Going to tournaments in Santa Cruz is one of the truly great joys of playing on the West Coast. Though fog and rain can sometimes be an issue, the weather is usually fantastic, the view is phenomenal and the fields are among the best around. I am convinced that the deer that inhabit the campus are actually magical creatures gifted with unparalleled agricultural skills. The piles of crap that they leave behind are simply gifts of love that nourish the field. I guess that's one way to look at it.
Here are my brief thoughts on each team we played.
UC San Diego
The Psychos brought a large squad to the tourney and their veterans were playing each game essentially as a split squad in order to get their rookies as much PT as possible. I think this was a very savvy move by UCSD as their program definitely needs to focus on their younger players to make up for last year's suspension. I think they'll be solid this year, capable of coming up with some quality wins but unless their younger players develop at an abnormally fast clip, they won't have the depth to challenge the top-tier teams. Tenise Ambler (UCSD alumna, Safari) is coaching the team this year and will be critical in getting the perennial power back to the top of the Southwest.
Stanford X
I was a little surprised by how small Stanford's split squad was. Even after missing out on Nationals last year, they still remain in my mind the flagship program for women's collegiate Ultimate. The squad we faced was led by Rachel Habbert who will be anchoring Superfly's squad along with Emily Damon, Jenny Founds, Liz Cassel and Ana Brown. A couple of their younger players have a good blend of size and athleticism so I'd imagine they'll be in the thick of the Northwest picture this year.
On a side note, teams in the Northwest will have to adopt a very different approach than teams in other regions. There's no question that whoever emerges from the Northwest will be battle-tested and ready for a run at the title. The trick is getting to Nationals. At a cursory glance, I think six teams have a legitimate shot at the two bids - Washington, UBC, Oregon are the favorites while Stanford, Berkeley and Western Washington should all be capable of taking out the top three. Pacific Lutheran could join this list but I don't know how many players they are returning from last year. Getting familiar with the competition is obviously critical, but developing depth is much more crucial in this region than any other. Finishing in the top two means having to beat at least 3-4 quality teams. I don't think that's possible unless you have 14+ players that you fully trust on the field.
By contrast, I think teams in most other regions can get away with being 8-10 deep (perhaps even fewer in some places). While I think the Southwest is on the rise and could challenge the Northwest for the title this year, I have to give some props to them; it's a very tough region and it's very likely that at least one top-10 caliber team will miss out on Nationals.
Alameda
These kids have some great athletes and a lot of credit goes to their coaches. Going into the game, I had warned the Hellions about letting down and not taking them seriously enough. Sure enough, we played flat the entire game and had to play our veterans more than I wanted to.
I don't know how other coaches / captains deal with this issue, but I know that there's a danger in warning the team not to let down. First of all, it implicitly sends the message that your team is heavily favored and should win the game. If they weren't overconfident before, they are much more likely to be so. Second, it's really hard to achieve a negative goal. In essence, the only thing you can do is fail if you know you should win with relative ease. I know that there are good strategies to deal with this and keep the team focused and motivated, but I failed to use them appropriately in this game. On the positive side, games like this are good reminders of the importance of maintaining the collective focus.
At the end of Saturday, all that really mattered was that we had won our pool despite entering the tourney as the ninth seed. I'm sure that a hundred other teams feel the same way, but we honestly thought we were incredibly underseeded. I know that this is something that comes with being the relatively new kid on the block. Last spring, we got some respect after winning the Stanford Qualifier, but I still get the sense that few teams, perhaps none outside our section, are ready to acknowledge how good the Hellions are. As long as we get the chance to prove ourselves at the big tourneys, I'm not going to sweat the respect issue.
Quarterfinals vs. UCLA X
I'm really interested in seeing BLU in the spring. They have a lot of good players, but it remains to be seen if anyone will step into the starring roles. Taz, Kix and Gizmo were able to fill the big roles left by Mad Dog, Clyde and Pooja, but it seems really unclear who will replace them. Adrienne Baker (Hawkins) and Katie Falk (Balboa) are two strong candidates to follow in Kix's footsteps as dominant receivers, but I'm not sure who will be their big-time thrower. Cailey Marsh could become that player but I think she's still a year or so away despite her impressive fundamentals. Karisa Tang (Danger) is another possibility but like Cailey, she thrives as a mover of the disc, making precision throws rather than bombing deep shots on a consistent basis.
