USA Ultimate

Club Championships - Day 1 Women's Division Wrap

 

 

Weather – particularly wind – has the power to separate the good Ultimate teams from the great. At this club championship, the elements played a factor even before teams reached the Sarasota Polo Club. In two days leading up to the 2010 USA Club Championships, airports across the country experienced delays due to strong winds in Chicago and storms in Atlanta. Minnesota’s Pop started the day with a little more than half their squad while the other half waited at airports. One Ozone player’s flight was cancelled – leaving the already small team one woman down.

Far away from the storms and rain, Sarasota was calm and sunny to kick off the first day of Nationals. Scandal, this year’s fifth seed, was one of the first teams to arrive at the fields. The D.C.-based crew warmed up their throws and methodic plays as the fog burned off the plush Florida fields. Molly Brown players were covered in grass cuttings and damp with dew from their lay-out prone drills. Teams were already sweltering before Randy Ricks’ time-honored harmonica renditions of “O Canada” and “The Star Spangled Banner.”

After liberal amounts of sunscreen were applied, teams started game one under a cloudless sky. In symmetry with the calm conditions, the first round saw no upsets. Four games ended in 15-7 wins by the higher ranked teams and two games saw a margin of 15-6. There were a number of jittery starts by higher seeds but their nerves evaporated with the morning’s mist. Pool D offered the most interesting in first round match-ups. The fourth-seeded Capitals have a tradition of starting out slow and kept the ritual going against 12^th-seeded Bent from NYC. From the start, Bent relied on outside-in forehands for fast scores against the groggy Capitals. The Canadians answered Bent’s offense but not after a few unforced errors and subsequent defensive stands. Captain Alyson Walker took matters into her own hands by making a remarkable grab to take the game to half at 8-7. After half, the Capitals threw a zone and Bent quickly turned the disc to the athletic and aggressive cup. However, Bent learned quickly and tore through the cup, bringing the score to 10-10. From there, the Capitals remembered just how good and fast they are. With offensive contributions from Anne Mercier and Martha Paterson, the Capitals ran away with a 15-10 victory.

On the other side of Pool D, the Scandal and Safari game heated up as both teams aired out big hucks and in Safari’s case, hammers. Safari’s veteran handlers Shar Stuht and Vivi Mai took advantage of Scandal’s first-round fluster and lead the San Diego squad to an 11-9 lead against the Mid-Atlantic’s up-and-comers. Safari mixed in junk defense to upset Scandal’s well-oiled offense. But Scandal had answers to Safari’s handlers and zone: Octavia Payne and Sandy Jorgensen. Jorgensen lead the team with bookends and Payne was everywhere on O and D.  Scandal forcefully made its way back into the game and brought the score to 12-12. The last three points of the game were far from pretty but Scandal managed to capitalize on several frantic hucks, hammers and scoobers from Safari. Scandal won on a wide open throw to a poached Ashley Daly to win 15-12.

Clouds appeared and a slight breeze picked up in between the first and second rounds – and Pool B could feel the change in the atmosphere. Phoenix and Nemesis – a comic-book battle if there was one – played the fastest-paced game of day one. Both teams came out fired up and firing deep shots. Despite being the lower seed, Nemesis felt they had an edge up on Phoenix thanks to first-round scouting reports from co-coach Akira Yamaguchi. Nemesis coaches were well-prepared for Phoenix’s run-and-gun offense and assigned smart match-ups throughout the game. In response to Phoenix all-star Leila Tunnel, Nemesis coach Pfil Broering told defensive specialist Megan Tormey to, “[M]ake her life hell.” And that she did. By running a hard force forehand defense, the young Chicago-based squad was able to outrun the huck-heavy Phoenix. Kelly Johnson of Nemesis came up with several big D’s including a lay-out that converted to a goal to bring the underdogs up to 13-8.

Nemesis ended the game 15-9 on a push pass – a departure from the team’s typical chilly handler movement. The young team runs something of a horizontal stack but most of the movement runs through their handlers.

“We have young stupid athletes who love to play D,” Broering said after the game. “We are a D team first and our O is good as a result.”            

Across the field from the Phoenix upset was a Seussical round between Colorado’s Molly Brown and Austin’s Showdown. Both teams took advantage of the relatively calm weather and hucked back and forth. A lot. Showdown receivers Marjo Manalang and Janel Venzant went deep on Molly Brown throughout the game but Colorado had Leslie Schein and Jana Krutsinger to answer. Molly Brown took the close half at 8-7 and in the second half the freshly-minted Colorado team completed more outside-in hucks than their opponents. Showdown threatened to break seed but the Unsinkables would not go down. Molly Brown won 15-12.

