Spring has just begun in the New England area, but the Tufts ultimate frisbee program been competing for months. With both the men's and women's A-teams ranked in the top 15 nationally, this is shaping up to be one of the best seasons in the history of ultimate frisbee at Tufts. Here's a recap of what the teams have accomplished so far this year:
Tufts E-Wo
Spring break kicked off with a bang for the national No. 15 Tufts E-Wo as the A-team of the women's program easily swept through the field at College Southerns XI.
Its most impressive win came in the final against No. 17 Ohio State, a contest Tufts won by eight points.
Led by a core of five seniors, the E-Wo squad took off with a head of steam, earning eight wins in a row on its way to a well-deserved title.
Despite a few defeats at the 2012 Stanford Invite in early March, the Tufts women appear to be in great shape going forward, all but two of their losses have come against higher-ranked opponents.
Tufts B-Wo
At the beginning of spring break, the women's B-team split up into two groups - BX and BY - and drove to the Layouts tournament.
The BY squad took down Williams-B twice but failed to deliver against the other teams in a tough field, while BX went 0-4.
"We were up against a lot of weaker A-teams and more developed B-teams, so it was a tough tournament," freshman Tamar Bardin said.
A week later, the B-Wo team went to Gettysburg, Pa. to compete in the Battlefield Brawl. BY managed just one win against George Mason, while BX went 0-5.
On March 31, the team reconvened as a single group and went to Easton, Mass. for the Get Skyyd tournament. There, they finished in third place in pool play after dropping games to Stonehill and Bentley and winning by default against Hartford.
After the opening round, they took on Bowdoin's and Conn. College's B-teams, beating both squads
The next day, the team trekked up to New Hampshire for the Casual Huck tournament, where they once again finished third in pool play.
They beat both of the B-teams they faced, Dartmouth and the University of New Hampshire, to assert their superiority among the ranks of New England.
Next on tap for the B-Wo is the Metro Boston Championships, where the team believes it can fare well.
"As long as we shake off the losses from spring break and apply everything we've been learning in practice, I'd say we are ready for the B-Team Championships," Bardin said.
Tufts E-Men
The E-Men entered this season with big expectations and were ranked No. 1 in the nation as recently as two weeks ago.
"[We have] one of the most star-studded rosters we've had in many years," junior co-captain Robby Perkins-High said, though he noted the team is not all about its stars. "While these guys get a lot of the attention, our strength is in our depth."
At Centex in Austin, Texas, their first major tournament of the year, the E-Men beat Colorado College en route to a flawless 4-0 record and a seat atop their pool, which also included Iowa, Illinois and Whitman.
Once they advanced past the group stage, they fended off Texas in a 12-11 game. But national No. 1 Oregon halted the E-Men's run, and they ultimately placed fourth.
A week later, at College Easterns, the team once again went undefeated in pool play, claiming its three games by a combined five points. In a repeat of Centex, they won an additional game after pool play before finally losing, this time to No. 7 Central Florida. After then losing another contest to Stanford, they earned their second consecutive fourth-place finish.
This past weekend, the E-Men traveled to the BootyCall tournament at UConn, where they went undefeated in pool play for a third time before handily defeating Maryland and ultimately toppling the hosts in the finals, 15-10.
After their stellar performance at BootyCall, the E-Men have slipped just two spots from their previous No. 1 ranking to No. 3 in the nation.
Tufts B-Men
Like the E-Wo team, the Tufts B-Men the College Southerns XI tournament, where they posted a 2-4 record.
In their two wins, they shut out CP Tech, 15-0, and won a close match over George Mason University, 15-13.
The latter contest went down to the wire, as the B-Men tried to become the only B-team to sneak into the championship.
Junior William Butt, who is also a photo editor for the Daily, came up with a huge stop on defense late in the game, and senior Ryan Bailey snagged a long pass in the opposing end zone to capitalize on the turnover and seal the victory.
The next week, the B-Men went to Pennsylvania for Steakfest, where they started by winning four games in a row. They ended pool play unscathed and then beat RIT before losing the next three matches by default as the team departed to return to Tufts.
The B-Men's best display came in their most recent tournament, the 2012 New England Open, where they went 7-1, beating out five B-teams and two A-teams, before falling just short of winning their bracket against Holy Cross, a team they had beaten earlier in the tournament.
"Our biggest highlight was earning our conference a bid to regionals, giving us a great opportunity to qualify and making us one of only two B-teams in the country with an actual chance to [do so]," Butt said.
--
This article has been edited since the original version was posted online.
