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This coverage is presented by Spin Ultimate

This coverage is presented by Spin Ultimate Live Updates: Tweets from @skydmagazine/d3-championships-2013 @Skyd_JLeppert – Open Coverage (Jimmy Leppert) @BAMultimate – Women’s Coverage (Charlie Enders) Schedule/Scores: Open Women’s Previews: Open DIII Previews: Lehigh DIII Previews: Rice DIII Preview: Bentley DIII Preview: John Brown DIII Preview: Claremont Women’s: Players to Watch Feature photo by Brandon Wu – UltiPhotos.com

Skyd is proud to present our SAVAGE All-American Team for the 2013 season. The Savage All-American Team program awards the top players in each division for their excellence on the field as players and leaders. The recipients will be awarded a special Savage jersey and will be inducted at the 2013 College Championships in Madison. Congratulations to this year’s selected players. Amanda Good, Colorado - Kali’s Callahan nominee is a standout defender as well as an extremely quick handler with the deceptive fakes and great breaks to beat any zone defense. Her Callahan video is an accurate depiction of her play this season. Anna Reed, Carleton - Reed is a dynamic handler and the focal point of Carleton’s offense. Her quick give and go moves, full array of throws, and excellent defense when called upon have led Carleton to the North Central crown and the #2 seed overall. Reed missed Stanford Invite due to food poisoning and Carleton had their worst results of the season. Bailey Zahniser, Oregon - Fugue’s Callahan nominee is the fiery leader of Oregon’s famous defensive line and a ruthless offensive converter on the turn. Read more about her at the Skyd 5 Callahan Candidates page. Camille Nelson, Iowa State - Nelson won the Spin Ultimate MVP award at Centex and is one of the best receivers in the college game, both going deep and scoring and catching unders and hucking herself. She causes matchup problems for opponents and is great in the wind. Catherine Hui, British Columbia - UBC’s Callahan nominee is possibly the fastest receiver in the country, and she’s representing her country at the 2013 World Games as one of the top 6 women’s players in Canada. Read more about her at the Skyd 5 Callahan Candidates page. Chelsea Twohig, Iowa - Twohig is possibly the most complete player in the North Central region. Every team that plays Iowa gameplans around her, and her absence at Centex left the team lacking a dynamic offensive weapon. Her hammers and hucks helped Iowa dominate in the finals of Midwest Throwdown, and her ferocious mark intimidates opposing handlers and forces lots of turnovers. Claire Chastain†, North Carolina-Wilmington - The Seaweed only go as far as Chastain can take them. She is a fantastic teammate and versatile offensive weapon, slotting in at any position and taking any matchup on defense. Read more about her on the Skyd 5 Callahan Candidates page. Claudia Tajima, Tufts - The talismanic captain of a Tufts team that has gone from “happy to be there” to contender, Tajima is capable of getting the disc every other against any defender. Read more about her on the Skyd 5 Callahan Candidates page. Liên Hoffman†, Northwestern - Gung-Ho has broken through to the College Championships again, largely thanks to Hoffman, who is healthy this season after missing most of last year. She’s an outstanding defender and an agile cutter who helped lead Northwestern to a universe point victory over #3 seed Iowa State at Midwest Throwdown. Lisa Pitcaithley, California-Santa Barbara - The Polar Bears and USA Beach Worlds gold medalist is playing women’s ultimate for the first time this season, moving from the cutter position to handle for the Burning Skirts. She is capable of playing every point during a college game, using her athleticism and top-level throws to move the UCSB offense downfield with ease. Michela Meister†, Stanford - In her third year on Superfly, Meister yet again plays every important point for her team (and sometimes that means every point). Her deep defense in Stanford’s zone keeps them competitive, while her upwind hucks and scary athleticism make breaks commonplace. Meister played a vital role in Stanford’s comeback from a 3-8 halftime deficit against UCSB in the Southwest Regionals Final to win 12-11. Paige Soper, Ohio State - With Soper finally at full strength this year, Ohio State rolled through Regionals and beat Pittsburgh 15-1 t

