E-Men ninth in the nation

They may just be the best team you've never heard of.

Ranked ninth in the nation with an overall record of 35-16, the Tufts self-proclaimed "E-Men" Ultimate Frisbee team is back in Medford after a blistering 11-2 spring break trip that brought it to Georgia, Florida and North Carolina before finally returning to the Hill.

The Jumbos earned a second place finish in last week's prestigious Easterns invitational tournament held in Wilmington, North Carolina, falling only in the tournament championship game, 15-11, to nationally-ranked third UNC Chapel Hill.

Tufts, the tournament's tenth seed out of 16 teams, knocked off North Carolina State, Cornell, U Penn, East Carolina, George Washington, and Ohio State on its path to the championship game.

The victory over Ohio State in the semifinals was especially gratifying for the E-Men; the previous weekend, the Buckeyes were one of only two blemishes on Tufts' otherwise perfect vacation record, losing to them 12-5 at the Southerns tournament at Georgia Southern University. Tufts placed fifth out of 50 teams in that tournament, falling in the single-elimination quarterfinals.

Ohio State went on to place second at Southerns, also losing in the title game to UNC Chapel Hill.

"We know we're a good team, and as long as people have a positive attitude we know that we can hang with any team in the country," sophomore Evan Ream said. "After the loss to Ohio State [at Southerns], we knew that we just would have to step it up, work hard, and have fun."

After the first weekend of play at Southerns, the E-Men traveled to Florida to get away from dreary weather in favor of the sun and sand in preparation for the subsequent Easterns tournament.

As fate would have it, the squad would get its second crack at the Buckeyes less than a week later.

"In Florida, we practiced and worked out, and played [Frisbee] on the beach, Ream continued. "When we played Ohio State again, we played together, we outran them, and we ended up dominating."

Tufts dropped the Buckeyes 15-5 in the rematch.

Senior handler Ariel Santos said that the hard work paid off.

"When [Ohio State] beat us before, they were running harder than us. They wanted it more than we did," Santos said. "We went to Florida and we worked on running hard and beating our assignments, and that's what we did in the Easterns."

Tufts was scheduled to play a weekend tournament at UMass Amherst that would have finished yesterday, but it was cancelled due to soggy field conditions.

The E-Men are a recognized club team playing in the New England Region of the Ultimate Players Association, the blanket organization for college Frisbee teams. The team is currently ranked second in its division, behind Brown who holds a record of 32-11.

Players agree that their own impressive play of late puts them in the same category with that of their southern rival, and expect that their latest victories will up the expectations and level of competition faced.

"Clearly, Brown and ourselves are the top two teams in the region and people are going to be gunning for us," Santos said. "The fact that we did so well, people are going to say 'hey, we want to beat these guys.' We can't let ourselves get lackadaisical."

Besides the physical training required for success, however, Ultimate also requires a certain financial commitment because colleges do not have varsity teams.

Because the E-Men are members of a club sport, players must pay for the majority of trips and tournaments, including their recent spring break trip. On average, players each had to pay $250 for hotel accommodations and miscellaneous fees for their latest trip, which didn't include costs for food and gasoline for the student drivers, who had to use their own personal vehicles for travel. Tufts paid the entrance fees into tournaments for the E-Men.

Looking ahead, the squad looks to continue its dominant season when it heads to Yale this weekend for Yale Cup, a competitive tournament featuring the dominant teams in New England.

In two weekends, both the A and the B squads will be in action at Tufts' own Cousens Fields, when the E-Men will host sectionals, the first stop on the E-Men's run at nationals.