USA Ultimate

Cara Crouch throws upfield with India Stubbs on the mark.  (Photo: Nathalie Guimard)

After outscoring opponents 52-1 at Sectionals, Texas Showdown came into South Women's Club Regionals as the #1 seed, eager to earn back-to-back Regional Championships.  Last year, Showdown defeated regional rival and respected opponent Atlanta Ozone for the first time in team history.  Showdown knew that they would have to beat upstart team Nashville-based deSoto as well as Ozone in order to win the region.  Showdown also anticipated Fayetteville / Tulsa-based Hayrde to bring a more complete roster than they had at Sectionals and was not overlooking Atlanta Top Shelf, a team who gave Showdown an extremely close game at South Regionals last year. 

This has been a unique season for our team.  Showdown has been training for nine months and competed at the World Ultimate Club Championships in Prague in July.  We’ve been running track workouts, holding weekend and weekday practices, and hitting the gym since February when most, if not all, other club teams in the South Region were still enjoying the off-season.  It’s been an incredibly long and intense season for us, and after a brief break in July, we had to regroup for an intense and challenging fall season.

Several of our most experienced players retired after Worlds in July and we had to return Kate Wilson and Angela Lin, who played with us at Worlds, to Ozone, so the fall season has been about incorporating new players into our systems and about getting ready to peak for Regionals and Nationals.  We’ve had a very interesting fall season, with less-than-stellar performances at Chesapeake Open and Philly Fusion, but with small shining moments such as a double-game point win over Washington D.C. Scandal at Fusion.

Christina Choffel breaks the mark to Sheila Ogen in the finals of South Regionals. (Photo: Nathalie Guimard)

In pool play on Saturday, Showdown went largely unchallenged, posting big wins in our first four games and then beating deSoto soundly 11-5.  After pool play, we went straight to Semifinals Sunday morning, facing Top Shelf in fairly windy conditions.  The game stayed tight early on, but Showdown took half 7-3 as our defensive line was able to score several upwinders.  We kept pushing in the second half and took the game 13-5.  After a bye, we faced off against Ozone, who had taken care of business against deSoto in the other Semifinal 13-4.

The game got off to a rocky start, with one Showdown player and one Ozone player each suffering an ACL tear.  The game was spirited throughout—our games with Ozone always have an awesome intensity, but the level of respect on both sides is high as there are many long-standing friendships between our teams.  Katherine Wooten and Angela Lin controlled the disc for Ozone, with Kate Wilson being the glue that held the offense together.  Ozone has a small roster and notably was missing handler Sophie Darch, who is one of the best young players in the women’s club division.  Cara Crouch and Sarah Blyth led the charge for the Showdown offense, and we also enjoyed the return of Katey Forth who was playing with the team for the first time this season.  On defense, Tina Woodings, Amanda Berens, and Holly Greunke led the charge for Showdown, with Christina Choffel and Sheila Ogden also coming up big for the defensive offense.  Showdown took half 7-3, but Ozone would get a break back immediately after the half and closed the gap to 8-5.  The teams would trade out and Showdown pulled out the win 11-8.

deSoto’s athletic game seemed largely impacted by the wind on Sunday, and they fell to Top Shelf 13-5 in the game to the game-to-go.  Ozone then took care of business against Top Shelf, beating them 13-6 and qualifying for the Club Championships for the 10th year in a row.

Congratulations to all of the other Club Championships Qualifiers!  We are excited to represent the South Region and we look forward to seeing all of you in Sarasota.