Women's ultimate easily qualifies for Nationals

The women's ultimate team qualified for Nationals at the Regionals tournament held at Carlton College in Minnesota this past weekend. They lost their first game on Saturday to Carlton 13-8, but then swept the rest of their competition.

The Carlton game was a close one with Oberlin's Praying Manti only down 8-6 at the half. "We did really well," first-year Abby "Muffin" Sullivan said.

The team's second game was a 13-0 shut-out of Colorado State's Twisted Vixens. After this they won 13-2 against Macalester College's Purse Snatchers and 13-5 against Betty, the University of Kansas's team.

On Sunday the team played the University of Wisconsin's Panacea and won 13-6. After this they beat Kansas again, 15-4. "We were down through the whole game," junior Sadie Thorin said. "It was 3-1 at the beginning but we pulled it up to 14-13 and then scored two more." Thorin attributed this win to masterful defense. "[First-year] Suzie Walsh played a lot of lay-out D," she said. "She was incredible."

"It was ridiculous," Sullivan said. "She would sky into the air with four defenders and get the turn-over."

The game against Betty equaled the equivalent of a quarter-final for the Manti as they would have been eliminated had they lost. They only had one more game to win to get to Nationals.

A big storm rolled in following the Kansas game forcing a 45-minute wait under a large tent. Immediately following all cessation of thunder and lighting the Manti came out to play season-long rivals Calamity Jane from the University of Indiana. Indiana had beat the Manti twice in the season and lost once. "They're our big ol' rival," Sullivan said.

Against Calamity Jane the team came out strong, taking a 9-1 lead at the half. "I think then fatigue set in," Sullivan said, as Indiana matched them point for point until the 17-8 final score.

One effort made by Calamity to stop the Manti was reminiscent of a soccer defense. "They threw up the Hanson no-huck cup," Sullivan said. This was a wall of defenders meant to keep sophomore Kate Hanson from pitching long ones.

It was to no avail though as the Praying Manti won and were headed for Nationals. "Then we celebrated for five minutes and had a fifteen hour drive back," Thorin said.

The Nationals will be held at the University of California, Davis, from May 30th to June 1st. There will be ten teams from five regions of the country. According to Thorin the team will probably be playing Cornell University, Rutgers University and Yale University from the Eastern Region and the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, from the Atlantic Region.

"We have the potential to beat anyone," Sullivan said. "We come out strong with awesome cheers. The women sing a hell of a lot better than the guys do."

Thorin said, "I think that the under-dog position is definitely beneficial. Having the upper-hand has not proved to be beneficial in the past. When we beat other teams it doesn't carry us enough over the top to beat other teams and I think that's detrimental."

The team has a low-key schedule for this week with few practices though both the men's and women's team will be hosting a co-ed tournament this weekend. "We're pretty much chilling until Nationals with no hard-core practices," Thorin said.