We’re Going To the ‘ship!

SERF dominated the competition at Ohio Valley Division III Regionals this weekend, outscoring our opponents 96-53 on the weekend and not allowing any team to put up double digits on us.

Brendan O’Connor ’12 with the around-break against Lehigh

An exciting tournament with lots of upsets, Messiah finished first in Pool B over Ohio Northern and Denison, only to be knocked out in the semifinals by Lehigh (14-11) after allowing Wooster to mount a strong comeback in the quarterfinals (14-12). ONU’s loss to Messiah put them on our side of the bracket, creating a rematch in the semifinals of our game in the Ohio D-3 Conference Championship finals, when we scored three breaks in a row to come back and beat ONU 11-10. This weekend, however, we took care of business, routing Darkside 15-8. (Balance was restored to the Force.)

In the finals, we played our second game of the weekend against Lehigh, who came out strong — but not strong enough — against us in the first round of pool play on Saturday, only to drop their next game, against Xavier. In the games leading up to the finals on Sunday, however, it was obvious that a different team had come to play. Still, SERF took half on Lehigh in the finals 8-1, establishing a more or less insurmountable lead. It must be said, however, that our opponents took advantage of every lapse of focus, every dip in concentration, scoring 7 times in the second half to make the final 15-8. (One area in which SERF did not once falter was its unfailing response to Lehigh’s traditional cheer, “B-T! I-M-F!” with our own cheer, “Respect! Women!”)

The future of Ohio Valley D-3 ultimate looks bright and we are excited for the opportunity to play against these teams again next year. For the moment, however, we are simply ecstatic to be attending Nationals in Appleton, WI in three weeks. See you there.

2012 Ohio Valley D-3 Regional Champions

Kenyon Spring Invite and the 2012 College Series

This year, we finished the regular season with a 12-5 (.706) record and were ranked #4 out of D-III schools and #45 out of all schools in the country (Kenyon’s highest regular season finish).

Our final regular season tournament was the Kenyon Spring Invite (aka the 75th Annual FRED). The Invite, which had been shaping up to be quite a competitive tournament, suffered from some last minute cancellations. Nevertheless, SERF met its opponents on the field with vigor and aplomb. After being upset by Case Western Reserve in pool play (9-13), SERF found revenge in the finals on the turf against the Fighting Gobies (13-8).

Two weeks later, we began the college series, travelling to Versailles, OH for the Ohio D-3 Conference Championship. Unfortunately, in the intervening weeks, we lost one of our primary offensive handlers, Max Dugan ’14, to a broken arm. Conferences was our first opportunity to try out some new personnel configurations. SERF dispatched Xavier (14-9), John Carroll (14-4), and Ohio Wesleyan (14-5) all with relative ease. Conditions were not ideal, and Xavier certainly took advantage of some first round jitters before we were able to finish them off. Against John Carroll and OWU, however, we only allowed each team to score one point in the second half.

On Sunday, we matched up in the finals against Ohio Northern University, missing seniors Adrian Galvin and Kenny Polyak. ONU had a good regular season against other Ohio teams, but did not travel out of state to any tournaments, and knowing this, we may have written them off sooner than we should have. ONU went up 4-1 to start the first half before our D-line clawed its way back on serve. ONU took half 7-8. At this point the wind picked up again and the points started getting longer. We traded points until soft cap went off at 9-10. We composed ourselves, and D-line went to work again. Two breaks later, we had repeated as Ohio D-3 Conference Champions. 11-10 SERF.

Freshman Rob Heavner and sophomore Dan Kipp earned MVP discs, and junior Harry Hanson was honorably mentioned.

We are very much looking forward to hosting Ohio Valley D-3 Regionals this year. With only one bid to Nationals, every game will be extremely hard-fought, and home-field advantage is going to count for a lot.

Easterns Qualifier 2012: Saturday Night Lights

To kick off the first week of our spring break, SERF travelled en mass (32 players) down to Wilmington, NC for the second year in a row to compete at the Easterns Qualifier. Last year SERF underperformed at this tournament, losing all of our pool play games (some by a lot, some by a little) until finally turning things around with an epic, come-from-behind win against Tennessee in the consolation bracket on Sunday.

This year, things went somewhat differently. Our first game on Saturday was against cross-state friendly rivals Ohio University the 1st seed in our pool and 2nd seed overall, which we lost 15-9. SERF played well, but some nerves were apparent — understandable, given that it was our first competitive game in a month. OU would go on to win the pool. SERF demolished third seed William & Mary 15-6 in the next round, displaying exceptional disc-movement and distribution on offense and some serious playmaking on defense. In the final round of pool play, however, SERF was abruptly stopped by Virginia Tech’s zone defense. Despite valiant efforts by our D-line to keep us in the game, we lost 15-8. However, as the fourth seed in the pool, our victory over W&M earned us a spot in the prequarters, to be played at 7:30 Saturday evening, under the lights.

