January 25, 2014 by Charlie Eisenhood in News with 5 comments
Three early important tournaments kicked off the 2014 college Men’s Division regular season today. With 9 of the Ultiworld top 25 teams taking the field, it was bound to be interesting. Just how interesting you could hardly have predicted.
From Tulane’s improbable run to the Championship bracket at the Santa Barbara Invite to shock losses by two top 10 teams, it was a crazy day of ultimate around the country. Here’s a look at the results.
ACC Ultimate Championships – Chapel Hill, NC
Chalk: #1 UNC easily handled their business today with a 4-0 effort, making them the only top 25 ranked team to finish the day undefeated. Their closest game came against pool #2 seed Georgia Tech, who took them to 11-6.
Shock: New ACC school and defending National champion #7 Pittsburgh lost back-to-back games to unranked Virginia and North Carolina State, 10-9 and 10-8, respectively. It was an inauspicious start for the champs, who are no doubt still in heavy development mode. They did salvage their day with a quality win over #13 Florida, who went 3-1 to take the pool’s top spot.
Pitt, if they beat Boston College in a prequarter matchup early tomorrow morning, will face UNC in quarterfinals.
Santa Barbara Invite – Santa Barbara, CA
Chalk: Pool D #1 seed UC San Diego finished the day 5-0 with a good win over #20 Stanford. Las Positas, always a strong regular season performer, broke seed in pool C to finish atop the pool, but lost to British Columbia in their crossover. #14 Washington took down #21 Arizona on double game point in pool B.
Shock: Tulane, playing with just 8 men after flight cancellations forced most of the team to remain in New Orleans, went 3-1, including a win over #17 UC Davis — the tournament’s top seed. With reinforcements coming tomorrow (likely to be four players), they could have one of the wildest starts to the season of any team.
Top seeds UC Davis and Arizona both dropped games as Arizona State, one of this season’s potential breakout teams, finished 4-0 in Pool A. UC Davis was playing without star and 2013 NexGen player Eli Kerns.
#24 Cincinnati had mixed results, falling to Cal and Las Positas, but beating Stanford and San Diego State.
T-Town Throwdown – Tuscaloosa, AL
Chalk: Well, not much chalk here. The two non-power pools did finish close to seed, with top seeds Xavier and Davidson finishing undefeated. But in the power pools, things got very interesting.
Shock: 2013 National finalist #3 Central Florida got crushed 13-6 by LSU in the second round of pool play, thanks to a strong performance from 2013 FOTY and rising star Garrett Yetman. LSU would finish 2-1, falling to Indiana in the last round of pool play. LSU would go on to lose to Arkansas, the undefeated team emerging from pool B.
