News Recap: 2011 College Women's Regionals (South Central)

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Recap: 2011 College Women's Regionals (South Central)

Melissa Gibbs

Posted: May 13, 2011 02:11 PM

Women's Division

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South Central
Regionals Recap

Nearby Houston in Hockley, Texas, the weather was typical for a women’s South Central Regional weekend this far south: hot with lots of dust and dirt to spare. With the 80-90 degree weather, the sun was as relentless as the teams who strove for a shot at the big show.

It was an interesting weekend but in some respects, unsurprising as the standings from conferences weekend, some originally thought of as upsets, held true for the most part. The top seeded Washington University and Colorado College ended up taking the two bids albeit in reverse order. Colorado College swept through the tournament undefeated straight through a final against Rice at 15-4. Third seeded Rice appeared to have the bid in reach after having taken the pool over Wash U on the first day but fell hard after the tough final. Rice found themselves in an equally difficult back door game against Wash U that ended with a final score running into the hard cap at 14-9 and Wash U took the second bid to Boulder.

Colorado College
The biggest success story of the weekend is how Colorado College Lysistrata, seeded number two coming into the tournament, swept through the region with ease into a first ever nationals berth. This confident score against an opponent was the underlying theme to almost all of CC’s games over the weekend as their main mantra was to come out fast and strong to start off games which meant witnessing teams struggling to gain back any momentum with such a large point gap. Lysistrata was unaffected by the heat and wind and attributes a lot of their positive mental focus in the games to being accustomed to just this type of weather. Colorado College’s team features successful elements in a plethora of height and deep defensive players like Lisi Lohre, Erin Gould, and Claire Jencks. Pushing the offense and anchoring the starting line among those players is Hanaah Sohl, Molly Sinnot, and captain Sophia Herscu who can remain calm in controlling the offense but can place one deep when the opportunity calls.

Colorado College three years ago wasn’t exactly the most competitive team out there when captain Sophia Herscu remembers joining. Through raising the competitiveness with skill building all while keeping a focus on maintaining a high positive atmosphere, Lysistrata has come a long way from one tournament a year in a short amount of time and for that, their wins going into the nationals berth are all the more impressive. Overall, Lysistrata isn’t only one to impress you on the field with physical shows of a team well put together (and well-led by coach Emily Anderson.) In conclusion of the weekend, captain Sophia Herscu maintains “...our win comes directly from our perseverance and positive framing of the weekend.” The team features one of the best shows of team-spirit as well as spirit-of-the-game we all abide by and hearing Sophia Herscu mention her last statement just goes to show how USAU can be proud to know this kind of team will be representing the state as the number one seed out of South Central: “...it was a seriously fun tournament. We had a ball and would have regardless of the outcome.” The kind of team that values the experience of a competitive tournament against great opponents even if the result had not been making a first ever trip to the college championships is a team that knows a proud set of values in everything spirit. Interestingly enough, Lysistrata adopted a stray “lucky charm” when they found a wandering dog during the weekend and took it to the vet. They will now have a long term reminder of their season to carry with them for a long time.

Washington University
Standout players for the second bid winners of Washington University are many but the story of this teams weekend is how they really showed strength across the board on Sunday better than any time this season and the close loss to Rice on Saturday was the wake up call they needed to light that fire. Defensive and offensive sparks came from numerous players and this was perhaps the best showing of their success to be worthy of a nationals bid. Sam Huo showed a better versatility of throws more than many over the weekend. Her deep backhand hucks on any mark, cup-breaking hammers, and high release push passes into the endzone were keys to maintaining the offensive spark when risks were needed. Always open and always making the grab over and magically through defenders are cutters Kami Groom and Kate Wilson. The core of defensive prowess came from the determination of Theresa Chan, the speed of Danielle Blatt and the length of zone cupper Hillary Newsome. A set of graduating players ready to give it their all rounded out an impressive bench for a small team of fifteen players.

The story of the games of Sunday will live on long in the legacy of this team and be remembered by all the players who contributed. They bounced back from an upset and played their best in increased increments until finally playing their best game ever at the end: a formula that served would only provide success. The best part of this teams play would be the depth of their bench allowed them to play O and D lines comparable to Saturdays subbing. Continually throughout the day starters were getting rest until the back door bid game when the rest proved invaluable as Wash U headed into their eighth, and most important, game of the weekend.

Rice
Rice nearly had their dreams realized coming into the weekend having really focused on their strengths and having some amazing strengths to speak of. Rice knew how to handle their weekend starting on day one and after cruising through the first few pool games of Saturday had their sights set on bringing down Wash U and that they did. Having met earlier in the season at the end of a long weekend in Austin at Centex, Rice didn’t offer a large challenge to Wash U at that time and thus, was underestimated going into the end of Saturday. The Rice team came out absolutely blazing and while Wash U kept leading the point difference, Rice was unafraid to match and made things tough for their opponent and remained always within striking distance. This proved beneficial coming down to universe point and the shining stars of the starting seven pulled out a pool upset against a weary Wash U.

