Arriving in North Carolina on Friday, the team was pleased even further with their decision to come to Easterns over Centex, as IHUC had finally managed to avoid the curse of playing a tournament in bad weather. Conditions were glorious for the beach. Temperatures were consistently in the 70's for the majority of the weekend, skies were mostly sunny, and the wind was gusty and occasionally fierce.

    The majority of the team was coming off of a spring break trip to High Tide. Inevitably a few guys were sick, hurt, exhausted, or all of the above at various points during the tournament, but nearly the entire roster was present to support the team, including some of the families, a few Saucies, and three clutch HBV sideline men.

    Eventually everyone would rendezvous in Wilmington (after three new players to the A team would get lost driving toward the middle of South Carolina). Friday night IHUC had a showcase game that was originally supposed to be against UNCW, but was rescheduled against Harvard. There was an erratic, yet strong, crosswind going on until just about sunset. Game starts off with IHUC on O, and the seven work it through Harvard's zone to score first. The D-line then steps up with a D on a Redline huck, quickly sending it back the other way for a score. 2-0. Harvard would be unfazed however, and would stick to their gameplan- namely keeping the disc in the hands of their two best players. IHUC had trouble limiting the superstars' action- they played often and threw plenty of scores. Harvard's defense would put some pressure on and the O-line would make a few mistakes as the opposing team went up 6-3. The D-line would step up for an offensive point, score it, and then break to keep the game close at 5-6. But the team's focus was not good; Harvard would keep its poise, roll two more points to take half and then eventually would come out hot going up 5-10, taking advantage of the many turnovers from IHUC. Iowa would mount a small comeback, but couldn't close that large gap opened up by Redline's early runs. Game was lost 11-15, everyone disappointed, feeling like the game could have been won had the team limited mistakes.

    Saturday morning's first game against Oregon would unfortunately start the same way as the showcase; Ego would get a few breaks early, Iowa's intensity would be sluggish and the turnover rate was far too high. IHUC only managed to get one break the entire game, and Oregon cruised to a 15-9 victory. Second game against Florida saw the wind really pick up as the day wore on. Florida's zone was big and close, and despite the observer clearly recognizing the blatant double teams from the opponent, Iowa was having trouble stopping Florida's huck-and-zone game. IHUC would use the same strategy, but once again the first half saw a huge lead open up that couldn't be closed. Iowa loses 8-15.

    Hot, tired, and not very pleased, the team was glad to take advantage of the bye round. The next game up was against the fourth seed in the pool (Iowa being the three seed): Ohio, a team that won the qualifier and was trying to prove that it and the Ohio Valley region deserved recognition. Wind would be a big factor again, and this time IHUC made sure to keep it close early, trading points as each team scored the downwinders. Eventually, Iowa's pressure would pay off and the upwind line would get a break. The downwind line was perfect, making sure to take advantage of Ohio's costly mistakes, punting the disc downfield to trap it when it was required. Iowa would eventually get one more upwind break, and would win 15-10.

    At last, momentum and intensity were starting to build. Showcase game was a rematch against Harvard; the winner would advance to the championship bracket. Amped up, the team came out focused in what would turn out to be another upwind-downwind battle. The O-line would look excellent for many points, and the D-line got a few chances to score as the team worked on limiting Harvard's huck game. But even with the disc knocking on the upwind goal line, Iowa failed to score the first break until late in the second half. The team's ferocious defense would increase and IHUC scored the downwinder, needing only to hang on serve to take home a victory. But it was not to be; a turnover on an early offensive throw gave Harvard the momentum back as they scored upwind and downwind breaks of their own. Iowa would regret not having scored further upwind breaks on earlier chances, but would play backs against the wall, great man defense to battle out to universe point. Unfortunately Harvard started with the wind, and so got to play Universe Point going downwind. After a long goal line stand from IHUC, the team from the NorthEast scored to win again.

    Although the loss was frustrating, IHUC was much happier with the improved play from the second part of the day, and on Sunday the team was able to correct mistakes more quickly. When the team came out slow, getting broken three times in a row against Cal in the first round of consolation play, Iowa pulled out the intensity right away, instead of waiting until Cal went on a long run and the gap was too big to close (one of many problems this season). The D-line fought extremely hard this game, playing tight man defense, ready and willing to huck to mismatched receivers downfield. O-line would get together and regain focus; the game would be close after a late California comeback, but Iowa won 15-12.

    The next round was supposed to be against Ohio, but the tournament director helped Iowa avoid the rematch and switched UNCW into place. The captains said it best when they proclaimed that this was the matchup the team had wanted all weekend. More than any other game from Nationals last year (perhaps all season) the loss to UNCW was terribly frustrating. IHUC was winning, looked poised to keep pushing and take a day one victory, but instead faded and lost. UNCW took that momentum on to quarterfinals, IHUC was forced into the consolation bracket. Pumped up and pissed off, Iowa was not going to lose this game. Wind really became a factor (a kind of diagonal wind across the field) and zone was the name of the game. IHUC finally regained its confidence as a top-notch team in the wind, as the O-line seemed at times to be able to shred whatever was thrown their way. D-line ran the hard standard zone and got a big lead with some early breaks. The only real disappointing thing about this game was that there was a lull in intensity that allowed UNCW to come back and get a couple of breaks. Still in the end, IHUC prevailed 15-10.

    The final game on Sunday would be against the old foe Minnesota. This is the second straight tournament that Grey Duck and IHUC have met at the end of an exhausting weekend, each winning their side of a bracket. Both teams again seemed slightly worn down. Wind was lessened in this game- it was still blowing downwind enough to make zone a possibility- but it was weak enough that each team could score multiple times in the upwind endzone. In terms of depth and intensity for both teams it seemed to be a very similar matchup as the one during Mardi Gras (several players from both sides were out or were weary). Game started off trading points, both sides hucking downwind often. IHUC got the first break of the day- just as in the championship at Mardi Gras, but once again failed to carry the momentum forward. Grey Duck would eventually get a couple of breaks to take half at 6-8, with them receiving after half.

    Coach Nation- who was clutch all weekend for keeping the team focused- really reemphasized his eastern mantra at halftime, something along the lines of: €œIt's not enough just to talk about it, you have to do it. You have to decide you are going to play well and then do it. We can either lose or win, it's that simple.€� Iowa found itself in an unfortunately familiar situation; the team was down in the second half. Yet the team would mount another comeback, getting two breaks in a row to tie it at 10-10.  The sides traded points fiercely until the game went to universe point. Minnesota scored on a deep throw to hand Iowa its second double game point loss of the weekend. The loss left Iowa with a bitter taste in its mouth, and although the four teams from the Central Region did well, all are realizing the thick battle that will come at Regional's.

    The team would then endure the hellish all-night ride home, with one car hitting a deer (everyone is OK, although the car's condition is another story).

    The weekend showed both highs and lows from the team. Most of the players will probably focus on the many things that need to be improved on, but there were points that IHUC looked good. The real problems are consistency (especially in focus and intensity) and the drive to "just go out and win despite it all" as Nation likes to say. There are now a few weeks before Fools Fest and the Conference Tournament which signals the start of the College Series, and Iowa has plenty of motivation to drive them forward.

PS: Mad props to Saucy Nancy for winning their version of College Easterns. Read about it here.