History: 2010 – 2011 Season

-Excerpt from Skyd Ultimate tournament article.

Pitt has attended 3 UOA events and has scored 15 points in every
single game(24 games). However, on Saturday, they lost to Virginia Tech 16-15, their
only UOA loss. In their other 6 pool games, they allowed an average of only 7.5 goals
per game. Pitt cruised thru Sunday pool play with wins over Brandeis, Tennessee and James Madison.



The final round of pool play was VT v Dartmouth. The winner, with some point differential help would advance to Finals. Dartmouth beat VT by 3…….so Pitt, Dartmouth and VT were all
knotted at 6-1. Pitt had beaten Dartmouth soundly on Sat….giving them a +6
differential. Despite the 3 point win over VT, Dartmouth couldn’t recover (point
difference-wise) from their Sat loss to Pitt, so VT claimed the 2 spot by only 2 points.

Pittsburgh went on to beat Virginia Tech 15-7 to claim the first UOA Fall National Championship.
Pitt v Virginia Tech in Finals. -Paraphrased from R. Fanelli on RSD

Final: Virginia Tech
When asked if it’d be another exciting game between Pitt and VT, an
unidentified Pitt player said, “No, we’re going to beat them 15-5.”
Whoa. Bold prediction, but only slightly off.

Pitt pretty much dominated from the get go. Winning the first UOA
National Championship by a final score of 15-7.

The UOA had an MVP plaque to hand out, but Pitt, as described by
one UOA official, is a faceless nameless mob of athletes who can all
do everything pretty well. So after handing out the National Championhip UOA CUP, I stuck the
MVP trophy into the faceless nameless mob and Julian, who threw some
awesome deep flicks for goals was the first to grab it.
I am certain that he is sharing the award with the tiny little skinny
kid who played very well and #81 who was outstanding on D and
scoring some great goals and there are more who should be sharing
the award as well. ” -Paraphrased by R. Fanelli on RSD

Stanford Invite 2011: Stanford, CA – March 5th – 6th, 2011

Pitt opted to skip their February tournament because of the traditionally bad weather. This made the Stanford Invite En Sabah Nur’s debut to the 2011 season where they would face 10 of last year’s teams at nationals a 12 teams that are ranked in the top 20 this year. On Saturday in pool play, they slowly shook the rust as they defeated San Diego State and California-San Diego. Unfortunately, they didn’t shake enough off to win the pool against Oregon.

On Sunday, Pittsburgh showed they had the talent and mental toughness to play high level college ultimate. They mounted two major come backs against British Columbia and Colorado to win their quarterfinal and semifinal matchups. This put them in the finals against last year’s national finalist, Carleton. Unfortunately, Pittsburgh was out of gas at this point. Carleton was fresher and was able to cruise to a 15-8 victory.

This was a great first tournament for Pitt. To get a look at some game footage check out USA Ultimate’s Stanford Invite highlights.

Pool Play: Oregon
Oregon came out this game gunning for the #1 pool seed Pittsburgh. They broke Pittsburgh on their offensive point and kept rolling to take half at 8-5. Pittsburgh just wasn’t able to shut down their cutters and generate the turns. At 14-11, Pittsburgh finally woke up and showed the mental toughness to dig themselves out of their and hold and tie the game up at 14s. Unfortunately, Oregon was able to score on offense and finish it on D to win the pool 16-14.

It was great to see Sabah be mentally tough enough to dig deep and not just let the game go when it was game point. While they didn’t pull out the win, this gives them an extra game on Sunday and will leave them hungry.

Prequarterfinal: Tufts
Sunday morning while warming up to play Tufts, Andrej said, “Tufts doesn’t know what is about to hit them” and they didn’t. Sabah just came out and dominated the game from the first point. They went up 3-0, took half 8-3, and won the game 15-6. Tufts is a good team, but they just don’t have the depth or talent of Pittsburgh yet. The most notable thing about this game might have been the Tufts player who kept stepping into Tyler when Tyler was sprinting since they could not contain him any other way. Tyler talked to the observed, but he kept happening. After the third time, Tyler pushed back.