A warm, dry, and well-fed SERF returned to the fields after a two hour break to play the loser of the game between the University of South Carolina and the Ohio State University, a game which would determine the winner of Pool C. SERF looked on as Ohio State broke to win on double game point. We began warming up for our next game, which our veterans noted was to be played on the same field upon which a year before SERF had beaten Tennessee 10-8 after an 8-2 deficit at half. Not wanting to repeat this part of team history, we decided to go for the jugular immediately against a very dangerous, very talented South Carolina team that had just suffered an incredible loss. SERF did not disappoint, the D-line simply running riot. The final score was 15-6 in SERF’s favor.

This victory put us in the quarterfinals against overall one seed and tournament hosts UNC-Wilmington at 9:30 the next morning. SERF went to bed tired and happy, ready to continue to defy expectations on Sunday. Waking up, however, we learned that the rain in which we had played the night before had continued through the morning, saturating the fields completely. The rest of the tournament was cancelled, and SERF, disappointed, made our way down to our house in North Myrtle Beach for a week of practice and team bonding.

Music City Tune-Up 2012

This past weekend, SERF returned to Nashville, Tennessee to play at Vanderbilt University’s Music City Tune-Up. SERF entered the tournament as the 5th seed overall, matched up in a pool with the host team, Emory University, and the University of Wisconsin B-team. SERF easily dispatched Wisco-B in the first round 13-4, but the strength of the Wisconsin program was nonetheless very apparent. The second round against Emory was a rematch from last year, and for the second year in a row SERF prevailed. Staying on serve for the first half, SERF punched in a few breaks early in the second and rode those to the hard cap. In the third round, we found ourselves lined up across the field from a Vanderbilt team who had only a week before taken down Ohio rivals University of Cincinnati. SERF D-line broke to take half 7-3, but the home team took advantage of some O-line miscues in the second half and started building a comeback before D-line again clamped down and finished out the game 13-11.

The fourth round of play on Saturday consisted of crossover games to determine which side of the bracket teams would be placed on Sunday, with each of the pool winners playing each other. In our first game played with observers of the year, SERF found ourselves playing in another rematch, this time against a team we had lost to in the consolation bracket at MLC: St. Louis University. This time, SERF took half 7-6, but allowed SLU to come back and win 13-11 in a heartbreaker.

Sunday morning SERF played in the quarterfinals against the University of Mississippi, an athletic team but a small one. SERF came out sluggish and was down 8-6 at half, but fired things up in the second and put Ole Miss away 15-12. In the semi-finals SERF ground out solid defensive play but ultimately would lose on double game point to the resilient University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Rather than play against Vanderbilt again in the 3rd place game, SERF opted to get on the road early.

SERF has set the bar high for the rest of the season, and with two key seniors missing — one on the O-line and one on the D-line — we will be looking forward to our next tournament, the Easterns Qualifier in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Thanks again to the Warlick family for being such gracious and generous hosts!

Alumni Weekend

We are pleased to announce that this April 7th and 8th we will be hosting the first ever Kenyon Ultimate Alumni Weekend. In the past, we have invited alumni back for our home tournament around this time; due to some college series restructuring and sanctioning issues, however, we think it will be better to have a weekend purely devoted to kicking it with some disc-loving old heads.

The exact schedule for the week is up in the air but here are some things to expect:

•  18 holes of Kenyon disc golf!
•  An alumni vs. active team game, as well as a game between teams composed of both!
•  Other fun disc related games such as double disc court, destructo-disc, and ultisquash!
•  Networking and debauchery!
•  A possible exhibition game vs. The Ohio State University

Now, while Serf may have reverted to outdated and misogynistic practices (i.e. we’re a men’s team now), the wider Kenyon ultimate community remains a thoroughly mixed one; make no mistake, we’d love to have alumni of both genders visit.

So come join us, hang out with your old teammates and meet the hip new generation of Kenyon disc slingers. Please pass this info along to whomever you think interested.

Kenyon Spring Invite

Kenyon College SERF cordially invites you to our annual Spring Invite, March 24-25 in Gambier, OH. We are encouraging teams who are competitive at the D1 Regionals level or higher to submit bids, although all bids will be considered. The tournament will be fully sanctioned and we are planning on having observers for bracket play on Sunday. We have nice grass fields secured for the event, and the finals will be played in our football stadium on field turf (the nice kind) Sunday and filmed from a high vantage point. Video will be shared online for all to see. We already have received several quality bids and anticipate the rest of the spots will fill up quickly. Bids are $250 and if you would like to submit a bid please do so here: Bid Form.

Score reporter link: http://scores.usaultimate.org/scores/#college-open/tournament/10487

Gambier, OH is in Central Ohio and has lots of affordable hotel/motel options within 15 minutes of the fields.

Missouri Loves Company 2011

SERF rolled out of Gambier in two vans on Friday afternoon, embarking on a 10 hour long journey to Columbia, MO to play our last and most competitive tournament of the season. This was also SERF’s first fall tournament with a more or less full roster, finally giving us the opportunity to see what we are capable of at full strength.

