The Tufts Emen entered the 2011 USAU College Nationals tournament as the 13 seed. In pool A they would face the overall 1 seed Pittsburgh, as well as Iowa, Colorado College and Illinois. In their first game the Emen matched up with 12th seeded Colorado College. Despite the fact that Tufts matched up well with Colorado College’s handler based offense the Emen could never find a rhythm and were broken a few times early. Despite a late surge Tufts would lose the game 14-10. In the next round, the Emen stepped their game up against Iowa. The game would prove to be a battle for both teams. IHUC broke the Emen early, but the D line got back the break later in the first half. For the first time the Tufts offense seemed to be clicking and they scored easily against both man and zone defenses. The game would go deep into the second half without either team able to get a second break, despite a couple of chances for the Emen. Because Iowa elected to receive to start the game they would end up winning with the score on serve, 14-13.

In the second day of pool play the Emen faced a challenge against Pittsburgh who they had lost to earlier in the Spring at the Stanford Invitational. Again the Emen struggled to find a rhythm and went down early. With an important game against Illinois coming up later the captains opened up the lines and gave some of the younger players the opportunity to step into leadership roles. The Emen would eventually lose 15-9. Due to a couple of upsets Pool A was in disarray before the final round. A win over Illinois would put Tufts in a three way tie for 3rd place in the pool. In order to win the point differential and earn a bid into pre-quarters the Emen would have to beat Illinois by more than 6 points. Tufts came out firing and put away a couple of early breaks. The D-line generated turns and then worked the disc down the field with ease. At halftime the Emen had a dominant 8-4 lead. In the second half Illinois showed a bit of fire and earned back a break, but thanks to multiple athletic Ds by Jack Hatchett, the D-line was able to break back a few times. The Emen showed great poise late in the game as they valued the disc and punched in the final point to win 15-8 and advance to Pre-Quarters. In Pre-Quarters the Emen faced a familiar foe in Harvard. With Harvard up 2-1 on the season series the Emen were looking for an upset. The game would prove to be a close one, with both teams playing balanced, cutter based offense and giving multiple looks on defense. The Emen charge was led by Captain and Second Team All Region handler Alex Cooper and Second Team Freshman of the Year Eric Shaw. With Shaw, Cooper and Kyle Nichols-Schmolze putting pinpoint throws all over the field, cutters Adrian Banerji and Trevor Sanders worked the Harvard defense into the ground. On defense Lloyd Olson and Jack Hatchett worked to shut down Harvard’s main cutting threats while Eric Wilbum, Nick Adolph and Jason Tsai made life difficult for Harvard’s throwers. Despite being broken a couple of times early, the Emen battled back to being down 8-7 at halftime. In the second half Ben Nelson returned to the O-line’s handling corp and threw a couple goals including a break to bring the score to 9-9. In the end though, Harvard would prove to be too much for the Emen, breaking to win 11-9 with the soft cap on.

In the 9th place bracket Tufts faced Washington and dealt with them swiftly and soundly. Strong cutting from Adrian and Sam K-S proved to be no match for UW and the D-line capitalized on turnovers to build a lead going into half. A couple of circus catches by Trevor Sanders in the second half helped bring the Emen to a 15-10 victory. In their last game of the tournament the
Emen faced the University of British Columbia for 9th place. The Emen were plagued by injuries to Captain Jay Clark and Second Team All Region cutter Jack Hatchett, which gave other players the opportunity to step up. Freshman Daniel Pavitt and Sophomore Robby Perkins-High stepped up on defense in Hatchett’s absence, cutting early and often. Trevor Sanders again shined on offense as he and Adrian Banerji rounded out a solid weekend. Sam K-S had some well timed hucks after burning his man under and in a preview of next year Alex Cooper and Eric Shaw were nearly unstoppable as a handling pair. Despite strong play from all the Emen, UBC was able to grab a couple of early breaks and ride them out to the end of the game. The Tufts zone gave UBC trouble thanks to Will Wong and Jason Tsai’s work in the cup, but in the end the Emen were outmatched, losing 15-11. That result gave the Emen the 10th place spot in the country, breaking seed by 3 places and turning some heads in a great last weekend for the 2010-2011 team. Seniors Jay Clark, Ben Nelson, Jason Tsai, Trevor Sanders and Kyle Nichols-Schmolze will be sorely missed but their impact on the program will be felt for years to come.