The women's ultimate frisbee team, whose official name is Barely Legal, began at the College 10 years ago, but it has never received much notice. This year, however, the team has finally given the Amherst campus a good reason to pay attention.

Last weekend, Barely Legal won the Carpe Discum Tournament at Smith College. The weekend before, the women went undefeated at the Western New England sectionals, beating UMass, the University of Vermont and Middlebury, Smith and Williams Colleges. This performance earned Barely Legal a top seed heading into the New England Regional Championships this weekend, where Amherst will face off against 15 other teams. The top-three teams at the end of Regionals will move on to the national level.

Since ultimate frisbee is not an NCAA sport, all college ultimate teams instead compete in the Ultimate Players Association's (UPA) college division. As a result, the team gets minimal financial support from the College and has never had a coach for more than one semester (and currently has none), making its accomplishments even more impressive.

Barely Legal is led by captains Jenn Morash '05, Nora Gray '05, Maggie McKeon '05, Jess Blanton '06E and Kit Wallach '06. Although the team has a large number of seniors, most of them came to Amherst with no experience in the sport. "Almost all of us just started playing the sport as first-years," said Gray. "As a team we've really come an amazingly long way."

Indeed, the story of the women's ultimate frisbee team is that of a true underdog. After a rather unimpressive opening decade, Barely Legal has finally earned a spot among the elite teams in an increasingly competitive sport. "We would go to tournaments and lose every one of our games, and now we're the number-one seed out of our section," said McKeon. "After spending years being the team that always loses, [we are] definitely enjoying being the team that continues to win," added Morash.

This season has been a great reward for a team that receives little attention from the College and that has worked largely by itself to become a strong, organized and dedicated team capable of presenting a real challenge to opponents across the nation. "This has been a phenomenal season and, for myself and the rest of the seniors, a great way to end four years of helping to build this team that has meant a lot to all of us," said Morash.

This weekend the women head to the New England Regional Championships held on the Newport Polo Fields in Portsmouth, R.I. Whether or not they qualify for a spot to the UPA College Championships held in Corvallis, Ore., on May 27-29, the members of Barely Legal know that they already have plenty of reasons to be proud.