Dartmouth's ultimate teams had a full schedule the last weekend of April, with the men's and women's A-teams playing at regionals in Portsmouth, R.I., and the B-teams playing at Williams College.
The women displayed a dominant level of skill at regionals, defeating Brown 15-5 in the finals to secure the top seed from the region to College Nationals, and the men came excruciatingly close to securing a Nationals bid in a 15-14 nail-biter against Harvard.
The women, who came to Regionals uncertain of their standing vis--vis some of the other top teams in the region, left with a strong confidence in their abilities, after thrashing the competition on both days.
Their strength was epitomized by their Sunday game against Brown, as Princess Layout -- the women's A-team -- shut down Brown's offense and shredded its zone defense in what was widely regarded as Dartmouth's best performance of the season.
The team's finals win was spearheaded by stellar defensive efforts from co-captain Lorraine Ferron '05 and Lakshmi Narayan '06, rock-solid handling from co-captain Brooking Gatewood '05 and a seemingly perpetual deep threat from Ariel Dowling '05. After Brown scored the opening point, Princess took half 8-3 and never looked back.
Women's coach Mikey Lee '00 said of the game, "You can't believe how many people came up to me during or after the game to express their amazement at how well [the women] were playing."
The women are poised to improve upon their 13th place finish at Nationals last year and will be training diligently in preparation for the College Championships from May 27-29 in Corvallis, Ore.
However, the women's victory was a bittersweet one as their male counterparts missed Nationals by a single point.
After an anticipated loss to perennial powerhouse Brown in the first game-to-go, the Dartmouth men -- who bested Harvard in early April in the Yale Cup semifinals by a score of 15-13 -- took an early lead against their rivals with solid offense and an effective defense.
However, Harvard came out of halftime playing with intensity and fought hard to even things up at 14-14, forcing a decisive universe point for the second and final Northeast Region bid to Nationals.
Unfortunately, things did not go Dartmouth's way, ending the Pain Train's 2005 season.
"The men's loss was deeply felt by the women's team," said Masi Rooke '08. "[The men's] successes and defeats are our successes and defeats, and vice versa. As it is, it feels like only half our team is going to nationals."
The men and women had more important concerns than Nationals coming into the tournament, however, as a car accident on the ride down had Mike "Zigelman" Zargham '07 and Peter "Poverty" Gadomski '08 arrive to play late and kept Chris "Chimpo" Cahill '07 and Sam "Cabo" Haynor '08 from playing at all.
All are doing well, but the accident had both a mental and physical impact on those who played that weekend.
In the words of Dan Yi '06: "Despite how hard the whole A-team has been working, ultimate and the chance for Nationals came second to the well-being of our teammates.
"After seeing pictures of the car, I am extremely grateful -- as I'm sure everyone else is -- that [Zargham, Gadomski, Cahill and Haynor] are alive and well.
"The Dartmouth Pain Train had an unbelievably successful season and more than that, we became in every sense of the word a team."
While the A-team played in Portsmouth, Dartmouth's B-teams traveled to Williams College in Williamstown, Mass., for the Burple Valley tournament, the B-team counterpart to Williams' Purple Valley tournament held in the fall.
The Discomfort Trolley had a strong showing against the other men's teams in its pool, winning its last three games after underperforming and dropping the first to Skidmore on Saturday.
Two of the three wins came at universe point, on the strength of solid performances from many of its players.
Princess B had fewer opponents to compete against, playing and dropping two well-spirited games, while improving its skills on an individual and team basis.
Between and after their games, the women provided sideline support for the men, which the Discomfort Trolley agrees was a primary factor in the team's elevated level of play for much of Saturday.
"We scored a bunch of points in a row when the women showed up, and a couple of guys started joking that we were playing better because they were around," said Peter "Socks" Bonanno '08, B-team co-captain. "I didn't think that was the case until they left after halftime and [the other team] caught up to us. That's when we all realized the source of our power."
Both teams opted to forego play on Sunday in favor of going to support their A-level counterparts at Regionals.
"We definitely made a statement on Saturday with our wins, so to pass up the chance to finalize our team's dominance on Sunday to go watch my personal hero, John Agan ['05 and co-captain], play at Regionals was a no-brainer," said Watson Sallay '08.
The men's B-team was especially saddened by the premature end to the men's season, but it will serve as a strong motivational force as they begin looking ahead to next year.
The Pain Train will be losing a number of cornerstone players when the '05s graduate and will be looking to get the most out of its '07s and '08s, in particular, next year.
The A- and B-teams both have a lot of depth this year, so while the team loses many, it has much to look forward to as its younger players continue to improve.
The region become increasingly more competitive each season, and both the Pain Train and Princess Layout figure to remain a force to be reckoned with in the coming years.
Dartmouth ultimate's next tournament, the White Mountain Open, will be held at Dartmouth from May 21-22 on Sachem and Garipay fields during the day.
