No Wisconsequences Tournament/Set-up for Disc-ussion

Loyola University’s Ultimate Frisbee team gets little recognition.  There is a general notion in the public that Ultimate is a hobby for hippies, a lazy man’s way to spend the day: a game. Darkwing — the men’s Ultimate team here at Loyola — knows there’s much more to the game than most people see.

We went to a tournament in Wisconsin with over 50 other teams this weekend, and competition was fierce.  It may be hard to recognize Ultimate as a sport without experiencing it, but almost every college in the U.S. has a team, and the No Wisconsequences tournament hosted a good number of them on Oct. 16. 

As a club team with no space at Loyola, we have to travel to our tournaments by rental van and stay crammed into hotel rooms by the dozen, with most of us sleeping on hard floors with little to no accommodation.  This tournament was no different in that aspect, but we were lucky enough on Sunday to play against national contenders from Carleton College and Luther College, which was a fantastic opportunity.

For clarification, last year’s Darkwing squad lost a bid to regionals, the level below nationals, in a nail-bitingly close game against Purdue University.  To play a team that had been to a national level competition is an incredible step up for us.  This Saturday pitted us against last year’s NATIONAL CHAMPIONS from Carleton College, but we got our asses handed to us by this clearly very experienced team.

Luther College was a different story: They probably didn’t take us very seriously, as a team from a small private school with an underfunded club sports budget, but they were in for a rude awakening.  We pride ourselves on being a hardworking team that never takes anything for granted, and it was that attitude that gave us the edge.  We took the fight right to their doorstep and gained the lead early on.

By halftime, the score was 7-4 in favor of Darkwing.  Luther was clearly tired from the two-day long tournament and were not very deep in players, another advantage we had over them, and we used it to its fullest.

In the end, we beat Luther, a team that can compete with the best in America, by a margin of 12-6, which should make teams like Carleton stand up and take notice of the hardworking, underappreciated underdogs of Loyola University’s Darkwing.

Now that you've seen a glimpse into the Darkwing's competitive side, make sure to check out the weekly Disc-ussion between friends and teammates Liam McNamara, Alex Ralston and Trevor Janis - starting next week at the Phoenix Sports Blog Spot.