Quarterfinal: British Columbia
“Pitt had easily the toughest schedule of the tournament, playing all four of Saturday’s undefeated pool winners. On Sunday, they started the day strong with an easy win over Tufts. Next, in their game against British Columbia, Pitt fell behind with UBC taking half 4-8. Pitt would come back from a 5-10 deficit to fight all the way to winning 16-15 on universe point. “We what weren’t able to show yesterday was coming back from behind,” explains Rich Coker, an alumnus of Pitt who was with the team all weekend.” –Skyd Magazine

Semifinal: Colorado
Pittsburgh came out a little flat in this game as well. Colorado came out strong and took half 8-5. However, Pittsburgh showed their depth and mental toughness again as they dug themselves out of another deficit. En Sabah Nur took the lead at 12-11 on this spectacular break from Eddie Peters to Ethan Beardsley. After that break, the teams traded out to the hard cap at 14. Pitt wins 14-13.

One of my favorite plays of the weekend was after Andrej was on the receiving end of a Colorado defender’s spectacular sky, he went on to get a head block to the disc back before they punched it in.

Final: Carleton College
I’m calling this game a wash. Pittsburgh had played 78 points on Sunday before coming into this game. Carleton had only played 44. Though, part of this was that Carleton had one less game, it also came because they finished off their quarterfinal and semifinal opponents off quicker. Pittsburgh just didn’t have the legs to get it done.

Skyd Magazine said, “Unfortunately for Pitt, after two long, grueling comeback games, they met a well-rested Carleton team in the finals. “Over the weekend, we probably lost a player a game to injury,” explains Coker. Many of Pitt’s top players had gone with injuries from overworked muscles. Pitt had been able to wear down UBC and Colorado with their great depth and reliance on the entire team, using a much wider rotation than other elite teams. “This day was won on depth,” says Coker. By Carleton, the team was beaten up and unable to face a talented Carleton team that had gotten time to rest before the finals. Carleton won 15-8 to take the championship.”

Easterns: Wilmington, NC – March 19th – 20th, 2011

Quarterfinal: Colorado

“Though Pittsburgh broke to start the game and looked more focused in the first few points, Colorado was quick to respond by turning in one of its best defensive performances of the season, fighting back to go into half down only one break, 8-7.

Pittsburgh held out of half to make the score 9-7, but Colorado’s ability to force Pitt into rushed throws in their fast break defensive offense along with the stead play of Jack McShane brought the score to 9-9.

Up 11-10, Pitt’s Eddie Peters came up with a huge block close to the Colorado endzone line that Pittsburgh punched in for the break, 12-10. While Colorado would hold on the next point to make the score 12-11, it would miss the next break opportunity A huge Jimmy Mickle pull hit a towering light pole fifteen yards off of the sideline, and Pittsburgh capitalized on their field position to punch in the easy score. All day, Pitt’s endzone offense looked steady on both offense and defense, with handlers Alex Thorne, Chris Brenenborg, and Isaac Saul constantly threatening to break the mark while Pitt cutters showed both speed and discipline.

At this point, the cap went on, and it was too little, too late for Colorado. Pittsburgh stood steady under pressure, and the teams traded scores toward a 15-13 Pittsburgh victory.” –Skyd Magazine

Final: Florida

“While many expected [Florida] to struggle when up against Pittsburgh’s tenacious defense without their offensive star Cole Sullivan, they did not, remaining poised and committed to keeping the disc alive on the dump and hitting taking deep chances when a teammate was open.

Florida was also helped in the first half by Pittsburgh’s decision not to throw a zone or force middle, strategies that may have forced Florida’s interim handlers to make more throws into difficult-to-hit spaces. While the teams went into half on serve at 8-7, Florida, Pittsburgh certainly missed its chance to earn a few breaks in Sullivan’s absence.

Out of half, Pittsburgh’s Alex Thorne stood out quite a bit, getting open at will and throwing give and goes all the way down the field. His work on Pitt’s first point, however, was for naught, as Florida converted a missed breakmark attempt on the endzone line into a break that made the score 9-7.

On the next point, Thorne pulled down a huge sky over the much bigger Sullivan to bring it to 9-8. He would continue to impress throughout the game, coming up with another layout catch for a score and consistently making difficult throws look easy.

At 11-9, Florida called timeout on the endzone line and earned another break after blocking Pittsburgh twice (the first was a Coleman Hoover layout and the second was a sky by Gaines on Pitt’s Tyler DeGirolamo). Throughout the weekend, no team used its timeouts as well as the Gators.