Perhaps even more important is the departure of Gizmo and Fresh, both of whom gave BLU's defense a toughness that could match any team's offense. I think BLU can (and will likely) still be very successful in the spring, especially if they redefine their offensive and defensive identity, but I don't think they will be a team with an intimidating presence, particularly on the defensive side.
I definitely expected to win this game, but they really made the game tough for us. For the most part, they played relatively cleanly on offense, and we failed to capitalize on good break opportunities early in the game. Cailey and Danger were both critical for the X squad, and I think we would have run away with the game if not for them. I was particularly ecstatic about how we won this game. After struggling on the offensive end all game, our D line closed out the game with a nice forehand shot from Norm to T-Stamp, one of our many talented rookies. One of the Hellions' B-Team coaches, Jess (Smeagol), was euphoric after this win. She had started playing with the Hellions and during her time with the team, she never expected to beat BLU.
Semifinals vs. Claremont
I was informed before the start of the year that Erica Baken, a product of Hopkins and member of the Juniors Worlds team, was going to attend Claremont. Sure enough, the first thing I saw on Saturday was Erica jacking the disc against UCSB in their upset win. The Greenshirts are likely going to be similar to UCSD this year -- both have 4-5 very good players leading a decent number of young returners. While they aren't incredibly deep, Claremont will contend with some very good teams because they have a high-powered offense. Kate Bayliss and Katie McDonald are both athletic players with good range on their throws. They have one player that I think is a rookie who is quite athletic and played some solid defense on Kaela from UCSB and Lindsey Cross (Screech). They could emerge as dark horse candidate for one of the three Southwest bids, especially if they can get a coach to implement a more-structured system and maximize their talent.
Finals vs. UC Santa Barbara
I have the feeling (and the hope) that we'll be facing them many times in the spring season. Over the past two years, they have become an increasingly fun team to play, and I have a great deal of respect for what they've accomplished since I've been coaching. Each time we've played them, it's been interesting to see certain matchups develop. Kaela Jorgenson is one of the most athletic players in women's collegiate Ultimate and has emerged as a great cutter-thrower option for the Burning Skirts. I think her matchup with Lindsey Cross is emerging as one of the most interesting matchups in the game.
We stormed out to an early lead in this game, taking the first three points and trading to a 5-2 lead. As expected, they fought back and ran off three in a row to tie the game up. I felt pretty confident that we'd bounce back to take half, and after trading the next two point, it appeared that we had done so. A score was called off on a violation that caused a bit of confusion and discussion. We weren't able to punch it in after the discussion was resolved but UCSB capitalized.
Our second half effort was a bit disappointing but I give a great deal of credit to the Burning Skirts. Their offense in the second half was the cleanest I had seen all weekend. We simply made more mistakes than they did, and some of that was certainly due to their defensive intensity. I thought it would be a closer final, but the weekend was still a satisfying one. Our rookies got their first look at serious competition, and we accomplished our goal of getting to the finals.
Women's Ultimate Meeting
Cree Howard organized a meeting for Saturday night to discuss some of the big issues related to women's Ultimate, in particular the recent flap regarding NCUA / Cultimate / Conference 1. Most of the teams at Sean Ryan had representatives there, and the upcoming spring season was the primary topic of conversation. One potentially positive side effect of the NCUA controversy is that it may have the unexpected benefit of being a catalyst for women's teams to organize and take more control over their division. I think it's clear that the women's division has been taken less seriously than the open division, and there are some serious issues regarding equality and fairness that need to be addressed. While I also believe that the open division will naturally draw more attention, the current discrepancies between the two divisions is unacceptable and now is the time to push for changes in how the division is treated. I'll be writing more about the specific issues in an upcoming post.
