Montreal

by Nathan Stodola

ECP's first tournament of the year was also one of the interesting. Because of record turn-out from freshman and returners, Union brought two teams to Montreal's McGill University this year, split by experience (or co-ed team gender requirements). Montreal is the first Ultimate tournament that the new freshman experience, and often what that gets them hooked.

For my car, the excitement started even before reaching the Canadian border. Mike Nolan made a "Help I've Been Kidnapped" sign and held it up for passing cars, while grinning wildly and giving a thumbs-up. Not just one, but a pair of police cars pulled us over. Although the officers threatened to take Mike back to the station (right), they issued no more than a verbal warning, and we proceeded without great delay. The trauma continued that night when a we got stuck in an elevator the fire department had to pry the door open.

The actual Frisbee games proved to be just as exciting. ECP swept the first day with four wins against McGill B, RPI, Hamilton B, and UVM. The first game went smoothly, and we beat the Canadian team by a wide margin. RPI put up more of a fight, and pulled ahead of us for a portion of the game. But despite an enemy "World's Greatest," Union achieved a 13-9 victory (helped by twin Callahans by Evan). The game was against the McMaster B team from Hamilton, Ontario, and it was another tough one, but our zone defense proved unbreakable once the wind picked up. The final game of the day was against the University of Vermont. UVM made questionable calls including invasion of vertical space and forced Union to play iron-woman points by fielding four girls at a time. Nevertheless, strong winds again helped make an "unstoppable cup" and Union achieved a 13-2 victory.

Because of the top-notch performance the first day, ECP entered the second day ranked 8th, up from 15th at the start of the tournament. This placed us against McMaster A, the #1 team at the McGill games. This Hamilton team was much better than their B team, and solidly defeated Union 13-3. In our consulation game, we reversed the scores and beat University of Rochester (left) 13-3.

But let us not forget about ECP B. With no prior tournament experience and no returners to guide them, the freshman had some rough games. However, it was never a slaughter, and they even managed to beat Williams College. "Hey, we made it out alive," said the squad's leader, Rich Moccia. The Union B team showed that ECP will continue to be a strong player in future years.