Men’s Ultimate Frisbee Advances to Regional Tourney

Posted: April 22, 2014 at 10:46 am

Sectionals14 (1)

Sectionals: the most important tournament of the season for an ultimate team. One bad loss can ruin the chances of a team moving on to the next round of this championship series, which consists of Sectionals, Regionals, and then Nationals. The men’s ultimate team competed in Sectionals on Saturday April 12th and Sunday the 13th at Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA.

The road to Sectionals was nowhere near a straight path, nor was it an easy season to manage due to the bizarre and wet weather this semester. The ultimate team had only had six practices that were held outdoors, and only two of those six had the entire 26-man roster due to various complications. Mind you, the ultimate team has been practicing three days a week since January. The rest of those practices were either held in the Field House at night or inside the RAC’s Cage gym when space was available during the day. Sectionals was going to be a test for the team to match-up against the other eight Virginia colleges that were competing. The other eight were UVA, JMU, Virginia Tech, VCU, William & Mary, ODU, Liberty, and Radford. The top six teams of the tournament became eligible to move onto Regionals.

On Saturday of Sectionals, Mason was matched up against Liberty, VCU, and UVA, respectively. With a solid start, Mason earned themselves a 15-6 victory over Liberty. VCU was up next. Mason had battled back-and-forth up until the last few minutes of the game, but recorded a 12-9 loss against the rival, and then had to prepare for the #1 seeded UVA. Their intensity was no match as Mason recorded another loss, ending their day 1-2.

Sunday of Sectionals had a different energy. The ultimate team knew they were still a contender for Regionals, as long as they won all three of their games that day. The team had 150% concentration on their goal, and would not let anyone stop them. Their opponents for the day – ODU, William & Mary, and Radford – did not know how to handle the fire that Mason had started. Mason outscored their Sunday opponents 43-6, beating the teams 15-4, 15-1, and 13-1, respectively.

For the second year in a row, Mason will be competing in the next round of the College Championship Series, Regionals, which will be taking place on Saturday May 3rd, and Sunday May 4th in Axton, VA. Regionals will be a sixteen team tournament with the top teams from the Atlantic Coast region, which consists of college teams from Delaware, Maryland, DC, Virginia, and both Carolinas. Best of the luck to the ultimate team and their continued success on their road to Nationals!