Horsecows join haughty Yale discussion

Winning is usually its own incentive. However, when an extra little kick in the butt is needed, dangling shiny bits of added incentive in front of a team can't hurt, especially when the carrots are a ten hour drive and playing a bunch of schools that members of your team got rejected from. With this in mind, Oberlin's ultimate frisbee team, the Flying Horsecows, headed east for the annual Yale Cup tournament, held last weekend.

Going into Yale Cup, Oberlin had only posted lackluster performances at College Easterns and Clemson's Joint Summit Invitational, both over spring break. Yale was the step in the right direction they had been waiting for. "I had almost forgot how good it feels to stop sucking," said captain senior Jim Woodroffe, summing up the Flying Horsecow's turning point tournament.

The only other intercollegiate competition the Horsecows saw before Yale Cup were scrimmages with the College of Wooster and Case Western University on April 5. Oberlin took home wins in both games with blow out scores against the inexperienced teams, despite the fact that many players stayed on campus to catch up with work and/or fully recover from the previous night's Drag Ball activities, and the squad that did go was, simply put, not in the best of shape after a long night of events.

Yale Cup promised Oberlin the chance to play against teams from all across the Northeast. Altogether 20 men's teams and 10 women's came to compete. Due to various reasons, about 10 Horsecows, including five veteran players, could not make the trip, and they were still without the aid of Woodroffe due to a damaged ACL. Oberlin was bringing a small squad and fearing they would have to face another "learning experience" like the one over spring break.

After arriving in Yale, this initial possibility seemed likely. The first game of the weekend was against the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (yes, MIT). Oberlin, came out to a slow start and were down 3-1 before the offense strategies set in stone before the game came back around. Despite beginning to play strongly, the game began to go point-for-point with Oberlin just out of reach of the lead, and due to time constraints (the tournament institutes a "time cap" to make sure that the four games each team plays during the first day start close to on time, meaning that instead of being to 15 the games are played to a score determined by adding two points to the score of the team in the lead. i.e. MIT-10 Oberlin-9 when the time cap is put on = a game to 12) Oberlin lost 12-11, pissing off Oberlin to no end.

Next on the schedule was Yale's Superfly. With a home field advantage, big tall guys and a quick striking offense, Oberlin was out of the game faster than anyone could say "I can't believe we're losing to schools we got rejected from," and with a final score of 15-2 the Flying Horsecows were sent into their game long bye with a whole lot to ponder and not a lot of time to do it in.

The pondering came to an end with the Middlebury Pranksters, who were coming fresh from an equally demoralizing loss to Superfly. Oberlin came out fast and shut the Pranksters out from the start, flowing all across the field and finally making smart decisions in the red zone, making scoring much easier. Junior Sandy Bilus was joined by first-year Josh Adler and junior Scott Houghtaling (freshly returned from an extended bout with mononucleosis) to provide the team with a core of disc handlers confident and able to move the disc smoothly into the endzone. The Flying Horsecows took the game by a final score of 15-5, looking forward to their final game, against Haverford College.

The final game awakened a long standing rivalry between the two teams, particularly between sophomore Todd "scoring threat" Daloz and Haverford's David "not-a-thrower" Loller. The offensive confidence shown in the Middlebury game was joined by a strong defense. Oberlin starting forcing the other team to turn over the disc, and the strong play of the young squad powered Oberlin to a 15-8 victory, followed by much rejoicing, and a second place finish in their pool.

The second day opened up against the University of Pennsylvania's Void, testing Oberlin's resolve and ability to stay focused with the lead. After opening up to be ahead early, UPenn turned up their intensity and closed the gap, rattling off successive points and tying the game at 14-14 for game point. The tie was enough of a slap in the face to bring the 'Cows back into the game, and after a couple of poor offensive choices held onto the disc, finishing the game with a quick cut into the end zone by Bilus.

Advancing deeper into the A pool, Dartmouth's team was Oberlin's next obstacle. They also proved to be the insurmountable obstacle of the weekend. Dartmouth utilized speedy players and quick long cuts to take the lead at the half by 8-3. Effective use of Dartmouth's weaknesses and steller transition offensive play by juniors Ben Grubb and Dan Feldman got Oberlin six points in the second half, but it wasn't enough and the Big Green eliminated the 'Cows with a score of 15-9.

All in all, the tournament left the team with a better view of what is possible and where improvement is needed going into the next two weeks of play.

This weekend both the men's and women's teams will travel to Versailles, OH for College Sectionals.

The top three teams for both divisions will travel to Ann Arbor, MI next weekend for college regionals, and the top three from regionals qualify for college nationals, where the top 12 teams in the nation compete, held this year in Blaine, MN.

-Nachie Castro is a member of the men's ultimate frisbee team