History: 2003 – 2004 Season

Regular Season Record: 16-11
Series Record: 5-3
End of Season Standing: 5th Place at West Penn Sectionals, eliminated in quarterfinals of 2nd place bracket (6-15 to Edinboro)

The 2003-2004 season started with 5 players. It had to be a year of reloading talent and building a program. We had a phenomenal recruiting class. Brent was the lead teacher of Day Care which is what we affectionately referred to the freshmen class as. The fall was a successful season that introduced many new athletes to the game. Our freshmen destroyed the Yuk freshmen in the annual Pitt v. CMU rookie game.Then the freshmen plus Brent and TallE dominated the B division of Club Sectionals, while our other returners we busy winning the founderssectional title and/or earning a birth to club regionals with their club teams. The remainder of the fall was a balancing act between wanting our veterans to play for the win that day, and letting our rookies jump right in to the game and either sink or swim.

The spring season was another season of growing pains. It seems like nearly everyone suffered a degree of varying severity over the course ofthe spring. We lost our captain to a broken foot for the entire spring, and we lost our assistant captain to a torn hamstring in the first game at sectionals. Other players suffered injuries to ankles, hip flexors, stress fractures in shins, shoulder problems, a torn meniscus, injured knees, etc. But Sabah fought through all of the injuries and a team of 13 college rookies and 5 players with a combined 7 years of prior collegiate ultimate experience managed to take fifth in the section. That result wasa disappointment to the team. We know that our capabilities were much higher than that result, however, the effort put forth to get to that point and the effort we showed on the field left a lot of hope for the future.

What happened in the 2003-2004 season was the beginning of a new era in Pitt Ultimate history. For the first time since the majority of the original wave of Sabah players graduated in 2000, we had a large team with a bright future ahead of itself. This current group of athletes truly encapsulates what I think is the beauty of college ultimate. We are a group of athletes struggling to improve ourselves on the field, struggling to find the dedication that will allow us to reach our full potential, and pushing ourselves to compete and accomplish as much as possible in the sport of ultimate. But at the same time we are a diverse group of friends who come together based around a sport, but find friendship and laughter in the bond we have with our teammates and the amazing group of personalities that this team is comprised of.

Remember guys, the only ceiling on your potential is that which you place on yourselves. Dare to accomplish great things in this sport, to dream big and to make a sincere decision to pursue those dreams.

“You have toexpect things of yourself before you can achieve them.”
– Michael Jordan.

– Sean McComb, Team Captain

Roster:

Tournaments:

2nd Annual Rookie Game against CMU: Pittsburgh – August 30th, 2003
Club Founder’s Sectionals: Freehold, NJ – September 27th – 28th, 2003
CMU Mini-Tourney: Pittsburgh, PA – October 4th, 2003
Skylander III: Edinboro, PA – October 11th – 12th, 2003
Danse Macabre: Rochester (RIT), NY – October 25th – 26th, 2003
1st Annual Alumni Game: Pittsburgh, PA – November 1st, 2003
Layout or Flick Off: Selinsgrove, PA – November 15th – 16th, 2003
2004 Clinics: Cost Center, Pitt Campus – January 15th, 2004
XX Joint Summit Classic: Clemson, SC – February 7th – 8th, 2004
Game against CMU: Pittsburgh – February 23rd, 2004
Leap Year Celebration!: Salisbury, MD – February 28th – 29th, 2004
SUNblock: Savannah, GA – March 6th – 7th, 2004
WUFF Camp: Wilmington, NC – March 9th – 11th, 2004
Drew Blood Drive 2K4: Turkey Swamp, NJ – March 27th – 28th, 2004
Intercity Scrimmage: Edinboro, PA – April 3rd, 2004
West Penn Sectionals: Boalsburg, PA – April 17th – 18th, 2004

2nd Annual Rookie Game against CMU: Pittsburgh – August 30th, 2003

Last year we started this tradition, and it looks to be a keeper. This year we had around 29 rookies come. I didn’t count because there were just THAT many. We had the loudest sideline we have ever had and were simply able to keep sending fresh line upon fresh line onto the field to run their hearts out. We went up 2-0 before CMU scored, then scored 3 more before they scored to make it to 5-2, and finally we went on one last big stretch to win it 13-3. Some standout efforts that I saw were Reed’s layout D on the first point of the game, Tommy Pearson and Robert each coming down with 2 scores in the end zone, Evan Jenkins and Justin Krebs bringing solid handling and defense to the field, Camilo Ward putting the best touch ever on a disc for the score, Matt (from bucks county) tossing a hell of a goal after getting his composure, Jeremy bringing the pain, Jesse not knowing quite what a force flick was but managing to be big in the end zone on offense, tall Matt for not letting his guy every get the disc, Tim Converse bringing down 1-2 hucks and having some great defense, tall Scott bringing down some big D’s over the top, Ryan for making great dump cuts, Slip for turning on a little extra on to run his one full field sprint (not 2 don’t be fooled), Fraggle for figuring out how to call subs with that many people, and countless other great efforts that I just can’t remember right now, most importantly everyone was loud and proud as they should be. Congratulations to the 2003 rookies! Pitt ultimate is going to have a bright future!

Club Founder’s Sectionals: Freehold, NJ – September 27th – 28th, 2003

Pitt went to sectionals with 2 veterans, Brent Bellinger and Ben Ristau, and 17 rookies: Camilo Ward, Carlos Piepenburg, Charlie Bogel, Dave Malfara, Evan Jenkins, John Scheeser, Jon Harden, Jon ‘Mayo’ Malek, Jon ‘Bacon’ Selig, Josh Suskin, Justin Krebs, Mike Perl, Reed Verdesoto, Rob Dulabon, Slip, Tony Oliva, and Wes Shonk.

As Tournaments go, this was no average tourney. With the addition of knives, cigars, 3 Hispanics, the Nordic nations, our Cap Brent, Co pilot Tony, a slew of freshman and the excessive use of the word Man, by TallE, we were off to NJ, more specifically Turkey Swamp Park in Freehold.

Friday
Into the van and out come the cigars and pictures of the hottest girl returning to Pitt’s campus. Why so hot you ask, cause she’s naked in a playboy (this is when TallE confessed to reading a play girl from cover to cover). The next few hours consisted in the taking of incrimination photos, exposing Jenkins pornographic side, and the spoon feeding of pudding to Brent. With Dane Cooke’s stand-up routine playing, we made our 5:30 hour journey to Willow Grove air base where we feasted on Philly cheese steaks. Speak and spell was born that night, and Camilo really didn’t know what was going on. The rest of the night was spent attempting to play Dance Dance Revolution, and being shown up by Reed’s 14 year old sister. After that, every one hit the sack to dream about WHOPPERS with the cheese and the pickles, and the pickles, AND THE PICKLES sweet and sour sauce all over my body.

Saturday
Wake up at 6:00, leave for Freehold 7:00, and arrive at 8:00 waaay before any one else. That’s what happens when you have GI Tony in the car running on army time. As we arrive, we proceeded to make our way out to the furthest fields in the entire tournament, where we began to play. Our first game was against Lehigh. We won. At the end Reed, Slip, and the rest of En Sabah proceeded to write a song for Lehigh using the theme to “Sean’s a Dick” written by Reed Verdesoto and Slip.

