CCC 2010

magnUM travelled a solid 9 hours south to Chattanooga, TN to close up our fall season. Friday morning the vans started cruising out of Ann Arbor, with the last pulling in around 1am Saturday. Before rolling into the illustrious Knights Inn of Chattanooga, the first van dined on some of the finest Italian food we could find.

And then we woke up Saturday morning.

We weren’t warming up and sunrise was imminent. Fumo would be ashamed.

Yes that’s snow. CCC switched from Georgia in November to Tennessee in December and was rewarded with snow.

Being hardy gentlemen from a variety of northern climates, we managed just fine. But since Ollie is on our team, we couldn’t get started without a mishap. Apparently there is a difference between field C9, where the women played, and field 9, a quarter mile away, where we played. Who knew? (We love you Ollie).

Auburn

Anyways, we played Auburn in the first game. When one of the guys on the sideline tells you “most of the guys on our team are seeing snow for the third time in their lives,” and you’re from Michigan, you feel you have a compelling climatic advantage. Accordingly magnUM jumped out to a 4-0 lead. Auburn went on a mini-run to make it close near half, but the snow and the talent were on our side. We won 13-6.

Emory

Emory offered Michigan a significant change of pace, and the danger of playing what was in some respects a one-man team. Not ready for the pass-dump, pass-dump, pass-dump, huck offense, we fell down a pair of breaks 2-0. But in ultimate, like most sports, one man can carry the team only for so long. magnUM responded and controlled the rest of the game, including the “get outta here!” bookends from our newest rookie, Zubin Shetty. Final score 13-4.

Delaware

We were a little surprised to be facing a 2-0 Delaware team, fresh off a pair of universe point wins over Georgia Southern and Georgia. But despite the life karma penalty of stealing our football helmets, they showed remarkable grit and stuck around through a game that we seemed to be controlling throughout. Alex Fegert got one of his two “incut layout D so massive he may be actually trying a mac-to-Callahan” plays that keyed a magnUM run. But universe point was in the cards. In the end, Afay flipped a quick smart pass off a dead disc to Seth Collins, and magnUM moved to 3-0.

Georgia Southern

Since this is the place in the entry for playing the sixth seed, this feels like an appropriate place to mention our fans on the weekend, who braved snow, cold and wind to watch nearly all of our games and supply us with mountains of phenomenal snacks. Thanks much to Ollie’s parents!

We beat Georgia Southern 11-8 in something of a lackluster effort.

Jojah

A year removed from the Ben DeLand bookends, magnUM met Jojah in a rematch of our most thrilling game in group play at CCC.

This game represented just how powerful emotion and energy are in college ultimate. Georgia broke us twice to start 2-0, and controlled for some time. And magnUM, returners and rookies, seemed to be content. Then, on a Dan DeTone D (he would get our first two D’s in the game), we went on a stellar run out of the half to turn a 4-8 deficit into a 8-8 tie game. But just as quickly, the even fickle “mo” went back to the other side, and we meekly fell 13-9.

Tired, cold and furious at our play at the end of the day, we retired to the Knights Inn for the night. At Olive Garden we ate the breadsticks faster than their oven could bake them and Jeff Pape ate not one, not two, but three lasagnas. We settled in for the night, and no one fell out of bed in their sleep in a fortuitously timed manner to catch the semi-exciting end to the Big 12 title game. By then of course, we learned we’d open play Sunday against Texas.

Texas

magnUM ended up, unfortunately, in the “B” bracket at CCC because of the 4-point loss to Georgia and the other games between the three-way pool winners were played to universe point. But we were quite pleased to be playing Texas, a friendly rival and a national semifinalist from 2009.

There was no snow left from the day before, but the cold had descended in, turning the muddy quagmire from the day ago into a frozen mushy surface. But for the first 20 minutes of the game, essentially the only time all weekend, we could make full speed cuts. A strong D-line opened the game with a break. Texas would rally on the strength of smart hammers and great break throws, taking half. But the game was very evenly matched. magnUM made a run to take a two-point lead as the D began to figure out the Texas O. The O-line held serve, including a fantastic layout D by Tom Haynes. This is not a typo and merits repeating so that alumni believe this: a fantastic layout D by Tom Haynes.

As cap approached, the game had all the makings of universe point. Smooth O-line play (at this point in the weekend, Beaker, PC and RL Stein were essentially unguardable downfield) saw magnUM hold serve to take a 14-13 lead. The D-line took the field, and one of those seminal moments in a season occurred. After a Texas turn in our own end zone, we took our time and called Golden with DMo out and DD in. Chris Vandervoort, a lefty facing a righty-flick mark, launched an on-the-money 70-yard backhand bomb, which DMo reeled in for the game winner, 15-13.

Tennessee

Following the emotional win over Texas, magnUM advanced to the semifinals against Tennessee. If the Texas field degraded into a muddy quagmire, this field was just a plain mud pit.

Like the Georgia game, a slow start in a big game again bedeviled us. We battled the mud, our own silly turns, mental mistakes and Tennessee, and stumbled badly to a 4-8 halftime deficit. Having played man all half, we decided to mix it up and throw some Z.

Tennessee was flummoxed and then some. magnUM reeled off not 1, not 2, but (count ‘em) 7 straight points to take an 11-8 lead. Among the highlights during this run included the “battle of the Collins’ “ as Pat wrecked Seth’s head… and caught the goal. Another moment featuring Seth and great play by someone else came when Ricky got the D. Seth, playing wing in the zone, listened obediently as Ricky smelled a hammer over the top told him to move. Just in time, Seth got Ricky’s nice layout D.

magnUM would see the lead erode late, but won on universe 16-15.

MSU

Couch, facing a longer drive than we were, wasn’t in the mood to play out the weekend. Our heads were in the mood, but our legs weren’t. The compromise, a game to 7, yielded the painful result of 7-2, putting a very humbling set of bookends on the fall season, losses to your in-state rival.

In the end, we saw the potential and the challenges in this magnUM roster. We could, when we chose to, beat the best. And we could, when we chose to, play very meekly. We need the toughness, and the conditioning. And that’s what January in the Oost is all about. Happy Holidays to all our blog fans, including the blog’s favorite artist, Andy Funn. Until January, see you later.

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