With the score at 13-11 and the horn blowing to point cap the game at 13-11, Pittsburgh threw a zone that took them on a run, bringing the score to 14-14 and looking like they might steal the win.

With an upwind pull that landed halfway back in Florida’s endzone and very close to the sideline, Pittsburgh set a flick-forcing zone. Alex Hill picked up the disc, and while his teammates worked to find open space, Hill saw nothing that he liked and called a timeout.

The Pitt mark had said “stalling eight,” and the count would be coming in on “stalling nine.”

What happened out of the timeout was surreal. Required to set first because they were on offense, Florida lined up Gaines as Hill’s dump. Sullivan, Sage, Travis Catron, Glenn Lenberger, and Jeff Kale, were all 50 yards downfield.

With Pittsburgh setting up the same cup that the came down in, everybody knew what was coming. As the disc was tapped in, Hill stepped back, wound up, and let it fly.

The Easterns fields are surrounded by a group of huge light poles, all standing about 15 yards off of the sidelines. Earlier in the day, Colorado’s Jimmy Mickle had hit one with a pull, stopping Mamabird’s momentum in their quarterfinal game against Pitt.

As though it was designed for dramatic effect, Hill’s huck soared around the nearest light post and began to float down into a wolfpack of Gators and En Sabah Nur players that were jockeying for position.

At first, it looked as though Sullivan was going to make the grab. After all, he is known more for his ability to box out and will himself to a disc than he is for being a big leaper. When he jumped, though, Pitt’s DeGirolamo applied enough pressure to make Sullivan tip the disc but not bring it in.

Luckily for Florida, however, Sage was trailing the play and the disc floated easily into his hands; after catching it, an easy two-yard backhand to Catron made Florida the 2011 College Easterns Champions.”
–Skyd Magazine

Here is a two segment video of the final point, Pittsburgh-Florida. The game was tied at 14′s, with the next point winning. Florida is the receiving team with Alex Hill picking up the disc. Make note of the pole in the first video. The disc is coming back on Stall 9 in this second video. Alex Hill wraps his flick huck around the pole, which gets tipped by Cole Sullivan into the hands of Nathan Sage who flips it for the win.” – Skyd Magazize

phil b says via RSD, “i put a stopwatch on that stall count and got to 10.5ish.with the noise it’s hard to tell when the stoppage happens, tho. nice work Pitt for having a legit stall count.

2011 West Penn D-1 Conference Championships: Shippensburg, PA – April 23rd – 24th, 2011

Sabah tried something new this year. Instead of sending enough players to play wiffle ball between rounds, Sabah only sent half their team. They still won it. The Program has come a long way.

2011 Ohio Valley DI Regionals: Manheim, PA – April 30th – May 1st, 2011

With only one bid to nationals out of the Ohio Valley Region, one of two streaks was going to come to an end. Pittsburgh would not make nationals or, after six years of winning the Pittsburgh Cup (the backdoor/2nd Place game), they would win their region. Despite some strong showings by Dickinson and Millersville, Pittsburgh was able to finally bring home their first Regional Championship.

Here is USA ultimate’s recap of regionals.

Final: Penn State
The final game of Sabah securing their first regional championship was filmed by www.discvideos.com and broken into two parts. Part 1:

Part 2:

2011 USAU DI College Championships: Boulder, CO – May 27th – 30th, 2011

Pool Play: Iowa

Footage starts at 0:53

Quarterfinal: Colorado
On paper, the marquee match up was Colorado and Pittsburgh. These were the tournament’s top two seeds coming into the weekend, and while Pittsburgh owned a 2-0 pre-Series record against Colorado, each of their previous games was close.

This one was not. Colorado jumped out to a 5-0 lead on the strength of physical defense that forced Pittsburgh to throw the disc into tightly guarded spaces, and with its offense connecting on deep shots, Mamabird never really looked back. Pittsburgh was able to trade points with Colorado after an 8-3 half, but the effort was too little, too late.

Written by Jonathan Neely for USA Ultimate

Pittsburgh-B Tournaments

Skylander X: Edinboro, PA – October 23rd – 24th, 2010

Pitt-B rolled in to the Dilla household to hang out with Roger, his parents, his bearskin rug, his handmade barn, and homemade foods including; apple pie, iced tea, tacos, chicken dip, sausage (made from freshly hunted venison), and applesauce. It was pretty legit.