The second game was against Swarthmore B where the lay out D’s were plentiful, and the running was hard. The Game was ended and the song was written for them using the theme to “Sean’s a Dick”. We then had a bye for the third round. Game three against Bucknell was ended and the song was written for them using the theme to “Sean’s a Dick”.

When the games ended, we watched the final game of RUN vs. Drew. Their game ended, and stretching proceeded until Reed and Slip performed “Sean’s a Dick” for RUN at which time Both the members or Run and En Sabah recited the chorus “Sean’s a Dick, Sean’s a Dick, Sean’s a Dick, Sean’s a Dick.”

After packing up, and beginning to leave, Brent managed to lose 3 out of the 4 cars following him on the way to the Olive Garden where Wes and Mike hooked up, and a picture was taken but later erased by the Rat bastard Wes. A spitball contest between Swede, Wes and Reed was obstructed by TallE, but continued none the less. To this day, Reed has never been hit; he has never been hit.

The night was young, and the party started at Josh’s house where 95 percent of the girls at that party could have filed statutory rape police reports if anything had happened. Luckily, the 16 year old with huge … tracts of land, was not won over, even by Tony. With the snuggle corner and all the girls, Wes, Reed, and Mayo kept everyone up and extremely entertained: We needed, sleep so we went to bed
Where visions of trashy girls rubbed
Their junk on Camilo’s head.
With an impregnated soul
And his thumbs in the air
Camilo proclaimed he was not getting scared
They moved onto Brent
And by licking his face
If they had gone any further, he would have used Mace
And with TallE’s low voice, it gave such a fright
He said “Teeds a dick, now all good night” End 2:00 am

Sunday
6:00 am “Reed’s a Dick” thanks TallE
6:30 leave were all really tired
Rain and the other team doesn’t show up, not good day, Reeds a dick
We had dinner at Brent’s where TallE proceeded to wear his flip-flops into Brent’s shower. OHHH the ride back consisted of more knives and more Tony

AND THEN WE GOT HUNGRY!

At the local BK Broila (Burger King) Rob proceeded to go up to the register, grab the microphone, and scream into it Are you ready to Rock BK Broila. Immediately afterwards, then entire van ran out of the BK screaming and laughing. Our joy and laughter gathered in Brent’s lead foot landing us a Speeding violation. What else could we ask for? This was by far the best road trip any of us had ever had.

Pool Play: Lehigh B
We came out to the fields of Turkey Swamp ready to play some Ultimate despite the lack of sleep experienced by getting up at 6:00 in the morning. The fields were a little damp due to the rain that fell earlier in the day, but that did not stop us from playing great Ultimate for the rest of the day, starting with out first opponents, LUFT B. The 7 players that got on the line would be the 7 players that would start every game played on this day. Several heroes were made on this first game. With first Charlie and then Krebs laying out for great offensive catches, En Sabah Nur took the field by storm on their first game. Thanks to the awesome zone defense that we threw against LUFT B, we forced them to turn over the disc many times. Coupled with many good throws, courtesy of Brent and TallE, the numerous players of ESN, and some good Ultimate, we outscored LUFT B 13-2 and won our first game.

Pool Play: Swarthmore B
Pitt came into this game well rested after a quick and hard-fought game against LUFT, and utilized their energy against the Swarthmore B team who had just finished their game. The game started out with a crazed rambling from ex-military affiliate Tony O*****, energizing the Pitt starting 7 and sideline. Then, the game started with a relentless Pitt defense, setting up a zone and getting the score after a forced error by the chaser Reed Verdesoto. A psyched Pitt team then went on a scoring binge, ending the half with a score of 7-2, and ending the game with the score of 13-3. Some notable efforts by individual members of the team include, but are not limited to: Rob Dulabon’s 35 yard put into the end zone, followed by Evan Jenkins skying a 5’6″ Earthworm, christening him “Mr. Jenkins” and stripping Jenkins of his former nickname, “Mrs. Gorham”; Brent Bellinger making a hot layout D as middle wall; Ben Ristau providing super solid handling; Intimidating chasing by Slip and Dave Malfara; Mayo and Wes with sick layout D’s on defense.

Pool Play: Bucknell B
ESN played another solid game in this match against Bucknell B, even if there was evidence of tiring before the half. Led by powerful verbal influence from Tony during time-outs (which we finally started utilizing) and intense energy from Brent on the field, the team had no trouble bouncing back from some missed opportunities early in the game. Although we ended the first half 7-2 and a bit unorganized, we reinstated the hot zone that was working so well early in the morning and dominated the rest of the game. Key to the victory were the amazing chasing jobs by Dave and Reed, the awesome reads by Charlie (who by the way scored on his first lay out attempt!), the sweet deep cuts by Swede and Krebs, and the hot puts from Camilo and TallE. A rest was welcome after the game in which we watched Run rock Drew and prepared for game 4.

Pool Play: Drew B
This would be the last game played before being infected by the virus known as Josh’s High School girls that thwarted our play on Sunday, so at least we made it count. We finished just as strong, if not stronger than the rest of the day. Our zone was so good that they had to write a song about it, as led by the chasing of Reed, Dave and Tony. Josh had two consecutive deflection scores in his homecoming game, and Brent, Evan and Krebs all had hot puts. And o yea, TallE is really tall, which we were reminded of in their cheer. It was a strong effort top to bottom that clinched the B Bracket for En Sabah Nur that showed the potential of this young team.

Pool Play: Haverford
We came out very tired and very flat. We would recover and score some points, only to fall behind again, and half was something like 8-3 them. A rally cheer attempt by Tony and repeated yells of “We will!” after each “Will we defend this house?!?!?” proved to be relatively ineffective as we slowly got more and more tired and our fundamentals got worse and worse. We did have some short bursts where we would play well, but we need consistent flow and speed to win and we really didn’t have either during most of the game.

CMU Mini-Tourney: Pittsburgh, PA – October 4th, 2003

We saw lot’s of great playing from our vets and new rookies once again. Things are simply coming together. We beat both CMU and WVU (WVU also beat CMU 14-4). CMU was missing Drew Hendrickson and Kevin McCloskey. We were missing Sean, Fraggle, and MikeLo.

Pool Play: West Virginia
Our rookies really stepped it up and showed they could compete against teams that had a lot more experience than us. West Virginia isn’t an established program, but they have been playing for a few years and have some solid players. GO ROOKIES!

Pool Play: Carnegie Mellon
Feeling good after the victory over WVU, Sabah was determined to stick it to our cross-town rivals CMU. The rain had let up, but the wind decided to stick around for the game, blowing pulls 40 yards backwards and turning what would be good hucks into 100 foot high hospital passes. The game featured a great team effort where the only thing tighter than Reed’s pants was our defense. We let up a bit after the half, but a quick yell from TallE and we pulled back together. Big props go out to Josh for scoring 5 points (including the half and the game winner), Brent for owning his guy all day despite being kneed in the head and punched in the junk, and Reed who received the greatest birthday gift of all, a Callahan!

Skylander III: Edinboro, PA – October 11th – 12th, 2003

This weekend we had 17 players (6 vets and 11 rookies). Last time we went to this tournament, we won the B-bracket! This year we finished up tied for 5th. Player Stats

Back Row: John Scheeser, Tony Oliva, Carlos Piepenburg, John Scheeser, Jon Selig, Reed Verdesoto, Josh Suskin, Robert Dulabon, Wes Shonk, Camilo Ward, Evan Jenkins
Middle Row: Ben Ristau, Brody, Mike LoPresti, Brent Bellinger
Front Row: Fraggle, Sean McComb

Pool Play: Two-Bit (Johnstown, PA)
It was a beautiful Saturday morning when we stepped on the grassy knolls of Edinboro; therefore we knew Tony’s powers, as a thunder god, would not be needed. We came out strong during our match and continued the trend through to the final point of the game only allowing 2-Bit to score twice during the entire match. Sabah Nur made a statement that first game and brought a lot of energy to the table that would carry us through the rest of the afternoon.

