“Site Relocation due to 1 foot of snow on ground. Awaken (Session I) will be hosted this weekend in PA/NJ.
Once team movement is complete, the schedule will be adjusted.

Awaken (Session II) will be hosted in Saratoga Springs next weekend (March 30-31). This will be sanctioned.”

The last minute change could force most, if not all, teams to withdraw due to travel and accommodations. The ME Region teams will have a better chance, but a lot of Northern NE teams, Bowdoin, UNH, Keene, Salem and other MA teams may have a tougher time to make it to Awaken.

The outcome could be very detrimental to these teams because most are still looking to get the 10 sanctioned games for a ranking. Without 10 games, they will not be considered for Regional bids (cue last year’s debacle with Brown/URI). Teams will still be allowed to play in Conferences, and could earn bids to Regionals, but without teams getting the 10 sanctioned games, Regional bids will be allocated elsewhere.

Hopefully teams will still get to compete this weekend, but if not there is a second session the weekend after, which is the same as the New England Open. This would affect teams like URI, Bowdoin, Bentley, Northeastern and a few others, who are already planned to play at NEO.

How does this affect your team, or your season plans? Planning on making the trek down to NJ?

Massachusetts-Amherst beats Brandeis in the finals of Woodside Invite

Boston College (W) win AC III

Harvard B wins the Clover Cup Classic!

Harvard loses in the finals, 13-10, at Centex to Texas

Tufts, Dartmouth and Brown head to Easterns this coming weekend!

And LOTS of New England teams heading to Awaken 2013 too!

Looking to play club this summer? Check out this google calendar with updated schedules!

And the Whitecaps introduce two new players, Will Neff and Teddy Browar-Jarus

Harvard (9), Tufts (17) and Williams (18), all made the Top 20, which is enough to solidify 2 strength bids (as of now).

With other New England teams hanging on loosely, these next few weeks are crucial for the Region. Dartmouth (27) and Brown (32) are closing in, and tournaments like Easterns could make or break them.

BC (54), Massachusetts-Amherst (55) and Vermont (57) have a pretty wide gap to overcome, but could still finish strong if one of these NE teams slip.

DIII, on the other hand, only has Amherst (18) right now. The USAU Ranking system “currently use a 5-game threshold for inclusion, but the end of season rankings will use a 10 game cutoff,” and Amherst is the only NE DIII school to have 5 ranked games. Teams like Bowdoin and Bentley, who attended 2012 DIII Nationals, will have some ground to cover once they hit their game quota.

The DIII Region could go to anyone this year, though Middlebury, Bowdoin and Bentley are the favorites. But teams like Salem, Wentworth, Brandeis will be fighting to the end.

March 30th and 31st will bring us the New England Open where teams will have one last chance to battle it out  before Conferences and Regionals. Tufts, Harvard, Dartmouth and Vermont will have to hold off Penn State, Michigan, San Diego State and UConn to secure bids for the Region. Likewise, Bentley, Bowdoin, Middlebury and Salem have a chance to show their strength against some top DI teams.

The Boston Whitecaps finally announce their roster and have player announcements for Jeff Graham and Will Neff

With more than half of the roster being either current or past Ironside players, this team will have a lot of chemistry. Players have also played together on Twisted Metal, Slow White and The Ghosts. 23 of 25 players have College and/or Club Nationals experience, and will definitely be one of the top teams in the MLU.

• Dartmouth Paintrain is forced to return to DIII Conference Championships, after not qualifying for Nationals for the past 4 years. They will play against teams like Bowdoin, Colby, Keene, Maine-Farmington, Bates and now Middlebury. Dartmouth will elect to play DI Regionals, while Middlebury will stay the DIII route; however, a Conference finals match-up between these two are inevitable and should prove to be a good game. Dartmouth will head to Easterns in a few weeks to play against top talent in the country.

• Local tournaments (OPEN):
• Brandeis B-Fest  March 10th
• Bryant Home March 30th
• New England Open  March 30th/31st
• URI Huckbuddy  April 6th/7th
• Lemony Spring  April 7th
• Keenacus   April 20th/21st
• Boston Whitecaps First Home Game  April 20th

• Local tournaments (WOMEN):
• MIT Invite   March 10th
• URI Huckbuddy  April 6th/7th
• Lemony Spring  April 7th

Weekend Winners:

Brown continued their dominance from Pres. Day, holding their 4th seed spot and taking down UConn and Michigan. They ended up losing to Michigan in the 3rd place game 13-10, after losing to Ohio (Ranked 12th by UltiWorld and 14th by Skyd) 15-12.  They will return for Easterns to play against Dartmouth, Tufts and other top 25 ranked teams. This was a huge stepping stone for Brownian Motion, who accredit a lot of success to workouts with Morrill Performance, and will get a chance to play against National qualifying teams in hopes to earn another bid for the New England Region.

Wentworth won out at Salem State Invite, after the UNH Spring Open was cut down to 5 teams due to field space. They beat the home team and 1st seed Salem State who we had projected to win. (Yes, I am wrong more times than not).

