USA Ultimate

 

 

The first upset of the day was Scandal’s unexpected and thrilling 10-6 victory over Riot. Scandal came out notably stronger than the Seattle-based team in their first round game, scoring a quick first point and managing to hold on to the disc longer than Riot despite some hasty turns on both sides. Scandal’s Shino Yoshen (#17) stuck with the disc after Riot’s intimidating Hana Kawai (#14) attempted a midair D-block, Yoshen falling at Kawai’s feet to make an amazing, last-second catch for the score. It was all up from there for the D.C. team: after quickly breaking Riot’s trap zone defense—Scandal’s quick handler motion and the effects of the thin air causing Riot’s permanent mark to lag behind—Scandal pushed forward with the confidence and energy to take half 8-2. Riot, however, wasn’t going to let Scandal escape without a fight: they quickly amped it up on both the sideline and the field, putting tighter marks on Scandal players and catching more of their own deep looks. Shannon O’Malley (#11) hucked a wide-open flick to Kathryn Lawson (#38), who caught it easily in the endzone to narrow the point differential to 9-4. By the time Riot players fully shook off their first-game jitters, it was too late for them to win the game: hard cap was called as Kawai assisted Riot’s last point of the game, losing to Scandal 10-6. When asked about their win against the number one-seed, Scandal captain Molly Roy (#55) said, "We knew we had to come out fired up from the very first point, and we knew that we wouldn’t have warm-up time. We came out like we were coming out of a first half." Scandal was ultimately able to remain a step ahead of Riot—this time, that is.

 

 

 

A second exciting upset was Ozone’s 12-8 victory over Molly Brown. The two teams began by trading points, Molly Brown working Ozone’s cup and facilitating lots of cross-field disc movement while Ozone’s well-placed deep looks—most of them facilitated by former captain Katherine Wooten (#24)—kept Molly Brown players gasping for air. Ozone pulled ahead after taking half 8-7, Wooten assisting captain Allison Snow (#14) for the score as she neatly turned the page. After half, Wooten kept hucking it to amazingly energetic receivers with great success: a super-speedy Sandra Davis (#6) raced past her defender in the endzone and caught Wooten’s sailing put for a score, to the disbelief of the entire sideline. In the end, Ozone seemed to move the disc a little faster, turn it less, and remain slightly more energetic than Molly Brown did: having played at the Winston Cup two weeks ago, Ozone is clearly profiting at the U.S. Open from their recent opportunity to gel as a team in the face of tough competition. Snow, however, attributes much of the Atlanta team’s cohesiveness to two long-time Ozone players, Wooton and Angela Lin (#71): "They reign us in and keep us chilly," Snow said after the game was over. 

 

 

Memorable moments: