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Michigan Indoor 2012
The weekend of January 21-22 MagnUM took the narrow fields of the Ooosterbaan, split halfway, to test themselves for the first time since a semifinals appearance at Missouri Loves Company in November. Both MagnUM and Reserve would eventually play a great mix of teams including an always strong Pittsburgh team, and somewhat recent unknowns in Ohio, Ohio State, and Michigan State. The story of the weekend would be trying to get Ds indoors.
SATURDAY
Michigan State
Due to a snowstorm the night before the schedule was changed slightly to allow Pittsburgh and Ohio to arrive for the second round. Because of this MagnUM ended up playing MSU in the first round. In typical, but not ideal fashion the O-line got broken early and settled in to their normal flow soon afterwards. Although it was a small hole, the defense could not claw out of it in the first half.
Early in the second half our defense would get its first break. Offenses would trade for the rest of the half. At the end we found ourselves down by one, receiving with hard cap essentially on during that point. A must score scenario. The offense put it in on a relatively easy point. It was now up to the defense. MSU turned it over and we had it near the endzone to score. An overthrown pass to the block was cleaned up by a diving Matt Orr to win. Michigan 12 – MSU 11.
Pittsburgh
After a close first game MagnUM prepares to play a recently successful Pittsburgh team that had an unbroken offense in their tournament win at CCC in the fall. The first half stays close with plays on both sides of the disc, but Pittsburgh manages to get a break and hold it in to halftime with a lead 7-6. MagnUM would get a chance or two to get the break back aided by great dump D by Travis and a pair of blocks by Detone. However, they would never punch a break in and the Pittsburgh Defense would get one more off of MagnUM’s offense. Pittsburgh 12 – Michigan 9.
Ohio State
The same storyline would continue in to the next game against OSU. The Buckeyes broke our offense once in the first half and our defense, albeit close on multiple occasions, would not retaliate. Although MagnUM would score on the last point it would be too late with hardcap on. Ohio State 12 – Michigan 11. Worst. Game. Ever.
Reserve
After a tough, close loss to a team that we wanted to beat handily MagnUM got a chance to gain confidence again in the last round game against their own B-team, Reserve. The first point had a bunch of horrible turns by our O-line before they finally punched it in, but luckily they would not have play much the rest of the game. At first the D struggled to contain Matt Cornish’s huge flick and thus ran suicides during a time out. A first for Coach Ricky, but necessary nonetheless. After that wake-up call the defense stepped it up with many goals, blocks, and skies. MagnUM wins 13-4 after taking half 7-4.
SUNDAY
Michigan State
Because MagnUM lost to Ohio State on Saturday they came in to Sunday with the 4-seed and drew Michigan State who lost two overtime games and a close one with Pitt to go 1-3 on Saturday and earned the 5-seed. The game started out even worse than Saturday, with an unfortunate bunching of turns by Spencer (me), which resulted in a deficit of three breaks. MagnUM would take one back later in the half, but so would MSU. MSU takes half at 8-5 and MagnUM finds itself in the biggest hole of the weekend in the Quarters at their own tournament.
This halftime was most likely the turning point of the weekend, and certainly a point of growth for the team. We know that we’re in shape and frustrated that it isn’t working out. We’re reminded that we first have to do the essentials of defense. We have to actually play smart and then we’ll give our bodies a chance to work and succeed.
We come out of half and break MSU an impressive four times in a row and then our offense scores on its first point. MagnUM is now up 10-9. With soft-cap on it is now a game to 12. The offenses of both teams trade to bring it to 11-10 with MSU receiving and the Michigan O-line players readying themselves for another universe point. Zubin Shetty comes up huge with a layout block right after pull and we’re set to score. However, Eli Leonard (FOTY) picks it up and promptly turns it over on a slightly off flick in to the endzone. MSU has it on their cone and sends a huge backhand downfield that never comes in. Eli Leonard calls a timeout and, thanks to Ricky, gets a great play call and throws the assist to win. Michigan 12 – MSU 10.
Pittsburgh
After a nerve-wracking quarters game MagnUM is set to play the undefeated Pittsburgh squad in the semis. The first half is a microcosm of the whole weekend. The O-line has a few turns, but plays gritty D to continue holding serve and the defense struggles to contain the huck and their big cutters. The offense would make many plays including a big circus sky by JB on a huck from Spencer. Tied at 7s Pittsburgh gets their first break to head in to halftime.
The second half was just as close as the first, with the O-line holding down and the D-line getting a small amount of turns, but not capitalizing. Pittsburgh gets one more break near the end of the second half and MagnUM cannot recover. Pittsburgh 15 – Michigan 12 in a game with only two breaks in total all by the Pittsburgh defense and only a few possessions for the Michigan defense which didn’t pay off.
CONCLUSION
This weekend was full of growth, that’s for sure. Many rookies including Jesse “BushBabyBaby” Buchsbaum had big weekends and Sam Greenwood had beautiful pulls on the D-line. Eli Graves looked more comfortable in his role and Jeff Pape continued his dominant play. Also, many offensive studs came out of the weekend with low turnovers and good stats. The story of the weekend, as mentioned, was consistently getting blocks and converting on defense and of course the eternal goal of a clean sheet on offense. We’ll continue to Joust and get fit, and at practice we have a renewed focus to make plays. Next tournament is Queen’s City in Charlotte, NC on Feb 11th where we protect our title.
MLC Recap
MagnUM, now a team, finished off its fall season in sunny Columbia, MO at MLC. Overall it was an encouraging weekend, and more than anything we both saw how well we could perform and, through some frustrating losses to an old nemesis, where we really need to put in the work. A 4th place finish and an upset of the defending national champions was something to pat our backs about, especially given the heavy squad of rookies who showed up and played with great maturity when we leaned heavily upon them.
Day 1, Game 1: Colorado. W.
MagnUM started the day off against defending MLC champs and national semifinalist Colorado Mamabird. Without Zemmel and Zander, Colorado relied heavily on a constant dosage of Jimmy, who seemed to be touching the disc on O every other time. This actually worked to our benefit, because due to injuries we lined a short and handler-heavy D-line, and Mickle spent so much time around the disc Colorado was not able to capitalize on his height advantages. Constant pressure defense from rookies Joe Besser, John Abela, and Sam Greenwood was able to consistently frustrate Mickle, and the high pressure under defense downfield helped Magnum pull ahead 6-3 with a couple of upwind breaks. The wind all day would be a major factor, leading us to some tight games. The eventual Colorado surge came, but Magnum was able to keeps the bird at bay and eke out a 9-8 win. Every game the entire tournament would be hard-capped, due to the wind and the incredibly short (80min) rounds.
Day 1, Game 2: Missouri. W.
The question coming into the tournament was whether or not Mizzou deserved to be in the power pools, and we knew they were for real before they even showed up to play us, having just completed an upset of national finalist Wisconsin. MagnUM needed a few points to figure out who was who on a team of no-names, but once we were able to get favorable matchups against their two big downfield cutters and #24, a very good handler, we were able to shut down the offense in the second half after a late Mizzou run put them ahead 7-6 and come up with a “closer-than-it-was” 11-10 universe win.
Day 1, Game 3: Illinois. W.
No doubt we wanted to win this game. Three consecutive regional losses at the hand of Illinois will forever tarnish the Magnum books, and this year we want to beat as often as we can. Great defense from Jordan Macocha, who had evolved into a key Magnum shutdown defender and some strong wind helped slow down stud handler Ryan Smith and the huck-happy Illini, and Magnum rode the first break of the game, taking half at 7-6, through to a capped 8-7 victory.
Day 1, Game 4: Wisconsin. L.
Although 3-0, Magnum had yet to lock up any place in the pool, and could fall anywhere between 1st and 3rd depending on how games played out. A fourth straight game against a physical Wisconsin team saw multiple players go down with injuries, including O stud Yoni Rafael (hamstring) and rookie Sam Greenwood (ankle). With a tired and depleted roster, Magnum was unable to capitalize on early Wisconsin mistakes and sustain a fresh Wisconsin team who was playing off a bye. Although Magnum was able to keep it close through half (Wisconsin taking it 7-6), a second-half Wisconsin break saw Magnum lose 9-7.
The only benefit of the last round bye was that we were able to get back and shower in time to see the Illinois game, which, as Michigan football has gone in the past three years, was a bit frustrating to watch. As it was unable to keep our attention, most exhausted players, after ice bathing, simply passed out in their beds (rookies on the floors, of course).
The newest member of a Magnum lineage, Jesse Buchsbaum (also injured), decided to attack the Sky Hi Grill’s $30 eating challenge, ingeniously called the “Sky ‘Wall of Fame’ Burger meal,” which consisted of 2lbs of fries, 1 lb of pulled pork, and two 1lb burgers, all to be consumed in an hour. With consistent encouragement and tactical advice from mastermind Jeff Pape and persistent pessimist Phillip Bunge, Jesse put out a solid effort in the first 25 minutes, before hitting a wall. Here comes the Magnum nomination for “play of the week:” noticing an increasingly contorted face and furrowed brows on Jesse, Yoni deduced what was finally coming, and dove for an empty water pitcher—had Yoni acted one second later, the entire challenge would have been all over 1/3 of our team.
Of course, we learned that the wall of fame Jesse would have been on was not the same wall as the other 8 pictures—no one had actually completed the challenge yet, as it had been revamped to be more expensive and add more food. Classy, Sky Hi. The only other notables from the night were how Magnum was able to dry up the Ski Hi’s water-on-tap supply (Ricky’s first question of the night: “so, is your water free?”) and Yoni and Seth’s discovery that Columbia may be one of the worst college towns ever—its “nationally famous” pizza place, Godfathers, stops serving pizza by the slice at 9pm on weekends—shouldn’t it be the opposite?
We learned that due to our amazing point differential of zero, Magnum took third in the pool behind Wisconsin and Mizzou.
Day 2, Game 1: St. Louis. W.
Day two started much warmer than day 1, but with winds much stronger, gusting at up to 45 mph. Magnum faced of against Saint Louis University (who thankfully have finally deviated from their old team name, St. Louis Ultimate Team—SLUT) in a strict upwind downwind game. The game started out with the first Callahan of the season, caught by rookie Ryan Schechtman, a rookie who played beyond his years (mostly) on the O-line this weekend, and also the odds-leader in the disc race at 3-1. With the O-line scoring easily on the down-winders, the outcome was known to both teams after the first two points. A poachy defense helped the D-line get some backfield handler turns, and after a few marathon points to figure out the wind, we were able to churn out some breaks.
Day 2, Game 2: Carleton: W.
The next game was the one we were all looking forward to, a match-up against a team we had lost to twice last year at Easterns and the defending national champion, Carleton. The game was a non-stop battle, where we consitantly played our “Ohio” defense, going straight up on the mark and fronting their downfield cutters to disrupt the under-flow that CUT specializes in. The game, though constantly traded, was leaning in our favor, as Carelton was unable to convert on the hucks we were giving them and our O-line went unbroken, with a host of 2-throw points, mostly between senior captain Jeff Pape and downfield stud Matt Orr. Twice in the same point our D-line was able to get the disc within yards of the break end zone, but two unfortunate turnovers led to a no-break first half, MagnUM up 8-7. The second half saw more of the same, but with MagnUM on a D point leading 9-8 with Universe looming, the D line was able to get it outside the endzone and a diving catch by Jordan Macochoa sealed the expected upset, 10-8.
Day 2, Game 3: Wisconsin: L.
I don’t like writing about losing to Wisconsin more than once, if ever, so I’m going to keep this one brief. Some long marathon points that went the wrong way for us and some early breaks given up, along with some interesting observer rulings saw this game fall out of hand way too quickly, and with the short-capped games we never had a chance to really get back into it.
Day 2, Game 4: Iowa: L.
After deciding not to play an “annotated” game, MagnUM fell to IHUC in a game where we saw the rosters open up a lot and many rookies get much deserved playing time. Highlights of this game would have to be John Landstra’s stellar layout grab on O, covering the distance of the endzone in probably half a second. Landstra is one of our stellar rookie additions, a former starting safety at Missouri S&T, now an Engineering grad here at UM.
