A Bittersweet End

Two weeks ago, I participated in my final game as a member of the Gods of Plastic (GoP). I have been a member of Carleton’s DIII men’s ultimate team for the last four years, and had the opportunity to be captain this year. While I’m sad it’s over, my time with GoP was amazing and ended in a satisfying way.

Earlier this spring, we competed in two playoff tournaments, sectionals and regionals, on our way to qualifying for Division III College Nationals, which took place in College Station, Texas on May 18 and 19. Our goal every year is to qualify for Nationals, and this year we felt that our chances were good. In the past three years, our region has only sent one team to Nationals; we went in 2016 and 2018, but missed out in 2017. This year, our region’s teams performed well enough in the regular season that we sent three teams to Nationals. Still, we were able to win Regionals, and entered Nationals seeded third out of the sixteen teams in attendance.

We flew down to Texas on the Friday before, leaving campus at 3:00 AM to catch our early flight. We relaxed that day at our hotel and managed to fit in a short practice at the field complex. On Saturday, we got up bright and early for our first game against Missouri S&T. We used the first half of that game to adjust to the heat and wind in College Station and the pressure of playing at Nationals. Despite playing well, Missouri S&T was winning 8-6, and we didn’t have much time to stage a comeback. GoP worked hard, though, and tied it at 8-8 before gaining and maintaining the lead to win 11-10. After this tough first game, we found our groove and won our next two games convincingly against Berry College (15-6) and Colby College (14-5). With these victories, we won our pool and advanced to the quarterfinals the next morning.

Early on Sunday morning, we played our regional rivals Luther College. We had beaten them 11-4 at regionals, so we were excited for the opportunity to play them again. Luther played a much better game this time, and we only pulled away at the end of the game. Our 15-10 win sent GoP to the semifinals.

Last year, GoP made the semifinals at Nationals and lost disappointingly to Bryant University by a score of 14-9. We wanted to prove that we were better this year, but knew that winning our semifinals matchup would not be easy. We were set to play the Air Force Academy, the same team that knocked GoP out in the quarterfinals my freshman year. The seniors on GoP saw this game as a rematch of that close loss three years ago, and we wanted to win this one badly.

Air Force, with the top DIII men’s player in the country leading the way, took an early lead and went into halftime up 8-4. We were tired and frustrated, but knew we could play better than we had played. Despite feeling confident, Air Force kept scoring and led 12-7. With our entire season on the line, we began to rally to bring the score to 13-12 with Air Force still leading. Our comeback fell just short, as we lost 15-13.

Even though we ended our season short of our goal of winning Nationals, we all felt proud of what we had accomplished. For the second year in a row, we placed third at Nationals. Most importantly, we went out fighting in a close game against a very good team. I’m sad that my time on the GoP is over, but I’m so grateful for my four years on this team.

Jacob is a senior physics major interested in climate science and oceanography. Jacob enjoys eating, sleeping, and hanging out with friends — the simple things in life. At Carleton, Jacob works in the physics department and captains the Gods of Plastic, Carleton’s nationally competitive Division III men’s ultimate team. Meet the other bloggers!