Pool Play: St. Francis
Sabah picked up where they left off against 2-bit, never allowing a good St. Francis team to get into the game. We were effectively able to mix up a consistent and patient offense with a zone defense that refused to be broken. Coming off the earlier win, we showed no sign of letdown, running strong and working hard for every point. Pulling out to an early lead allowed the rookies to get more playing time and gain more experience, as we knew the day would only be more challenging from this point on. It was a very spirited game in which everyone was able to have some fun, but we didn’t allow this to get in the way of our game, as mistakes were kept to a minimum, and except for a brief stretch after halftime, we executed well on offense. Strong efforts came from Brent, who threw and caught for four scores, Sean who threw for six, and Tony who found the end zone three times.

Pool Play: PB&J (Pittsburgh, PA)
This game was a lot closer than the score shows. PB&J is essentially a high school all-star team from Pittsburgh. It isn’t the best of the best, but it definitely has a lot of good, soon-to-be-great, players. More importantly though, they never gave up and kept working hard. Every point seemed like it could go either way, even though most ended up falling our way. Great efforts like Reed Verdesoto’s early layout block to give our team a rally point, kept us focused all game. However, of all the players in the game, Wes Shonk established himself as a single faceted offensive force. Every time this man touched the disc, he scored a goal. He never threw it! If only we could all be so lucky.

Quarterfinal: Edinboro
This is truly a game that will stick out as one to remember in the careers of the rookies and even in the minds of the vets. Sabah came out and played well against the hometown Edinboro team, but Haggis showed they would not back down and we knew we were in for a fight. A balanced attack was able to lead to a halftime lead, as all pieces fell into place with the vets playing their roles and being complemented well by the rookies. Strong play from Sean, Fraggle and Brent led to the lead at the half. Edinboro battled back in the second half, and towards the stretch it got to a point where the two teams were just going score for score or turn for turn. Fraggle finished the game with six goals caught, and four different freshman scoring, including points down the stretch. The game would eventually go to universe point, and while the veterans led the charge of the victory, it was the role playing of our rookies getting the better of theirs rookies, specifically Jenkins, Josh and the Nordic Nation that put us over the top. With the cap on, when we scored the game winner, it was clear to many of the rookies how great this game really is, and why all the practice and work you put in is well worth it.

Semifinal: RUN (Pittsburgh, PA)
RUN is the best club team in Western PA. They didn’t even bring their best to this tournament, but it just didn’t matter. They dominated.

Final: Carnegie Mellon
This game we came out and played without any intensity (or our captain, Sean McComb), but we managed to hang with them the entire game. It really showed a lot of promise to know that we could stay with CMU even though we lacked any focus on the field. This lack of focus let CMU poach all over the field to shut down our offense again and again.

Danse Macabre: Rochester (RIT), NY – October 25th – 26th, 2003

This weekend we had 16 players (5 vets and 11 rookies): Ben Ristau, Brent Bellinger, Brody (Voice only), Camilo Ward, Daniel ‘Slip’ Slipakoff, Evan Jenkins, Fraggle, Jon Harden, Jon Selig, Josh Suskin, Justin Krebs, Mike LoPresti, Patrick Kibler, Robert ‘Swede’ Dulabon, Tony Oliva, and Wes ‘Swiss’ Shonk. Player Stats

How did we play this weekend? We played hard and we played well. Though we only ended up 2-4, it was probably our best weekend to date.

Pool Play: Rochester Institute of Technology B
This was our first game of the tournament and the whole team was psyched. We were dressed all in black with our faces painted white with black paint surrounding or eyes. We were ready to have a good time. The first game of the day was against the Tator Tots, the RIT-B team. With only 10 throwaways and 3 drops, we beat this team into submission. This was a game where the veterans got to sit back and let the rookies do most of the work. The game ended at a score of 15 to 0 and we readied ourselves for the next game on this cold and rainy day at Rochester.

Pool Play: SUNY-Albany
This team was all dressed up as Nintendo characters for this tournament. Ben Ristau, believing he was the biggest ape in town, took Donkey Kong one-on-one but ended up on the flat of his back. Donkey Kong is King and combined with Princess Peach, lead them to victory. The Dead Presidents (our costumes) were just no match for the world of Mario.

Pool Play: Moe-ish (Rochester, NY)
This was a club, possibly masters, team from the Rochester area. Whenever a young team plays an older team, the question is what will win youth and speed or age and wisdom. The young guys can run the old ones into the ground, but they make a lot of mistakes. The old guys just don’t make the same mistakes. This game turned out to be one of those match-ups and we simply made a few too many mistakes and couldn’t generate a D because their throws were on target almost all the time.

Pool Play: Edinboro
The game started out well as we won the choice of uniform color and made the black ninjas of Edinboro play in white. Edinboro came out playing their new horizontal stack offense, but we though on one of our new defenses to stifle in. Unfortunately, Edinboro switched to vertical stack and got their offense moving again. Highlights of the game included hot defense from Brent, Fraggle, Josh, and Jenkins. The offense was just as hot, with some deep shots over Edinboro stars, Tim Meyers and Chris Truffa. The hottest play of the game had to be a SKYING D by Chris Truffa, however when he D’d he only mac’d further back into the end zone where a sprinting Swede layed out for the score. Despite the hot plays and amazing efforts, En Sabah Nur could not pull off the win against Edinboro, with a score of 13-8.

Quarterfinal: Geneseo B
Sabah started Sunday off right playing an impressive game against Geneseo-B. While the game was kept close through the first few points, we were able to slowly pull away with a combination of patience, athleticism and aggressive D. After the game seemed in hand, the vets started to sit in favor of the freshmen, who were able to work well together in one of their first opportunities to play as a unit without a veteran presence on the field. This spirited game also gave us an opportunity to strut our dance moves, as in a creative use of a timeout Geneseo-B called for a dance party. However, the most beneficial thing that came from this game was the rookies working together as a unit and freshman being given opportunities to show what they can do in positions they are not necessarily used to playing. In addition, the offense was a balanced attack, with ten different players catching goals and eleven different people throwing for points.

Semifinal: SUNY-Buffalo
It was muddy, the fields were shit, but that didn’t mean that teams were going to pack it in. After a big victory against Geneseo B, Sabah looked to go further into the tournament by defeating SUNY Buffalo. SUNY Buffalo was a light-hearted team on the sideline, but all business when they stepped on to the field. The game was an extremely hard fought on both sides and went into overtime. Everyone seemed to take a step beyond their capabilities to try and get the win. Whether it was catching a hard to reach pass, hucking it a yard longer than usual, or laying out for a disc, even Brody showed off some amazing skills pulling a Matrixesque move to avoid a huck that went out of bounds and damn near decapitated him. In the end, Sabah lost by 2 but left with the confidence that they would continue to grow stronger. At the end of the game the one thing on everybody’s mind was, “How’d that guy in the red bandana throw so well with those big ass gloves on?”

