The Canadian university Ultimate series is an engaging opportunity for students to experiment with the sport of Ultimate in a friendly environment. The presence of high-level touring players and first- year juniors encourages the participation of skeptical experimenters. Rivalries like the one between Manitoba and Queen’s in the last five years helps to galvanize new players at the schools to strive for excellence. In a way, it was thanks to Manitoba’s dominance in the past four years that Queen’s was able to change their program—a program built by so many past alumni—for the better.
on defense, and that as a team may not ays, it would be the ategy in the long ate this opinion. In a offense matched up ense twelve times. anitoba turned the es (three of which eaks). The real impact s in the number of er Manitoba’s fourteen 7 per possession, and mpletion percentage. tatistically, recorded s. Queen’s scored ed it over ten times r a 91% completion
season, Queen’s was y other, more talented, een’s lost in the finals the Ontario Provincial e University of Toronto While practices and oved the individual fitted the most in losing. eason-long goal was to
win only one game: the gold medal at CUUC. And yes, we hoped all along that it would be against Manitoba.
Last year the tournament scheduled a bye before the open finals so that the women could play on the showcase field. Unfortunately, it meant an anxious two hours while overused bodies cooled down, attempted recovery, and then warmed back up. In 2015, eleven returning players had played the year before, and commentators were soliciting jersey numbers during warmup just ten minutes after the end of the semi-finals. It became real very quickly—without the anxiety—that a rematch of the disappointing 2014 campaign was about to begin.
For the players, the finals was a blur. The impressive disc-skills early in the game by Manitoba’s Jesse Greenberg forced Queen’s to slightly change their defensive strategy. Manitoba responded by crowding the area within five metres of the disc, where their offense completed 172 of their throws. A deep throw to Jason Duiella earned Queen’s their first break to go up 4-2, and a drop by Manitoba on the point before half gave
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Queen’s another break. Both teams held until 10-8, after which Manitoba’s resilience broke the Queen’s offense three times to force a 12-12 score and double game point. In a very dramatic final point, including an end zone drop and a game-saving play by Duiella, Queen’s finished on a high: Ryan Wilson to Steven Jefferys to David Murray, a play four years in the making. When the goal was caught to win the game, the feeling was mostly of relief. Relief that the five-week sprint-of-a-season was over, and relief that it didn’t end the same way as 2014.
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