News Recap: 2011 College Women's Regionals (Southeast)

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Recap: 2011 College Women's Regionals (Southeast)

Jenna Dahl

Posted: May 13, 2011 02:10 PM

Women's Division

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Southeast
Regionals Recap

The unanswered question going into Regionals was why Florida and Georgia, potentially the two strongest teams in the Region and the number 1 and 3 seeds, were playing each other first round on Saturday at 8am when 4 other teams had first round byes. It was an unconventional scheduling format, but at least it provided an exciting start to the weekend.

In a nutshell, Georgia came out fired up and focused, scoring the first point and many afterwards. Florida was missing two key defensive players to graduation and came out flat playing man D. When Georgia went up 10-5 in a game to 11, Florida decided to switch up the defense to their polished zone D and without many player substitutions, went on a 7 point run to win the game 12-10. This set the tone for the weekend: every game was going to be point by point and it wasn’t over till it was over.

Florida finished 4-0 and Georgia 3-1 for Day 1, with no other close games.

On the other fields, the games were a bit longer because Pool B was smaller. Central Florida and Emory both had strong performance across the board. In their matchup that came at 3pm, UCF won victoriously 15-3.

When Sunday rolled around, the scores of Saturday were no longer relevant. Simply put, each team would need to play their absolute best, because all but one team would be playing the last games of their season.

The Semifinals brought together the top 4 seeded teams, playing each other in crossover matches from Saturday. The Florida-Emory semifinal was the closest match-up of the two teams all season. Emory came out energetic, and Florida, confident. Florida took half 8-5, and continued to mix up lines and defenses to stop Emory’s solid offense. Florida won 15-8

The UCF-Georgia Semifinal was one of the biggest games of the weekend. Previous matchups between the two went either way, and this game was no exception. Both the Hodawgs and the Sirens fought it out until the game was capped. However, Georgia’s deep roster of skilled senior handlers and young, athletic receivers bested UCF and garnered them a 13-11 victory and ticket to the finals.

It was a Florida-Georgia Final, both teams were pumped and ready for anything. The first couple points were close, but Florida ran wild and took half 8-1. Continuing to play their active zone D, and working as a team to secure fast breaks and scores, Florida stayed ahead. At 15-3, FUEL added another win to their record and locked in the single bid to Nationals.