The six guys that make up the UC Irvine Club Roller Hockey team sat around a typical college house in Newport Beach with the feeling of ultimate bliss in each one of them. They were watching and laughing at films from the season. Each person was proud, excited and glowing��'not the kind of glow you get from an “A” in a class you actually studied for, but a faint, golden glow. It was coming from the Gold Cup sitting on the coffee table, in the middle of the room, that the team had won earlier that day at the national Collegiate Roller Hockey Association’s Western Regional Championship.

Going into the tournament hosted in Irvine, the team was anticipated to win. The team had only lost one game the whole season, and was ranked No. 2 in the nation dominating the points standings. The points system in roller hockey works on points given for the amount of goals, assists and game-winning goals each player accumulates.

Fabian Mueller is a big assist guy and played a significant role in the start and development of the club.

As a former UCI undergraduate and a current UCI grad student, Mueller has been on the team for seven years. He expressed his excitement for the progression that the team has made.

“It means a lot to come from ... being a Division II club team at the start and not even making the playoffs, and now we are winning the Division I Western Regionals,” Mueller said. “We have really improved every single year from the start.”

Mueller is third in assists in the Western Division and fifth in the nation. The team is inarguably the most impressive in the nation when it comes to points standings. In all three categories, goals, assists and game-winning goals, the team has two of the top five players in the standings.

After winning the Western Regionals, the team clinched its third-straight birth to the national championship tournament, which is being held in Fort Collins, Colo. this year. At last year’s Nationals, the team stood out due its lack of players. Since then, the team has developed a style suited for a limited amount of bench support, which, for those who know hockey, is not an easy style. UCI’s team is the most under-manned team, yet it controls the game and takes advantage of the other team’s impatience. In the finals for the Western Regional tournament the ’Eaters put on a clinic winning out right, 6-0 to highly touted Cal State Long Beach.

Throughout the tournament, one Irvine player stole the show: fourth-year All-American Charlie Middleton. You may have walked right by him on Ring Mall and not known that he is the best roller-hockey player in the nation. He set a national record for points this year, scoring an incredible 107 points in 18 games with 75 goals, 36 assists and eight game winners. In the semifinal of the Western Regional against University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Middleton scored a sudden-death overtime top-shelf back hand that went right over the goalie’s shoulder, prompting a team celebration at mid-rink. As the team wildly mobbed Middleton, he kept yelling, “I practiced that at the ARC!”

Irvine won its first WCRHL Regional cup, or “Dub Cup,” as the team refers to it.

“It just feels good representing your school,” said the team’s captain Jeff Pollock. “And even though it’s not NCAA, the competition level is as high as it gets for our sport. We get to rep UCI against big sports schools like Michigan State, Texas A&M and USC.”

However, Pollock also mentioned his concern for next year when the team will need to broaden its recruitment efforts, since both Mueller and Middleton will be leaving. However, the team will have some key returning players. Mike Tasch was third in the nation in overall points, and goalie Kevin Leonard, who led the nation in wins, will both be returning. Heavy support off the bench from Alex Frecker and Daniel Arkof will also be back next season.

“We just need to get some good guys out at tryouts next year so we can do this again,” Pollock said,

However, the anxieties of next year can wait as the team prepares for its trip to Nationals. With the recent support from a new fan, Associated Students of UCI President Mohamed Eldessouky, the trip is looking very positive. This is the first time the team feels it actually has a chance at winning a National Championship, where it will compete against schools that have full rosters and give out scholarships to its players.

The competition level rises to its highest with this being the biggest stage for collegiate roller hockey. Some schools have budgets of over $60,000 and indoor practice rinks at their campus. Even still, the under-funded and under-manned Anteaters have a really good shot at bringing the national title back to Irvine.