The St. Louis U. High Ultimate Frisbee team participated in the Missouri state tournament in Edwardsville this past weekend, and after getting eliminated in the quarterfinals, managed to break seed.

The Jr. Bills headed into the competition ranked eighth after a season filled with struggles where they played against five of the top six teams in the state. The coaches of the squad also made an executive decision to combine the Varsity and JV for the state tournament, due to the worry of fatigue of playing seven matches. 

The Jr. Bills were put into a pool with three teams they had faced this season: Edwardsville, CBC, and De Smet JV.

 On Saturday, SLUH started off playing against arguably the best team in their division, Edwardsville. They started off hot, working the disc down the field against a zone that Edwardsville played until, after a couple of risky throws, senior Zach Gibson connected with sophomore Theo Agniel to put the Jr. Bills up 1-0. The Jr. Bills started the scoring, but they failed to find the end zone for the rest of the game, as Edwardsville showed their true dominance as the Missouri No. 2 seed, winning 13-1.

The second game continued with the scoreless trend against a zone defense, as CBC scored four unanswered goals until Agniel connected with senior Tommy Favazza to shorten the deficit. The Jr. Bills did manage to put another two points on the board before the end of the game, losing 13-3.

Going into their third game on Saturday, they knew they needed to win two in a row if they wanted a shot for the state title. The offensive line shined against De Smet JV, as they picked up eight of SLUH’s ten points. In particular, junior Grant Thornberry was firing on all cylinders, managing to assist three times, score three times, and add a D on top of that. The Jr. Bills won 10-7 and up next was a play-in game against Edwardsville JV. Thornberry decided that he was going to have a repeat of the last game and picked up an identical three assists, three goals, and one D. 

“I’m glad I was able to help the team with these wins and help build momentum following the next games in state,” said Thornberry.

The Jr. Bills controlled the entire game and utilized the depth of their roster with both the varsity and JV teams being combined. The highlight of the game was freshman Joe Murphy getting his first varsity assist to senior Noah Probst (1 goal, 2 D’s). SLUH ended the game in a 10-8 victory.

The next round of games continued on Sunday where the Jr. Bills struggled to capture a win in their first two games. In the quarterfinal and first game, the Jr. Bills were up against the number one seed, De Smet. The Jr. Bills managed to put one on the board before De Smet dominated their way to the semifinal. SLUH faced Lindbergh next, and struggled to find their feet as they managed to put up a fair number of points before Lindbergh finished the game 13-7. Up next was the game for seventh place. SLUH went up 4-3 against Kirkwood before lightning struck and the game ended early. The Jr. Bills ended their tournament and their season in seventh place overall.

The JV team played a big part in the state tournament, helping the varsity squad fill in missing holes in players and providing extra help off the bench. The JV team started off their season with a few close losses. However, when the team realized they were close to a win, they managed to pull off a win against Kirkwood B.

“The JV team started with a few hard losses and responded with desire to improve, leading them to getting a win and playing a couple of really strong teams down to the final point,” said JV coach Luke Carron ’14. “The team committed to playing disciplined offense, which will put our players in a position to contribute right away to the varsity team next year.”

However, the euphoria was short lived, as the team went the rest of the season without a victory. While this may seem disappointing, the spirits of the players were never dampened, always keeping a positive attitude.

“Everyone was always having fun,” said Murphy. “Everybody was always willing to give rides to people and whatnot.”

The JV team will continue to grow in experience throughout the offseason during weekly league games.

“My hope for the team is that all of the players use the offseason to continue to improve the skills that they have built throughout the season,” said Carron. “Although we have a limited amount of time during the season to build skills, the coaches are happy to provide individual feedback for anyone looking for new ways to improve in the offseason.”

“I think we did a really good job of introducing the game to a lot of new faces and getting everyone a lot of exposure and playing time across the teams,” said Stephens.

Both JV and Varsity teams will continue to grow their skills in the offseason, and will come back next season ready to dominate.