This preview and the 2013 Skyd College Tour are brought to you by Spin Ultimate The 2013 DIII  Women’s National Championships begin tomorrow in (hopefully) sunny Milwaukee, WI. 16 of the best DIII teams in the country will converge and commence a battle-royale for national supremacy in the division. Claremont is looking to repeat, while number one seed Valparaiso is looking to establish their name this weekend. For extremely in-depth previews, see both Ultiworld’s and USA Ultimate’s fantastic previews. Both include fantastic team profiles and predictions. As I certainly can’t say it any better than Jesse and Robyn, I’m going to go in a different direction: Who are the players to watch for the women’s division? Julie Bender, Bowdoin – Possibly the best player on the second best team (by seed). Bender will keep Chaos Theory’s offense running by beating her girl to the force side 60% of the time, every time. With possible 10+ mph winds, her throwing prowess in the wind will be invaluable to Bowdoin’s championship run. Erynn Schroeder, Saint Ben’s – Dubbed “Beast” by her teammates (horrible nickname, I know), Erynn is figuratively a monster on the field.  Tenacious on D and huck-happy on O (in a good way), look for Schroeder to use her U-19 worlds and club (with Minnesota Pop) experience to help the Bad Habits surprise everyone. Claire Baecher, Williams – 6’3? Claire Baecher will almost certainly be the most physically imposing female at the tournament. While many teams (at least on the men’s side) have one or two colossi on their rosters, Baecher breaks the mold by ALSO being able to throw something other than a dump. Of course, it does help when you don’t need a high-release to throw over the mark. Kelsey Peterson, Saint Ben’s – Yeah, I realize that this is second Saint Ben’s player. But Kelsey is certainly one of the best players at this tournament, even though she often is in Schroeder (admittedly earned) large shadow. Peterson is often on the receiving end of Schroeder’s hucks. Peterson, Schroeder, and fellow captain Kaylee Matthews are the three players on the Bad Habits who rarely take points off. If Saint Ben’s wants to be successful this weekend, these three will have to carry the load. Carla Ecklund, Grinnell – I felt obliged to include the LEADER IN GOALS at the previous two national championships. Although there isn’t much to like about Iowa, Ecklund certainly is in the small collection of good things in the state. Although Grinnell is the last seeded team, look for them to make some noise, led by Ecklund. After all, Grinnell has been known to break seed (yes I realize that it’s the men). While these are a few of the notables, there are many more players worthy of recognition. Good luck to them as well as all the teams this weekend! Look for Charlie’s tweets from the St. John’s Twitter account (@BAMultimate), and more this weekend. Photo by Brandon Wu – Ultiphotos.com

