Men's Ultimate has impressive showing at home tournament
This weekend the Stonehill Men’s Ultimate Team placed 3rd in their final home tournament of the year which featured ten teams from schools throughout the region. Each team played in five pool games and the teams with the best records would then advance to the semifinals. Stonehill shined on their home soil in their opening game against Bridgewater State. The team was led offensively by freshman Pat Kelleher with 5 scores and senior captain Steve Murphy who dished five assists in the 13-5 victory. In their second game against Salem State, Stonehill continued their long series of completed passes and hucks. Four crucial defensive blocks in the game saw the Salem State offense halted, and allowed Stonehill to cruise to a 13-4 victory.
In their third game of the day, the men took on Boston College B. The Stonehill team would deliver once again getting out to a 7-2 halftime lead. Boston College put up a decent fight for the remainder of the game but was unable to overcome Stonehill’s strong defense led by sophomore Billy Rust who had 2 defensive blocks. In the end, the Stonehill men would come out on top winning the game 13-6. The team was led offensively by senior captain Patrick Olsen who had 3 assists and senior Matt Howarth who had 5 points. The fourth game of the tournament was a true fight to the finish as the Stonehill men played their former teammates on the Alumni team. From the get go, the Alumni team proved to dominate offensively. Senior Patrick Olsen made two great assists and freshman Pat Kelleher made a phenomenal sky catch in the end zone during the first half of the match, but the Stonehill men continued to struggle against the older, more experienced Alumni team and at the half, the Stonehill men were down 7-4, eventually losing out to the Alums 13-8. The final game of the tournament proved to be a true back and forth affair as the men took on Eastern Connecticut State University. After four intense games in the brutal sun, the men were unable to gain the lead against their opponents. Fortunately, with the help of Senior Steve Murphy who made 5 assists and freshman Mike Caruso who had 3 points, the team was able to take halftime by a lead of 8-6. In the second half of the match, the Stonehill men continued to step up their game after being tied 10-10. Senior Patrick Olsen and sophomore Gain Robinson both made 3 assists which helped the men gain a 5 point run to ultimately win the game 15-10, and finish 4-1 on the day