Take aways: like always at MLC, the rookies were exposed to the national spotlight that sets MagnUM’s expectations for the year. Many played well beyond their years, with spectacular grabs from Landstra, Sam Greenwood (who “now you see it—now you don’t’ed” an Illini defender in the endzone), and Dan “sticky scoober fingers” Harras. Eli Leonard stepped up huge and showed that he belonged on the D line, showcasing some big throws and quality composure throughout the tournament. John Abela, back with the MagnUM program, showed his veteran wile with some nasty “where was he?” poach d’s. The sophomores held their own as well, with Jordan Macocha establishing himself a premier shutdown defender (especially on Carleton’s Julian C-W) and Matt Orr did just what we expected from him—catch an inordinate number of goals (his goal-to-catch ratio must be around 4-5). Not to be outdone, the veterans showed why they call us that, and stellar consistency from the O-line, especially from Jesse Brauner, Robbie Steinbock, and newcomer Travis Martin all gave us great things to look forward to in the spring.
That said, there was much to work on. At times, our overall lack of fitness really showed on some of the longer points, especially in the Wisconsin games. Also, the high winds exposed our throws a bit, and we will be out this winter in the snow working on them. Now marks a transition for us, as we head into the gym, indoor track, and indoor fields to start the grind towards reclaiming the section and region this year.
— Seth Collins
Michigan Ultimate 2k12
After a long and rain filled tryout process, the 2k12 teams have been formed. As always, the talent level at tryouts was high and the competition fierce.
MagnUM
Brandon Beeler
Philip Bunge
Carson Mailler
Seth Collins
Dan Detone
Dillon Karg
Derek Moen
Eli Graves
Eli Leonard
Daniel Harras
John Abela
Joseph Besser
Jesse Brauner
Jeff Pape
Jesse Buchsbaum
Jesse Haji-Sheikh
Jordan Macocha
Jonathan Paruk
Jonathan Landstra
Matt Orr
Robbie Steinbock
Ryan Schechtman
Samuel Greenwood
Spencer Jolly
Travis Martin
Yonatan Rafael
Zubin Shetty
Reserve
Andrew Purugganan
Alex Salemi
Bryan Quek
Bryan Bush
Chase Bernhardt
Christopher Li
Christian Weiss
Colin Hannahan
Matt Cornish
Charles Hyde
Daniel Couturier
Dan Vredenburg
Desmond Kolean-Burley
Ethan Burgard
Gilad Naamani
Jacob Peck
Kevin Zhang
Kyle Mattimore
Zach Lemis
Michael Abosch
Krishna Mahajan
Max Klein
Michael Lin
Mark Henley
Colin Purcell
Raoul Martin
Robert Cowing
Rushi Patel
Sean Stalhandske
Tyler Schwemley
Both MagnUM and Reserve are looking forward to starting the fall season.
Conferences (Formerly Sectionals)
Because the new format has a separate conference for big and small schools (D-I and D-III), our conference tournament had only 5 teams, Michigan, MSU, CMU, EMU, and WMU. On Saturday, we had pool play, and won all our games handily, with no team scoring more than 7 points.
However, Michigan State rested a number of their starters in that game, so we did not see the best of them. The weather was mid to high 40’s and it was raining/snowing most of the time. Basically, it was your typical Michigan sectionals.
On Sunday, the top 4 (of 5) teams played in bracket play. The weather completely dictated the style of play with a pretty consistent 20mph wind. We smoked Western in the first game using a lot of zone and hucks. In the finals against State, we took a 7-2 lead using the same strategy. Then, State went on a 7 point run, to win 9-7 as hard cap went on.
Since our conference only has 2 bids to regionals, we then had to play in a second place game against Western. Though we had soundly beaten them earlier in the day, they had given us trouble on Saturday, with the game getting as close as 6-5 us. Cold and tired, we started off the game in a funk. Western jumped out to a 4-2 lead, and with huge winds, every point meant more, since the game was destined to get hard-capped early.
With our season on the line, we gave everything we had, having some of the older dudes play many points in a row and using a semi-huck-to-zone approach (and working the disc when we got closer to the endzone). We fought back to tie the score 4-4, but then Western scored the next point and forced a turn on the following point. We got the disc back, scored it, and then never looked back, going on a scoring run of 3 or 4, and winning the game on hard cap 11-6.