Reflections: Steve blew Rookie of the Tournament by locking Ari’s keys in his trunk, leaving the award to Alex by a nose over Frank and Rodger. Pitt takes 9th very easily, and probably should’ve gotten 5th. It was a good first showing, but the bottom line is that there was no big win at this tournament. The team’s anxious to get that win, and well… is having a lot of fun.

Pool Play: George Mason
This was Pitt-B’s first game as a team this year, and the O-line came on and scored
the year’s first point in four throws, Asher to Corey. The next point put on a half-
inexperienced Pitt D-line that got about five turns, but couldn’t score. This trend held to
3-2 Pitt before the first break. Pitt would go up two breaks and take half, 7-4. Pitt threw
zone coming out of the half for two quick breaks, going up 9-4. Pitt couldn’t putt G-M
away when they were oh the ropes, letting the game get back to 12-8, but the O-line put
the game away on a huck pulled in by Earles, and a quick dish to end it.

BYE,
Bagels bagels bagels. Pickles pickles pickles.

Pool Play: Millersville
Matt Esser was making an early start on his all-region campaign for Millersville. Millersville
had a decent supporting cast of competent players on a small roster that conserved energy
with a 3-man cup plus-1 on the reset handler. Fortune favored them with conditions,
as winds picked up and drizzle came down as Pitt attempted to play against the first 3-
plus-one they’d seen this year (out of two games). After going down 5-0, Pitt eventually
found a way to get discs through the cup. Last second errors and breakouts, bracketed by
really solid play from Millersville’s downfielders, created a lot of turns. The final story
in this game from Pitt was a lot of possession, a lot of D’s, but even more turnovers, and
only a few scores. Millersville was more opportunistic, and their zone was better. More
tragic than the L was the loss of Weiman to a knee-on-thigh collision.

Pool Play: Edinboro X
This was the first victory against a Boro team for this generation of B-teamers, and
frankly, it was smooth as a hairless mole rat. Pitt went up 2-0, but let Boro get back
to 2-2. Ari came in to demonstrate popping in a zone, and after getting the disc to the
goal line Asher put up a floaty around backhand that ended up with a 3-2 Pitt lead and
an impactful injury to Boro’s best player’s elbow under the mighty thigh of coach Ari.
Having paved the way, Pitt marched down to take half, 7-4. After scoring the half’s first
O-point, Pitt put on a very young inexperienced D-line that managed to rattle off four
consecutive breaks, highlighted by egregious catches on broken plays from Adam and
Ryan. The teams traded to end the game, 13-5.

Pool Play: Hampton High School
This game was for Nick, whose illustrious high school career was hounded by a winless
record against Hampton. Nick played every point, and came down with about half of
the goals, courtesy of hucks from Rakers and Wei (who hobbled in on a few points to
defend one of Hampton’s girls). This was obviously not a hard game (with about five
players calling it a day by the second half), but it was pretty fun and surprisingly not too
awkward. Nick after the game: “I feel great. Honestly, it wouldn’t have mattered if it
was Hampton Elementary.”

Dinner: Chinese buffet featuring everything. Rodger’s fortune cookie says “You look good, and
you know it!” Food comas all around!

Prequarterfinal: Mt. Lebanon High School
What was in effect a high school all-star team with five standouts was able to take half
on an uptight Pitt-B team running a tight rotation. After getting several turns off of zone
the first few points and failing to score, Pitt went down 5-1 to the PHUL boys mainly on
a field position game. PHUL takes half 8-2 after figuring out the zone before Pitt did.
Alex, Frank, Rodger, Nick, Adam, and Tony stayed on for three straight points out of half
and exhibited the “I don’t give a fuck what your name is…. yay frisbee!” attitude that got
Pitt back to 12-11. Rakers battled through a bloody nose and stayed on for the game’s
end. However, it was too little too late as the PHUL boys took it down, 15-11. Patrick
Earles is a college-ready handler and Joe Bender is a college ready cutter, they will be
players to watch in their college careers.

