Women's ultimate frisbee begins rebuilding year

While the Tufts E-Men have gotten much of the attention on the Tufts Ultimate Frisbee scene this year, there is another squad on campus that deserves just as much recognition. The Tufts E-Wo(Elephant Women) are making waves of their own as they look forward to the spring season and the remainder of this fall's practice season. With last year's starting line graduated, there is an influx of new talent that could take this team for an interesting ride this season.

"I think that this will be an important rebuilding year for us. There are a lot of excited new girls on the squad who look like they are ready to fill the shoes of the girls we lost," said second semester junior Amanda Sommers, who is a co-captain along with senior Annemarie Braun.

"The freshman class is real enthusiastic. I think they're further ahead than we were at this point last year," sophomore Emily Estrada said.

Replacing veteran talent is nothing new to the E-Wo. Last year, they were faced with the loss of ten seniors from the class of 2001. Among those ten was Johanna Neuman, the Callahan Award winner as the best female Frisbee player in the country. Last year, despite the loss of those impact players, the squad managed to make it to the New England Regional semi finals at Dartmouth, where they lost to rival Williams after a solid showing.

The girls have already had one tournament, which was held at Yale two weeks ago. At that tournament, the team finished 2-2, losing to Dartmouth and Williams but defeating Harvard and Wesleyan. The fall tournaments are more for exhibition and practice than competition though.

"We took it slow in this tournament, but we'll get intense again in the spring," Sommers said.

"It was real windy, so that made it harder. But it didn't matter that much. We just wanted to have a good time and mess around and see what some of the freshmen could do," sophomore Emily Kaplan said.

In addition to the tournaments, the team practices two times a week as well as play pickup games with the E-Men on Fridays. While one might think that there would be a rivalry between the E-Men and the E-Wo, there is more of a kinship than anything.

"We could not have been more proud of the guys then when they got the bid to nationals last year," Kaplan said.

There are those, however, who think that the E-Wo have not been paid as much attention as they may have deserved.

"I think the guys get more of the spotlight because they went to nationals last year. Most people don't know that there is a girl's ultimate team here at Tufts. We had a great season last year, too, even though we didn't make it to Nationals", sophomore Berenice Diaz said.

Either way, there is nothing but love between the two teams. The love is also felt between the E-Wo and their opponents.

"The best thing about Ultimate Frisbee is what we call 'the spirit of the game'. Since there are no referees to interfere, there is more of a camaraderie developed between opposing teams. For a call to be made, we rely on each other's honor. We just feel close to the other team at all times", Kaplan said.

The rapport between the E-Wo and other teams does not exist strictly on the field. It is ever present after the match is done as well.

"We make up a cheer for the other teams to the tune of a popular song. The guys make fun of us because they're jealous that they can't do it," Kaplan quipped. "We will party with a team on the same day we play them. We definitely just like to have fun more than anything else."

So while expectations are there for the E-Wo to do well this spring, they are well aware that sports and Frisbee especially, can only be fun if the players feel that kind of atmosphere is important.

"We have a lot of skill and talent", Sommers said. "But our enthusiasm and how much we enjoy it will be what make us successful."