This preview and the 2013 Skyd College Tour are brought to you by Spin Ultimate After a hard fought spring season, the teams are set for this weekend’s 2013 USAU D-3 College Nationals at the Ulhlein Soccer Park in Milwaukee, WI. The teams kickoff pool play early Saturday morning, and come 2pm Sunday, we’ll be down to two teams fighting for the title. Last year’s runner-up Puget Sound is a heavy favorite as the #1 seed of the tournament, as is the 2011 champion Claremont, and of course last year’s champion Carleton College-GOP. Can the GOP squad repeat? Or will a new team take the title in Milwaukee? Pool A As mentioned, Puget Sound comes into the weekend heavily favored. They have a total of three losses on the season (including one forfeit), and when playing fellow D3 competition – like fellow qualifiers Rice and Claremont – they’ve won. Their biggest bout this season came from Occidental, who subsequently put up a fight against Claremont in the Southwest Regionals but fell short of qualifying. Rice’s Cloud 9 is a strong and athletic team, whose physicality could give teams nightmares.Regional rivals John Brown said their defense immediately disrupted their offense, and were “emotionally draining and intense.” Cloud 9 has been a strong D3 team in the past, including last year’s great finish, and could give Puget Sound trouble before the 1 vs. 2 seed game against the Northeast’s Bentley. Though Rice is a 4-seed, Bentley could be in for a surprise during their first pool play game. Lehigh is an interesting team; they’re coming in with a very veteran heavy roster, and their tough mentality and style could prove treacherous to any team this weekend that overlooks them. Watch out for Junior Nick Mathison on defense for Lehigh. In Bentley, you have a team that finished very strongly at Regionals (more on their game against Amherst in the next pool), and was able to put up some impressive results throughout the rest of the spring season. Between these four teams, I’m unsure of how exactly they’ll finish. I have Rice and Lehigh reversed in my predictions from their seeding, but aside from Puget Sound making it on to bracket play I think the rest of the pool is up in the air. Prediction: Puget Sound (1A), Bentley (2A), Rice (3A), Lehigh (4A) Pool B Harding, hailing from the South Central, isn’t unfamiliar with the D3 stage, and their rocky start to the season isn’t a predictor of where they’ll land this weekend. They finished strong at Huck Finn, with close loses to Iowa and Illinois on the weekend, but that was almost a month ago. Sweeping the competition at Conference Championships though is a nice run heading into the weekend – especially when no one, including fellow qualifier John Brown, could put double digit points up on them. Could Amherst College prove to be a challenge as the pool’s number 2 seed? In a Q&A with Bentley, they said that Amherst was able to beat them by focusing on the deep game on offense, and their confident and steady play with the disc. While D3 Warmup was full of close losses for AC, the rest of their spring season saw them only lose twice. For Brandeis and North Park, their late faceoff will most likely determine who makes it onto the championship bracket. If the long rest between hard defensive opponents hurts Harding, Brandeis and North Park need to jump on that opportunity if they’d not like the last pool game to decide their fate. Brandeis has had an up and down spring season, and were beaten fairly soundly by the other two qualifiers from the New England region during Regionals. And lastly the North Park Lost Boys, who while undefeated at Regionals, did drop some early games to lesser opponents. If they can build off of the strength they showed during their last tournament, and perhaps remember how well they played last spring in Appleton, they could prove my predictions very wrong. Prediction: Amherst (1B), Harding (2B), Brandeis (3B), North Park (4B) Pool C Only playing tournaments for the past two

This week the biggest games are in the Midwest, with the Detroit Mechanix embarking on a two game road trip to Madison and Minnesota. Playing at home the Mechanix were able to beat both these teams, we’ll see if they return the favor this weekend. The Mechanix will be without Ben Ayres and Andrew Lucarotti, but return most of their players that were missing last week, including Dave Hochhalter and Mark Worsfold. A 1-1 trip would have to be considered a success for the Mechanix, who are fighting to stay at third in the Midwest. It’s a must win for the Wind Chill, who are only 1-5 on the season, though they will be without Grant Lindsley again, who has only played one game so far for Minnesota. The Cincinnati Revolution travel to Indianapolis to take on the AlleyCats, and the big news this game is the return of Cameron Brock. Brock was expected to miss another 2-3 weeks, but returns for the beginning of the AlleyCats miniseries with the Revolution, they play three times over the next two weeks. Though Indianapolis will be missing Jared Payne, their leading assister, this is almost a must win game for the ‘Cats if they hope to make the playoffs. In the Eastern Conference the Philadelphia Phoenix travel to DC to play the Breeze. The Breeze were surprisingly resilient in their game against the Phoenix in Philadelphia, especially given that they’d played in New York the day before. The Phoenix didn’t pull away until the fourth quarter, winning 23-18. A win would be big for the Breeze and vault them into playoff discussion, but they’ll have to do it without Justin Solis, the teams leading goal scorer. The Hammerheads are playing the New York Empire, and despite missing their Stevens Tech players to D-III Nationals, New Jersey is playing with a fairly full roster. The Rush travel to Rochester to play the Dragons, and will be without Mark Lloyd, the team’s leader in goals and d’s. Remember, in the AUDL each team is allowed a roster of 28 players, but only 20 can be active for any one game. So each team can have a full roster of 20 active while leaving eight inactive. The inactive players are either players with injuries, other commitments, or players trying to play their way onto the active squad. This is much like how in the NBA 15 players are allowed on each roster, but only 12 can be active at a time. Cincinnati Revolution Eric Converse Eddie Mack Kevin Kula Lucas Tarnowski Matt Glenn Russell Allen Nate Botti Neil Narayan DC Breeze Eric Clarkson David Zurberchen Charles Yu Greg Esser Justin Solis Brad Tinney Matthew Radhe Owen Williams Detroit Mechanix John Abela Andrew Lucarotti Ben Ayres Matt Wilken Christo Ferguson Indianapolis AlleyCats Casey Bybee Dustin Hughes Jared Payne Kyle Cox Robbie Craven Steven Hightsue Madison Radicals Tyler Glenn Thomas Coolidge Kelsen Alexander Andrew Meshnick Brian Hart Kevin Brown Scott Richgels Minnesota Wind Chill Dan Kaler Ashton Robinson Grant Lindsley Brandon Matis Joe Simonelli Tyler Brickle Rob Johnson Scott Boehm Timmy Setterberg Dan Hunt Neal Hanke David Wenzel New Jersey Hammerheads Kenny Calello Charlie Patten Jonathan Lee Eric Huang Andrew Misthos Marquez Brownlee New York Empire Ben Ivers Greg Somerville Andrew Schwartz Alexander Daskalakis Dan Huebner Brad Hess Brenton Hard Joe Babbino Gabriel Hage Jack Marsh Philadelphia Phoenix Zachary Thurston Jack Aubin Ryan Forster Brandon Redden Kyle Wolf Nicolas LoPresto Kenny Wells Mike Coughlin Chen Zhou Michael Reeves Matthery Hurray Matthew Stavinga Rochester Dragons Zack Smith Kevin Hoercher Kevin Rhie Joe Becker Neil Butler KJ Dziak Connor Fortin Ian Dipace Toronto Rush Adrian Yearwood Matt Penman Nima Mostaghimi Mark Lloyd Eamon Pinto Phil Watanabe The Windy City Wildfire have a bye week and are waiting to hear word on Brodie Smith’s MRI.

