Not many schools can boast of sending three teams to a national qualifying tournament. But Brown is one of those schools, as the men's ultimate frisbee team, known as Brownian Motion, sent three full teams to compete at the Southern New England Sectionals tournament last weekend.
Brown's A team, seeded first in the tournament, dominated its opponents en route to an undefeated weekend and the tournament victory. Brown A won its seven games by an average of 11 points. The B team entered the weekend in the lower half of the seedings but pulled off several upsets to capture fifth place in the tournament. Brown's C team was riddled with injuries as the weekend progressed, weakening the team considerably and leading to a last-place finish.
"We had Brown ultimate players on three teams playing the same style of disciplined ultimate," said Josh Champagne '05.
Led by co-captains Josh Ziperstein '05 and Paul Vandenburg '05, Brown's A team rolled through pool play on a windy Saturday, easily winning its pool. On Sunday morning, Brown A squared off against Brown C in the final game of pool play. Though the match-up was clearly lopsided in favor of Brown A, both teams gave all of their effort as Brown A won 13-0.
Rolling into the semi-finals, Brown A faced Connecticut College and quickly picked apart Conn. College's zone for a 13-5 victory. After Yale University upset Wesleyan University in the other semi-final game, Brown A rocked Yale for a 15-4 win and the championship.
While Brown A was heavily favored to win the entire tournament, Brown B was a decided underdog. Seeded fourth in its pool of six, Brown B came out on fire on Saturday and stayed hot. Against second seed Conn. College, Brown B stayed even through to the half before eventually losing 11-9. Unfortunately, Wesleyan A was the next team for Brown B. No one, however, expected Brown B to hang with Wesleyan as long as they did, trailing by only two at the half. In the second half, however, Wesleyan A pulled away for the 13-6 victory.
After two disappointing but well-played losses, Brown B was itching for a win. Taking on the third seed, Roger Williams University, Brown B traded points before going on a run for their first victory, an 11-8 upset. Saturday ended with a 13-4 shellacking of Wesleyan B.
Coming into Sunday, Brown B had a chance to break seed and take third in their pool. Against Trinity University Sunday morning, Brown B came out flat, quickly falling into a 3-0 hole from which the team was unable to recover, losing 11-8. Tied with Trinity and Roger Williams with 2-3 records in pool play, Brown B benefited from some close losses earlier in the tournament to win the point-differential tiebreak and remain in contention for third place in the tournament.
Elimination play began for Brown B with a hard-fought win over Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Jumping to a 5-2 lead, Brown B's offense worked to perfection, slicing apart the WPI defense with smart, accurate throws. Though WPI rallied in the end, Brown B held fast for the 11-9 win.
The win gave Brown B another chance against Connecticut College, which had just been beaten by Brown A in the championship pool. The long weekend of play finally caught up to Brown B as the players began to tire and Conn. College took the 12-6 win, leaving Brown B in fifth place overall.
Brown C came ready to play on Saturday, but inexperience and injuries plagued the team as the weekend wore on. Though the team did not win any games, the experience gained will prove to be invaluable in later tournaments for Brown C.
By winning the championship, Brown A qualifies for the New England Regional tournament on May 8-9 in Newport, R.I. Brown A enters as the top seed in the tournament, and a first or second place finish will allow the team to continue on to the UPA College Championships from May 28-30 in Seattle, Wash.
