scoreboard
Ultimate Win
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n May 17, Torque was yet again the No. 1 seed entering bracket play and defeated Williams College 15-6 in the quarterfinals before winning a 12-9 victory against Carleton College in the semifinals. Torque moved on to the championship game and defeated Bowdoin College with a final score of 8-6. Ultimate Frisbee is a team field sport played with a disk. The field is divided into two end zones, one each at the right and left end of the field, and a play field in the middle. Two teams begin at opposite end zones and try to advance the disc to the other end zone. If a team successfully advances the disc into the opposite end zone, that team scores a point. Then teams swap directions, and the team that scored starts again with the first throw. Rice’s Ultimate Frisbee club team began in 1996 under the pun-fueled name Catch Her on the Fly. Since then, the team has gone through a couple of name changes and played in several different divisions. The current team name, Torque, 12
Ric e M aga z i n e | S UM M E R 2 0 1 5
is a play on the formula: torque = R x F (“R” for Rice, “F” for Frisbee). After its first championship win in 2014, the team lost one of its strongest handlers, Monica Matsumoto ’14, upon graduation. With a change in strategy and recruitment, the team continued to be successful. Instead of focusing on a few key players, the team adopted strategies that allowed the whole team to work together and create a stronger offense and defense. But it wasn’t just the strategy that led
the team to its second win. Looking back on this winning season, Maya Stokes ’15, last season’s co-captain, noted the whole team’s dedication as one of the biggest reasons behind the team’s success. “We had over 30 people coming out to practices, and there’s only seven people at a time on the field,” Stokes said. Some of the team members even created the “five push-up club,” voluntarily doing five push-ups every time someone dropped the disk. All of the seniors, including Stokes and Nichole Kwee ’15, even missed graduation to participate in the championship tournament. For some, it was a hard decision to make. “My dad was pretty upset. It took a lot of talking back and forth and letting him know how important this was to me. The decision to miss graduation was unanimous,” said Kwee. Stokes added, “There’s nothing cooler than celebrating your four years at Rice by winning a national championship with your team.” —Mijin Han ’15
R O B E RT B R A Z I L E
The Rice women’s Ultimate Frisbee team, Torque, won its second national championship at the 2015 USA Ultimate Division III College Championships, held in May in Rockford, Ill. Torque was the No. 1 seed heading into the tournament and won their pool May 16, beating Wake Forest University 15-9, Luther College 15-7 and St. Olaf College 15-6.