The fifth full weekend of professional Ultimate games continues. Only ten scheduled games with a lone Sunday AUDL match. Betting lines - the spread & points total (Over/Under) - for professional Ultimate are for entertainment purposes only. AUDL games. MLU games. Saturday, May 18 Phoenix (-4) @ Breeze (+4); 43 Rush (-9.5) @ Dragons (+9.5); 46 Empire (-3.5) @ Hammerheads (+3.5); 45

Bentley Icehouse had a very busy spring, with 5 tournaments already this season – and a sixth one coming up this weekend in Milwaukee for the DIII Championships after they secured the second bid out of the New England region. The captains of Icehouse were kind enough to email back answers to a few questions leading up to this weekend. Skyd: How is this year’s roster different from last year’s? More young players? Veteran team? Icehouse: We lost a lot of seniors last year, but a lot of roles were filled by current seniors/juniors. Our team has a strong Junior class and 6 players are in their first season of ultimate. How did your spring season go? (I can read score reporter, just wondering the details that aren’t on a score board) Overall, we played very well with tournament wins at Awaken and UNH Spring Open, which earned us a #1 Ranking in DIII at the end of the regular season. We have underperformed in the series so far losing in the sectionals championship to Brandeis and the regionals championship to Amherst College. We have pulled off some great comeback wins in the regular season against Middlebury. After their president said they would never lose to us again, we beat them twice at regionals. Who’s been the team MVP this season? Alex Foo and Max Rick Does your team have a coach? If so, what benefits have you seen? This is our third season with a coach and second season with an assistant coach. They provide experience in the game and a perspective to the game that the players cant see. Our coach has introduced the team to Split stack on O-line, which is very different than other team’s man offense. What will be your team’s focus until Milwaukee? We don’t have many practices between regionals and Nationals and all students finish finals on May 9th so it will be a lot of individual development and practice like conditioning and throwing. What was the most difficult game you’ve played this season? What set it apart? Our Amherst College loss at regionals was extremely difficult because we did not have any exposure to AC this season. They were beating us with the deep game (which we are normally good at it) and we had a lot of unforced turnovers while they had few. Most teams set goals before the season – have you accomplished those goals? Season’s not over yet- We’ll see after Nationals. Rapid Fire Questions: Song most likely to be played on your sideline? Wheels on the Bus (Children’s song) Favorite highlight video out right now? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmMbm78sEB4 Which professional team do you root for? Rochester Dragons (Favorite player- Max Rick) Favorite timeout game? RoShamBo Which Game of Thrones character best embodies your team? John Snow- Our team name is Icehouse. We’re stubborn. Being one of the best d-3 teams in the region is like being the best bastard son. We know the feeling of aspiring for greatness while others think little of us…. Winter is coming

