2009 UPA Club Regionals Tournament Recap
Truck Stop wins regionals in dramatic fashion for first time in team history.
For the first time in its young history, Truck Stop dominated Regionals from start to finish, fending off Ring of Fire to stake a claim to the #1 seed in the Mid-Atlantic region.
Truck Stop set the tone early, jumping out to a commanding lead against young and athletic Virginia Tech en route to a decisive 15-2 victory. Sectionals rivals Medicine Men and Wiretap dueled to a universe point finish on the adjacent field, a big win for Med Men. Truck again opened with hunger, throwing a variety of different defenses and waves of fresh defenders at the Baltimore boys, controlling the air and punishing mistakes for prompt breaks. Result: 15-7, Truck Stop.
The final game of the day would be big: perennial Regional contender Los from North Carolina. The Chesapeake matchup had been too close to comfort, with neither team able to gain the advantage and heading on-serve into half before Truck pulled away at the end. Truck Stop was determined that there would be no repeat here, and came out aggressive and dominant. The offense moved the disc easily, handlers breaking the mark and setting up high percentage away shots that Truck pulled down again and again. The D again patrolled the air, staking a claim to supremacy early and forcing Los under where the Deuce lurked for explosive layout Ds. Relentless pressure closed out the game on D: 15-7.
Saturday: 3-0, 45-16. The Truck retired to the hotel where the Georgia boys watched in crushing disappointment as LSU pulled out a come-from-behind victory. Taco Mexico provided much-needed vittles in preparation for the Finals.
Sunday: Truck arrived at the fields early on a beautiful fall day in Virginia. When the first pull went up at 10:45, Truck set the tone and never looked back, opening up a 4-1 lead on the strength of some sneaky Deuce and Jammin D (injured handler Daniel Noll channeled his energy into a play-by-play on the Twitter feed here: http://twitter.com/TruckStopUlti). Both sides produced Ds but failed to convert, leading to an 8-6 Truck Stop lead at half.
Ring began to close late in the game, earning back a break to tie the game at 10, but Truck D answers with a break to go back up 12-10. Ring scores to narrow the lead, and promptly gets a first pass layout block after a huge pull to tie the game at 12 – soft cap on. After a very sassy point with multiple travel calls and lots of fouling on the mark, Truck finally works the disc upfield to captain Keven Moldenhauer who uncorks a massive flick huck to Bucknell pickup Jeff Wodatch at the back of the endzone to go up 13-12. Ring scores to bring the game to universe, but a stingy Truck O works it patiently upfield before a looping swing pass finds Truck Stop veteran Ben Cohen in the endzone for the score and the victory. Game, tournament, Regionals. Truck Stop’s first victory over Ring, its first Regionals Championship… and a return trip to Sarasota to continue the feast.
For full tournament results, visit the UPA score reporter here: http://upa.org/scores/tourn.cgi?div=20&id=6090