The UNCW Seamen took advantage of the beautiful weather Sunday by playing well in the Fall Easterns Tournament.

This was the first ultimate club tournament held at UNCW for fall of 2012, and it was an exciting one.

UNCW’s ultimate club team played Princeton in the first round. Even though Princeton scored first, UNCW had a 6-0 run midway through the game that propelled them to a 15-6 win.

Junior Gabe Fuller connected with teammate Austin McGrain for the final score. Team captain and UNCW senior Trueman Nottingham was confident his team would get the job done in the first round.

“We really put the foot on the throat for that game, and we really took it to them,” Nottingham said. “We thought we were a better team coming into that game, so we really wanted to beat them by a lot and we showed that by not letting up.”

Up next was Ohio State. The Seamen took a 6-2 lead just 33 minutes into the game, but then Ohio State started to claw their way back and they caught up to them 8-6 right before the half.

“We played completely different against Ohio State than we did against Princeton,” Nottingham said. “We had a big lead early in the game, so we had the same type of momentum coming into that game, but it fizzled out and we let them right back into the game.”

It was down to the wire in the second half, and the teams ended up tied at 11 apiece after an hour and forty minutes. Usually, the team to score 15 points first wins, but because of time restrictions, the winner would be decided by next point. Six minutes after Ohio State had tied the game, UNCW finished strong and won 12-11. Nottingham had a great defensive performance with three blocks. They advanced to the championship game against the top seeded UNC Chapel Hill.

It was a nail-biter of a game with both teams going at it, back and forth. UNC-CH would score, then UNCW would score two minutes later. This action repeated until 15 minutes into the game when UNCW took its first lead at 4-3. The biggest lead the entire game was 50 minutes into the game when UNCW was up 9-7.

Players on both sides were getting intense, both verbally and physically. It looked like UNCW would take the win after leading 12-10 an hour and 15 minutes into the game, but UNC-CH came back to win the tournament 15-13. It wasn’t that UNCW played poorly; it was that UNC-CH played better.

“I’m real proud of our guys,” Nottingham said. “Our older guys had a few turnovers, but I thought our younger guys were amazing. Everybody did great, even the guys that messed up.”

Even though they lost, the Seamen got together after the game, sat around in a circle, and each player said something positive about another teammate. The club team was unified after the loss to UNC-CH, and they were positive despite the outcome.

“At our next practice, I want our guys to focus more on intensity,” Nottingham said. “In that last game at UNC, everyone was intense and on top of each other and pushing each other. It’s nothing personal; we’re just out here pushing each other to get better. So I want to see that same type of intensity at practice.”

Nottingham was also surprised by how well the younger guys played in the tournament.

“The way we play, we just don’t know who’s going to step up,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of great kids and a lot of great potential. I haven’t even figured us out yet.”

The senior captain is excited about his team moving forward to bigger and better things. The sun may have been setting at the end of the UNC-CH game, but the UNCW club team is just getting warmed up.