The Case Western Fighting Gobies ultimate club finished off their fall semester tournament schedule with a successful weekend at the Steel City Showdown in Pittsburgh. Both the men and women’s teams made strong showings with the women finishing as champions and the men beating several tough opponents before falling to Penn State.

The women swept the entire field of opponents with a 4-0 record for the weekend. The squad started out with a 13-8 win versus Michigan State and went on to dominate Kenyon University 13-4 and Eastern Michigan University 13-2. During the championship round on Sunday, the ladies faced off against Carnegie Mellon University. The women won the match 11-6 and took the top spot for the weekend.
The women’s squad is extremely happy with the win. The team has grown this season and is finally able to compete in high-prestige regional tournaments like Steel City. The ladies knew they could be successful in this meet, but were careful to keep their level of play high going into the final. Club Vice President Sharon Yee was encouraged by the playing by all members of the squad. “The rookies definitely played well. There were some times when they were the only ones out there and they managed to score. It speaks well to the captain’s preparation and training.”

The men’s team is also beginning to compete on a whole new level. During this high-profile tournament, the team came in seeded 14th out of 24 teams. The Gobies fought through seven matchups for a final record of 5-2 on the weekend and a 10th place finish.

On the path to success the Gobies beat out two teams that had beat them last year and had an average margin of victory of 5.2 points. The team fell to Ohio University in the first day of play, sending them to the consolation bracket where they performed well, beating two additional teams on the way to meet up with Penn State for the final match of the day.

The Gobies lost their final game by only one point, bringing their weekend to a close. Both of the teams that beat CWRU finished last season with top-three finishes in the region, which demonstrated the marked improvement of the Fighting Gobies squad.

The fall portion of the season is primarily used to get the team ready for the series portion of competition in the fall. The Gobies will compete in several events leading up to the sectional competitions later in the spring.

Both teams will finish up play for the fall semester with the annual Alumni Tournament on Nov. 23-24 on campus.