Las Vegas is typically known for world-class gambling, shopping, entertainment, bright lights and structural masterpieces. But last weekend, Sin City also took center stage as the host of one of the premier ultimate Frisbee competitions in the country.
For the past three years, nearly 100 of the nation's top college ultimate teams have gathered in Las Vegas to spar for the chance to be the "Trouble in Vegas" tournament champion. Funding itself completely out of its own pockets, Tufts was one of the squads who made the trip to the event, held this past weekend.
"There are tons of teams there from all over the country, so we know the competition is going to be really good," said sophomore Andrew Hollingworth, one of the team's captains. "It's early in our season, and it affords us the opportunity to play outside in February, unlike here. It's a lot of fun and a great experience to go to Vegas ... it's a chance for the Tufts program to go out and be successful."
And that's not to say that the team hasn't been successful in the past. Since Tufts' ultimate team was founded in 1972, the squad has been a perennial winner and has been a major player on the college ultimate scene. In 1984, three Tufts students lobbied to start the First Annual Ultimate Frisbee College Nationals. After a few years of pressing, the idea finally went through, and the rest is history - Tufts hosted the first-ever event.
In keeping with that legacy, the current Tufts team is seeking to qualify for Sectionals, then Regionals, and hopefully will get the chance to go to Boulder, Colo. for Nationals in May.
"We're going to a tournament in Georgia over spring break," Hollingworth said. "Then we've got a few tournaments in the Northeast before Sectionals, Regionals, and Nationals."
The Vegas tournament was a venue for preparation for many of these teams eager to get the season started. Although Tufts was initially seeded in the middle of the pack - in the third of five tiers - it strung together enough wins to gradually move up into position to make the championship bracket.
The team wound up with an impressive 8-1 record, but the lone setback was a back-breaker - a one-point defeat to the eventual tournament champion University of Wisconsin. While the loss prevented Tufts from reaching the championship bracket, the team still considers the trip a great experience.
"It was awesome to be able to take 20 guys from our A team and 20 from our B, and close to 20 girls for the Women's Division," Hollingworth said. "We did really well going 8-1, and our only loss was by one point to a team that went to the finals."
The Tufts team will try to improve upon its work last spring, when it started off 4-5 at the Vegas tournament and went on to go 22-19 for the overall spring season. In the Northeast Open Regionals, the team finished 2-2 and in the seventh overall position, denying it a trip to Nationals.
