Northwestern Ultimate

Huck Finn 2010

2010-04-07T16:54:00.001-05:00

Hey everyone,

Here is a re-cap of our past weekend in St. Louis for Cultimate's Huck Finn. This is the last tournament NUT will participate in before the official UPA series begins on April 17th.

Saturday:

Temperature: Mid 70s

Wind: 15 MPH

Despite the good weather, Saturday was a pretty rough day for the team finishing 1-3 for the day.

Wisconsin-Whitewater: 6-13 Loss. Not much to say besides this team was ready to play and we weren't. The game was never really close and the strong break throws from the Whitewater players presented a big problem for us.

Michigan: 6-13 Loss. Came out hot and took a 4-2 lead but gave away the lead with poor execution and decision making. Michigan took half 4-7 and easily rallied to take the win. Pretty disappointing loss that reminded the older players of our Regionals loss to Michigan the previous year.

Indiana: 10-9 Win against one of our sectional rivals. Both teams were quite sloppy but we managed to pull out the win after time expired. Not exactly the prettiest win but kept us from going winless in the A power-pool.

Wash U-Alums: 7-13 Loss in our cross over game against the mix of Wash U alums and random older players from St. Louis. Came out with no energy and quickly let the more experienced players dominate the game. Somewhat of an embarrassing loss as we let them walk all over us.

Sunday:

Temperature: High 70s, Low 80s

Wind: 25 MPH

Purdue: 13-6 Win against a sectional opponent that we had lost to twice already this year (though both times were not with full squads). Got some early breaks and played with a lot more energy than any of our Saturday games. Solid win to start out the Sunday championship bracket.

Michigan: 11-10 Win against the likely favorite to win the Great Lakes Region. Our level of intensity and energy was far superior to any game we'd played all season and the team played at an extremely high level. Our O-line scored its first 7 downwind points without committing a single turnover and the D-lines managed to generate turns on every point. Despite the close final score, we played much better than Michigan and had several break opportunities on their upwind goal line that we failed to convert. Huge win to bring some momentum into Sectionals.

Wisconsin-Whitewater: 12-13 Loss in a Saturday Rematch. NUT played much better than in our previous game and both teams traded the whole game. Featured several stellar defensive plays but missed opportunities on universe point led to us losing to Wisconsin-WW for the 2nd consecutive day.

Overall, the Sunday results made up for a very poor showing on Saturday. The weekend helped point out several of our weaknesses that we can hopefully workout before the UPA series begins. The Central Plains Sectionals are April 17th/18th in Naperville, IL-- we would greatly appreciate anyone who could come out an support us!

-Jenga

Centex 2010 Recap

2010-03-28T20:58:00.002-05:00

Hey everyone,

I know it's been an extremely long time since our last post but here is a re-cap of our weekend at Centex (best college tournament of the year):

Saturday:

Temperature: Low 40s

Wind Speed: 25-30mph w/ constant gusts over 35mph (Upwind/Downwind direction on our fields)

Needless to say, the weather was pretty miserable all of Saturday. Thunderstorms pushed back our start to the afternoon and teams ended up having to drive up to San Antonio to use the Backup-Backup Fields.

UNC: 8-9 Loss against Denardis' team. Lost the flip and quickly went down a break due to some big backhands from the UNC throwers. Later got the break back but eventually lost on universe when they started w/ the disc going downwind. UNC went on to beat both Michigan and Carleton on Sunday and finished tied for 3rd/4th.

UCSD: 6-12 Loss. Didn't come out with much intensity and got broken several times during the first half, not much to say about a very one-sided game.

Texas: 12-9 Win against last year's Nationals semi-finalist (though they were clearly not as strong as last year). Lost the flip, but got an early upwind break to take the lead and maintained it with 2 huge upwind goal-line stands. Fairly good finish to a very cold, frustrating day.

Sunday:

Temperature: Low 70s

Wind Speed: 10-15 mph during the first game, 20-25 mph for the rest of the day (Crosswind on all fields)

The weather today was much better than Saturday, though still not quite the Texas warmth we expected. Games were played on the original Austin fields.

