Dartmouth's women's ultimate Frisbee team, seeded 14th out of 16 teams, looked to sneak up on some teams and pull off a couple of upsets, but Princess Layout could not get past the group stages at the Ultimate Players' Association Championships held in Columbus, Ohio. The young squad played well, but could not best some of the more experienced competition.
Although the team did not make it into the knockout stage of the tournament, Dartmouth did win the spirit award for displaying great sportsmanship, as voted by Princess Layout's opponents.
Princess Layout was drawn into group B for the round-robin stage of the tournament, which ended up being one of the tougher groups in the tournament. Besides Dartmouth, the group featured third-seeded British Columbia, No. 4 Wisconsin, and No. 8 Delaware.
In the first game of the round-robin stages, Princess Layout took on British Columbia, a team that was playing hard for its late coach. While Dartmouth gave the third-seeded Thunderbirds all it could handle, diminutive handler Kira Few played an exceptional game to give British Columbia the 15-12 victory.
In the next game, Dartmouth proved to be no match for Wisconsin, as it was all Bella Donnas and their freshman ace Laura Bitterman in a 15-5 Wisconsin win.
With advancement to the next round on the line, Dartmouth took on Delaware, a team that had beaten Princess Layout earlier in the year. Dartmouth played a close and somewhat sloppy game against Delaware, but Princess Layout fell 15-12.
The Thunderbirds came in first in the group and earned a first-round bye in the championship bracket by winning all three of their games by no more than three scores. Wisconsin, with two wins and a loss, finished second in the group, and Delaware was third with a win and two losses. Dartmouth, with three losses, ended up in the consolation bracket.
In the consolation bracket, Princess Layout faced Tufts in a rematch of the New England Region finals. Dartmouth squeezed out a 15-13 victory for the only victory in the tournament by a New England team. Princess Layout wrapped up the tournament with a 15-11 loss to New York University and a 15-6 loss to Truman State University.
Captain Nora Johnson '08 said that the tournament was a positive experience for her and the team.
"The tournament was a learning experience for us," Johnson said. "We played a tight game versus British Columbia and Delaware. I think a lot of it was due to the fact that we played this caliber of competition earlier and couldn't beat them, and I think that had an effect. For our team, Molly Roy '09, Mandy Lobel '09 and Anna Payne '08 came up big."
In the tournament, the fifth-seeded Superfly of Stanford captured the title for the third straight year. Stanford defeated the University of California-Santa Barbara, a team that had beaten Superfly in the round robin stage, by the final score of 13-7.
Building a strong ultimate program is difficult, and Dartmouth poses several unique challenges to having a successful ultimate team.
Because of the D-plan, players will opt to take off terms at different times, making it difficult for the team to practice together. Unlike varsity athletes, ultimate players are not mandated to be on campus for certain terms, although many elect to stay on for the spring term to play in the important spring season.
Also, players are granted five years of eligibility in ultimate. This works in the favor of schools that have large graduate programs, such as the University of California-Berkeley.
Johnson talked about the difficulties the team had in preparing for this season.
"For us to even be here at nationals is a great accomplishment for our team," Johnson said. "This past winter term, we only had about four or five players on our A-team, so it was tough to prepare. We weren't even sure if we were going to make it out of regionals. Next year, we have a core group staying over winter term, so that should not be a problem."
Johnson expects to have another successful season next year, as Princess Layout looks to qualify for the national tournament for the fifth consecutive year. In order to get back to nationals, the team will be revamping its training program.
"In this tournament, I think we realized that we need to approach our practices and training differently," Johnson said. "We need to start practicing and preparing in the fall to prepare ourselves to be in the national tournament in the spring."
