USA Ultimate

Women's Division Central Regionals Recap

Teams had a slightly breezy weekend that never made much of a difference except in the constant change of direction of orientation. While Saturday was a touch on the cold side, making players keep on their warm-up pants and under armour, the weather was still ripe for great play.  The weekend was to start off in the lopsided pools of nine total teams, giving a less-points-played advantage to the second pool.  The off-set rounds of the pools played out "mostly" according to seeding.  

The notable games were in both pools first round match-ups of the eventual semi's competitors.  Nemesis struggled getting into their groove on their first round with a POP team who came into the tournament looking to break the front-runners and Nemesis happened to be the first in line on their list.  Coming down to the wire and dangerously close to an amazing upset, Nemesis won out on universe 11-10 during a tight game.  RevoLOUtion struggled with the unexpectedly great play of Baha who had cutters with legs for days and a voracious appetite for cutting to and throwing to space better than most opponents over the weekend.  After RevoLOUtion got some resemblance of flow from a mix-up of lines, they pulled out the win in soft cap 11-9.  

[PHOTO CREDIT: David Hwang]
 

The biggest story of the weekend was the ineligibility of the Notorious CLE team who had made some noise at Chicago Heavyweight Championships recently.  At that tournament they had ended up second over regional teams and had placed themselves in a favorable seeding for the weekend.  With a handful of unrostered players participating, the team was quickly disqualified upon discovery and all of their games declared null and void (causing for most of the seeding upsets of the pools besides the switch between Master Plan and Wolfpack.) With CLE out of the way, the second tier teams of Baha and POP were more than ready to strike for a chance at a bid against the favored Nemesis and RevoLOUtion.

Sunday started off with the sort of fog you can only get at these particular polo fields of Milwaukee.  Teams would eventually find their fields after playing a confused game of Marco Polo.  A rainbow shown in the air briefly and then the fog cleared making the rest of the day sunny and perfectly illuminating for the spirited play.

[PHOTO CREDIT: David Hwang]

Semi's match ups were easy to predict after the first round of pool play games of Saturday and as the day began, Baha matched up across the field from Nemesis and POP looked to RevoLOUtion with a determination to get to a bid from point one.  As these games began though, it was obvious that any focus slip-ups or lack of flow from the day before was non-existent in the top dogs.  It seems that both teams wanted nothing more than that expected finals match up between 1 and 2 seed.  Nemesis took out the tiring Baha at the same count RevoLOUtion took out their now understood opponent POP: 15-6 each. Nemesis and RevoLOUtion met up only once in the pre-season, uncharacteristic of the previously typical midwest teams' schedules.  That one showdown was at the Emerald City Classic during the Sunday of a long tournament far from home of both teams.  Nemesis might have been missing a few and RevoLOUtion, having taken a squad of only 14 to the tournament, was wearing thin.  The first half was a gritty match-up (as would be regionals finals) but Nemesis walked away handily with a 15-8 finish.

With half a Revo squad at ECC, neither side knew quite what to expect in the other opponent as the expected finals was to begin after a long gap from the semi's match ups in the morning.  On the one hand, you had Nemesis, veteran's in every sense of the word, even after losing some top play makers and leaders last year.  The team still had fantastic emotional and physical leaders and an unwavering commitment to hard work and fitness that brings them into sharp focus as a unit.  The addition of fresh players to the roster under this credo would only further serve the team's purpose as they had set up for themselves a very competition-heavy schedule that would only allow for nationals-level play.  

The other hand is a RevoLOUtion team, second-year of existence but benefiting from a flux of athletic talent and already containing feverish competitors that draws teammates from the entire region.  With this large reach of players, their schedule was lack-luster and rarely could the team be found complete in it's roster at practices or even at the regionals tournament. RevoLOUtion could be underestimated by this but could fall by the very hand of inexperience in the schedule they set up for themselves. That apprehension lay thick in the air before the start of the finals game but it was obvious that both sides were instead trying to focus internally to what their own team would be bringing to the game and not on the opponent.

[PHOTO CREDIT: David Hwang]

Nemesis shot out of the gates with two quick scores, the second a break, before Revo could get their heads around what level of competition they were really headed up against. The next counts would climb at about the ratio of one RevoLOUtion score to two of Nemesis'.  Clearly, RevoLOUtion misstepped in being able to stop the flow of Nemesis and couldn't figure out how to create their own as Nemesis methodically tacked onto the score above them.  At the score of 7-4, RevoLOUtion, citing the scoreboard on the sideline, thought Nemesis had just scored their eighth and thus had taken half and had really put themselves in a position to control the game entirely.  After the observers corrected the count to 7-4 Nemesis, RevoLOUtion woke up the best they had to offer and tagged on four straight points in a row, flexing athletic muscle in some fantastic plays and capitalizing in on some of Nemesis' uncharacteristic drops.  Revo took half and set up to dance party but the half-time was the perfect opportunity for a calculating and focused Nemesis to re-evaluate the games happenings.

During the second half of the first bid finals, key players of RevoLOUtion were starting to wear down from putting out all their athletic offerings but still tried to maintain intensity on woman-to-woman defense, Nemesis also began putting more pressure on the individual defense and highlighted the fact of their prowess in fitness.  Points began to trade for the most part and the sidelines grew as games ended and spectators realized it was quickly becoming the sort of game you wanted to watch.  The errors on RevoLOUtion's offensive side maintained their number while Nemesis cleaned up their act and really zeroed in.  The speed of the game relaxed down from it's frantic levels of the first half and the tide began to change ever so slightly.  As the fans of the Chicago team grew, the Nemesis confidence expanded with it.  Nemesis calmly kept their eyes on the ending goal and forgot any possible chances of any other outcome then the one they came to get.  At 13-13 and an extended battle back and forth, Nemesis cruised their way into winning the last two points in quick handler movement, mimicking the opening points.  Scores came between players knowing exactly the other's intent in disc movement, what captain Courtney Kiesow would point out as chemistry; the exact thing the established team rightfully relies on. Nemesis would win by their experience and an overall more polished game, taking the first ticket to the show.  

Falling to Nemesis by 15-13, rough-around-the-edges RevoLOUtion would gut out the second spot in the back-door game against the youthful POP, punching the ticket at 15-9 with a tensely close game until a final pull-away on the home stretch.

[PHOTO CREDIT: David Hwang]

Congratulations to all the teams who participated.  There was a wide enjoyment of spirited play in the women's division and respect of all the opponents and hopefully Notorious CLE can correct their participation for next year.  The women's division is always interesting to follow depending on the flux of players coming and leaving divisions and cities and thus changing the atmosphere of teams and the entire region with it.  Nemesis shows all of us what it means to be established in a great center of ultimate and how it benefits to have some semblance of consistency in players but teams like RevoLOUtion, POP, and Baha, tell us that we should never count on only a certain outcome.  For the rest of the field of competitors, Spicy Tuna, Master Plan, Wolfpack and Dish, teams change with each passing year and players can only improve and grow and I wish you only the best of both.  

Good luck to everyone in the coming season and to both Nemesis and RevoLOUtion as they wholeheartedly represent the region at Sarasota in the best possible way.