2011 Club Regionals Preview: Women's Week 1
USA Ultimate
Posted: September 30, 2011 01:05 PM
While there has been some shuffling this year, Nemesis is still pretty clearly the Central Region favorite. They should be able to take the first bid convincingly (although expect Revolution to give them a challenging game), and the real battle will be figuring out where to seed them at nationals, a tricky situation with their wins over Phoenix but losses to Zeitgeist and Showdown.
If Chicago Heavyweights is any indication of what the rest of the central region will be like, Revolution should be feeling fairly confident about securing a bid. On paper, this region appears easy to predict. Revolution has definitely gotten stronger after making their first nationals appearance in 2010 and adding some fire power to their 2011 roster (Melissa Gibbs, Jasmine Draper, and Robyn Fennig are a huge 1-2-3 punch), but Nemesis has benefited from a much more competitive schedule since the two faced each other at ECC in mid-August. They attended both Labor Day Ultimate Championships and Virginia Fusion, getting to play against some of the country’s best, and proving themselves as a top level team. Revolution, on the other hand, has not seen much competition since ECC (their closest game in September was 13-5). While it is hard to improve without the push of strong competition, Revolution does have some vets who know how to win when it counts. And don’t count out the 7 other teams hoping to face an exhausted opponent in the 3pm backdoor game for a chance at the second bid. At the end of a long weekend, anything can happen- and that’s why the games are played!
The Mid-Atlantic has Phoenix as the 1 seed going into the weekend, with Scandal looking knock them off to win back-to-back Regional Championships. Phoenix returns a strong leadership core of Lindsey Hack, Leila Tunnell, and Cate Foster, and has added significant talent in Claire Chastain and Katie Dolara. Teams can only hope to contain receivers like Heather Zimmerman and Tania Reitz, and with a solid win over Scandal at Virginia Fusion, Phoenix has high hopes of bringing the Regional title back to North Carolina. After a strong showing at the 2010 Club Championships, Scandal has lost star player Johanna Neumann to Brute Squad, but has gained Manu Argilli, formerly of Fury. Sandy Jorgensen continues to rule the air, and she is joined downfield by rookie Briana Cahn. Cahn will be look to be on the receiving end of big hucks from fellow-UCSB alum Allison Maddux. Hot Metal, Green Means Go, and Sweet T will all be looking to pull off a big upset this weekend. There is no shortage of high-level players on these teams- Amanda Davis, Christie Lawry, Kelsey Lenard, and Acadia Klain (Hot Metal), Keri Dorko, Liz Cassel, and Shelley Su (GMG), and Becky Ledonne and Lauren Tompson (Sweet T) will all give teams fits. If any of these teams hits a hot streak on Sunday, the game-to-go could be an all out battle.
In the Northwest, Riot and Fury will be doing battle for the 1 seed at Nationals. Riot is taking some good momentum into the Series, with tournament victories at ECC and Labor Day, and an undefeated weekend at Virginia Fusion all in the books over the past two months. The loss of Rohre Titcomb for the remainder of the season cannot be overstated, but Riot’s numerous other weapons are sure to step up. Riot veterans Gwen Ambler, Sarah Griffith, and Val Dion bring big name firepower to the team, but look for "glue players" like Heidi-Marie Clemens and Kate Kingery to be keys to Riot’s success. Rookie Hana Kawai has been a huge pickup for Riot, and should have a significant impact as well.
No one who has followed womens’ ultimate in the past decade is overlooking Fury. Simply put, they win when it counts. Coach Matt Tsang undoubtedly still has a few tricks up his sleeve, and Fury has a core of veterans who don’t know how to lose. Alex Snyder and Georgia Bosscher are playing out the season with the San Francisco crew despite their relocation to the Midwest, and Nancy Sun and Lauren Casey will hold down the handling corps with more-than-capable receivers like Cree Howard, Manisha Daryani, and Alicia White downfield. Like Riot, Fury is an incredibly deep team, and it would be a surprise to see anyone other than those two playing in the Regional finals.
The team with the best chance to upset the top two is Traffic, who will be coming off a disappointing finish at Canadian Nationals to punch their ticket to Sarasota. Unlike their East Coast Canadian counterparts, Traffic is bringing a fairly complete roster to the fall series, and months of playing together should benefit them greatly. Kira Frew is indisputably one of the best players on the continent, and with receivers like Candice Chan, Michelle Ning, and Ashlee Davison, Traffic will be looking to challenge for one of the top two spots out of the region. Zeitgeist, Underground, and Further will all challenge for the fourth bid out of the region. Zeitgeist is the frontrunner with two wins over Further (including a 15-5 win at Labor Day) and a 15-9 win over Underground at ECC. College stars Maggie Ruden and Paula Seville will be fun players to watch, and should bolster a relatively young roster that includes recent college alums Heather Waugh (Colorado), Cheryl Prideaux (UCLA), and Megan Molteni (Carleton). Further's roster at Labor Day was bolstered by players who will not be competing with them in the fall series, but nevertheless, their small crew built around a core of Oregon alums, should not be overlooked. And one would be remiss to overlook Underground. Despite mixed results this season, former college teammates Kristen Lamm, Lisa Gehret, and Erin Brown will be looking to boost the disc to speedy receivers like Danielle Platt and Laura Holcomb. If Underground can conserve energy going into late Sunday, they should find themselves in a good position to challenge for the fourth bid.