News Recap: 2011 College Women's Regionals (Atlantic Coast)

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Recap: 2011 College Women's Regionals (Atlantic Coast)

Lindsey Hack

Posted: May 5, 2011 08:23 PM

Women's Division

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Atlantic Coast
Regionals Recap

What a gorgeous weekend in Wilmington, NC. Just enough wind to keep players honest and plenty of sunshine to make spectators happy. Pool play on Saturday went according to plan except for the upset of Towson over Duke in Pool W and American over William and Mary in Pool X. Duke did arrive at the tournament without Liz Clark, but that certainly did not mean they were out of the running. Laura Manson and Laura Valt all ran a steady offense that easily broke defenses. In the game of Pleiades v. Chakra, Pleiades took half 7-0 but then Chakra went on a five point run after half against UNC’s sophisticated defense. Pleiades adjusted and went on a second run to finish out the game 13-5. In Pool X, American was establishing themselves as a team to be reckoned with during game time. American upset William and Mary with a score of 13-9 to keep them alive for a coveted National bid.

If a team finished fourth in their pool, they were out of the running. Therefore, after pool play, Clemson, Richmond, William and Mary, and South Carolina were eliminated. The crossover games between the second and third place finishers in the pools were also elimination games. Unfortunately, for Wake Forest, Duke was upset by Towson and now lined up for competition in the crossover. Wake Forest, with the trusty legs of Claire O’Brien and Kennedy Wolfe, took half 8-5. Then, Duke began a comeback despite being down 9-12 at the cap. Chakra managed to tie it up at 12 all and then put the final nail in the coffin with an upwind huck from Laura Manson for the winning score. Duke would advance to quarters while Wake Forest was eliminated. During this round, American also continued their Cinderella story by upsetting the favored Charleston team. Charleston roster took a hit because of exams, but American had begun to garner a reputation for being very scrappy. American won this game 15-7.

In the one v. one crossovers, NCSU opened up their rotation and UNCW ran away with the win. The UNC-CH v. UVA game was significantly different. Both teams were very aware of how important this game was and both teams were aiming to win decisively. UNC minimized the impact of Devon Erikson and her beloved flick hucks and made a good attempt to limit the touches of Shannon McVey. Maggie John had a few nasty Ds but it was not enough to catapult UVA past UNC’s smooth, efficient offense. UNC consistently worked it upwind against UVAs zone and only ran into trouble near the endzone. The game was 8-4 at half and 15-8 at the end.

Quarters pitted UNC v. Maryland. And, although the final score was 15-2, no one would have ever guessed that by watching the game. It was a hard fought game from point one to point 17. NCSU played Duke in another quarterfinal. During this game, near the end, Melissa Gannon of NCSU sustained a horrific ankle injury. Melissa is one of NCSU’s top players and touches the disc quite a bit, so it was disheartening to see her sidelined for the remainder of that game and semis. Despite having Gannon sidelined, NCSU made it past Duke 10-7.

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PHOTO CREDIT: Brent Cohen

Semis were games to go. It is such a surreal situation to have semis be a game to go, but yet not have your weekend be over with yet. Both semis proved to be relatively unexciting in regards to score. Despite layout Ds by NCSU’s Jordan Schultz, UNC’s offense proved to be too potent. UNCW quickly disposed of UVA as well. UNC and UNCW, without drama and without flare, secured their bids to Nationals. Thus commenced the back door games where UVA immediately met up with Maryland and NCSU met up with American. Devon Erikson of UVA had this to say about their victorious Maryland game:

“One of our toughest games was against Maryland on Sunday. Despite talk about having a rebuilding year, Maryland is still a talented team whom we had yet to play this season. They got a few breaks after we took an early lead, and their disruptive defense made the middle part of the game a challenge, as they brought the score to 8-7 by breaking us right after half. After that point, however, our coaches slowed the game down and helped us find our focus and pull away, winning 15-8 and earning our spot in the game to go against NC State. In my mind, I consider the Maryland game to be our toughest challenge of the weekend.”

And Jessi Jones had this to say about their victory over American:

“American was by far the most spirited team we played all weekend. They seemed very happy just to be at regionals. Led by a couple strong players, they were enough to threaten some of the stronger teams at the tournament. The best word I can think of to describe them is scrappy, catching just about anything thrown their way. They were just a very nice team to compete against, complimenting my team when we did something well and giving us high fives for scoring against them. “

UVA then met NCSU in the game to go. The game opened up with a monstrous D by UVA player Abby Clement and clearly UVA set the tone that they met business. UVA quickly snatched up that third bid with a score of 15-4. Jessi Jones had this to say about the game:

“When we finally reached that game (the game to go), our team was completely exhausted. We had fought so hard in our previous games to get to that point that we really were wiped out. Virginia is a fast team and our legs were just too tired to keep up with them. They have sharp throws and strong cutters, we just ran out of gas for the most important game of the weekend. They played well and earned their spot at Nationals.”

As UVA was earning their right to Boulder, UNC was playing UNCW on the Championship field. UNC came out and looked very strong the first two points, and opened the game with two breaks. Then, things seemed to completely fall apart for Pleiades with 10+ uncharacteristic drops and unforced turns and UNCW took half 8-2. Kelly Tidwell anchored the Seaweed offense with smooth flicks into the upwind endzone over and over again. UNCW responded to multiple UNC defensive looks with poise and composure. Despite UNC getting multiple turns, the offensive flow was nonexistent. Coupled with great defensive efforts by Kelly Tidwell and Logan Shapiro, UNCW ran away with the game decisively 15-3. Despite UNC’s lackluster performance in the finals game, there is no doubt that UNCW, UNC, and UVA are going to represent the AC well in Boulder. UNCW and UNC are the only two teams west of Lake Tahoe to post wins against Nationals frontrunners UCSB and Oregon. May the East rise again!!!!

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