Texas State: 9-13 loss, went down 0-4 despite starting on offense due to poor overall play, finished half down 2-8. Stormed out of half by using a zone with an extremely tall cup and brought the score to 8-9, but Texas State adjusted well by punting the disc immediately after they received the pull. Took us a while to realized we should start bricking the pulls and ended up losing 9-13.

Arkansas: 11-6 win, rematch against a pretty athletic team that we beat at No Wisconsequences in the fall. It was clear they weren't ready to run with us and we came out very hot and shredded their several zone defenses (at point even started to play a box and one against us). They mounted a small comeback but we managed to pull our shit together and run away with the game after half.

Washington University: 9-10 Loss against a smaller team that had very solid wind throws. Went down a few breaks early, but managed to pull ahead with several breaks in a row. Later let them back in the game and the game got capped at 9-10. However, apparently our schedule was wrong and we finished 15-20 minutes before we were supposed to, keeping us from mounting another comeback.

University of Washington: 13-6 Win against a team that was the polar opposite of Wash U (not just their school names), featured many more athletes but fewer player who could throw effectively in the wind. Probably our best game of the weekend, worked the disc very well going both directions. Absolutely destroyed their zone during a point in the first half with over 50 throws (including several that were literally back and forth between Neal and myself)-- they played man the rest of the game. Younger players finished out the game very well by trading for the last few points of the weekend. Sketch's friend also has a big freaking head.

All in all, a pretty successful weekend. Came in seeded 25th and finished 19th at the best college tournament of the year. Getting ready for Huck Finn this upcoming weekend and then sectionals 2 weeks after that. Thanks for everyone's support and let me know if you have any questions

-Jenga

NUT wins Western Illinois Classic

2009-10-05T13:33:00.002-05:00

Hey Everyone,

We took a team of mostly rookies to the Western Illinois Classic this weekend. Everyone who had a conflict and couldn't come missed out, because we went 7-0 and WON THE TOURNAMENT. In every game, even the finals, everyone got good playing time, so lines filled with mostly rookies won a majority of the points in these games. There was only one time all weekend where we put in a stacked line more than a point or two in a row.

Saturday:

Game 1: NUT-Y vs. Southern Illinois -- 9-8

Game 2: NUT-Y vs. Illinois Wesleyan -- 13-0

Game 3: NUT-Y vs. Eastern Illinois -- 11-10

Game 4: NUT-Y vs. Bloomingdale -- 13-4

Sunday

Game 1: NUT-Y vs. Illinois-Y -- 15-5

Game 2: NUT-Y vs. Southern Illinois -- 15-6

Game 3: NUT-Y vs. Eastern Illinois -- 15-12

Props to everyone who came out this weekend and played well!

Play with NUT in 09/10

2009-07-24T09:58:00.002-05:00

Welcome, freshmen, to Northwestern. If you are interested in playing ultimate at Northwestern this year, you're in the right place. The Northwestern ultimate club team is a great way to have fun with ultimate and meet new people who share your interests.

Though we take the game of ultimate seriously and strive to reach the highest levels of play, our program in the fall is open to everyone. Whether you have played 4 years of high school ultimate, or you are just learning about the sport now, you're welcome to come to our fall practices and learn more about how to play ultimate at the college level. We practice and play tournaments year round, leading to the UPA college series in the spring.

If you would like to receive information about pickup games early in the year, practice schedules, and ways to meet both current NUT players and other freshmen interested in ultimate, email northwestern.nut@gmail.com (preferably from your northwestern email address). We will add you to a listserv that is used solely for the dissemination of that sort of information. If you don't want to be added to the listserv, but still have questions you would like us to answer, feel free to email us anyway.

Great Lakes Regionals this weekend

2009-04-28T00:11:00.001-05:00

It is almost gut-check time for NUT as we prepare to make our run at a Nationals bid. Early talk has us seeded anywhere from 8th-12th. More to come later in the week.

NUT-B wins Central Plains D-II Sectionals

2009-04-28T00:05:00.002-05:00

[Should have put this up sooner!]

Big props to our B team for taking home the Central Plains D-II crown. Our section is one of the biggest in country, and this year some teams played in a separate tournament over the same weekend.

