Ultimate Frisbee team to host 14-team tournament

By Ryan Donough

The Santa Clara ultimate Frisbee team will be hosting the Santa Clara Carmen Classic, their first-ever tournament, this weekend.

President and captain of the team Alex Seber hopes that the tournament will help boost the popularity of the program on the national scale and draw the attention of some of the more elite programs in the U.S.

"It kind of puts us on the map, and it will show other schools that we have a program that is a little more legitimate because we have a tournament," Seber said. "If the tournament does really well, maybe more teams like Oregon, Chico or UCLA will come in the future. The more teams you get to travel, the more elite your tournament becomes."

The tournament is scheduled to begin this Saturday at noon and will continue through Sunday afternoon.

Fourteen teams will make their way to Bellomy Field, where they will then be separated into pools and begin competition in round-robin play.

According to Seber, a senior, the tournament is arranged just like the World Cup.

Each team will play four games on the first day of competition, and the eight teams with the best record will advance to the championship bracket. The remaining six teams will compete in a consolation bracket.

Should two teams emerge from the first day with the same record, the advancing team will be decided by the point differential of their victories.

Notable teams that will be competing in the tournament this weekend include UC Davis, Stanford, San Francisco State and Oregon State.

Like other teams competing in the tournament, Santa Clara plans to field two squads of equally skilled players, rather than stacking one team with the most experienced individuals on the squad.

"This year, we have all X and Y teams coming, but if you get more teams to come then you can make it a more elite tournament where you get A teams that want to win the tournament," said Seber.

Because it is still the preseason, all of the teams competing will be fielding two equal squads as part of a learning experience.

"You are more worried about getting everyone a lot of playing time so they get used to seeing what other teams do," said Seber.

Santa Clara's ultimate Frisbee team has made major strides since the program's inception five years ago.

Seber has been working hard to get a tournament at Santa Clara for over a year, but has had trouble since Bellomy Field hasn't been available. The team finally gained recognition after achieving success last season.

"Last year was sort of our breakthrough year. We started winning more games, making noise, and teams started respecting us more," said Seber.

With the increased success of the program comes bigger goals for Seber, who said that making the regional competition was the team's main focus this season.

Santa Clara competes in the Northwest Region with Oregon, Washington and British Colombia. According to Seber, this is the most difficult region to advance through because a Northwest team will typically win nationals.

Santa Clara has come close to reaching regionals the past three years, finishing just one win shy of advancing. But this hasn't discouraged Seber, who knows they can make it if the program continues to grow as it has.

"Last year we had a lot freshmen come in, but this year we have gained a lot of experience," Seber said. "Our next step is to make it to regionals, and I think we have a good chance of doing that this year."

Contact Ryan Donough at (408) 551-1918 or rdonough@scu.edu.