USA Ultimate

Women's Division Ohio Valley Regionals Preview D-I  D-III

This preview is split between three authors, Amanda Virbitsky with the help of Carly Maconaghy (covering D-I) and Catherine Durkin (covering D-III).

Division I

D-I Ohio Valley Women’s Regionals is quickly approaching, and with only one bid to Nationals up for grabs in the region, the tournament is sure to be hotly contested. The top four teams entering the weekend are Penn State, Ohio State, Pennsylvania, and Pittsburgh -- any of these teams has a great shot at the championship. In addition, look for Edinboro and Case Western to make some noise over the weekend.

Penn State Isis earned the first overall seed at Regionals by winning DI Pennsylvania CCs. Despite a slow start at Queen City Tune-Up in February, Penn State has been ramping up throughout the season with a finals appearance at Keystone Classic and a Conference Championship. Look for captains Carly Maconaghy and Katie Erikson to lead the way, with help from Nichole "Smitty" Smith and Yolanda Scarpati. All four have been nominated for All-Region consideration. Isis is looking to make their first Nationals appearance since 2004.

Ohio State enters Regionals as the 2nd seed after finishing first at DI Ohio CCs. OSU finished 5th at Keystone Classic, and played a tight game against Penn State there, losing 8-7. All-Region nominees Janine Walker and Cassie Swafford will likely be making big plays for Fever, vying for the team's first-ever bid to the National Championships.

Third seed University of Pennsylvania Venus is eager to make a return to the national stage. Despite a number of injuries over the course of the season, Penn is fielding their deepest team in recent years -- five players have been nominated for the All-Region team. Captains Anna Spiridigliozzi and Katie Goldschmidt do a good job of staying calm and collected under pressure, while senior Octavia "Opi" Payne is one of the best athletes in the region and should have more than a few huge layouts on offense and defense. Grad student Christina "Flex" Ward is a first-year player for Penn, and if she is healthy the team will be using her height to their advantage downfield.

Rounding out the top 4 teams, Pittsburgh is stocked with strong handlers and aggressive cutters. Although Pitt's spring season has been up and down, with injuries to many of the team's top players, the long break between Conferences and Regionals gave everyone some much-needed rest and recovery time. A healthy and focused Pitt team could be difficult to stop. Three of Pitt's handlers (5th year Kayla Kleynen and juniors Meredith Hadley and Robin Eng) have been nominated for All-Region - look for the handler core, including senior Sarah Roth, to get off some nice long throws and impressive breaks. Downfield, Pitt has a number of strong receivers and defenders. Though only two cutters have been nominated for All-Region (Bailey Moorhead and Kelsey Lenard), many others will be working hard and making big plays, including Jeanne Sullivan (#24) and Sydney Huerbin (#28). 

 
Pittsburgh at 2010 College Championships. PHOTO CREDIT: Andrew Davis

With the top four teams pretty evenly matched and a number of other teams looking to pull off big upsets, the action in Manheim this weekend should be exciting to watch -- it certainly won't be an easy road to the top! 

Division III

Ohio Valley Division III Regionals will be happening this weekend in May 7-8 in Manheim, PA. There will be 6 teams competing, 2 from Ohio and 4 from Pennsylvania. Gettysburg, Franklin & Marshall, Haverford and Messiah will be representing PA and Ohio Wesleyan and Oberlin will be representing Ohio. Although West Virginia is included in the Ohio Valley Region there won’t be any teams from WV at the tournament this weekend.

There are sure to be a lot of good games this weekend with no clear prediction of a winner. The teams from PA are fairly matched and the two teams from OH played two close games at their Conference Championships in April. Scores from Gettysburg’s (1st seed) season show close games with both Haverford and Messiah.  In their Pennsylvania D-III CCs Haverford and Messiah played a close game against each other. There was another close game between Messiah and Franklin & Marshall at Pennsylvania’s DIII CCs. Ohio Wesleyan and Oberlin have not played any sanctioned games against any of these Pennsylvania teams this spring. It is clear there will be a lot of great games this weekend full of spirit and strong teams. The weather is also looking up for Saturday so it’s sure to be a weekend full of great Ultimate in Manheim.

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Questions/Comments?  Discuss in this event discussion thread (D-I) or this event discussion thread (D-III). 

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