1st Annual Alumni Game: Pittsburgh, PA – November 1st, 2003

In the cost center under the lights, the University of Pittsburgh Alumni beat the current team 16-14 in overtime. It attendance for the alumni was Jay Paulonis, Mike Finnerty, Aaron Paulos, Phil Katz, Keith Heffley, Jon Stadlin, Keith Wertman, Alfie Watterson, Carter Byham, Joe Slember and Brody.

Layout or Flick Off: Selinsgrove, PA – November 15th – 16th, 2003

This weekend we had 17 players (4 vets and 13 rookies): Ben Ristau, Brent Bellinger, Brody, Camilo Ward, Carlos Piepenburg, Daniel ‘Slip’ Slipakoff, Jay Paulonis, John Scheeser, Jon Harden, Jon Selig, Josh Suskin, Justin Krebs, Reed Verdesoto, Robert ‘Swede’ Dulabon, Sean McComb, Stu Kellner, and Wes ‘Swiss’ Shonk. Player Stats

Pool Play: American
My name is Camilo Fernando Ward Calderon, I am the author of this write up, so you will only hear about me. I started play the third point of the game so the first two points don’t matter at all. They are just warm up points to make all my plays look better. I started play as a handler to let others get some glory before I started showing off my skills. The first great play of the game did indeed come from the handler position. It was a marvelous flick huck to Robert ‘Swede’ Dulabon. Unfortunately, Dulabon is trying to sabotage my career so he PURPOSEFULLY dropped the pass to make me look bad. However, I then decided to take things into my own hands. I left my position as a handler to get some points on the board. From a so-so huck in the air from Sean ‘McMome’ McComb, I flew in the sky and caught the goal in between two hulking AU defenders. The rest of the points are not of importance because the AU team respected my authority, especially because I came from their city of origin. They could not go against their brother.

Pool Play: Drexel
This team is an up and coming team that hasn’t read the rulebook yet (or not enough times). They had great intensity and fire, but the rules evaded a few of them and this caused some problems during the game with their star player. Despite the nonsense, we managed to play our game and rise to the top.

Pool Play: P.H.U.E.L. (Philadelphia, PA)
Sabah faced a newly constructed PHUEL All-star Team from the Philly area with players in High school and College. With Reed and Slip both playing, they faced players they had played with and against for many years. Not only were the players old teammates of some of Sabah, they were a very good team at that. The game consisted of a smooth offense with TallE and Brent making some mean in cuts to get the disc and open up the playing field. Sean and Brody both had some amazing hucks. Krebs had an amazing left hand sky over Christian and Jake. Camilo had a put to Reed for an amazing layout catch past Dave Bennet. Sean point blocked Olson twice, Brody point blocked Owen on his own goal line, and over all, we showed the All-stars that Sabah meant business. More over, Sabah had hot puts, amazing D’s, great skies, and played great defense the entire game.

Pool Play: Bucknell
It was the best of games it was the worst of games. Bucknell, our sectional rivals, capitalized on our mistakes in the first half to take half 7 to 3. We went into the second half knowing we needed to bring our best game to come back. Sean, Brent, and Brody opened up the scoring for Sabah in the second half with a 3-man weave up the field finished by a pass to Camilo for the goal. Camilo not knowing he was in the end zone trhew the disc again thus forming a grey cloud over all his positive plays through out the tournament. Krebs came down with an awesome goal from a bending flick huck. However our best efforts were not strong enough to overcome the first half deficit. Sabah ended up tied for the half 4-4, but lost the game 11-7. It was true what Sean said, “We learned more from our loss.” We need to play every single point as if it is for the Universe, to play hard every point of the game. The loss was a wake-up call about how much work we need to do to meet our season goals!

Quarterfinal: Retro Flicks (Harrisburg, PA)
The Harrisburg Club team came on strong the first half and proved that they would be a force to be reckoned with. Harrisburg was able to establish themselves early in the match as a solid deep threat because of an overall lackadaisical En Sabah Nur team. Harrisburg owned us deep and easily took the half 7-3. At halftime, Brody and Sean got Sabah Nur woken up and pumped, ready to take over this game and crawl out of the hole we dug for ourselves. We came onto the field like gangbusters in the second half. Aggressive D and hot chilly O would be the combination that broke the stagnation of the first half and eventual lead to our come from behind 13-10 victory. Standouts for the game were two sick layouts by Reed, Camilo shaking off an earlier mistake to come out with strong handling, and Sean proving his head can possibly be more effective at blocking disc’s than his hands. This game would be proof that nothing is out of reach, you can overcome just about deficit if you want the game and are willing to play balls out for it.

Semifinal: Bucknell AB
The last time we played this team was the in the semi-final at Sectionals last spring. In a tough zone game we prevailed 9-5, earning our first trip to Regionals. Bucknell brought two hot teams to this tournament or rather 1.5, as 4 or 5 players on this team had played with against us as Bucknell “B” on Saturday. The game was very tightly contested as we traded points the entire first half. Due to the fact we received the pull, we took half up 7-6. We threw our zone in them to start the second half and got the turn we were looking for, 8-6. Bucknell went to zone in response. We were able to move it effectively, but instead of waiting for the goal to come, we were a little too aggressive and turned it over three times. Now Bucknell lead 9-8. We righted the ship and stayed with them, tying the score at 12-12. Bucknell scored, then we turned it over near our goal line, and that was that. Overall this was the probably the best game we played all fall.

2004 Clinics: Cost Center, Pitt Campus – January 15th, 2004

In the preseason we had a bunch of different presenters come in to teach us about the game, including Sam Bellin (pictured below), Dave Lionetti, Matt Weiss, Brandon Welch and Josh Mullen.

XX Joint Summit Classic: Clemson, SC – February 7th – 8th, 2004

Clemson’s Stadion Parking Lot and our fields for the day. If only the Cathedral Lawn was so nice.

The XX Joint Summit Classic was held at Clemson University. The ‘fields’ that we played on were really just a parking lot for their stadium, which needs hundreds of thousands of parking spots. Full sized fields mixed with warm weather, and increasingly competitive tournament, Cajun Jambalaya, and Southern hospitality at Blake Joy’s parents house, who could ask for anything else for a first tournament of the spring season? We finished in a 4-way tie for 5th overall. Player Stats

Our host, Blake Joy

Back Row: Evan Jenkins, Andrew Willment, Daniel ‘Slip’ Slipakoff, Camilo Ward, Josh Suskin, Tim Converse, Ben Ristau, John Scheeser, Justin Krebs (partially hidden), John Harden, Carlos Piepenburg, Mike Yanchak

Middle Row: Mike LoPresti, William ‘Brody’ Brotman (coach), Brent Bellinger, Sean McComb, Rich ‘Fraggle’ Coker, William ‘Wes’ Shonk, Stu Kellner
Front Row: Tony Oliva

Pool Play: Berry
This is where it all begins, the first game of the first tournament of the spring season. We had a first round bye, but rather than sleep in, we ran drills to get used to throwing in the wind. The morning chill wasn’t completely gone from the air when we took the erratically lined field, but it was sunny and felt like paradise compared to the icy mess we had left in Pittsburgh. This was our first opportunity to play with our O and D lines, and they both filled their roles pretty well. Jon Harden got the first layout D of the season, and while he was getting back up one of the Berry players said, “Call foul on that!” But it was a clean D and the spirited Berry receiver responded with “he didn’t touch me!” We played pretty well the first half and we did take half 7-5, but it wasn’t pretty. Berry was hungry and responded by coming out hot after half to tie the score at 7-7. We traded points, bringing it to 8-8 and the hard cap went on. We came very close to losing that game. Brent Bellinger came up with a monster D, skying two Berry players, during Universe point. Thankfully, we had fixed the lines during the first half so the sidelines and end zones were actually straight, because later a Berry player caught a huck that was just barely OB in the end zone. We capitalized on that turnover and the O line worked the disc down the field, with TallE catching the winning goal. While we did win, we knew we needed to clean up our game for the rest of the tournament. But it was good to start our spring season off with a win, even if it wasn’t the prettiest of wins.