Bentley continued their strong play from playing at DIII Nationals last year, beating DIII rivals Brandeis and Middlebury. They also took down BU and UNH, DI schools. With a DGP win against Middlebury, Bentley knows that they will have another hard game come Regionals with Middlebury electing to play DIII this year.

Amherst College played at Uprising in Saratoga Springs and sprang from 4th in their pool to 1st by the end of day 1, after beating a few NY teams. Losing to eventual winners SUNY-Geneseo 13-11 in semis, Amherst took down Syracuse for the second time this weekend. Coming in 13th and leaving with 3rd is a huge win for this team who had a less than stellar showing at DIII Warm Ups. Amherst will be another tough contender for NE DIII Regionals.

Weekend Wake Ups:

UConn came in as the 3rd seed at the Easterns Qualifier and left with 8th and a 4-4 record, losing to ME Regional Rival SUNY-Buffalo in pool and bracket play, and to Brown in semis. Grind won their first four games, and lost their last four, which is definitely something they will need to shake off for the rest of the season. After slipping up and falling short of qualifying for Nationals last year, UConn will have to be able to finish strong at tournaments to avenge these losses.

Brandeis, who has stated hopes of reaching DIII Nationals this year, went 0-4 at UNH Spring Open, falling to Bentley and Middlebury, as well as the DI teams in close games. Given that Bentley and Middlebury are top teams in the region, Brandeis will have to play harder and squeeze out wins to be able to hold their own come Sunday of Regionals.

Central Conn. State University (CCSU) had a decent showing on Saturday at Uprising, losing to SUNY-Fredonia in pool play, but it appears they had forfeited all games on Sunday (showing 3 W-F on Sunday).
*They left due to poor fields and did not want to hurt players playing on these fields

And last but not least is Dartmouth Paintrain, who could not attend Easterns Qualifier as planned, due to a car accident on the way down. While all the players are, thankfully, all healthy, this tournament could be a good way to warm up for Easterns in a few weeks.

1. UConn vs. Brown

At the Easterns Qualifier, UConn (4th seed) and Brown (5th) find themselves pitted up in the last game on day 1 from Pool D. While UConn did well at QCTU, Brown is coming off hot after a 7th place finish at Pres. Day. I predict the young Brown team to upset UConn and possibly play Cincinnati in Quaters on Sunday.

2. Dartmouth vs. Cincinnati

Though Cincinnati had average showing at QCTU and Pres. Day, Dartmouth only has Warm Up under their feet for this weekend. The Pain Train did stick it out against top talent (Lead Texas and Pitt until late in both games), their only wins have come against weaker teams. With what should be their only real challenge of Pool Play, Dartmouth will have to come out strong, and hold their lead if they hope to stay 1st in their Pool, for a chance to play UConn (predicted, though if played to seed would be Brown) in Quarters.

3. Bentley/Brandeis/Middlebury

All top DIII teams for the Region (Middlebury dropping down to play DIII for the first time in a few years), these teams will have to battle at UNH’s Spring Open to show who is the de facto top team. With no results for the spring season, this will be the first tournament for all three teams to show what they have. While playing against some DI schools, UNH and BU will be tough, what matters most is the ability to beat teams that they will play come Regionals. Too close to call right now, could be anyone’s tournament.

4. Salem State

After getting dropped from UNH’s Spring Open due to lack of field space, Salem is now hosting some DIII schools (Wentworth, Lowell, Gordon, Keene) for a round robin tournament at their fields. Salem won’t have a problem with any of the teams at their tournament, and would have had more luck at the Spring Open. This year Salem is looking to streak deep into Regionals, and will be a contender on Sunday for sure; this will be a great way to boost morale and show DIII that they shouldn’t be taken lightly.

Edit*: With the addition of freshman deep threat Jeff Babbitt (FOTY possibility?) Wentworth will be tough to contain

5. (Possible) Dartmouth vs. Brown/UConn

If Dartmouth can hold seed on day 1, then they will most likely face off between UConn or Brown. Hopefully for the New England Region, it will be UConn. If Pain Train can knock off Grind early on in Sunday, then them and Brown will have a better chance of earning strength bids for the Region; but if Dartmouth and Brown have to play in Quarters, New England automatically loses a team that could go further. Prediction: Dartmouth plays UConn, after Brown wins out the pool on Saturday, then Dartmouth beats UConn in a close game on Sunday morning. Of course this could all mean nothing if pools don’t play to seed/as I predicted.

Dartmouth and Vermont headed down to Florida to try to gain some early ground on strength bids, and almost came out a wash.

Dartmouth (4-5) came in as the 9th seed, and left with 12th place, only managing to beat South Florida, Cornell, Massachusetts and Maryland on the weekend. They had led in games against Texas and Pitt, but suffered late in both games as they couldn’t hold onto their lead, losing to Texas 11-12, and to Pitt, 12-14.

Massachusetts (3-7) had come in as the 12th seed, and left with a forfeited game with Wisconsin-Milwaukee in the bottom of the bracket. Notching wins against South Florida and Dayton, UMass still showed what they can do, as they lost to Texas 13-14 and Florida 11-13.