Easterns 2011
Eastern 2011 was like Centex the past few years. Basically, this tournament had just about everybody who’s anybody. We were in a pool with Colorado(3 seed), Wisconsin(6 seed), and Georgia(14 seed). We won big against Colorado in our first game 13-7, lost a tight one to Wisco 14-12, and won a too-close game against Georgia 12-9 in pool play. We ended up winning the pool by point diff because we were in a 3-way tie with Colorado and Wisco. Then, in the 1v1 crossover, we lost 15-10 to the tournament 1 seed, Carleton. On Sunday, we won a tight game against Oregon in the quarterfinals, but lost our next two against Pitt and CUT to finish the tournament in 4th place.
Overall, we were happy with our performance against some top teams nationally, but we are now focused solely on our regional competition, since this year’s Great Lakes only got 1 bid to nationals.
A Saturday for Michigan Ultimate
On Saturday, Feb 19th there was a 5 hour event for advancement of ultimate in the state of Michigan organized by Colin McIntyre. Held at the Ultimate Soccer Arenas (aptly named) in Pontiac Michigan, the event first featured a showcase game between University of Michigan’s MagnUM and Michigan State University’s Burning Couch. That game was followed by Q&As with interested high school students and then a very fun hat tournament for those kids, and also Michigan area club players. Although this indoor event ironically coincided with some of the best outdoor weather of this winter, it was certainly fun for all.
The showcase game involved both teams getting broken quickly, but Michigan pulling ahead to take half 8-5. Highlights included a greatest from Volde to Zubin on an Elliot Huck and a layout D by Brandon Beeler. MagnUM continued to not get broken in the second half and broke on the last point with a foot block by Ben Deland to win the game 13-8 with a mostly rookie D-line.
The real highlight of the event was the collaboration of Michigan ultimate teams, players, and organizers to set up a great event. The showcase game showcased fun to watch, fair, and low-stoppage ultimate. The club hat tournament got together more advanced club players in a usually desolate winter season, and the high school hat tournament gave kids the chance to play with at least some element of organization and leadership. Lastly, this all was featured in a world class soccer facility, which made the event even better.
Thanks to Colin McIntyre, Ultimate Soccer Arenas, and all of the players and leaders of Michigan State’s Burning Couch ultimate. Let’s hope events like this continue in Michigan to support and grow the community.
Queen City Tune Up 2011
MagnUM headed down to Charlotte once again to compete in what has become a yearly tournament for us, Queen City Tune Up. At the team dinner on Thursday night Ryan Purcell casually mentioned that it had been a long time since MagnUM won Queen City. Those words would turn out to be ominous by the end of the weekend.
The format was a bit strange. There were four pools of six listed on score reporter, but in reality there were eight pools of three that played the teams in the other pool of three that was in the same pool of six on score reporter. So with that being said we started our Saturday off with a 45 minute frost delay and a shortened warm-up to play Cincinatti. Our first half was quite poor and we even managed to give up a break, but in the end we came out on top while realizing that we needed to play better to accomplish our goals.
With those thoughts we went in to the second game of the weekend against WashU’s Contra. They had some huckers and a big guy wearing Middlebury gear that turned out to be problems for us. We also had a zone thrown on us, which gave us our first real chance to practice zone offense the whole season. We tightened it up, had a burst of energy from Seth Collins, and got closer on defense closing the game out 13-11; A bit too close for comfort especially heading in to a game against Georgia Tech, which had been originally seeded above us.
We headed up to a field on the top of a great big hill and finally felt the wind reach its full strength. Still, something about this game and the energy that we brought in to it made it not too challenging. We heard that GT had lost one of their star cutters, but having not played them recently all we could do is take their team at face value. A pair of big hammer grabs by Jolly and more solid cutting from Matt Orr aid our effort. We go on to win 15-11.
We end Saturday 3-0 with a last round by into the pre-quarters Sunday morning. Saturday night featured some Eastern NC BBQ at Bubba’s (which had a second story urinal, that flushes courtesy of Eli) and an early night for everyone except Volde of course, who needed to get some ice-cream at Hardees’s at 11:30.