Quarterfinal: Virginia B
Virginia goes up 2-0 on some sloppy play by Pitt. The D-line comes out on O and is
told to sack up, call picks, and stop playing down to their competition. At 3-2 Pitt, coach
says it will be a failure if Virginia scores again in the first half. At 8-2 Pitt went into half
satisfied, took the foot off the pedal, and mixed it up for the rest of the game. Virginia
ran mostly through an ex-Illinois handler, with two other guys who knew how to throw
well. They were ultimately unimaginative, slower, and less deep than Pitt, who threw a
couple different D looks at them to knock them out of their narrow comfort zone and win
without ever reaching full exertion. Starters were off at 12-4, when the teams traded to
finish out. The highlight of this game came early, when Alex scored off of an ISO cut
but had it called back on a dubious push-off call. He then spin-moved the kid back into I-
wish-I-hadn’t-called-that Land. The game was over right there.

Semifinal: West Virginia Alumni
Game to 11 was a blur, as a Pitt squad with rookie heavy lines controlled WVU the
whole time. WVU was very inexperienced, and did not seem like any alumni team ever
faced before. Nothing special to report here, except that WVU started the game with the
cheer “Backyard Brawl” we returned by simply saying one word: “Syracuse”.

Final: Penn State-Behrend
Pitt wins the game to 11 by a score of 14-4 due to PSU not being able to count, and Pitt
not caring enough to correct them. This game saw a lot of “ISO Dima!” and easy scores
off Allen Rakers break throws near the endzone. It also marked a tournament where
all three first time players combined for zero drops. The highlight of the game was
likely when a PSU player streaked deep after a pick call. PSU starts wigging out about
the pick, and “it’s my first tournament” Alex tells everyone to Bro The Fuck Out and
get back to their original spots, it’s just a pick, the defender catches up. Asher and Ari
exchange Fonzi looks on the sideline. It’s gonna be a good year.

Fall Brawl 2010: Princeton, NJ – November 13th – 14th, 2010

Pittsburgh-B finished 14th at this tournament.

Steakfest ’11: Manheim, PA – March 19th – 20th, 2011

Pool Play: Messiah
So, this game turned into our first real battle of the season. In a very upwind/downwind game, both teams resorted to basically just try to huck and hope up field and go zone the other way. For both teams we needed to go over the cup to beat the zone. Wei had atleast ten d’s in the d line. O line was effective. After short runs from both teams at the beginning, we traded the rest of the way. One of our guys got a massive case of the dropsies and on what looked like it was the last point of the game, had a bad drop. Messiah scores, then is able to work the disc all the way up the field to score on the following point. Game over. Not our best effort, not really ultimate, not really acceptable.

Pool Play: SUNY-Albany
Not a good team. We played dumb at first, had a relatively close first half then took them out. We played loose. We won. Again an upwind downwind game

Crossover: Philadelphia
Nothing notable in this game. This team is really bad. The one thing I learned was that cleats do come in pink.

Round of 32: St. Joseph’s
What a terrible start. We went down 3 immediately. Eric Turffed one. Simple turns really qucik. And St. Joes totally capitalized on the quick turn and scored immediately. At a point we were down 5-1. We got our heads down, but then we came back. 5-6 at one point. We went to 11s. Lose the game on universe. We played very well, just with a start like that we can’t do much about it.

IUP Nutbusters VI: Indiana, PA – March 26th – 27th, 2011

UOA B Team Nationals: East Carolina University – Greenville, NC – April 2nd – 3rd, 2011

Pitt earned their way to the UOA B Team Finals and were a win away
from the Pitt teams owning the UOA National Championship AND the UOA B
Team National Championship. Unfortunately for them, they ran into Florida in the final, who were virtually untested thus far in the tournament.

By halftime, Florida held a commanding 9-1 lead. The second half saw Pitt start to figure out the Florida zone D as they began to string some goals together. Pitt actually won the second half 9-8, but the Florida lead was too big to overcome. Florida-B was crowned the B Team National Champs after their 17-9 finals win. -Written by R. Fanelli

2011 West Penn Developmental Conference Championships: Trafford, PA – April 16th – 17th, 2011

This tournament win was the culmination of an entire season of hard work. Full article at USA Ultimate’s website.

2011 Ohio Valley DI Regionals: Manheim, PA – April 30th – May 1st, 2011