Ladies Indoor IVs 2013

The UCD ladies impressed everyone at intervarsities firstly by having three teams and secondly by being so darn good! After a shaky, early morning start against UCC2, UCD1 dominated their pool, conceding only 2 points in as many games. UCD2 fought their way to second in their pool (losing only to finalists UL) and sailed into the quarter finals. With both UCD1 and 2 in the quarters, we were unfortunate that they were against each other, meaning that only one could UCD team would make it to the top 4. What UCD2 lacked in experience, they made up for in determination. UCD1 had to work for every point, UCD2 never conceding an easy point. UCD1 went on to the semi-final against the overall winners UCC1. Unfortunately UCC1's intensity and experience were too much for UCD. We struggled against their zone but never gave up, showcasing the skills of our beginners and the wits of our experienced players. UCD1 finished 4th, UCD2 finished 7th and UCD3 kept their seeding.

 

Edinburgh Beginners 2013

Edinburgh Beginners tournament this year was an interesting one for UCD. Due to many last minute drop outs and the unfortunate timing of the tournament, we only had 4 players represent UCD there, but represent we did! Our lack of numbers gave us an opportunity to join forces with Trinity Ultimate who had more beginners than they knew what to do with. We gave the Trinity beginners an opportunity to get more game time, more experience and more banter as we formed a team unofficially called 'TrUCD'. With nothing to lose TrUCD went out and held nothing back. We were never nervous or intimidated as we didn't care which way the game went, which may have worked to our advantage. Beginners were throwing hammers, scoobers and laying out for amazing scores. Despite playing with people we had never met before, TrUCD won an impressive 5 out of 8 games and rattled the more serious teams. Due to ineligibility, those wins were recorded as losses and UCD proudly took last place to an immense round of applause from everyone in at the tournament who appreciated our lively, fun and well spirited matches.

 

Cork Open Ladies 2013

Our ladies learned a lot from their time at Cork Open getting to play Jabba the Huckers, UCC, Rebel and UL. The scorelines didn't reflect how much each and every team member put in and how much the team gelled together over the weekend. A win against UCC was on the cards but after a 6-6 tie, UCC managed to take the final score and win the game. There were many tightly contested games and a whole lot learned over the weekend. We proudly finished 4th and enjoyed Cork Open so much that it definitely won't be our last appearance!

 

Thanks to our pickups; Anee, Mandy and Sarah who played heroically and gave us some great tactical insight.

 

Trinity Tea Party 2013

UCD Ultimate made a big impression at the first tournament of this academic year – Trinity Tea Party. The beginners' tournament hosted by Trinity Ultimate saw massive numbers with UCD managing to send a whopping 5 teams; 3 in the Open division and 2 in the Women's.

 

In the Open division, each team showed great potential, athleticism and amazing dance moves and took 2nd, 4th and 13th places. UCD dominated from game one showcasing the talent of our beginners and the dance moves of our experienced players. UCD 3 narrowly lost out on gold in a hard fought final against Galway to proudly take silver home to UCD. UCD 2 took home the coveted 'Spirit of the Game' award in the form of a very slick Tea Pot. I think it's safe to say, if there were a '$wag of the Game' award, UCD would have won that too.

 

The Women's division was equally impressive for UCD. Despite low numbers early on Sunday morning (the phrase “can't hack the sesh” springs to mind), UCD1 dominated the Sunday games and nearly made it to the final. UCD1 easily took 3rd place and might have gotten away with first if it weren't for those meddling Trinity kids. UCD2 started off strong on Saturday and never eased up and came right behind in 4th place overall. Having two women's teams for Teaparty was impressive enough, but having both of them come in the top 4 was just incredible!

 

Colours 2013

Tuesday, 23rd of April, saw UCD Ultimate host the annual Colours match between UCD and Trinity College Dublin. In perfect conditions for Ultimate (lots of sunshine and very little wind), the two college teams battled it out for what is (purportedly) the oldest trophy in Irish Ultimate.The Open team went into the game with a huge amount of drive and determination. After narrowly losing out on a place in the final of IV’s less than two weeks before in a tight and hard-fought semi-final against Trinity, they were out to reverse that loss (and get some vengeance). They came out strong in the first half, doing themselves proud on home-soil, and had a good lead on Trinity by half-time. The 2nd half was a much tighter affair with Trinity finding their form and putting UCD under a huge amount of pressure in the closing points of the game. Unfortunately for Trinity, they couldn’t close the gap between themselves and UCD, and UCD held onto the lead to take the game 12-8.

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The Ladies game was also an exciting affair with both teams seeming to be very well matched in the opening points. Both teams managed to put huge amounts of pressure on each other, and every point had to be fought for. Unfortunately for UCD, the experience of the Trinity girls managed to shine through and they were able to pull away as the game went on. As hard as the UCD girls played, they couldn’t make it a double-win for UCD, and Trinity pulled ahead during the 2nd half to take the win.