Pool Play: Radford


En Sabah Nur came out to play its second game against a very fierce opponent, the Highlanders of Radford. After an extremely intense match of pokey between a Highlander and our very own Tony, Sabah got to keep its white jerseys. The D Line pulled to begin a back and forth first half. The O Line and D Line both seemed to have their work cut out for them. After finishing a close 7-6 first half, Fraggle and Sean rallied the troops to rain down a storm of hucks, catches, and scores. Sabah then went on to score two unanswered points with a stellar deep huck from Wes to Brent for the score. With the score at 9-6, on went the hard cap. At the mere mention of hard cap, Stu turned on his game. In one point, he got two blocks and received the winning pass. Sabah moved on.

A little R&R between games

Pool Play: Virginia Tech


In our third game in the wonderful south, we played Virginia Tech. The D-line
started the game off strong by scoring 3 straight points before finally giving up a point, allowing the O-line to take its first point on the field. However, the O-line could not get the disc moving enough and got D-ed and scored on 3 times in a row. It was then that we modified the lines a little bit to allow some of the stronger players to help the O-line score. After stopping VT’s scoring streak, the D-line got back into action and continued to stuff and score until the end of the game. It was during this game that two of our newer, less experienced players made very hot plays on the disc. Tim Converse and Stu Kellner had D after D as well as several great offensive plays after stopping VT’s drive. One hot play by Tim had him take a huck full force in the chest for a great end zone D that we picked up and scored on several seconds later. This was a great game for some of our rookie players.

Pool Play: Georgia B


For ESN’s final game, a lack of focus, coupled with a death wind, caused for
some very interesting and long points. We were playing the Georgia B Chili Dogs, a very able team that would never back down. The first point, lasting more than ten minutes, consisted of unnecessary turnovers and inconsistent playing. After finally scoring, the D team (which started the game) stood fast, and was kept in for the entire first half (7-0). Within that time, though, we encountered another 10-15 minute turnover ordeal, in which three swill passes in a row, carried by the wind, were miraculously caught by skying Sabah players. After the half, in which we resolved to improve our game if we were to deserve a victory, the O line came in to moderate success, scoring after some effort. While Georgia came to score a point and the turnovers still abounded, the O line met the hard cap and finished the game in a 9-1 victory. Another notable play was a quick reflex D from right cup Tim (who got numerous other D’s within the game). After a glorious jog and stretch, Sabah ate, and then went home to prepare for the games ahead.

Prequarterfinal: Berry
Every time we play Berry, it is a hotly contested game. We have always beaten them, but never roll them. This game was no different even though Berry brought out what seemed like their first ever horizontal stack and spread offenses. They didn’t seem to match the traditional definitions of these offenses, so we think they might have seen that teams did the day before and tried to learn them overnight. Either way, they did it and kept the game close at all times. Sabah came out and just wasn’t playing to win, it seemed like we were playing not to lose which affected all parts of our game and gave Berry a 2-point lead. However, Sabah was able to come back to tie it at 6-6 and then take half, 7-6. After the half, we finally got our offense working and our defense started pulling block after block out. We won the game 13-10.

Quarterfinal: Rutgers
Game two on Sunday would prove to be the toughest match of the weekend against The Machine from Rutgers University. Both teams traded points until a Machine defender collided with Brent on a layout, which put him and his ankle out of commission for the rest of the tournament. The boys from exit 9 started to pull away and by halftime the score was 7-2 in favor of Rutgers. Sean and Fraggle then roused the boys during halftime so that we came back out on the field playing well. As a result of our efforts, we lost the second half 6-4.but never did we roll over and die. Noteworthy performances were made by Fraggle, Camilo, and Andrew on D, Ben and Mike Lo for pulling the offense together on O, and Brody and Andrew Willment for carrying Brent the gimp off of the field.

Pool Play: Georgia B


University of Georgia’s Jojah B was a team with surprising hotness. Sabah had played them the day before and was thoroughly impressed by their skills, especially for a B team. Aware that the zone defense worked flawlessly on Saturday against Jojah B, Pitt threw a cup defense on the Jojah offense. It worked and Pitt took the half at 7-5. Unpleased with their performance, the Jojah team and ringers Brody and Emily (whose pulls went further than near all of Jenkins’s) came back, tying the game at 10-10. A hat-less Jenkins then decreed, “That is not correct.” As Brody put one deep, Jenkins leaped over 6’3 former Pitt Student Dan Perry to make an important D. Wes had a sick 50 yard flick huck deep to tall E, and Mr. Man fired up the team by sprinting naked across the field during a time-out. Camilo made some good dump cuts, and Josh caught a nearly-D’ed hammer put (that thankfully did not hit him in the face), after which throwing for the score. The game, although off the records per se, was a fun and spirited way to end the tournament, summarizing the team’s enjoyment of the weekend and ineffable will to succeed and an awesome way to end Pitt’s victorious showing at the 20th annual Clemson Joint Summit. Game Stats

Game against CMU: Pittsburgh – February 23rd, 2004

Playing our crosstown rivals, there was a lot of intensity from the first point to the last by both teams, which made this a great, hard fought game. CMU started on D, but got the first break to take an early lead, 0-1. However, we kept pushing the attack and stepped up our defense to fight back. The half time score was 5-4 Pitt, but in the second half we got a few more breaks and figured out to contain their deep game. This lead to a 3-0 run which game us the game 8-4. Through out the game our offensive sets were not executed cleanly and too often we were trying to force the disc, which resulted in turnovers. Game Stats

Leap Year Celebration!: Salisbury, MD – February 28th – 29th, 2004

Going 4-3 for the weekend, we played a lot of different teams and competed with all of them. Unfortunately, we were knocked down to the B-division after pool play. After that, we made it to the B-division finals with an incredible come back and universe point win over Salisbury and then we fought back from being down 6 against Drew to tie it up before losing that game at universe point and finishing 14th overall.

This weekend we had 12 players: Andrew Willment, Ben Ristau, Brent Bellinger, Dan Slipakoff, Evan Jenkins, Jon Harden, Josh Suskin, Mike LoPresti, Rich Coker, Robert Dulabon, Tony Oliva, and Wes Shonk. Sean as a non-playing (injured) captain and Brody as coach. Player Stats

Pool Play: Mary Washington
Day One Game 1: Mary Washington College (13-2 Win)
The air was crisp and the day pleasant as En Sabah Nur started off the Leap Year Celebration tournament. Our first opponent, Mary Washington College, a decent team who if underestimated could surely be a David to any unsuspecting Goliath. Fortunately, we did not give them the chance as our defense repeatedly shut them down with a swarming Pimp hand bitch slap approach which led to a first half shut out that went to 12-0 before Mary Washington could scrape together two quick goals. On offense the scoring was evenly dispersed with Swiss scoring 3 times, while Tony, Fraggle, Mr. BoJenkins, and god aint he tall TallE all finding the end zone twice. Not to mention that the leader of day care, BKB led all throwing scorers with 5 tosses for points, meaning nearly half of all our points were delivered with the sweet stank of whoppers with no onions all over it as well as scoring once on his own account. Dominating D coupled with chilly O led to an impressive 13-2 rout over Mary Washington.

