News Recap: 2011 College Women's Regionals (Metro East)

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Recap: 2011 College Women's Regionals (Metro East)

Mary Kate Hogan

Posted: May 6, 2011 12:51 PM

Women's Division

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Metro East
Regionals Recap

"We came in focused and intense, and I believe that it showed"
- Anne Mercier, Ottawa

Princeton, NJ provided ideal ultimate conditions for the women of the Metro East this past weekend. 12 teams battled it out in sunny, warm weather and only a little bit of wind. The format was a bit daunting considering that each team played 5 consecutive games on Saturday; but the first seeds in each pool were not phased, winning all 5 of their games. NYU racked up the most points against a 1 seed by scoring 9 against Cornell, while Ottawa never allowed more than 5 to be scored on them. The most surprising part of Saturday was that UConn struggled in pool play, losing to both Yale and TCNJ, setting themselves up for a tough game against Cornell in the Quarters on Sunday morning. Ottawa and Cornell both won their semis games handily, making the Championship a predictable match up between the top two seeds. Ottawa clinched their bid to Nationals with a 13-8 win over Cornell.

In the finals, Ottawa came out strong, scoring 5 points right away against Cornell, which made all of the difference as Cornell couldn’t battle back quickly enough to get back in the game. As Cornell player Sterling Dumas summed it up: “I think our problem all season was finding our offense against good teams like Ottawa; we aren't used to the defensive pressure and it takes us longer than normal to get in our groove. It took us a few points to get going, and that was all Ottawa needed to get ahead and keep the lead until cap.” Unsurprisingly, Anne Mercier of Ottawa saw this as the determinative factor as well, saying, “Going into the finals, we knew that Cornell would come out firing, as they did at the CC finals game. We came in focused and intense, and I believe that it showed as we started the game with 5 unanswered points.”

Anne Mercier’s leadership on the field, combined with her big throws and tireless defense, was Ottawa’s key to success. Mercier had incredible offensive composure, easily breaking marks and throwing accurate hucks at high stall counts. Mercier, paired with talented deep cutters who were coming down with a lot of 50-50s, led the Lady Gee Gees through the weekend to a basically uncontested Regional title.

Ottawa was well-prepared for the weekend, and it seems that they will be just as prepared for Boulder. Having travelled to Pres Day to size up the Western competition, they have been preparing all season to meet a diverse group of teams at Nationals.