USA Ultimate

Event Website U-19G Scoreboard

[PHOTO CREDIT: Christina Schmidt UltiPhotos.com]

When the World Junior Ultimate Championships occurs every two summers, it is the women’s division at YCC that is usually hit the hardest in terms of losing female competitors. That’s why it is particularly inspiring to see such talented players competing Blaine, MN this weekend, even though the some of the nation’s best U-19 women are currently in Dublin, Ireland (despite the fact that there are only five women’s teams competing).

The team that proved itself to be above and beyond its competition today is Seattle’s DiscNW Rapture, soundly winning each of its three games by eight or more points. These girls are not afraid to put it deep, consistently favoring their powerful flick-hucks over backhand, and frequently get Ds both in the air and on in-cuts. As the reigning YCC Women’s division champions for the past seven years, the Seattle girls are not looking like they plan to relinquish their title any time soon.

That doesn’t mean that the other teams attending the tournament aren’t also playing extremely well. Cincinnati’s scrappiness, patience in zone offense, and large roster enabled them to seriously challenge DiscNW in their third-round matchup and seem prepped to head into the finals tomorrow. Although the TYUL Warhawks ended up with a less-than-perfect record today (1-3), they played their heart out in three nail-biters of games, both winning and losing on universe point and losing once by a mere two points. Their game against Colorado Cutthroat was particularly exciting: both teams were trading points after Colorado began with a small lead. After lots of turnovers and D-blocks—defense lead by Cutthroat’s Hannah Brown (#23) Lena Gibbs (#5), and TYUL’s Klara Calderon-Guthe (#55)—the game remained tied up until the very end, which is when both teams really stepped up the intensity. Cutthroat’s Hannah Dryke (#3) swiped a TYUL disc out of the air in her oppenent’s endzone, which enabled her team to stay in the game; this was followed directly by a similar move by Calderon-Guthe. TYUL’s U-16 team came out to cheer for their female counterparts, which added to the general excitement and energy of the game: as the younger boys eagerly populated the sidelines, the girls happily joked, "O-M-G, the U-16 boys! They’re soooo illegal!" Perhaps because of the extra boost of energy from their sidelines, the TYUL Warhawks were able to pull away with a universe point win: Calderon-Guthe put the disc deep to Katie Cubrilovic (#5) who caught it for the score. The two were greeted with much celebration.

Games to watch tomorrow:

• Cincinnati vs. Denver: One of the closer matches we’ll probably see in the girls’ division.
   
• Minnesota vs. Triangle Area: will the Warhawks be able to avenge their single-point loss to the local team, or will Minnesnowta pull away with a second big win?
   

Memorable plays:

• Colorado’s Marcelle Sprackling (#43) gets a big D in the air on a flick throw, then scrappily catches the disc in the endzone after a DiscNW player tips it into her hands
   
• Tall, lanky Klara Calderon-Guthe (#55) of TYUL’s ability to sky every other girl on the field…and successfully put it deep time after time.
   
• Minnesnowta’s go-to player Vivian Chu (#32) grabbing herself a D on a deep look and immediately putting it for a score
   
• DiscNW’s Jacklyn Verzuh (#22) getting D after D on girls.