The team has been working on letting their strengths shine and from that goal the defensive skills of Monica Matsumoto, Edith Tang, Austine Lin, and Catherine Chen are the most exceptional to speak of. There were no offenders they didn’t make life hard for by always staying within a step of and rarely letting them get the disc. The team played a frustrating woman-to-woman bracketing defense that, when “on”, was practically unbreakable and when transitioned into their zone it wasn’t much easier as their cup was a quick one. These fearless and unstoppable players also led the offensive strike and were unafraid to push the speed of passes and huck it long to the relentless cutting of Elizabeth Van Itallie stretching the field deep.

When it came down to Sunday’s final against Co. College, Rice lacked a little of their usual aggression. It is hard to say what may have been the cause as they were the hometown heros and were the ones most likely use to the heat. Lysistrata ran with their usual game plan in the final and took a half at a comfortable difference and never let Rice think they had the game until it concluded at 15-4. At the start of Sunday, Rice had their final pool play game against Colorado which was not taken lightly but the score ended at 13-3. The starting seven didn’t appear too tired and had their rest before the finals game but perhaps they may have had too much of a hand in that prior game. When it came to the back door game against Wash U, Rice was stuck in a similar position as Wash U went up five before Rice’s first score and also were down at a half going 8-3. At this point, the playing leaders of Rice started showing some battle weary signs. The game remained a spirited battle until hardcapped at 13-8. Rice seemed to have run out of gas in their top women while Wash U appeared to have all the remaining energy they did not. The spectacular play of the Rice women is not to be underestimated for the future as their players were some of the best in the region and their program will continue to be a formidable force.

Notable Games
Over the tournament, the most prominent success trend for the top teams was going up big with a lot of fire at the start of games and holding steady through to the end. Some of the few noteworthy nail-biting games that didn’t follow this formula can go out to the WashU/Rice pool game, the first round of the back door bracket between Colorado/Texas, and the semis for the seventh place bracket between St. Louis/Kansas.

The last pool game in pool A between WashU/Rice was a back and forth where the tide was never forcefully one way. A tired-looking Wash U felt ill-equipped to Rice’s exceptionally quick offensive scores and tough D. The points kept trading until the count eventually came down to universe point where Rice took the upset to head into the final the next day expecting they would put away Colorado in their last pool game.

Another game of interest over the weekend were semis of the back door bracket match up between Colorado/Texas. Colorado Kali moved up to a third seeding in A pool and showed they deserved to be one of the contenders for a back door bid. They kept themselves alive all weekend, even donning zombie-like face paint, to show they could resurrect themselves by knocking out the bottom half of teams and crept up close behind the top teams to make them uncomfortable in their own spots. During the bracket game, after a bout of trading points the tide turned to Texas after a Callahan and upwind score only to fluctuate back towards Colorado again with their own upwind score. Texas too, using their amalgamations of defenses put themselves in the second seed of pool B at the end of the day showing A&M they were serious about righting the weaknesses they exposed over Conferences weekend. Emotions ran high in the game and the sidelines grew loud but the hopes of Texas crumbled as they continued to struggle with an answer to stop Colorado’s scrappy offensive plays. Colorado ended Texas’ big dreams for their solid program with the win to advance to a match up of the WashU/A&M winner. A&M was set up well for their fantastic plays at high stall counts when Oklahoma left before pool play was finished giving A&M an advantage heading into Sunday. During this round of games, no one was certain of where the back door bracket would be headed next.

Another notable game of the weekend game was in the seventh place bracket with St. Louis and Kansas pit up against one another to battle to win a spot at the placement game. Both these teams used their trademark scrappy skills and battled up from the bottom seedings underneath other Ozark teams. The battle was close but St. Louis pulled out the win 11-10. Having played better than their Conference weekend finishes suggest, this game alone speaks of these two teams willingness to really play hard when it counts and no doubt both of these established programs will be back on the rise again.

There are a lot of props to offer to the tournament director and coordinator for providing a smooth weekend and a well run tournament. Courtney Verhaalen went above and beyond her RC duties keeping water filled at every moment and scores tracked well. It seemed a difficult but very necessary and appreciated task in the hot weather. Even with some trees hanging over sidelines causing difficulties for play and Oklahoma dropping out before pools are finished, I felt the weekend was fairly successfully run. Thank you to Rice for hosting and everyone else that put together the tournament, as well as the fabulous and spirited play provided by all the teams.