Our first game of the championship bracket was against Virginia Tech. We had faced them two falls ago at Fall Brawl on a bit windier day in a really close game. also, we went down to them early in Ultimax 2010, a tournament we won, and ending up breaking many times to win comfortably. We did not take this game lightly. This game was similar to Ultimax. We went down early 2-4, and scored 8 straight points, including 6 breaks (many of them by Volde) to get comfortable. The game was in our hands for most of the time after, and stayed as such thanks to a goal saving D by Carson Mailler, a beautiful flick huck from Pat Collins, and a raunchy sky grab by Jesse Brauner to safely secure our spot in the quarters.
We headed back up to the top of the hill to play Penn State’s Spank, a team that MagnUM has not played since fall of 2007. They were a physical team that arguably was the best opponent we played all weekend. There were more bids and close calls in this game than any other. That, added to a slew of upwind turns by the o-line had the game on serve at half with the soft cap going on. Carson gets centered the disc and Jesse proceeds to run the play incorrectly. It doesn’t matter though, Carson sends up a flick and Jesse comfortably pancakes it in the end zone despite being triple covered. magnum wins on universe and heads in to the semis.
We really made it hard for ourselves in the quarters and despite our numbers were feeling tired by this point in the weekend. We faced Ohio University in the semi finals. At the fall tournament we hosted, Rivalry Reheat, we had to break multiple times to finally come out on top and this game would prove to be similar. To conserve energy some of our rookies, including Aashay, were asked to step up in defensive roles and proved successful. Despite our rookies efforts, a dirty catch block by Afey, and a layout D by Chris V, we found ourselves again needing to break upwind on universe point. Pape throws an inverted flick to a spinning Yoni to punch it in, video here.
The Ohio game was an emotional one, as any universe point win is, and we carried that energy into the finals. What better opponent to bring this energy against than Ohio State. We got breaks in the first half. Jolly protected the upwind end zone with a layout block on a big huck. The real fire though, came at halftime. A local alumnus fired us up in the huddle to keep it up and give it to the Buckeyes. This last half was the best our team had looked. Veterans like Brandon Beeler were swinging the disc with ease. Jordan Macocha had a point with two Ds on hucks that I’m sure Ohio State thought were going to be run on to. Jon Paruk cleaned up some upwind swill and then toed the line like an expert to secure another break. Jason caught a downwind score just before the end of the game. And finally, when our o-line was given the disc we put it in.
MagnUM: Queen City Tune Up 2011 Champs. A rough road, but we got to the end of it. One of the most exciting things is that we have so much more time to put in and so much more work to do. We’ve got a showcase game against Michigan State, Round Robin in Charlotte against some great competition, and a game against Florida to really test us on our way to spring break.
Let’s do work boys.
Michigan Indoor
Over the Jan. 15-16 weekend, Magnum and Reserve played a few early season games at our home field, the indoor Oosterbaan field house. Magnum played against Northwestern, Kalamazoo, and Michigan State, winning 2 of the 3 games.
Against Northwestern, the first half was tight, with each O line giving up just one break and Magnum taking half 8-7. Magnum started strong in the second half, getting two quick breaks to take a 10-7 lead. Both teams held serve the remainder of the game, and Magnum won 13-10.
Against Kalamazoo, Magnum won handily, 14-8.
In the big game of the weekend, Magnum came out flat, with generally poor performances from those who played. Though we were missing 3 of our best throwers, Pape, Ollie, and Seth, we still should have came away with something better than an 11-6 loss.
Missouri Loves Company
This weekend was it. Magnum headed down, fifteen strong, to Columbia, MO to compete in what was arguably the strongest tournament in all of college ultimate this fall and by far the most competitive for MagnUM, Missouri Loves Company. With most of the vans arriving down at a reasonable time we got well rested and were as ready to play as we could be. Those that did get in late didn’t seem fazed at all. There was a slight frost delay early Saturday morning and the temps were probably lower than those in Ann Arbor., but we were still ready
Our first opponent of the tournament was Carleton College. This is a very established program and everyone wanted to beat them. In the words of coach Ricky this would most likely be our most winnable loss all weekend. The first half started out slow with Carleton taking a lead of more than a couple breaks. After the first half MagnUM started to make plays including a two D, and goal catching point by Jeff Pape. These plays and a bunch of Carleton miscues fueled what was almost a come from behind win by MagnUM. Still, the Carleton squad tightened its screws and finished the game off 11-9. We all wanted this game back, we could feel it, and we brought that into the next game.
