USA Ultimate

Women's Division South Central D-I Regionals Recap

Event recap by Kansas's Jordan Warren, as a part of our 2013 Regionals coverage.

The unpredictable Kansas City weather played a role in the Saturday outcomes of South Central Regionals this past weekend. Cold breezes and rain greeted all 12 teams at the KC Polo Fields, where games began on time, and continued all day, complete with puddles and mud pits.

Saturday saw much of the unpredictability previewed for this region as Pool A ended with a new leader in Texas, but mostly played out to seed. On the other hand, Pool B was completely rearranged after Missouri State only lost one game, and a three-way tie between Texas A&M, Washington University and Colorado State resulted in point differentials playing out.

Sunday dawned bright and warm as the top teams played hard through the bracket. Texas ended up taking the first bid to Nationals after going undefeated both days. First seeded Colorado appeared to have the bid in reach, but a rematch with Texas in the final proved as difficult as Saturday’s pool play game. Wildcard Missouri State had a chance going into the quarterfinals but fell Sunday to Colorado College, Washington University and Kansas. Texas A&M and Colorado College fought hard in the semifinals against their respective opponents before facing each other in the third-place game, which ended with A&M coming out on top by four points.

TEXAS

Determination and skill drove Texas’ success throughout the weekend; second-seed Melee played fast and hard against every team to clinch the Nationals bid for this region. Melee came out confident at the beginning of every game and strategically stayed positive, using their ability on the field to shut down their opponents. Going undefeated on Saturday seemed to put little pressure on the team going into Sunday’s bracket play, where once again they dominated with their ability to swiftly gain a lead at the beginning of every game and remain ahead until the end. These fast and strong starts by Texas meant many teams had to try to gain momentum on their end, but it was a struggle against this powerhouse women’s team.

Texas’ team features a plethora of speedy and experienced players like Kayla Ramirez, Diana Charrier and Sharon Tsao. As last year’s Nationals qualifier from the South Central Region, Texas is known for their ability to play strong and tough. Earlier this season, the team experienced some difficult losses at the Presidents’ Day Invite and Music City Mash-Up. However, those losses seemed to have given Melee the determination to bounce back full-force and fight for a second consecutive trip to Nationals. Their perseverance and competitive spirit never hinder Melee’s positive attitude on and off the field as they value the opportunity to play against great opponents and have fun. Now, they head to Wisconsin on May 24, with their eye on the prize. Semifinal and final rounds can be watched live on ESPN3 and will be broadcast on ESPNU.

COLORADO

Colorado began strong on Saturday, falling only to Texas midway through the day and clinching Pool A’s second seed going into bracket play on Sunday. Kali has many standout players and this season showed their ability to fight against top teams across the nation. Consistently leading the rankings for the South Central region, Colorado was a favorite going into Regionals. The Kali women came out strong and confident in their abilities on the field, executing the skills they learned in practice to shut down teams on defense.

The biggest challenge for Kali came in their matchups with Texas on both Saturday and Sunday. Kali consistently held the higher ground in their other games, with speedy points and tough defense. However, against Texas, they had a difficult time executing their game plan of effectively moving the disc down the field and setting up defensive positioning on turnovers. The depth of Kali’s roster assisted them over the weekend as they played five games on Saturday and four on Sunday. In the end, Kali played with heart and showed great spirit throughout the weekend.

TEXAS A&M

The Stacked women clinched a third-place finish at Regionals after dropping seed on Saturday. Missouri State and Texas Christian University proved tough on Saturday, each claiming 9-7 victories over Texas A&M. However, Stacked came out aggressively on Sunday against Kansas in one of the most exciting games of the tournament. A&M began with strong confidence and speedy movement up the field, exchanging some points with the Bettys. However, after taking half 8-6, Stacked continued strong before allowing a five-point run by Kansas that tied the game. Despite struggling to shut down Kansas late, Texas A&M managed to end the game with a win. The win led to a semifinal loss to Texas, which placed them against Colorado College for the third-place game. The game was another low-scoring affair as the game ended 10-6, with A&M coming out on top.

Texas A&M’s women were determined to come out strong this weekend as they had proved to be a challenge for opposing teams at Conferences two weeks prior. Earlier this season, Stacked struggled with focus, but gained it back in time for the Series. Overall, these women proved to be a challenge to the regional powerhouses this season and were determined to fight hard to end as a top team in the region.

NOTABLE GAMES

Throughout the tournament, top teams created a trend of beginning strong with a lot of momentum and holding a steady lead until the end. However, there were a few interesting nail-biting games on Sunday when the most was at stake. Three edge-of-your-seat matchups included the quarterfinals game between Missouri State and Colorado College, the play-in game to the fifth-place matchup between Washington University and Missouri State, and the play-in game to the ninth-place game between North Texas and Rice University.

The Missouri State and Colorado College quarterfinal proved a fantastic matchup between two teams who had not played each other this season. As the one seed from Pool B, Missouri State brought a challenge to Pool A ‘s fourth-seeded CC team. The teams traded points until the game eventually ended with a one-point win by CC to advance to the semis.

Missouri State moved on to play Washington University in the fifth-place bracket, a rematch from Saturday’s pool play. WUWU fought for redemption as long and tiring points were exchanged on the field. Toward the end of the game, both teams fought to shut down their opponent with tough defense. Bearly Legal used their trademark zone to challenge WUWU’s ability to execute offensively. In the end, the WUWU women were able to clinch the win over an injured and worn out Missouri State team.

Another notable game of the weekend was the ninth place bracket game between North Texas and Rice University. North Texas fought hard to break seed this weekend, and the win against Rice allowed them to accomplish their goal. Envy coach Paul Utesch said their best play of the weekend came during this game when the disc was hucked deep to Carmen Young with two Rice girls downfield with her. Carmen grabbed the disc sandwiched between the two defenders, then proceeded to dump it to a teammate who managed to throw to another for a push pass into the end zone. Talk about teamwork! Rice worked their shut-down man defense but was unable to defeat the scrappy North Texas women.

CONCLUSIONS

Huge props to the Kansas City Ultimate team for directing and coordinating game times and fields on Saturday after rain pushed the men’s games off the best fields. They easily transitioned the women’s games from their original fields onto the men’s fields after rain caused concern for tearing up the ground. However, the women of the South Central region proved they can play just as tough as the men, creating a question of whether they could continue to play on the best fields after tearing them up a bit. I felt the weekend was pretty successful as the teams came out to play some amazing ultimate. Thank you to Kansas City Ultimate and Regional Coordinator Courtney Verhaalen for hosting and putting together the tournament, and thank you to all the teams for your spirit and love for the game shown throughout the weekend.

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