WOMEN’S ULTIMATE
Guardian
Over Memorial Day weekend, the women’s ultimate Frisbee team traveled to Austin, Texas, to compete in the national championships. After a very successful season, the Tritons entered the tournament ranked third and began pool play on May 23. UCSD had two strong wins to begin the tournament against Iowa (15-13) and Notre Dame (15-11), but fell to long-time rival Colorado in the final game of pool play, losing 15-10. On May 24, UCSD came out strong in its match against Duke in the pre-quarterfinals, beating them handily with a score of 15-8. They then met MIT in the quarterfinals, battling hard, but losing 15-12. Although UCSD did not repeat a national title this year, they look forward to next season, in which they hope to regain their title. UCSD will graduate the following seniors: Ruth Chen, Laurel Fiske, Stephanie Jong, Korin Lee, Nellie O’Neill-dinning, Elana Segal, Meredith Tosta and Lauren Clancey.
BADMINTON
The UCSD Badminton team played UC Irvine and Pasadena City College on Saturday to determine who would be the winner of the Southern California Collegiate Badminton League. In the first match against PCC, UCSD cruised to a 13-2 win. The women’s team provided the spark by going undefeated in singles, doubles and mixed for the third time this season. The women’s team was led by veterans Dede Davis and Dara Walsh, who were playing their final game for the Tritons.
On the men’s side, senior Phil Bratton, picked up an emotional victory in mixed doubles, coming from behind to beat PCC’s No. 1 mixed team.
Next, UCSD took on arch-rival UCI. It became apparent that throughout the matches, UCI was looking to avenge its loss at nationals. Although UCSD put out a huge effort, UCI took the match 10-5.
On the women’s side, next year’s captain Stephanie Obayashi picked up a win in singles and remained undefeated in singles play this season.
The men’s doubles teams of David Lamb and Chhay Taing and of Phil Bratton and Gary Chan easily won their matches in two sets.
Although UCSD did not win the league title, this year will be remembered as a year in which UCSD was the 2003 National Champions in badminton. UCSD went up against 22 universities from all over the nation and pulled out on top.
The expectations for next year’s team will be high as UCSD tries to defend its national title in Maryland in April 2004 and win back its league title from UC Irvine. However, it won’t be easy, since the team will lose five of its graduating members: Davis, Walsh, Bratton, Julian Wu and Kelvin Soo. These five seniors have been on the team since its start and their leadership and dedication will be sorely missed by the team.
— Compiled by Cynthia Chavez
Staff Writer