The New York Rumble entered their Sunday game in Philadelphia 0-3. They had let a potential win against the Spinners slip away in Week 2. In the preseason they had lost to them 14-27. For the first time they were playing the Spinners in Philadelphia. Though the Spinners were coming off a loss to the DC Current, this was not a game they were expected to lose. However, this was a game the Rumble needed to win if they wanted to stay alive in the playoff race. A loss would mean they’d be three games back of the second place team, with only six games left to play. A win would mean they’d only be one game back. There was no doubt who needed this game more, and it showed the first few points of the game. Sean Hirannet played the key handler role for the Spinners O-Line (Photo by Sean Carpenter-Ultiphotos.com) The first three points saw the Spinners O-Line turn the disc three times, with the Rumble scoring quickly afterward, with possessions taking 3, 2, and 3 completions. Less than two minutes into the game and the Rumble led 3-0. The Rumble’s energy was evident early on, it showed when Joe Anderson got a penalty for taunting after completing bookends to take a 4-1 lead. The Spinners were struggling with the wind, surprising for a team that prides itself on its play in those conditions. While the Spinners struggled, Chris Mazur completed some very difficult hucks going into the wind to give New York that early advantage, and finished with 4 goals and 3 assists. After their initial difficulties, Philadelphia’s O-Line calmed down, and started playing the way they’re accustomed to. Their first four possessions they went 0-4, then they finished the half scoring on eight of their remaining eleven possessions. That level of precision helped the Spinners get back in the game, they only trailed 10-11 at halftime. Even though at halftime the score was close, the way the two teams played was very different. The Rumble relied on three players in particular to make big plays for them, Chris Mazur, Dan Hejimen, and Ben Faust. Mazur’s throws looked good in the wind, and Faust was able to come down with most discs put his way, and throw the occasional assist too, finishing with 7 assists and 1 goal. While the Spinners had strong players as well, they relied on a more balanced attack. And their stronger players weren’t playing as well as expected. Nick Hirannet and Leon Chou had their moments in the first half, but not as often as Coach Billy Maroon would have liked. Unfortunately for the Spinners, those struggles would only increase in the second half. Dan Hejimen bids for a disc as Leon Chou looks on (Photo by Sean Carpenter-Ultiphotos.com) The second half was a much slower game. The wind had picked up somewhat, and the turnovers and length of points picked up even more. At the end of the third quarter both teams had managed to score only twice, with the Rumble leading 13-12 heading into the final period. In the fourth quarter Ben Faust got a couple early assists to lead the Rumble to a 15-13 lead. Even after the Spinners O-Line responded, the Rumble seemed in control. The Spinners had taken 20 completions to get a point, and their D-Line was struggling to convert their D’s into scores. But with the Rumble leading 15-14, a marathon of a point was about to begin. The point started with 5:25 left in the quarter, and ended with only 29 seconds left on the clock. There were 11 turnovers total that point alone. With time running out and the Spinners down by one, Jonah Wisch made an unreal catch on an errant throw, and immediately zipped the disc to Shull for the game tying score. With the teams tied at 15 the Rumble were unable to capitalize in the time remaining, and the game headed to overtime. At this point the game must have felt familiar to the Rumble. They were in control throughout, and had never trailed. They had numerous chances to win the game late in the fourth quarter, but were unable to come through, just like their 17-19 loss to the Spinn

The most important pieces of data from Skyd Magazine's Innova Pulsar vs Discraft Ultrastar video: Innova Pulsar 4.83 12oz cans = 58 fl. oz / 1.71526 liters = ~2.29 bottles of 25.3oz of wine = 1.8125 Nalgene bottles Discraft Ultrastar 4.66 12oz cans  = 56 fl oz / 1.65612 liters = ~2.21 bottles of 25.3oz of wine = 1.75 Nalgene bottles Innova (58 fl oz) vs. Discraft (56 fl oz)