While their records show a poor showing for these two teams, Dartmouth and UMass showed that they can battle with the top in the country, and will both be hard teams to play come Regionals.

Pres. Day:

Brown and Vermont headed to California to play against West Coast teams, and while most thought UVM was going to be the team to watch this weekend, it was Brown that was turning heads.

Failing to make it out of Conference Championships last spring, Brown (4-5) has pulled a 180 and went from 16th seed to 7th, after advancing to power pools after day 1. Their only blow out losses came to eventual finalists Arizona and Minnesota, and their other losses to UCD, UCSB and Washington, were only by a combined 4 points.

Vermont (4-4) on the other hand, slipped and went from 7th to 16th at the end of the weekend. Despite a close game with Colorado on day 1 (14-12), UVM was upset twice by UCSD and Cincinnati.

With Brown dominating and UMass and Dartmouth holding their own against the top college teams, New England Regionals will be one hell of a tournament, and hopefully will earn 2-3 bids to Nationals this year. Harvard and Tufts already had Dartmouth on their radar, but teams like Brown and UMass will be coming for them, as well. And don’t count UVM out just yet, they will likely regroup and come out swinging at their next tournament.

Interview with Jeff Graham

Interview with David Kucherlapati

Peter Prial

Muffin

Danny Clark

Casey Terp

Ben Breault

Photos from Burt Granofsky and UltiPhotos

and some more photos from PH Photography.(and more!)

Over the course of three hours, Owner David Kucherlapati and Jeff Graham tested players with a vert test, 5-30 and 5-5-5 in order to test Cut Time, and also played a game of 5 vs 5 with MLU rules. With top talent from teams like Ironside, Garuda,RI Rampage, The Ghosts, Slow White and Wildcard, this team is sure to be “highly competitive” and will be a team tat “any team on the West or East coast will have trouble dealing with”, said Graham, and with more than 20 players with either Club or College Nationals experience, I tend to agree.

The Ghosts player, Casey Terp, and his group warming up at the beginning of the combine. (PH Photography)

With a 25 man roster to finalize by March 3rd, the Whitecaps have a second and third combine planned for Feb. 19th and 22nd for invites only. 10 players from Ironside, like Muffin, Teddy Browar-Jarus, Cricket, Alex Simmons, Alex Cooper and Misha Herscu, this could definitely be “a team to be reckoned with” in the MLU, says Kucherlapati. Players like Luke DiOrio, Mike Miller, Dyan Wolff, Shaun Doherty  and Adam Johnston who are formerly of the Rhode Island Rampage seem to want to keep playing professional ultimate with the new Boston team.

Peter Prial (Ironside) takes off during the 5-30 sprint (Burt Granofsky)

Most notable was the lack of current college players, especially from the Boston area. While college players from schools like UHartford, Salem State and UNH all had some players attend, I didn’t see that many players from Harvard, Tufts, Northeastern, BU, Bentley or Brandeis. Given that Tufts and Harvard had just played at QCTU this past weekend, one can assume that this may have affected their ability to tryout; but what the combine lacked in college players, it more than made up for with high-level club players.

Players will be emailed today (Feb. 12th) if they are selected to move on to the first closed combine. The final 25 man roster will look forward to opening the MLU season with a home game against the New York Rumble on April 20th.

Check out the Boston Whitecaps on facebook and twitter.

Also, stay posted for photos from Burt Granofsky and PH Photography!

QCTU:

Tufts, Harvard and UConn played at QCTU, while Boston College had to drop last minute.

Tufts, surprisingly didn’t roll through their competition, but still managed to win out every game. With a uni-point win over Georgia Southern (3rd seed in pool) and a 2 point win over Michigan State (2nd seed), Tufts earned a spot in Quarters, facing either Arizona State or Harvard.

Harvard played to seed, winning big in their wins, and losing to Ohio in hard cap, 12-11 (scored last to end the game). Micha Hercsu and Piers McNaughton seemed to be huge play makers, as usual, though through their twitter updates, they seemed to involve a lot of different players with scores and D’s. They will have to fight off Arizona State for a chance to play Regional rivals, Tufts. AZ State had already played at the Santa Barbara Invite, and one has to wonder if having a tournament under their belt will be a help.

The surprise of the New England teams was UConn who went from 4th seed in Pool B to 2nd seed, losing only to Penn State, who won the pool. They played a close game with Michigan (12-11) but won the rest of their games by a comfortable margin. They’ll play Georgia Southern, which could pose a real threat. If they win, they’ll go on to face North Carolina, who has yet to play a close game so far.

DIII Warm Up:

With a drop from Brandeis, Amherst College and Connecticut College were the only 2 New England teams to play in Riverside, CA today.

Both playing in Pool B, the two teams faced off in in the last game of the day today, and Amherst prevailed with an 11-8 win. With one more pool play game on Sunday morning (Conn. against Carleton GOP and Amherst against Pacific Lutheran) it is unlikely that either NE team will play-in to the Championship bracket (if Amherst beats they’ll have the head-to-head to advance to the 3rd spot in the pool)