Pool Play: Massachusetts
Sabah came off a bye to face the #1 seed in our pool and eventual tournament second place finisher UMass. We drew first blood and exchanged points, but our offense got sloppy and a few turnovers later we found ourselves down 6-2. After a few words from Brody and Sean to help us regain our composure, layout D’s from Josh and Jenkins helped respark our team and we battled back to within two points. Trailing 9-7, the cap went on and our offense lost some of the patience that helped us come back, and two converted turnovers later we fell 11-7. While UMass is a very good team, at no point did any of us feel overmatched or that we couldn’t have won the game had we executed better from the first point to last. This game showed us that we can play with top level teams, and had we reduced our turnovers and maintained more patience on offense even beat them.

Pool Play: Rhode Island
Just because University of Rhode Island (also know as R.I.U.T.) is in the same state as Brown, the perennial ultimate powerhouse, it doesn’t mean they know the game nearly as well. We came in, played our game, tried new offenses, and got the job done.

Pool Play: Johns Hopkins
This was the game we needed to win to advance to play in the A pool on Sunday. It was a windy game, with a lot of points traded back and forth as each team goes downwind. Then we scored an upwinder, which allowed us to pull ahead to a 5-3 lead after Tony got the D and caught the goal. Unfortunately, John Hopkins stepped right up to the challenge and answered back with three consecutive points to take the lead, 5-6. After a long point with several turns and Ds, they got a point block and scored to take the half. Starting the second half, we had trouble advancing the disc, and Hopkins managed to pull ahead to a 6-9 lead. We finally managed to restart our offense and traded points, and the soft cap went on with the score 7-10. After that, we just couldn’t manage to dig down and pull forth the extra effort we needed to score upwind and get back in the game. We traded points until John Hopkins won, 9-12.

Quarterfinal: Fordham
This was our first game of the day and the wind came out to wish us good morning. It gave us fits and we played sloppy offense the entire game. Luckily, our defense was strong enough to keep them out of our goal.

Semifinal: Salisbury
In the semifinal game against Salisbury, Pittsburgh came out flat in the first half again which lead to an early Salisbury lead. After some severe words of encouragement/threats at half, we decided to step up our game and play ultimate like we know. However, it turned out that our man defense was able to stifle the Salisbury O and we came roaring back triumphantly from our earlier deficit to tie the game at 9-9 when the horn blew to mark the cap. It would be a game to ten and Sabah was on defense. We went with our strong O line and were just counting on them to make the D happen as they had the entire second half. On the second or third pass the thrower, under pressure from a great mark, forced a throw. That throw trailed a mere inches behind the cutter where Daniel Slipakoff was waiting to make the crucial D. We picked up the disc and worked it towards the goal line where Brent Bellinger threw a laser beam flick to Robert Dulabon where it proceeded to bounce off his chest before he made a quick recovery to catch the goal for the win against the tournament hosts and unfriendly home crowd, the gorilla was crushed.

Final: Drew
Drew came out with a trapping zone that we had never seen before. We could not figure it out and consequently could not move the disc and turned it over. This gave them a short field and a quick shot at an easy goal. We were down big at half and made some big changes for the second half. Andrew Willment came in as an aggressive fourth handler (after sitting out the first half injured) and we started to dump and swing the disc more effectively. Additionally, our defense really stepped it up and generated some great opportunities near their goal line. Finally, we were able to tie it up at 11-11. Unfortunately, they ran a 2 pass play to their huge stud who we really didn’t have a great answer for. It was an ugly huck, but it did the job and we lost the game.

SUNblock: Savannah, GA – March 6th – 7th, 2004

The first weekend of our spring break and we were heading way down south to find some great weather and great ultimate. We found both in droves. We didn’t play that great and for the first time in over a year we didn’t win a game in pool play, but that didn’t stop us from having a great time. We played 2 more teams to universe point and challenged the others. We also had the opportunity to checkout River street and the historic district. A couple of our players were even looking their best and almost managed to pick up a new friend the night we went out to get some grub.

Pool Play: Swarthmore



It was an upwind-downwind game with lots of zone and stiff wind. Two of Swarthmore’s handlers, Luzar especially, had some great hucks, upwind and downwind, against the zone. These hucks found their mark more often than not because we were struggling with our last back. It was 8-4 them at half.

After half, we came out strong and really picked up our defense. Our handlers worked it well and poppers were able to get big gains to the deeps. We rallied to make the score 8-10 with chilly offense and smart decisions, but then the cap went on. It was a game to 11 with Sabah pulling upwind. Sabah put on a zone to shut down Swarthmore’s deep game, which quickly lead to two turnovers and Sabah goals. With the game tied at 10-10, Sabah was once again in a universe point situation pulling upwind. We managed to get three Ds on this point including an incredible foot block on the goal line by Tony Oliva and two deep skies by Brent Bellinger in the end zone, but it just wasn’t enough. On offense, we had one huck called back on a foul, and another huck, tipped by Tony and caught by MikeLo for the score that was brought back on a travel call. It was extremely frustrating. Despite layout grabs by Tony and Fraggle, we were unable to convert for the score and Swarthmore was. 11-10, game over.

Pool Play: Michigan State


Michigan State is one of the top teams in the nation, currently ranked at #8. They brought top athletes and some veteran players that fine-tune their skills in the off-season with Big Ass Truck, who went to club nationals. What started out as a sunny day soon turned bleak as it started to rain, which reflected the game to be. Out of the gate, Michigan State ran a ho-stack, which we weren’t able to defend because they relied on breaking the mark instead of throwing through the lanes to gain yards. They scored quickly with these throws and took a 4-1 lead. After this, we were able to get our own offense moving and more-or-less traded points with them to 7-11. At this point, we made some poor substitution decisions and our offense began to stagnate, and they scored 4 in a row to close the game out 15-7. We hung with a potential 2004 college nationals qualifier for the better part of a game. Though this was our biggest loss of the day, it shows that with more hard work and less mental breakdowns that we can compete with high-level teams.

Pool Play: Georgia Southern
Georgia Southern was an extremely small, hard running team. Even though they didn’t have many subs, they had the mental toughness to keep pushing themselves hard point after point. As had been the case all day, our offense was full of lackluster choices including a huck to Slip in the zone against their deep-deep
Tuba, who plays for Ring of Fire in the club season. The throw was a great throw and Slip took a great position on it, but Tuba just went up BIG over Slip and got the D. On defense, people often got smoked deep or on big gainers because no one was heads up enough to look for a switch. We went up early 4-1, but lost half 8-6.

