All ultimate eyes will be on Northampton this weekend.
The third annual Pioneer Valley Invitational will take place Saturday and Sunday at the Oxbow Marina athletic fields.
Teams from all over New England and Canada will be looking to take down Northampton, which captured the boys and girls championships last season.
“This year’s tournament will be bigger and bolder,” Northampton boys coach Lee Feldscher said. “We have 45 teams this year with more traveling teams. There will be a nice spread.”
The range of teams competing come from as far south as New Jersey and as far north as Ottawa.
Pool play begins at 9 a.m. on Saturday with bracket play starting at 9 a.m. on Sunday. The boys and girls championships will begin at 2:15 p.m. on Sunday.
Past tournaments have drawn over 700 competitors but this one will have more. Between online sources and informal word of mouth within the ultimate community, the field expanded considerably from the 33 teams that played last year.
Amherst Regional will send its Junior Varsity A and Junior Varsity B teams to compete in the boys tournament. Pioneer Valley Performing Arts School will send its boys and girls teams.
The Blue Devils won the boys and girls championships last season. Sam Mescon, Zach Dietz and Zach Levitt are senior captains for the Blue Devils.
“We are seeded at the top and have a strong team,” Feldscher said. “Our captains set the pace and control the flow of the entire game for us. We’re planning on working hard.”
Longmeadow is seeded second in the boys field followed by No. 3 Ottawa.
The Northampton girls team is coming in confident after a win last year in the tournament. The Blue Devils are also a bit feisty after a close loss in the Four Rivers Tournament last weekend.
“We are looking to sweep again this year,” Northampton girls coach Sheldon Snodgrass said. “We are playing beautiful together. We lost by a point last weekend. We are ready.”
The girls will look to Claire Babbott-Bryan and Julia Snodgrass for scoring, while Mel Sanders is the playmaker as the team’s top handler.
“Our team mantra is focus and dominating on defense,” Sheldon Snodgrass said. “Defensive pressure leads to lots of opportunities on offense.”
Ottawa swept the championships in 2014. Only the boys team will compete in the 2016 version.