We then moved one field over and faced one of those Wisconsin teams, University of Wisconsin Whitewater. Despite not being the infamous Hodags, this team is not to be ignored. In our past is a Universe point win over Whitewater at Huck Finn 2010 and those that were there remembered it well. This game was never really in anybody’s hand completely. Players from both teams made plays, especially Whitewater’s #27 who was never really taken care of, which kept it close. In the end, MagnUM came out on top in a nail-biting universe point finish to get to 1-1 on the day.
Staying on the same field we now faced those previously mentioned, the infamous, the Hodags. Let’s be honest, this program also has its history, but when we took them out at nationals last year and they failed to make the quarterfinals in our minds they weren’t so great. In the first three points we got broken once and yours truly got taken out by a late and low bid on a score, which lead to a negative mindset that plagued us for the rest of the game. The Hodags stepped up their defense with physicality and intensity and for whatever reason MagnUM could not answer. We left the field the losers of a 11-3 mashing. We will remember this for the rest of the year.
Our last game of the day was a tough one. We did our best to get out from under that bad loss and set out to prove something against Luther, a former national qualifier. Much like the Whitewater game plays were made on both sides. Great grabs, and some bad drops. In the end we had a chance, and we gave them more. MagnUM falls on universe to end their power pool Saturday 1-3. Because of point differential we end up fourth in the pool set to face Iowa on Sunday morning. We head 20 miles East back to our hotel, chill with a stray cat for a little, go to eat some Mexican food, and watch football. We’re all thinking about Sunday nonetheless.
We wake up in the morning feeling like winning a game. Our former Iowan Elliot feels the same. The weather is better, no frost delay, and our warm up goes on without any hitches. The game against Iowa was not very much different from our games against Luther and Whitewater on Saturday except that it felt slightly more in our control the whole time. They did break us back once or twice and their best player proved extremely hard to match up on, but in the end MagnUM came out on top 13-11 finally winning a championship bracket game and advancing to the quarterfinals.
Next was Minnesota. They had gone 4-0 on Saturday with convincing wins against teams like Colorado. We weren’t intimidated. The game stayed close for most of the first half, but The Grey Ducks secured an upwind and downwind break pair just before half that was never recovered despite some great endzone stands and a foul that was sent back on a Beeler block. MagnUM falls 10-7 on a game that felt winnable. Out of the bracket, we went to face Illinois. This is a team that we had beaten twice earlier in the fall, but has been a tough opponent for years. We wanted to win.
Unfortunately with injuries, fatigue, and a loss of mental sharpness we went down fast. Volde made a big D in the endzone and plays were made that’s for sure, but in the end we couldn’t swing it and we couldn’t stop their hucks. MagnUM loses a game that was in all honesty hard to watch. Illinois 13-6.
So this tournament wasn’t what we all wanted. It didn’t go as planned and we left with more injured players than we started out with, which was already too many. Still it was promising. The rookies, Eli, Matt, Jason, Jon, and Johnny showed that they are ready. They were thrown into a competitive tournament in less than ideal circumstances and never gave up. Yoni brought the fire he always does and had a huge layout grab in the endzone on Saturday. Afey played over one hundred points, got the layout blocks he’s known for, and was consistent on hucks. Beeler threw swings and pivots to get the throws he wanted. Johnny implemented a high release flick with great success. There were moments of brilliance, and moments of lackluster performance. Going in to the depths of the winter we will remember what we want, to be brilliant all of the time.
We gave ourselves a C for this fall, but as Ricky said we’re lucky. We all have 24 other guys to help us get better. Let’s do some work.
