The sun has set on NUT 2017-18 and what a ride it was. After losing over half of the roster to graduation last year, no one really knew what to expect from this team. Some claimed it was a “rebuilding year” while others didn’t have the word “rebuild” in their vocabulary.
NUT kicked off it’s season at Queen City Tune Up in Charlotte, North Carolina. Almost the entire team was stepping into new roles and there were evident growing pains as NUT finished the weekend 1-5, losing to the likes of Pittsburgh, UMass, Virginia Tech, and Maryland. However, NUT hit the refresh button and rebounded strongly, narrowly missing out on the bracket at Florida Warm-up. With a 5-3 record, NUT notably notched wins against Florida, Harvard, Texas, and Texas A&M. Next, NUT flew to Austin, Texas for Men’s Centex. In the Texas heat, NUT played well but struggled to get over the finish line, losing close games to Iowa, Northeastern, LSU, and Texas State. Final record 3-5. NUT finished off the regular season on a high note— going 7-1 at Huck Finn. Another victory over Texas as well as wins over regional rivals Illinois State and Illinois were the talking points of the tournament.
NUT was the number one seed headed into Sectionals, however poor play and failure to adapt to unfortunate weather conditions led to losses to UChicago and Illinois State. In what became a motivating factor for the rest of the postseason, NUT finished fourth at Sectionals, barely qualifying for Regionals. NUT made sure Regionals was no sequel to Sectionals, topping their pool on Saturday with convincing wins over Grand Valley State and Michigan State. On the road to the Regional final, NUT conquered Purdue and UChicago, in the quarterfinals and semifinals respectively. Finally, NUT took down Notre Dame 15-13 in the Regional final with a Matt Niemer huck to Jeff Holm that will go down forever in NUT lore.
On. to. Nationals. For the first time in its history, NUT made Nationals. This was a moment of great pride for the program and it wouldn’t have been possible without the help of everyone who played, coached, or supported NUT in some way. At Nationals, NUT(2-2) made the bracket after upsetting Stanford and Auburn while falling short against UMass and Carleton. Then, NUT’s season ended with a hard fought game against Brown in the pre-quarters and a 9th place finish.
NUT is so thankful for the 100+ fans who showed up to support that weekend— NUT’s success wouldn’t have been the same without you.
Looking towards the future, NUT will continue to put an emphasis on performance over results. Next year will be exciting for many reasons but most importantly, the majority of the team is returning to hopefully continue to build upon this year’s success. Thank you again to anyone who contributed to our season! Until next year.