By Jill Tuthill, Asst. Arts & Entertainment Editor
In their highly anticipated first game of the season, the Manhattan University Ultimate Frisbee team pummeled Adelphi University with a 22-8 win on Oct. 19, kicking off their second year as an established club sport team.
Senior electrical engineering major Bryan DaSilva has been on the team since its creation at the beginning of last season. Throughout that time, he’s experienced both his growth as a player and the team’s development as a whole, and he was thrilled at the team’s first performance of the season.
“We absolutely destroyed them, and it was a fun experience,” DaSilva said. “Overall, the whole team was hype. It was a pleasure to play Adelphi again. Everybody played well and hopefully we’ll face them again.”
John Catalano, a sophomore electrical engineering major on the Ultimate Frisbee team, was one of the original members back when the club first began last fall. Catalano attributes their big win to the morale the team has accumulated through their regular biweekly practices.
“We were pretty confident going into it, and that confidence usually builds a momentum that lasts the whole game,” Catalano said. “It’s a good thing to see that even though we don’t have as many people, we can still compete with these schools that do.”
Keller Peterson, a junior electrical engineering major, has a unique perspective on the team’s growth as both co-captain, alongside Christian Molina, and coach since the team’s creation last year. Peterson said that their success against Adelphi was in part due to an adjustment in how the practices are run, with this year’s early season practices focusing on the team’s main strategy in addition to getting the new members up to speed on the pace of the game.
“I think that was received a lot better than last year,” Peterson said. “We had a couple of people who were strong right off the bat that I didn’t have to spend an entire semester teaching how to play, and having the resources of the team from last year helped in that. Because it wasn’t just me teaching, it was everyone helping out.”
According to Peterson, the win was much harder to get when the team played against Adelphi last year, proving the team’s progression both offensively and defensively.
“Looking forward to the season, this early win lets me know that when we have all of our pieces, when we’re all playing at our best, we can really be a good team,” Peterson said.
DaSilva echoed Peterson’s optimistic view on the rest of the season.
“We see that we’re a promising team,” DaSilva said. “We can win against other teams. We’re capable of actually being competitive. Honestly, it seems like a bright future for us. We could see our team growing as years go on.”
Although they crushed it this time, it will take perseverance and practice to continue their winning streak.
DaSilva said that since what they’ve been doing until now seems to be working well for them, they should stick to it.
“Honestly, practice,” DaSilva said. “Keep doing what we’re doing. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Just keep the pattern going. Just keep practicing, keep doing drills, keep being in shape, keep being motivated. Keep the mindset that you want to be successful.”
Although MU’s team had a comfortable lead throughout the game, Catalano said that instead of getting comfortable with their current strengths, the key to continuing their success is to keep working harder so that they can build upon their improvement that they have been working on since last year.
“By not taking it as [a sign that] we’re good to just continue what we’re doing, because we didn’t play perfectly either, even though we won by as much as we did,” Catalano said. “We’re gonna have to improve on things to keep getting better.”
DaSilva agreed that the route to improvement and success for the team lies in continuity, but that their success is also what makes the team stand out against other more established teams with longer histories.
“It keeps getting us better,” DaSilva said. “It’s like stepping stones. Our experience keeps growing bigger and bigger every time we play a game. I know we’re a new team, and we’re playing teams that have been around for three years, five years, 30 years, who knows, but the sense of growth is what makes this new team special.”