After half, we refocused on defense (with Tony almost getting in a fight while bodying up on a retro cut), found a way to jumpstart our offense and began to crawl back into the game. As we did, we found ourselves at yet another universe point where we were starting on defense. Their play, like almost all of their plays this game, was a deep shot to Tuba. Brent was able to shut him down and get the D. We worked the disc upwind all the way up the field, only to drop in the end zone. After a few passes, Georgia Southern hucked the disc again for field position and we took possession at our own goal line again. We were able to work it up to the goal line but AGAIN turned it over in the end zone. As Georgia Southern began working it downfield, we were able to snag a D and work it up within 10 yards of the goal line. Then, an errant pass snuck by its receiver. Fraggle made an incredible sliding layout grab to catch the disc, but unfortunately his arm was touching the ground out-of-bounds even though the rest of his body was in when the disc was caught. Georgia Southern then was able to finally convert on a deep shot to Tuba for the goal and win. Our team might have a John Elway complex (looking to make a come from behind win) because all game, we let them get up and then caught up; 8-6, 9-9, 12-10, 12-12, 14-14 with a final of 14-15.

Quarterfinal: Western Michigan


It’s amazing that we came to Georgia to play not one, but two teams from Michigan when we often won’t see one in an entire season. We came out and played sloppy offense and defense. On offense, we continued to throw into their poaches or make horrible choices by hucking to a man that was double or triple covered. On defense, we often couldn’t find our man. We were really struggling with our fundamentals. It was a miracle that the game was so close at half, we were down 8-7. At half, we tried to get ourselves fired up and to clean up our game, which we did a little bit, but not enough to pull ahead. As the points added up and time winded down, we found ourselves down by one when the cap horn went on. Somehow, we got the goal to tie it up and send ourselves to another universe point game. That made this game our fifth universe point (decided by 1-point) in six games. We have an amazing ability to play to other teams’ levels instead of ours. This game was more of the same. Anyway, on universe point we pulled to them and got the D on a throw that outran its receiver, then we patiently started working the disc up field. Unfortunately, we turned it over and had to get one more D before finally punching in the score and getting the win.

Semifinal: S.U.D.S.
Blake Joy as told us again and again that, “Friends don’t let friends lose to SUDS.” This has something to do with SUDS (Savannah Ultimate Disc Society) being one of the less competitive club teams in the South, which is exemplified in one of their cheers, “You can’t spell SUDS without beer!” We came into this game after a bye and a lunch and just didn’t seem to focus. We had a lot of trouble focusing during the warm-up drills and that carried over into the game, which was a big problem because it was an upwind-downwind game and they played a lot of zone D. After trading points, they got two breaks on upwinders even though we showed signs of getting our offense together. Then they got the subsequent downwinders making the score 1-5. Finally, we managed to get an upwinder of our own but could not convert on the following downwinder. The rest of the game finished out like this. We would get great Ds by our players, but we simply could not score on offense, especially near the goal line. After hard work by everyone, one person would get antsy and throw it away. This game may have looked like a rout, but it was one of our closer ones of the weekend.

WUFF Camp: Wilmington, NC – March 9th – 11th, 2004

The best 6 practices of the year while staying at a great spring break house.

The Brew Pub Moon River.	Our extra really long trip and detour to the Tybee Island beach.	Wes and Slip at the beach.
Harden prepping for his model shoot.	The pink elephant that Wes gave a tubey to at our Peach Cider and Fireworks stop.	Wes checks the prostate of this elephant.
Mike Gerics, our coach for spring training.	Our beach house for spring break.	Our kitchen for spring break. Home of 100 grilled cheese sandwiches and hot dish.
Beach house’s downstairs.	Beach house’s living room where we managed to not break anything.	Our beach house’s private dock.
I don’t know and you don’t want to know.	The beach at Wilmington, NC just 2 blocks from our house.	Camilo Ward at the beach.

Drew Blood Drive 2K4: Turkey Swamp, NJ – March 27th – 28th, 2004

We finished 5th in this tournament, but definitely have a lot to work on.

Pool Play: Vermont
We came out with a hard zone defense to start the game, and it worked really well, but Vermont was able to convert on some dangerous swill over the top to punch the first goal in. Vermont’s offense the entire first half was a little sloppy. We were playing hard defense to challenge them, but we were not getting the blocks with a few exceptions (Jon Harden’s layout), they were giving them to us. Fortunately, we were able to work those turns downfield for goals by running a smooth offense. We ran our basic plays, adapted when our plays were busted or poached, and simply ran a great offense with a couple great highlights including Wes’ break goal to Ben and Reed tracking down and laying out for Camilo’s swill in the back of the end zone. We took half 7-3.

The second half turned out to be a very different story as Vermont stopped making unforced errors. We came out and used a play to make a quick goal, but then Vermont came storming back to score three straight goals by converting on our mistakes in zone offense. 8-6. We called a time out to regroup and figure out what was going on. Vermont through zone again, but we came out and scorched it. It was one of our hottest zone offense points of the season. After this, we still gave up a few breaks and Vermont was able to tie it up at 10s. Then we traded points to 11-11. At which point, we were set to receive the disc. We began working it down field, but threw it away early. Reed Verdesoto came out with a hot block and then we finally through a break goal to Josh for the win. 12-11.

Pool Play: Columbia High School
Coming off an emotional universe point win, we started this game off right with Josh point blocking a girl, which led to a score, and we never looked back. Sabah controlled the game the game the whole way through, led by solid play from the D line, including Camilo and Reed, who both came up with a few D’s and breaks. The highlight of the game was probably when Fraggle hucked to Josh who terribly misread the disc but still came up with it for the goal, and then on the next point, after get the D, Josh hucked to a cutting Fraggle for a goal. While it was a high school team, they had a few ringers and were all very good players, so it was a solid win, even though we did play a little lazy towards the end and probably could have put away the game sooner than we did. (Yes, Josh did write this.)

Pool Play: American
This was an ugly game for us. American brought an overly aggressive double teaming zone and we got flustered by it instead of calling the violations and busting it wide open. Despite that, we were able to hang with them to 5-4 with our rookies stepping it up and crafty veteran moves like Camilo’s break goal to Josh, MikeLo’s sky block, and Wes’ layout block. At this point, we simply fell apart and turned the disc over twice on our own goal line and then got beat to the force side twice in a row for goals. They took half 7-4. and we never recovered.

In the second half, it was more of the same. We managed to pull within one at 7-8, but the cap went on and they scored the next goal to win 9-7.

Pool Play: Syracuse
We talked the talk, but didn’t walk the walk this game. We knew Syracuse was a good team and played like it was a given that they would win. Despite that, the first half was much closer than the 7-3 score indicates. We fought for every point and caused multiple turnovers, but simply could not convert. In the second half, our lack of mental focus showed and Syracuse simply ran away with the game. Our team needs to play with more focus and heart to make these games competitive. Syracuse is a good team, they aren’t a great team that we shouldn’t challenge for an entire game.

Prequarterfinal: SUNY-Albany
Our first game on Sunday was against SUNY Albany, a team Sabah was familiar with from a previous encounter in the fall at Danse Macabre. We lost to this team at Danse and we were not ready to repeat the same mistake twice. Early in the game we hucked two discs away and Albany was able to capitalize on our mistake with a sidestack iso that we left un-poached. We were able to tie up the game at 2 a piece with a huck TallE from Fraggle and some hot zone D. Sabah then went up 3-2 with a deep shot from Reed to Fraggle. But SUNY Albany struck back with some hot layouts and in the superb handling skills of Princess Peach (So named based on a Danse costume) and took the half 7-5. We came out at half determined to correct earlier mistakes and to take back control of the game. On the first pull of the second half SUNY Albany marched down the field for another goal making it an 8-5 game in favor of Albany. Sabah was itching for a comeback and Justin Krebs provided a catalyst for it by getting a hot D by denying the dump and making a sick cut for the goal ending the sequence with his signature “I just got hit in the neck with a tranquilizer dart and am flailing my arms and stumbling in celebration” dance. Later in the second half the cap went on making it a game to 10 with the score standing in favor of Albany at 9-7. Sabah showed a lot of heart in this game rallying back and tying the game 9-9 and finally taking the game on universe point with a final score of 10-9. This was a hard fought victory over a worthy foe. By avenging a previous loss this game really shows how far we have come as a team and that it is possible for our team to actually *gasp* win on universe point.