Bowling Green
On the weekend of November 13-14, Reserve didn’t have to go far to find good games as they traveled down to Bowling Green, Ohio to play in the annual BG Alumni Tournament. With a name like Bowling Green you would expect beautiful pastures laden with moist soil and fresh grass as far as the eye can see, but it’s Ohio. The weather-hardened fields would only harden Reserve’s resolve as we held seed by finishing with a solid 3rd place.
The weekend began with Reserve facing off against Eastern Michigan B in the best of conditions for a November tournament. In what would seem like an easy W, Reserve grew complacent and came out with sloppy play. Focusing in on the second half, Reserve closed out the game with a less-than-impressive 13-3 victory. Note: Dafeng was intimidated a redheaded girl who chose to play in-your-face D. Apparently junk food also helps broken ankles heal much faster.
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Harnessing our new-found positive energy, Reserve lined up against Xavier, who was expected to give us a fight considering the way we had put them away last year in the finals of Arctic Vogue. There was no fight. Every point started with a crisp, clean pull and that was pretty much the story of the game. Notable playmaking came from Mark Henley who had a never-say-die attitude all weekend, saving each and every disc that was seemingly down, and Josh Gilly with bookends. Reserve handled business the way every player on its roster knew it was capable of, steamrolling Xavier with aggressive D and smooth O, resulting in a 13-1 victory.
Reserve missed out on a fourth round game due to some logistical mishaps. One team had dropped, another forfeited, but we were to play a crossover game against a familiar rival, Eastern Michigan University. Thank you Jon Stein for the football updates during our fourth round bye. Go Blue.
The first half of the Michigan B vs. EMU game can be described as a dogfight. Reserve and Hellfish traded blow for blow in Round 1. Despite a loss to Toledo in the previous round, Eastern brought their game. Respect. Huge plays were made on both sides of the jersey spectrum. The first major play out of Reserve came from Derek Moen who nastily snatched a huck from out of the sky in spite of being sandwiched between two offensive players causing a huge collision rendering a much bigger opponent unable to continue play. Following suit, Dafeng Chen made an epic goal line stand as he found anti-gravity and laid out horizontally five feet in the air to deny a break throw for a goal. Several rookies would also refuse to allow the disc to touch a single blade of grass by putting their bodies on the line. Eastern, however, would find the opening in Reserve’s unforced errors and bad decisions to pull away to take half 8-4. Despite individual efforts, Reserve would collectively throw in the towel in the second half allowing Eastern to win the final round.
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Reserve headed home for the night and found out after finishing 3-1 for the day, we had finished fourth due to point differential and were allotted a first-round bye for Sunday.
Quarterfinal action would once again pit Reserve against their foe Eastern but this was not the same Reserve from Saturday. Conditions were also not as pleasant: it was a big upwind-downwind game. The game began with Michigan drawing first blood as Dafeng would find the first of many up line goals for a break. Jason Guan would make an amazing up line layout for a save to help us punch in a goal. Our fearless leader, Andrew Copp decided to unleash his big forehand point after point. Reserve’s great zone play coupled with rather unforgiving winds allowed Reserve to go tit-for-tat from this point to take half 8-7. Zach Lemis had an incredible second effort layout to grab a short-fielded huck. Jon Stein had two bookends, one of which came from a sick layout D near our goal line to give us an easy score. The second half was much of the same back and forth fighting. Tensions mounted as the game went to universe. Reserve and Hellfish each had one turnover. Hellfish’s turnover allowed us to set up our end zone. A simple forehand from Copp to Stein ended the game 11-10 and Michigan erupted off the sidelines.
Reserve faced Toledo in the semifinals. Winds had picked up. It was nonstop huckfest. The O-line found itself playing defense in the zone every time. The D-line had a great upwind break to put Reserve up 5-2. Gilly had an absolutely ridiculous hammer snag. With every point taking so long it seemed the game was done and the battle was won, but things were not to be. The offensive line faltered. Toledo had the momentum. The O-line would falter again twice more to give Toledo an 11-8 victory.
It was a great weekend. Reserve held seed to finish 3rd. The rookies look amazing. The fall preseason comes to a close. This year’s team looks [potentially] to be the greatest Reserve roster formed yet.