In its first year of existence NUT-B took down other local B teams and lesser programs en route to the title. There was talk of a D-II Regionals, but unfortunately the East Plains Sectional Coordinator could not get together a D-II in his area.

Having the numbers and depth to field two competitive teams this year has been a huge step forward for our program.

NUT finishes 5th at Sectionals

2009-04-19T21:07:00.009-05:00

NUT survived a grueling Central Plains Sectional to advance to the 2009 Great Lakes Regional. NUT came in seeded 4th overall and finished the tournament 5th. A textbook Saturday in the Naperville sun devolved into a sloppy Sunday that matched the rainy weather.

SATURDAY - Pool play, games to 11

Valparaiso: W, 11-3
A nine-point run starts the day off right.

Northern Illinois: W, 11-4
A combination of NUT defenders shuts down their go-to handler.

Knox College: W, 11-2
NUT jumps out 7-0 and never looks back.

Notre Dame-B: W, 11-0
We get accused of spiking it too much, and therefore being "douche bags." Woops?

Indiana: W, 11-5
Our big game of the day, against the two seed in our pool. We go up 5-1 by forcing turns with our man defense and playing flawless, quick-hitting offense the entire game.

[Macaroni Grill = awesome dinner. Chef's Trio is the way to go]

SUNDAY - Bracket play, games to 15

Univ. of Chicago: W, 14-11

NUT can never just put away the Junk in the first game of the day, but with the win we qualify for Regionals.

Notre Dame: L, 15-7

Against the number one team overall, injuries, other factors and Notre Dame's play-making finally catch up to us. They go up 5-0 and cruise to the win.

North Park: L, 15-8
The wheels really start to fall off against the overall three seed.

Indiana: L, 15-10
The final disappointment. In a complete flip of Saturday's win, our offense was stagnant and mistake-ridden. We fail to hold seed and finish fifth.

*******

With three of our top players injured and out of action for Sunday's games, we had a very disheartening slide to fifth place. But luckily we have two weeks to heal up and prepare for the Great Lakes Regional. The road to natties still lies ahead.

To see a full album from the U. Chicago and Notre Dame games, click on the photo/link below.

NUT at Sectionals 2009

Central Plains Sectionals this weekend

2009-04-17T20:42:00.003-05:00

NUT begins its stretch run of the season tomorrow in Naperville, IL, where it will play in the Central Plains Sectional. NUT comes in seeded 4th overall out of 24 teams. Here is our schedule for Saturday's Pool Play:

Round 1: Valparaiso
9:00am-10:30am

Round 2: Northern Illinois
10:45am-12:15pm

Round 3: Knox College
12:30pm-2:00pm

Round 4: Notre Dame-B
2:15pm-3:45pm

Round 5: Indiana
4:00pm-5:30pm

*******

Depending on the Saturday results, we will potentially see U. Chicago in the first round of Sunday's bracket play, with a chance to face Notre Dame in the semi-finals of the Championship Bracket.

NUT goes 6-1 at Huck Finn

2009-04-17T19:57:00.005-05:00

In our last tune-up before the Series, NUT had an impressive showing at Cultimate's first ever Huck Finn Tournament. We finished 6-1 down in St. Louis, including wins over potential Sectional and Regional opponents. We won all six of our pre-scheduled games before falling to a tough Kansas squad in our re-seeded game.

SATURDAY

Truman State: W, 13-9
Revenge for our loss to these guys at MLC back in the Fall.

Michigan State: W, 13-6
Take half 7-1, as they have no answer for our suffocating zone defense.

Bye

Iowa: W, 13-8
A huge win against a potentially Nationals-bound team. NUT takes half 7-5 and closes it out in a gritty zone game.

Indiana: W, 13-7
Actually go down 7-6 at half, not playing with the same fire as the Iowa game. But in the second half we wake up and blank them, 7-0, to win the game and stay undefeated.

SUNDAY

Purdue: W, 13-3
Not much to say except a great start to our second day.

Missouri: W, 13-8
Similar game to Indiana the day before. Mizzou worked our 2-3-2 and took half 7-5. But a switch to cup and better offensive movement turned it around, as we won the second half 8-1.

