scored against the Tide)

Monday Results:
vs UNC 15-8 (quarterfinals)
vs UCSD 10-15 (semifinals)
[note: Colorado beat UC San Diego in the finals]

[recap compliments of Kevin Buchanan:]
Our first game was against CalTech, and they scored on the first point. After that we went on a 13-0 run to win. CalTech never had any other chances to score except for one time when a girl from CalTech dropped the frisbee in the endzone, which would have been the most embarassing moment in Black Tide history. To make it worse she would have scored on Ian making that whole 'fat guy' thing last year seem insignificant. Next we played Utah State and shut them out. So at this point Black Tide is on a 26-0 run. We scored four or five points against Yale before they scored ending the streak at around 30 consecutive points. OSU presented a challenge because points were traded and there were a lot of calls. The OSU coach would listen into our playsets on the line and then run to the other end and tell his team. That pissed off a lot of people. Eventually we got our act together and OSU only scored 1 (I think) in the second half.

Saturday night when people heard we would play Harvard, Cal, UCSC and Humbolt they thought it would be a cake walk; but it wasn't. Harvard had 9 or 10 guys, but their scrappy play kept them in it. They didn't get many D's but our defense had trouble converting D's to scores, so it was a close game to the finish. Cal came out fired up and kept it close till half. Then everyone buckled down and once again we played a really good second half. UCSC we breezed through. The Humbolt game had a lot of emotion. Ern got into a push and shove match with some of their guys and Humbolt took half 7-6. I don't remember a lot of individual plays, but we ended up winning 13-8.

On Monday we started out against UNC and I thought they would bring it after losing in the quarterfinals at Nationals last year, but they didn't. They managed to score on us, but I always felt like we were in control of the game. The semifinals against UCSD started out horribly. Our offense turned it over on the first four points, and we were quickly down 4-0. At this point we changed our offense set up a bit to try and better handle the Squids 4-man cup and it proved effective. I don't have any idea what the final score was but we didn't play well at all. There were lots of simple drops that killed us and we couldn't overcome the 4 point deficit that started the game.

[following recap by Kevin Buchanan:]
On Saturday we started off against Cornell and never really got going. Cornell hung in there but we were always ahead. Next we played Humboldt. I thought this would be a good game since our last meeting in San Diego was so heated. However, our defense played well and Humboldt had a lot of drops, and we cruised to a win. Last up was Michigan and the game got off to a good start when Iz pulled down a huck over a Michigan guy. Michigan scored a lot of points but I never really thought we were going to lose that game. The final point was pretty cool because our defense ran a zone and backed Michigan into the back corner of the endzone. A side handler had the frisbee basically on the back endone line with nowhere to go and he threw this crazy hammer that Ernie knocked down and then went on to throw the score. I went up to Ernie after the point and told him how if he had caught the frisbee it would have been a score. I got really excited on Sunday in the finals when he caught the D for a score. I had never seen that happen before, except for Dan's but that didn't count - although there was more effort in that one.

[following recap by Joe Seidler:]
If you weren't at the Stanford Invite tournament this weekend, you missed a great one. To start with, the skies were blue, a very slight breeze, and the temperature peaked around 68 degrees. Add to the perfect weather a crowded sideline with many Black Tide family and friends, and you have a great day to watch Ultimate.

On Saturday, the Tide went 3-0 (see Kevin's recap above).

Sunday morning they played UNCW in quarterfinals and beat the North Carolina team 15-10. I understand from other parents that UNCW did their normal foul mouthing, so it was sweet to crush them. Other quarterfinal scores were:
Colorado 16 - UC Berkeley 14
UCSC 15 - Brown 11
Wisconsin 15 - Stanford 8

The Tide played Colorado in the semifinals, and it was just one of those games... where everything goes your way. The Tide jumped out to an early lead, took the half 8-5, and coasted to a win 15-8. The Tide's defense was hot. It forced error after error by Colorado. In the other semifinals game, UCSC beat Wisconsin 14-9.