Quarterfinal: Rutgers
Our last official game of the tourney ended in a riot. Rutgers knew how to deal damage when Sabah was unfocused, and effectively shut ESN down with a very convincing Zone D. We had great moments on offense, but they simply came too far apart to make it a close game as they converted on our mistakes again and again.

Semifinal: James Madison
Our last game against JMU was one of the more spirited games we had that weekend. The D line did the dirty work for the first 4 points, taking the offense out of the game, and scoring 4 uncontested points before JMU decided to return the favor. O line went in scored, yet JMU wanted a bit more. Making half at about 7-5, we realized that JMU was not going to be swept like the first four points, we had some business to take care of. Hard Cap came into play, as in most of our games on Saturday and Sunday at 8, game to 9. JMU brought their score up to 7 before we could end the game with a win of 9-7 over JMU. However, the game was full of great offense, D line pressure, layouts and hucks. Leaving Freehold NJ on a win is always a good feeling.

Intercity Scrimmage: Edinboro, PA – April 3rd, 2004

A one day event to replace Spring Phling and for us to work the kinks out.

Pool Play: Case Western Reserve
This was a great game for us mentally. We were down 12-9 and managed to really pick up our game and bring ourselves back from the brink. This is something our team hasn’t done enough of and will need to do more of in the future. Get up and play hard, even when you are down.

Pool Play: Edinboro
Edinboro knows how to win games. They might not be the best team on the field, but they play with a huge amount of intensity that allows them to compete with any team and sometimes upset them. We could take a page or twenty from Edinboro about intensity and what it takes to win games. This game, Edinboro gave us the disc again and again and set their zone, but we could not defeat it. If we would have, we would have won the game.

Pool Play: Carnegie Mellon
This was a great win over our biggest rival. Several extremely long and ugly points marked the game, but we managed to win the majority of them. We will need to improve our performance to beat them again at sectionals.

West Penn Sectionals: Boalsburg, PA – April 17th – 18th, 2004

Fifth out of 12 teams. Not bad, but not what we wanted. We had 20 players, an injured captain and a coach this weekend.

Back Row: Wes Shonk
Next to Last Row: Tim Converse, Daniel Slipakoff (partly hidden), Brent Bellinger, Robert Dulabon, Jon Harden, Brody, Camilo Ward, Reed Verdesoto
Middle Row: Ben Ristau, Fraggle, Mike LoPresti
Next to Front Row: Mike Yanchak, Tony Oliva, Stu Kellner, Justin Krebs, Evan Jenkins
Front Row: Sean McComb, Josh Suskin, John Scheeser, Andrew Willment.

Pool Play: Penn State B
Sectionals is what En Sabah Nur had been working for all season, and the team showed it as they scored against Penn St. B within the first two passes on a huck play to Brent Bellinger in the end zone. This set the tone for the rest of the game and while Penn St. B played valiantly while led by Hobbit, En Sabah Nur’s smothering zone D shut them down for the majority of the game. Brody and Sean sat back and let the rookies run the show, and run the show they did. Notable performances were clocked in by Reed, with a hot layout D, and by Tim Converse, who was one of the team leaders in goals caught for this game.

Pool Play: Bucknell
En Sabah Nur came out for the next game against Bucknell and was torn apart by their zone. Our offense simply could not get it out of our own backfield for most of the game. Eventually we made some progress in breaking through the zone, but even then we ended up turning it over. On turnovers, to say our defense was lacking would be an understatement. This game was a dark game for the O-line. Notable performances were registered when Brody tried to eat his hat out of frustration.

Pool Play: Carnegie Mellon
The next game against CMU was one where we faced our crosstown rivals for the first time they were at full strength. As a result, our rookie mismatches were no longer available and their vets picked up the slack whereas ours did not.

Pool Play: St. Francis
The last game of the day we let the rookies run things against St. Francis. Maybe we let them it a little too much, because the game was much closer than we might have liked. The game was an excellent chance for rookies to get experience in positions that they normally did not get to play this season. Slip did an excellent job popping like a madman. We now know that Dulabon needs to learn to throw a swing pass in the zone. The most notable aspect of the game, however, was when Sean came in for 3 points and single-handedly destroyed St. Francis. zone as he hobbled down the field.

Quarterfinal: Edinboro
This was our most important game of the season, as if we won we stayed alive in the tournament, and if we lost our season ended. We came out as focused and intense as we’ve been all season, but our execution was not as strong as it could have been. Even so, we contested every point and made sure that they worked for whatever they got. Early on there were some struggles with the zone offense and communication of defense that allowed Boro to take an early lead. We battled back with numerous layout D’s and aggressive play, but in the end fell short. We showed signs, as at times we would work down field only to turn the disc over as we neared the goal line, or play solid D and give up a huck on a bad switch, which helps to show where we are and where we need to be. Playing well for most of the point, or for 65 yards downfield isn’t enough. We need to play as well at the end of points as we do the begining. This game gave us a lot to think about, and hopefully will serve as fuel for Sabah to work hard over the summer to get to the place where we need to be, and win games like this at sectionals next year.

Final: Susquehanna
This was it–the last game of our season. We had just come of a really intense game loss against Edinboro, and I don’t know if we used up all our intensity during that game or if we were just disappointed that we didn’t win, but we had some troubles with this game. Susquehanna only had 8 players, and on Saturday they had been savage. So in theory, we shouldn’t have had any trouble with them. But for about three quarters of this game, we just seemed to play kind of lazy and slow. Not that there weren’t some hot plays–Jon Harden had his first ever layout catch on a throw from Josh Suskin, for a goal (quite a change from the player he was in the fall, when he couldn’t catch ANYTHING). Wes Shonk had something like three layout catches in one point while handling in the zone. But even the hot plays didn’t seem to get us fired up for long. We went down 3-1, but managed to fight back to take half, 8-7. But then after half, we let them score three points to take the lead, 8-10. Finally, we scored again, but then let them score two more, to bring it to 9-12. Then, it what had to be his most frustrating moment of the season, Jenkins dropped the pull and Susquehanna started with the disk on our goal line–but we got the D and scored! After that we traded points to bring it to 11-13, and then Susquehanna scored again, bringing it to 11-14. Game point for Susquehanna on the last game of the season. If we didn’t score four goals before letting Susquehanna get any, we would lose. Even then, we’d still need one more to win it. Somehow, we dug deep and battled back, getting the D and scoring to bring it to 12-14. Still game point for Susquehanna. But we dug deep, and we did it. We scored five straight goals to win it, 16-14 and finish 5th in our section. Not what we wanted, but not bad. This game definitely showed us something we’ve seen time and time again this season in all our universe point games: that we CAN dig deep down when we need it, but we need to make the decision to play at 100 percent all game, so we can just win instead of ending up at universe point or game point for the other team and having to battle back to win.