In the first round of pool play on Saturday morning we dispatched the University of Northern Iowa AmmUNItion, the fourth seed in our pool, with relative ease, 15-10. During this game and the next D-line came out looking for blood, breaking to start against Ammo and breaking to both start and end the first half against third seed Washington University Contra. The second half of the game against Contra became somewhat chippy in parts, both teams playing hard, physical defense, but the meeting ended in good spirits. Before our last game of the day, against first seed Kansas State Huckstables, SERF took a moment to reflect on the patience and efficiency that had defined our play in the first two rounds of the day, pleased in the knowledge that in many of the points played most — if not all — of the players on the field had touched the disc at least once. We knew then that we were capable of sustaining the calm, mechanical offense that we had caught glimpses of in practice or at other tournaments, but here saw consistently across the course of two games.

The goal, then, was to carry that into the next round. Like Kenyon, Kansas State came into MLC with something to prove: K-State finished 4th at Centex last year (losing 15-6 in the semifinals to eventual champions and Nationals qualifier Colorado College and 14-13 in the 3rd place game to Nationals qualifier University of Texas), finishing 5th at Regionals and ranked 33rd in the country. Our game against them was one of the best we have ever played, both in terms of quality of performance and spiritedness. SERF took half 8-6 again, knowing that the Huckstables would come out hard in the second half — and they did. Through several marathon points, SERF was able to hold on to the two point lead and finish the game 12-10. The last point of the game was one of the longest, possession of the disc being traded back and forth as K-State tried desperately to work it up the field against both the wind and the hardcap, but Kenyon players came up with D after D, and eventually Adrian Galvin ’12 took over with bookends for the win. This last play is visible at 1:23 of this video, put together by Asa Nelson ’15.

Beating Kansas State put SERF in the championship bracket, facing off at 8:30 Sunday morning in the pre-quarters against Minnesota Grey Duck, who had pulled an upset of their own over National Champions Carleton College CUT. The wind on Sunday morning was significantly stronger than it had been even at its worst on Saturday, gusting and shifting in direction every few minutes. Both Kenyon and Minnesota would struggle in these conditions, resulting in a 10-6 loss for SERF that did not really truly the quality of either team. After playing a tight rotation against Minnesota (and K-State on Saturday), SERF decided to open up the lines and get the less experienced players who had been invited to make the trip more playing time against Harding University and the University of St. Louis, both of whom had also won their pools on Saturday. The captains acknowledged that, despite losing both games, the SERF young bulls had demonstrated a tenacity and level of teamwork that everyone should strive to emulate.

All in all, an extremely successful weekend, and an excellent finish to the fall season. Time to hit the track!

Fall Recap

The fall season thus far has been both busy and successful for SERF, attending three tournaments – Whitesmoke XVI!, a one day round robin at Ohio University, and Ohio State’s Fall Brawl – after hosting the Fall Preview all the way back in the beginning of September. All of our veterans have been astonished with how quickly our freshman and new sophomores have picked up the game, which is no doubt in large part due to the efforts of our new (hopefully permanent) coach, Brady, formerly of Chicago’s Machine. Low numbers at some of those tournaments gave rookies many opportunities to shine, particularly at the OU round robin over October Break, where a 10 man Kenyon squad composed of one senior, one junior, two sophomores, and six freshmen beat two OSU teams and one of two OU teams, all easily twice the size of our own team.

In three weeks SERF will be driving out to Columbia, MO, for Missouri Loves Company, where we will match up against some of the most elite college teams in the country, including Colorado Mamabird, the Wisconsin Hodags, Iowa IHUC, Minnesota Grey Duck, Michigan MagnUM, and everyone’s favorite DIII ballers, Carleton CUT. This is by far the most competitive tournament that SERF has ever attended, and we hope that success there will put us in good standing to attend similar tournaments in the spring. We are very excited.

Quick Spring Season Recap

"War Face" by O'Neill Cushman '11

The 2011 campaign was the most successful season in the history of SERF. Overall the team went 20-9 this spring, finishing 6th at Regionals. We went down in the quarter-finals 15-9 to the University of Pittsburgh, who went on to win the region and were seeded first at Division I Nationals.

Looking at the odometer we put a total of 8,228 miles on our school’s van fleet to play frisbee. Thanks Kenyon!

The 2011 College Series

After underperforming during the regular season, SERF has started the 2011 college series off with a bang, going 4-0 on the weekend at Conferences, walking to a 1st place finish and snapping up the bid to D-I Regionals. Playing in atrocious weather and with a fair number of key players injured or sick, SERF remained mentally strong and established itself not simply as the dominant team in the conference but as yet another D-III program with longevity and growing momentum.

We look forward to proving our mettle at D-I Regionals. With only one bid to Nationals out of the region, each game will no doubt be hotly contested, but SERF will continue to set its sights on the highest level of achievement and competition.