So the highly ranked Brown and Colorado teams went down in flames to the West Coast teams.

It was a UCSB vs UCSC final. It's been quite a while since U.C. Santa Cruz had a good enough team to make it to a tournament finals. This year, many people have been whispering about how good UCSC is. So I expected a tough game. However... the Tide came out strong just like in the Colorado game. They went up by a few points, and then went up by a few more points. They took the half 8-3. The second half was just like the first. The Tide won 15-9 and were the tournament champions.

Saturday Results:
vs Occidental (forfeit)
vs Squid B 13-2
vs UCLA 13-1
vs Claremont 13-0

Sunday Results:
vs Cal Poly 15-6

[recap compliments of Dwight Hines]
Slo Core beat the Squids on Saturday 13-12 in a high wind, but UCSD came back and got revenge on Sunday to take the second position.

It was very windy on Saturday which was great for us because it gave the opportunity to work on our zone D. It looked pretty good (we had no up-winders scored on us on Saturday). It also forced us to work hard against the wind on offense. We had a lot of turns but played good D to get them back and eventually punch them in. On Sunday we came out fast and took half 8-2 on Cal Poly. There wasn't as much wind so we mixed zone and man all game. The only disappointment of the game and really the whole tourney was that they got four on us in the second half -- we did not keep the focus. It was a good weekend for us. The competition (on Saturday) was lax, but we did not play down to it. Slo Core played hard on Sunday and definitely earned their points.

The best part of the weekend was that everyone got lots of playing time. Pretty much straight across the board everyone got 4 to 6 points per game average, which made it fun and gave great experience to everyone. We only had 19 of 22 players running due to injuries.

Actually the very best part of the weekend was the final game - we decided to play amongst ourselves to get more practice. It was a spirited affair. The dark team started 3-1. White tied it at 4s. Dark took half 6-4. Lite tide it at 7s, and 9s and had game point at 10-11, but dark gutted out the victory in a very clean game 13-12. There was an anxious moment when a "ball" of bees descended on the field--we were afraid it might be some sort of old testament judgement -- but they quickly dispersed and play resumed.

Nationals
May 25-27
Devens, MA

This year's team did not reach their goal of being the National Champions, but they accomplished some amazing feats during the year. Not the least of which was to reach the semifinals at Nationals. The Black Tide have qualified for Nationals 14 out of the 18 years that college Nationals have been played. And every Black Tide team that went to Nationals made it to the semifinals... including the 2001 team.

National Semifinalist

Friday Results:

Windy day with a lot of zone defense.

vs UNC 15-11 (Tide was up 11-7, then UNC tied it at 11-11)
vs Harvard 15-7
vs Brown 15-14 (Tide was up 10-8, then down 12-13, then tied 14-14 at the cap)

Saturday Results:

vs Michigan 15-9- quarters (Tide was up 8-5, then 10-8)
vs Carleton 10-15- semis

Alumni note:
Doug 'Texas' Howie is one of only 10 Ultimate players to play on three national championship college teams... the Tide in 88, 89 and 90. This year marks the tenth time he has supported the Tide and traveled to Nationals since he graduated in 1990, which means he has spent over one month at Nationals over the last 14 years.

Paul Schneider was kind enough to send me the pictures he took at Nationals (see below). Here is the note he included:
Once again it seems I allowed myself to get caught up in the incredible intensity of the competition and let many photo opportunities slip away (I can sympathize with Paul as I tried to capture my son's Ultimate games on film for 5 years and never really was successful.) I do know this: the games were anything but uninspiring and boring. Each point, each defense, each pull, each huck, each play was absolutely inspiring to watch... if only I could have remembered I had a cameria around my neck! You would have been proud of the Tide. They played extremely well and battled like veteran-athletes.
Your friend, Paul Schneider

Taylor Cascino

Taylor Cascino ----------------------------------------- Dave Evans

Dan Schneider --------- Dan Schneider --------- Taylor Cascino

click here to see the Black Tide family sideline supporters

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Game Recaps
by Dan Cogan

Santa Barbara over Chapel Hill, 15-11.

