The Tufts E-Men progressed to the semifinals of the UMassacre Tournament this weekend. Then they got stuck in the mud.
After winning five of their first six games to earn a trip to the tournament semifinals, the E-men saw their tournament end prematurely at the hands of Amherst Regional High School.
"We were not as good as we have been our past few tournaments," sophomore Sam DuPont said. "We're a little disappointed on the whole. We lost two games and we were going into the tournament hoping to win it."
After losing to host UMass earlier in the tournament, the E-Men were one win away from setting up a rematch in the tournament finals. Standing in their way was one of the best high school teams in the nation.
"They're perennially the best high school team in the nation," DuPont said. "They've got very good throws. When they play against college teams, they have nothing to lose. From our standpoint, if we win, we beat a high school team. If we lose, we look like idiots."
The E-Men's fear of falling short against a high school team became a reality in the first half. Amherst completely dominated Tufts early on, grabbing a 7-1 lead going into the halftime break.
The Jumbos responded, however, going on a 7-1 run in the second half to tie the game at eight. At that point, Amherst swiped the match on a long pass to secure the 9-8 win.
"The good thing about that game is that we refused to give up," said senior captain Rob Spies. "We really battled back and we almost won."
The match left the E-Men with a sour taste in their mouths after enjoying a comparably sweet victory over Dartmouth in the quarterfinals. Dartmouth is considered one of the top teams in the region.
"Every chance we get to match up with a regional rival, especially one of the best regional rivals, we don't take that game lightly," Spies said. "We came out in that game and we pretty much just showed that we are a better team than them."
According to the players, the E-Men held an athletic advantage, and used that advantage to move the Frisbee quickly and outrun Dartmouth.
The win helped the team bounce back from an early loss to the tournament's hosts. After easily winning its first three games, Tufts faced UMass in extremely poor field conditions, and lost 13-9.
"All Saturday, we were six inches deep in mud, which makes it hard to run," DuPont said. "That's kind of an equalizer. I think we're better than UMass, but they got the better of us."
UMass went on to win the tournament championship. While the E-Men had their sights set on a first-place finish, they are not overly concerned about their failure to win.
"The tournaments that we're playing now are all basically tune-up tournaments," DuPont said. "Our real season starts in two weeks with Metro Boston Sectionals. That's the first step to Nationals."
Currently, the E-Men are ranked No. 18 nationally in the Ultimate Players Association Top 25, ahead of any other team in the region.
