2015 D-I College Championships - Women's Day One Recap
Jimmy Leppert
Posted: May 22, 2015 10:52 PM
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It was a sunny but breezy start to the 2015 USA Ultimate D-I College Championships. With two games in the books for each team, and day one completed, here’s a look at what happened on the field.
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Pool A
Oregon Fugue sits in control of Pool A after a perfect day, with wins over Notre Dame and Victoria. Any trouble that Oregon had was felt the most in their first half of the day; Notre Dame was right with them at halftime, down just 7-8. But being able to tighten down and run their system helped bring them out of any perceived trouble. Their offense ran especially well, regardless of weather conditions, in the second half of their two games. The Victoria UVixens, meanwhile, ended Friday with a win and loss. In back-to-back games in the final two rounds of the day, they looked like two completely different teams. First, they took out Florida State with a very well-played second half, but then they scored only four points in the second half against Oregon. Notre Dame Womb, with a packed and rambunctious sideline, also ended the day with a win and a loss, as they slowly familiarized themselves with the stage of the College Championships in their first trip since 2003. The loss to Oregon was their first of the season, but they were able to respond well with strong play in the wind against Central Florida’s zone defense to close out the day. The two teams from the Sunshine State, Florida State and Central Florida, began Friday by playing each other in an extremely tight game. Florida State was able to pull out the win after some mental mistakes that allowed Central Florida to close the three-point gap Florida State had amassed. Against Victoria, those mental mistakes for Florida State continued as they squandered a first-half lead. Lastly, Central Florida finished without a win after two hard-fought games against Florida State and Notre Dame. They showed life late against Notre Dame, as their zone defense came alive and generated turnovers, but offensive miscommunications helped seal their fate for the day.
Pool B
What a day for Stanford Superfly. They allowed a combined seven points to be scored against them across two games, first cruising against Middlebury and then defeating the pool’s second seed, Dartmouth. There was no sign from this veteran team that they were bothered by playing in front of large crowds. Their offense was never broken, and their defense consistently scored points of their own. The big story in this pool today was how the other four teams finished. Middlebury, Dartmouth and Washington each finished with a win and a loss. The Middlebury Lady Pranksters’ win was a huge 15-13 victory over Washington Element in a game where their defense took advantage of Washington’s miscues. Washington surged back late in the game, but it was too little too late. Too many offensive mistakes, paired with the Lady Pranksters defense, dug Element into that hole. Luckily for Washington, they played extremely well against Ohio State earlier in the day to end with one victory. Dartmouth also beat Ohio State, during the first round of the day, finishing with a single victory to pair with their loss to Stanford. Their handlers did a good job finding the open cutters in the deep spaces against Ohio State, and it helped propel them to a lead they never gave up. For defending champions Ohio State Fever, finishing without a win is a disappointing day. But one bright side is that their zone defense gave opposing offenses a lot of trouble in the wind, and simply being able to utilize the turnovers it generated more effectively will help them tomorrow.
Pool C
After four of the five teams had played one game, this pool seemed fairly straightforward. Carleton College cruised to a victory over Pittsburgh, British Columbia beat Texas, and only the pool’s one seed, UCLA, hadn’t played. UCLA then took on Carleton College and won a long game with their precise cutting that led to open receivers in all areas of the field. For Carleton College, they fell into traps set by the UCLA defense and didn’t show the same smooth offense that was on the field in their win over Pittsburgh which, together, made victory hard to reach. In similar fashion to UCLA, British Columbia simply used their speed to outlast anything Pittsburgh could throw at them. Even though they finished without a win, Pittsburgh Danger did not look totally out of place on defense. They just need to get their offense started tomorrow. The final round of the day, when UCLA took on Texas, is when the pool’s outcome changed. Coming off of their long game against Carleton, UCLA BLU simply looked out of breath to start against Texas Melee, who played extremely well. Texas jumped out to a quick lead, and UCLA was not able to fight themselves back into the game, largely because their defense did not use the disc wisely after generating a turn, often giving the Texas offense a short field.
Pool D
Virginia knew entering the day that going undefeated was a tough task, but they managed to do just that with close wins over Kansas and Colorado. Shaking off early issues in handling the disc was key in their victory over Kansas. When playing the pool’s top seed, Colorado, Virginia’s zone defense and extremely efficient offense earned them a lead they would not relinquish. Although Colorado lost to Virginia, largely due to an inability to take advantage of turns their defense generated, they did start their day with a dominating win over Princeton. The victory was a good showcase of how their offense and defense would prefer to run. Whitman also found themselves victorious against Princeton, using their speed to their advantage to stifle the Clockwork Orange offense and score points quickly. But against Kansas, the Whitman Sweets were unsuccessful in their strategy of containing Hydra’s handlers and often turned the disc over after their cutters’ moves were stifled downfield. Kansas Betty played extremely well in that game, almost a polar opposite of their first outing. Against Virginia to start the day, they kept the score close for the majority of the game, but their offense had issues moving the disc consistently, and their defense left something to be desired. Playing Whitman, though, Kansas erased those issues. The Betty offense improved immensely, and while it wasn’t always working perfectly, they found success with their deep game. For Princeton Clockwork, they can take solace in that tomorrow is a new day and another chance to impress at the College Championships. Their defense found both Whitman and Colorado’s offense hard to contain, but face new opponents tomorrow.
Day Two Preview
Each of the four pools has one undefeated team (Oregon, Stanford, British Columbia and Virginia), and barring any crazy results, those teams should have a path to at least the pre-quarters within reach. The four teams seeded 16 through 19 (Kansas, Victoria, Texas and Middlebury) are currently in control of their own destinies, with eyes on tiebreaker scenarios. Round one games like Notre Dame v. Victoria and Colorado v. Whitman should go a long way in helping to determine end-of-pool-play seedings. Meanwhile, teams like Florida State, Washington, Carleton College and Kansas all face difficult day-two schedules that could make or break their entire seasons. No matter what, tomorrow’s match ups guarantee an exciting finish to pool play competition in the women’s division.
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