USA Ultimate

2011 College Centex (W) Preview

 

This weekend, the best women’s teams in the country will descend upon Austin, Texas for one of the most celebrated tournaments of the college women’s spring season: Women’s College Centex.  Over the past few years, the tournament has grown in both size and competitiveness, attracting the best teams in the country while also providing playing opportunities for locally and regionally competitive teams.  This year the tournament features a 16-team Division I, 16-team Division II, and 18-team Division III, with crossover games happening between each tier of play.  In addition to including 19 of last year’s 20 College Championships Qualifiers, the field of teams will also feature 4 B teams, 3 of which are flying to the tournament.  

 

Centex has been built upon two things: competition and community.  The Texas Women’s Ultimate program has committed to bringing the best teams in the country to the event, while also using the weekend to continue building the college women’s ultimate community as a whole.  In addition to hard-fought, at-level games, teams will be treated to a throwing mixer, a Women’s Leadership Forum with panelists from around the country, a BBQ dinner at the fields, and the famed Centex dance-off.  A small group of young, developing teams will also be participating in the Guest Coaching program, with players from Showdown, Doublewide, Chain, Brute Squad, and Happy Hour giving up their weekends to coach these young teams.  Texas Melee senior Nicole Crumpley sums it up like this, "Watching (as well as being a part of) the growth and development of Centex over the past 3 years has been amazing.  The tournament has created a special bond among members of my team as we work to put on this event, and has also built relationships with other women’s teams around the country."

 

California-Santa Barbara takes the 1 seed at the tournament on the back of a big win at Stanford Invite a few weeks ago.  They will face regional rival California as well as East Coast favorite North Carolina-Wilmington.  Wilmington will be looking to avenge a disappointing Sunday at Women’s College Easterns and will be looking to make a statement against two of the best West Coast teams.  The Carolyn Finney (California-Santa Barbara)-Claire Chastain (North Carolina-Wilmington)-An-Chi Tsou (California) matchups will be fun ones to watch, as three of the most talented players in the division go head-to-head.

 

Oregon Fugue sits atop Pool B after a second place finish at the Invite, as they were missing some key players on Sunday of the tournament.  Julia Sherwood and Katy Craley will be looking to lead the charge for Fugue.  They will face a low-seeded Stanford, who won Santa Barbara Invite earlier this season, before stumbling a bit at their home tournament.  North Carolina-Chapel Hill will be looking to improve upon their third place finish at Women’s College Easterns earlier this month, and home team Texas will be looking for an upset wherever they can get one. 

 

Pool C is headed by British Columbia, who benefited from a three-way tie to sneak into semis at Stanford.  They have a strong core of juniors players who be looking to walk away with a Northwest Regional title, and more, this year.  Carleton College is a dangerous 4 seed in this pool, and they bring with them a 13-11 win over California at Stanford Invite as something big to build on.

 

In the last of the Division I pools, Iowa will look to carry on their winning ways from strong performances at Midwest Throwdown and Women’s College Easterns.  They will have something to prove to the West Coast teams.  Is this Midwest team for real?  They will have UCLA and Washington to take down, and the 1 v. 1 matchups between Iowa studs Robyn Fennig and Chelsea Twohig and standouts Sabrina Fong (UCLA), Lindsey Wilson (Washington), Lienn Hoffman (Northwestern), and Sara Miller (Northwestern) should be fun to watch.

 

The field is deep at Centex, and even the lowest seeded teams in Division II have a legitimate shot at qualifying for Nationals this year.  Texas A&M has the athletes to make things interesting in Pool H, and the 1 v. 2 matchups in each pool should be fantastic games to follow.  The teams in Division III aren’t too shabby either.  A number of them have been strong Regional contenders over the past few years and there should be some good cross-region games to help bolster the rankings going into the last couple of weeks of the season.

 

Scores will be updated round-by-round on Score Reporter and more colorful updates will also be provided via the Without Limits Twitter Feed as technology allows.  Also, stay tuned to USA Ultimate for a full recap of the event next week!