Wilmington 8's

The first real tournament for the Pittsburgh A team against the nations top teams.

The Roster read as follows:

• Alex Thorne
• Allen Rakers
• Andrej Ababovic
• Ari Weitzman
• Brad Bellinger
• Chris Brenenborg
• Colin Connor
• David Zettel
• Isaac Saul
• Jason Kunsa
• Jay Huerbin
• Kevin Norton
• Kyle Baynes
• Michael Brenner
• Michael Van Ness
• Michael Plunkett
• Patrick Every
• Robbie Shapiro
• Tyler Degirolamo
• Zach Kauffman

Notable Absentees

• Bob Liu (injury on Saturday)
• David Hogan (groin)
• Eddie Peters (injury Saturday)
• Ethan Beardsley (absent)
• Geoff Zettel (knee ligament)
• Julian Hausman (out of country)

Tennessee 15-10

Half of the team needed some payback for the blowout loss to Tennessee. The other half wanted a win under their belt. After a bit of a nervy half with O line holding steady and D line not being able to punch it in, we finally broke serve to start a roll of breaks. During half Coach Suskin hammered in the point that adjustments were just that, and only plays were going to create breaks: the D line took this to heart as we rolled out of half with consecutive breaks and ending the game on a break. Overall a great first day win and first team win.

Florida 17-15

The big daddy themselves. I personally have never played in a game of such of talk and anticipation. I quickly learned that talk is just talk, and playing is another thing all together. Florida's offense boiled down to one of two things number 21 receiving the disc and ripping it, or number 14 receiving the disc and ripping it to 21. After a long spell of O line holding serve we were finally broken towards the end of the game. Down 10 -12 the D line was told to step up; with three breaks they did so and punished Florida with a mix of adjustments and Ds. The game held serve until 15s then the D line proceeded to end the game with two more breaks. Most notably, #14 had the disc at the top of Florida's endzone, he ripped it to #21 who was in a dead sprint with 5 Pittsburgh defenders: he didn't get it.

Cornell 15-13

This was the most anticipated game of the day. Were we going to reclaim the region? Were we going to be the top dogs after an emotional nationals? Yes, empathetically yes. The answer was yes even before the game as our mentality and attitude for this game was one only of winning and one of lingering revenge. The game was fiery, yet oddly friendly. I think we now have some mutual respect for each others programs and the level they've reached. Much like Eddie, i remember little of the game; the O line definitely, like nationals, kept us in this game with some good, solid play. Win Picksburgh.

Virginia 15-11

Virginia of last year was a Cinderella story beating Georgia to take the AC Regionals, but this year seems to be a transition year. They had a mixed national champion in their roster with a dude wearing a number 10 jersey; he seemed to run everything, which worked a bit in the beginning but as the game wore on his efficiency diminished. The game was one of the easier ones on the whole, as we broke quickly and effectively putting up a big score at half, and coasting through it for the game. Retrospectively, not what we want, but we were tired after a physically and emotionally draining day.

Maryland 15-7

After running fourteen sprints for being fourteen minutes late, we were both pissed and tired. The culmination left Maryland scoring the most points on our team ever. They scored a remarkable seven points, i think half was something like 8-5 and then they scored 2 points when we scored 7. Eh, first game. We'll do better next time.

NC State 15-9

The game was once again nervy in the first half, but our dominance in the second. We played hand in hand with them for the first half and down a break at sevens we needed to get control of the game. The game in the first half was a story of D line missed opportunities as we got the disc quickly, but lost them quicker. At sevens to take half the D line finally punched it in for a huge momentum grab and a confidence booster. The game turned on its heels after and we managed to break them five more times, or more, for the decisive 15-9 win.

UNC 15-8
The UNC games had been notoriously known for their chippiness and their intense nature. Yet this was a brand new team, they lost most of their cutters and were left with a Saul brother and a large cutter doing most of their work. They couldn't stay in the game with our depth and team as we cruised to a pretty easy win.

FINALS

Cornell

With the Octogon now in sight Pittsburgh wanted the win. And the game started as usual with O line's holding. Cornell got a break at three, but we held serve and broke back at 6-5. We continued exerting pressure as we scored another break for 7 - 5. The halftime score 8-6. The game was like the other one before with Cornell playing as anticipated and our O line holding strong and our D line punishing mistakes. The second half started on a positive as we broke two more times and pushed our lead to a resounding 10-7. At this point, the confidence on the team sideline was high and in the reaches of hubris. And boy did we pay. Huck after huck were missed and small, sloppy mistakes punished as Cornell beat us down with our own medicine. Five breaks Cornell had turned the game and our loss looked inevitable. Yet this is where our new spirit shines. Down 12-10, the O line punched in their goal after Alex Thorne had a gnarly lay out D to save a break. The D line took the field with a mentality of must break; they did as the score moved to twelves, and thirteen twelve with another huge break. With Cornell scoring on O and our O scoring as well it was now 14-13. Mega D line, the ensuing point had multiple Ds and multiple turns, but the one that mattered came down to Jay Huerbin getting in between two confused Cornell players and getting a huge D. The D line turned that D into a break and a tournament win as Pittsburgh went undefeated on the weekend.

http://upa.org/scores/tourn.cgi?div=127&id=6648