BY CAITLIN LYNCH ’20
Mount Holyoke Ultimate Frisbee traveled to Williams College for their sectional tournament this weekend, Saturday, April 15 and Sunday, April 16. The team took on Williams, Smith, Amherst, WPI and Clark to finish second.
Mount Holyoke started the tournament with a game against Williams, a team MHC considers one of their biggest competitors. According to captain Molly Morgan ’17, the team’s strategy was to conserve their energy against Williams to make sure they had enough energy to win their other games. In order to advance to regionals, the team only needed to finish in the top four places and so beating Williams was not essential. In this first game, Williams won with a score of 13-0.
Also on Saturday, Mount Holyoke took on Smith, winning 11-2, Clark, winning 13-3, and Amherst, winning 11-5. On Sunday in the last pool-play game, Mount Holyoke defeated WPI 13-6.
In the game to determine the tournament champion, Mount Holyoke fell again to Williams 15-1, and in a game to determine second place, the Lyons bested Amherst College 15-3.
Mount Holyoke Ultimate Frisbee will go on to compete at regionals at Williams on April 29 and 30, joining Williams, Amherst and Smith. “Regionals will be very exciting because there will be some tough teams there,” said Morgan. The top four teams at regionals will determine who advances to nationals, at which Mount Holyoke competed for the first time in 2016. Bowdoin, Bates, Williams, Amherst and Mount Holyoke are all ranked in the top 10 teams in the nation right now, which is why Morgan claims those teams will be the toughest competition at regionals. Morgan has faith that the team can make nationals again this year, saying, “I’m thrilled at my team’s ability to play well in high-pressure scenarios. If we make nationals, it will be because of how cool and collected we can be on the field.”