Kansas: L, 12-8
Too many stupid drops and throwaways doomed us against this talented team. We had multiple turnovers just outside their endzone, a few yards away from scoring and potentially changing the outcome of this game.

*******

Still a successful weekend overall for us, giving us the confidence and game experience we needed just before Sectionals.

NUT goes on Spring Break

2009-03-28T06:53:00.004-05:00

NUT finished 3-3 overall in our first tournament of Spring Break, Georgia Southerns. Disappointing losses to Williams on Sunday and Central Florida the day before. Click on the photo below to see a slideshow from our game against South Carolina.

NUT at Southerns 2009

In our second tournament, we were 2-0 in the slop of Roll Call. Cultimate was forced to cancel the rest of this tournament because the fields were so torn up. Instead, we spent our evening eating crab cakes and bonding as a team.

Scrimmage against Loyola tonight

2009-03-11T16:45:00.002-05:00

Loyola University's Darkwing will head up to Evanston tonight for a Spring Break tune-up scrimmage. NUT and Darkwing will potentially see each other later in the Spring at Cultimate's Huck Finn and the UPA Central Plains Sectional.

In a scrimmage two years ago - won handily by NUT - Loyola had the audacity to make this video. Just kidding, they are a fun team to play ... but we're going to make sure to have a camera or two of our own there tonight.

Look for a highlight reel later in the week.

Video from Trouble in Vegas

2009-03-08T22:29:00.005-05:00

NUT attended Trouble in Vegas 2009 way back in February. Besides trips to In-n-Out, walking the strip and testing our skills at the Blackjack tables ... we also played some Ultimate!

Here's a compilation of points from Friday and Saturday (before the torrential rains hit). A lot of these points feature another win over rival U. Chicago.

The first ever NUT Combine

2009-03-07T13:14:00.001-06:00

NUT introduced a new event to the Winter practice schedule this year: the NUT Combine. Just like the NFL's version, we timed our 40 yard dashes, shuttle runs and measured our vertical leaps. We added one event--hucking distance--you probably didn't see Matthew Stafford and Michael Crabtree competing in.

After doing the initial Combine early in January, we did the follow-up one on Wednesday March 4. Here are all the results, including people's improvements over the last two months. [Note: the vertical leap results are a little skewed. For example my total height stayed the same but the reach of my arms got three inches shorter?]

Upcoming Schedule

2009-02-18T14:02:00.006-06:00

SPRING BREAK:

College Southerns
Statesboro, GA
March 21-22

Roll Call, D.C.
Washington, DC
March 28-29

SPRING:

Big Ten Championships @ Huck Finn
St. Louis, MO
April 4-5

UPA SERIES:

UPA Central Plains Sectional
Naperville, IL
April 18-19

UPA Great Plains Regional (if qualify)
Oberlin College, OH
May 2-3

UPA College Championship (if qualify)
Columbus, OH
May 22-25

State of the Team - February 2009

2009-02-18T13:17:00.005-06:00

Halfway through the 2008-2009 ultimate season, the Northwestern Ultimate Team is stronger and more dangerous than ever; ready to make noise in the Great Lakes Region.

The team graduated just four players from its 2007-2008 squad, leaving a strong core of upperclassmen. The program was also infused with the largest rookie class in recent years. For the first time in NUT's history, we've had the numbers and dedication to sustain an A and B team.

In the fall, the A team traveled to Exit 69, No Wisconsequences and Missouri Loves Company. The B team headed to Glory Days and Fall Out.

With the winter closing in on the Chicagoland area, NUT headed inside and into the stretch run leading up to the UPA series. In early February the team traveled to fabulous Las Vegas for Cultimate's annual Trouble in Vegas tournament (above). NUT finished 6-2 overall, won the Hearts Bracket but unfortunately got knocked out of the fight for a bid to the Championship Bracket.

72 days remain before the Great Lakes Regional. Time to get back to work and make sure we are the best team we can be by that weekend in May.

Welcome!

2009-02-17T21:30:00.002-06:00

Hello and welcome to the Northwestern Ultimate Team's blog. NUT will update this website with team news, results and information. We'll also throw up player bios and other random material. So come back, enjoy and help support the boys of NUT!