This game looked to be well in-hand through the first half, with Santa Barbara getting its psych on, and the UNC boys having difficulty stopping the rolling Tide. UCSB's leadership gives equal voice to many players, and everyone seemed to be stepping up and contributing. Chapel Hill stormed back in the second half, however. They closed the gap from 12-6 to 12-11 on several UCSB turnovers, but ultimately couldn't run with them late in the game.

Brown falls at last minute to UCSB, 15-14

Clearly the most exciting game of this round was the first and second seed match-up in the A pool, pitting defending champs Brown against this year's #1-seeded UCSB. The Californians took the half 8-7, but couldn't put together enough of a lead to pull away. The wind was tricky, and zone went both ways, but neither team seemed particularly troubled by the tougher throws. UCSB was led on offense by #16 (Jamie Houssian), with nice plays by #5 (Taylor Cascino) and #20 (Dan Schneider). They look tough to the man, and their even-balanced play is likely to crush most opponents. Having won their pool, they enjoy the luxury of a round off tomorrow morning.

UCSB stares down challenge from Michigan, 15-9

The big question here was whether Michigan could stop the rolling Tide offense. Part of this meant stopping #16, Jamie Houssian, one of the Tide's key players. Michigan came out strong, playing Santa Barbara tight and contesting every throw. This led to some unforced turnovers by Santa Barbara, which were quickly exploited by Michigan's "Rook" (#9) and #4 Tim Murray. Big defensive blocks kept Michigan in the game early, though they let the half slip away, 8-5. Santa Barbara continued to roll, however, with huge plays by #5 (Taylor) and #20 (Dan) over Michigan's all-star. Before the game I spoke with Nick Fiske, and he told me that they were well familiar with Murray and his style of play, which they recognized as being very similar to their own recent graduate, James Studarus. Playing him accordingly, the UCSB defenders were able to poach deep on many Michigan hucks, which worked less and less for them as the game progressed. Michigan seemed determined to jack it, perhaps relying on the big play to keep it close. This couldn't work for long, and Barbara closed it out with confidence.

Semi-finals

Carleton returns to the finals, defeating UCSB 15-10.

The predominant figure in this game was CUT's Alex Nord, catching an astounding seven goals and throwing another three. For Tide, #15 (Luc Mehl) threw an impressive four of his team's ten goals, keeping them in it almost to the end.

It's a fact worth remarking that Santa Barbara is an excellent team with strong offensive play and extremely good fundamental skills. Games do often come down to big plays, and today it seems they all went Carleton's way.

Dear Tide family, friends and alumni,

I want to thank everyone for their attention and support this year. The
effect of your energy and enthusiasm from the sidelines on our play is
immeasurable.

Throughout the season, and especially at nationals (where two-thirds of us
had family and/or friends) your smiling faces and unconditional support
made stepping onto the field a little bit more rewarding and special for
all of us.

Dwight Hines
Black Tide Co-Captain

TOURNAMENT STATS:
[compliments of Lydia Schneider]

Goals Caught:
Taylor 16
Dan 14
Ernie 7
David 7
Kevin 6
Tim 4
Brandon 4
Nate 3
Jamie 2
Luc 2
Nick 1
Dwight 1
Whitney 1

Goals Thrown:
(*The math is wrong here. Only parts of the UNC game were included. Ern and Matt
hucked for scores a lot in this game, and are not credited for scores here.)
Luc 11
Dan 11
Matt 10
Ernie 10
Taylor 6
Jamie 5
Kevin 3
Whitney 2
Dave 2
Nick 1
Brandon 1

Ds:
(All of UNC game not included)
Dan 7
Ernie 5
Brandon 4
Jamie 3
Kevin 2
Izzy 1
Whitney 1
Luc 1
Tim 1
Matt 1
Ian 1
Nick 1
??? 1