USA Ultimate

Pool Play Highlights

Iowa State came out on fire against Cal to control the tempo of the 8:30 am match-up. Though Cal's Priscilla Menendez connected deep a few times with Maggie Wilson early in the game, Woman Scorned shut down the deep game for the 15-12 win.

Iowa cruised to an easy win over Delaware. Iowa distributed the disc well throughout the ranks, winning long points as the lines opened up for Saucy Nancy. Delaware looked a little gassed, falling 5-15 to Iowa. Iowa thus secured their spot in Quarters, while Humboldt State, though they best Iowa, will not advance.

Iowa State started with a break against Virginia. The teams traded for most of the game, but Iowa State pulled away thanks to Becca Miller's hucks and deep cuts. Hydra came back at the end, with Maggie John and Devon Ericksen putting up hucks to receivers. Iowa State's momentum was never really broken and took the game 14-12 to knock Hydra out of contention for the title.

Possibly one of the most surprising upsets of the season, Texas beat Oregon 15-10. Texas went up early confidently capitalizing on Oregon miscommunication turns. In the same pool, Ohio State essentially decided to throw their game against Texas as they were set to go to prequarters regardless of that matchup. This set Texas as the top seed in the pool and sending Oregon to prequarters.

In another exciting game, UBC and Michigan traded points for a close game. UBC went up with a few breaks kid game that Michigan couldn't catch up to and took the win 15-13. However, UNC beat UBC in the next round, and point differential set Pool C to go to seed, with Michigan moving on to quarters.

Finally Tufts rounded out their pool play with two more wins over Cal and Ottawa. They effectively shut down the big players of both teams, using their talented roster to outstrategize teams with different defenses. Tufts, the fourth seed in pool D, will move on to the quarters while the second seed Virginia was knocked out of the run for the title.

Pre-Quarters

Paige "Diddy" Soper, Cassie Swafford, and Kelly Wild led the charge for Ohio State as they went up big in the first half against Iowa State. Fever capitalized on nearly every Iowa State unforced turn to take half 8-4. When the wind picked up in the second half, Iowa State connected for breaks upwind; however, the comeback came too late. Ohio State picked up the upset win 12-10 to knock Woman Scorned into the 9th place bracket.

Washington-British Columbia was a matchup between two teams that know each other very well.  UW coach Danny Karlinsky went with a force-middle, fronting defense that took UBC out of their comfort zone.  Washington was able to capitalize on some early UBC mistakes and to jump out to an early 7-3 lead.  At that point, the wind picked up, making it very difficult to move the disc upwind.  UW adjusted to play huck (and sometimes punt) and D, and UBC only once came close to scoring upwind once.  The teams traded out to a 12-7 Washington win.

In the Oregon Cal matchup, both teams came out fired up. The teams struck quickly, trading points. Oregon broke to take a lead at 5-3 and never looked back. They took half, and as the wind picked up, their practice in wind gave them a ginificant advantage. Cal tried too hard to work it up the field, but their upwind bucks were useless against Oregon's junk zone. fugue pulled away with the win, moving in to the quarters to face Iowa.

Shellie Cohen and Lindsay Lang controlled the tempo of their prequarters matchup against UCLA from start to finish. On offense they were poised and confident, throwing big cross field passes against the UCLA zone to open it up and hit big shots to Lisa Couper and Lily Steponaitis. On defense, UNC played straight up and flexed off the handlers to deny Sabrina Fong the huck. Fong did her best but when the wind picked up, UNC got two key upwind breaks off of Shellie Cohen's confident puts and took the game 15-8.