Match-ups in Round Two moved much closer to competitive scores compared to Round One. Instead of 15-7 finals, the second games ended in two 15-11 and two 15-10 wins by higher ranks seeds. The outliers of course fell in the Northwest games where Riot plowed through RevoLOUtion 15-1 and Fury beat Storm 15-7. However, among those games, Ozone played a giant half against Brute Squad. The skeleton crew of Atlanta all-stars took half on the Boston powerhouse. Despite their numbers, Ozone played a tough zone D and ran the disc aggressively. Brute Squad took over in the second half but not before revealing a chink in their armor.

When the wind picks up or the sun rages, the good teams fret, huck out of desperation and change their strategy altogether. The great teams grin and bear it, adapt to the conditions and make slight alterations to things they’ve already practiced.

Round three separated the good teams from the great.

Phoenix Coach Tully Beatty told his team to hit the “reset” button after the Nemesis upset and to prepare for the Fury game. His team heeded his advice and Phoenix went up early, 6-3. A huge layout catch from San Fran’s Amanda Leahy and composed offense from Alex Snyder lead to a charge that could not be stopped. Fury mixed in a deadly four-person cup with person defense, thwarting Phoenix’s huck game. The World Champions charged back and secured the half and eventually the victory 15-8.

With a significant breeze coupled with all different varieties of zones and creative offenses, round three was an exciting albeit ugly round of Ultimate. Ozone upset Pop in a long battle with a 10-15 final. Bent and Safari followed seed with a 15-11 Bent win. Molly Brown faced off against a powerful Riot and put up the most points against the one seed all day finishing 15-9. Nemesis took down Storm 15-10, securing a two slot for the Chicago scrappers in Pool B for Friday reseeding.

In Pool C, Brute Squad and Traffic squared off in a game that was closely contested – until half. Traffic moved in and out of zone and man defenses but Brute Squad had spectacular breaks throughout the game thanks to former Godiva stars. Brute Squad mixed in a zone but primarily they worked a person defense forcing to the downwind sideline. On offense, Brute Squad showed a scripted vertical stack which was stilted by exhaustion by the end of the game. Brute Squad took half at 8-7 and slowly moved away to a 15-10 victory.

Last but most certainly not least was the most exciting game of the women’s division: Capitals v. Scandal. The entirety of Pool D played solid Ultimate over the course of Day One and game three was to be the Penultimate moment of the day.

Fifth-seeded Scandal – a fast-running, hard-working team – took half 8-7 against the fourth-seed Capitals in a breezy start. Scandal threw in zone to disturb the Capitals’ offensive strategy. The Caps are a great wind team because they go through their handlers who cut up line for easy throws.

Both teams experimented with zone in the middle of the game but ended up forcing person by the end of the game. The switch to person defense resulted in several things: lots of hucks (several uncompleted), lots of calls (several contested) and lots of breaks (several very nasty).

Thanks to offensive giants Johanna Neumann and Sandy Jorgensen and defense from Octavia Payne and Jorgensen, Scandal went up 11-9.  But with a couple scores from Danielle Fortin and Anne Mercier, the score was soon 11-11. Scandal received the pull and almost all the offensive players touched the disc as the team methodically moved the disc into the end zone to make it 12-11. Scandal threw a zone which the Caps blew through with cross field movement and a laser huck to Caps’ Martha Paterson to make it 12-12.

Scandal responded quickly off an open side away cut by Taryn Price, exploiting uncharacteristic weak defense by the Caps putting Scandal up 13-12. Caps’ captain and rock Alyson Walker runs put away the next goal to tie it again at 13-13. Former Schwa player and now Scandal starter Jenny Fey put in the next goal after the teams’ several turns to make it 13-14. A pull, a horn and several calls later, the Caps’ Mercier scored on a layout grab to bring it to 14-14. With the soft cap signal sounded, the game was officially going to 16. The next two points offered some exciting plays but mostly turnovers, calls, contests, observer discussions and timeouts. The game finished on an open side throw to one of Caps’ solid receivers, Martha Paterson.

“We play a physical style and so do they. We just happened to get the breaks at the end,” said Caps’ starter Anne Mercier.

Scandal Coach Nate Miller made adjustments throughout the game including throwing a zone. This is his first Club Championships with the team and he said he is proud of his team.

“We’ve got great talent on this team. I’m looking forward to tomorrow,” said Miller. He added, “Ultimate is a special thing. I’m just glad to be a part of it.”