Regionals 2019

Atlantic Coast Regionals, 2019. Two bids to Nationals on the line. Once again in Axton, VA, Burn came in seeded 5th overall and was looking to try and steal a bid to Nationals with our best playing this year.

Saturday - Our first game was against the B team from UNC, UNC Batch. They made it to regionals by defeating our B team at their own sectionals, so we were looking to avenge our boys with a solid win. We had a very slow start, down 1 at halftime, but came out hot in the second half and managed to gain control of the game pretty quickly, snagging the win 13 - 8. Our next game came against Georgetown as the day started to heat up. We started this game out a lot better and went out to a 3 - 0 lead right away and never looked back, winning a fun one 13 - 7. Check out Pelt making a sweet grab in that game!

- Pelt makes a sweet layout catch

We had a bye following our game against Georgetown and spent it on the bleachers hiding from the sun and watching an exciting NC State vs Maryland pool play game. Following the bye we had our last game of pool play against South Carolina, where the winner would be crowned the top team of our pool and be done playing for the day. The first half was pretty even with both teams trading breaks every few points, but USC managed to stay up one break to take half 6 - 7. Our offense had finally started to click against their zone and we held through a few points that probably had 100 throws in the backfield, some awesome ultimate so far in the game. We started the second half on defense, and got a layout D (almost a Callahan, Colum should have caught it) on the third throw of the point, quickly converting for a break to take all the momentum. Keeping up the pressure, we continued to force turns and make some sweet plays for a break train of four in a row, taking the score to 10 - 7 before soft cap went off, making it a game to 12. They finally managed to hold, but we matched them immediately after with a hold of our own and then broke once more to win the game 12 - 8. VT Burn was the top team of Pool D and advanced straight to the semifinals Sunday morning.

Sunday - Unfortunately for us, our early 8:30 semifinal game had us pitted against UNC, who didn't let any team get in their way of claiming their bid to Nationals. We did not play like ourselves on offense and couldn't manage to stop their high-octane offense, so we eventually sat a few key players the second half and focused more on having fun and improving rather than winning. The improvements were visible however, as we got a huge layout D from a freshman and managed to hold a little more consistently than in the first half, but still lost 15 - 7 in the end. Our next game was against Johns Hopkins, who was just coming off of a double game point win over William and Mary. We were the last team from our section still in contention at this point. We started the first point with two turns in the end zone and Johns Hopkins took advantage, breaking to start the game. We go back out and hold, then D line breaks on their first chance too, evening the serve for us. We keep it even until a miscue let Hopkins break us and then hold for half with the score at 7 - 8. Both teams hold a few times out of half but then we manage to get a break and even the score 10 - 10. They hold and then get another break to go up 10 - 12, but we stay chilly and hold the next point after about 5 minutes of working it up the field against their zone. Soft cap went off during the point and made it a game to 14, the score is 11 - 12. We manage to force a turn and captain Sav-bomb puts out a dime for Colum to sky Gabe Hernandez and tie the game 12 - 12. Hopkins holds and then we have the wind catch a throw for a turn that they manage to convert for a break and the dub, 12 - 14.

It was a great tournament where Burn played some of the cleanest ultimate the program has ever seen and though we didn't make it too far on Sunday, we had a great time and ended the season with a little bit of shenanigans, cutting off both of the captains' man-buns.