Ultimate clinches spot in Division III nationals

Acacia O’Connor Editor in Chief

Though the “A” squad of the men’s ultimate frisbee team the Swinging Monks came into the N.J./Metro N.Y. Open Sectionals seeded seventh out of 15 teams, they soon proved that seedings mean very little. After four consecutive wins, the team advanced to the championship game on Sunday, April 13. These wins included upsets over second-seeded Hofstra University and fifth-seeded State University of New York at Stonybrook.

While the Monks fell to Princeton University 7-12 in a close championship game, their earlier play was enough to secure them a spot in the Metro-East Regional Tournament on April 26-27, as well as the Division III National Tournament. “The teams we’re going to face at regionals are all significantly larger than we are in terms of male student population so we know it’ll be a challenge to finish in the top,” said Monks’ member Seth Tannenbaum ’08. If the Swinging Monks place first or second at regionals, they could see their first ever College Championship National Tournament berth.

“You always go into a tournament expecting to do well,” Tannenbaum said. “After having played poorly the weekend before it was nice to play up to our ability, which we absolutely did.”

The women’s side, the Boxing Nuns, also clinched a spot in regional play, placing third in the sectional tournament behind New York and Rutgers Universities.

“It was more competitive this year than it has been,” said Emily Thielmann ’08 of the women’s play. “It wasn’t just a shoe-in for us to go to regionals.”

The team defeated rival Princeton to take third place. “They were a good match for us,” Thielman said.“It was pretty dramatic.”

The Division III tournament for the men will take place on May 24-25 at Ohio Northern University in Versailles, Ohio, the same weekend as Vassar’s 144th commencement.