This post comes to you courtesy of Robyn Fennig, the gifted player from Wisconsin Eau-Claire. Fennig's perspective is interesting and insightful because her program is representative of the rapid growth the women's division has experienced over the past few years. Eau Claire is a very young program that burst onto the scene in 2007 with a 4th place finish at their first appearance at Regionals. They followed that initial success by making it to the game-to-go in 2008 and 2009, only to come up just a bit short.
Like many young programs, Eau Claire has faced many challenges in their growth from a fledgling team to a much more competitive program. Weather, travel and budget are some of the classic obstacles that any ambitious team has had to confront at some point; teams in Wisconsin and Minnesota certainly know this better than most. In both the open and women's divisions, Carleton and Wisconsin have managed to be wildly successful despite these challenges, but up until recently, they had been the exception to the rule.
This year marks the first year of a major restructuring effort by the UPA, and the establishment of a meaningful, regular season is something that will have a major impact on the sport's future. As someone representing a hungry young team, one that represents the future of this sport, Fennig's take on the restructuring effort is an important one to consider.
GUEST BLOGGER: Robyn Fennig
On the Restructuring Process
According to the UPA, there are four main parts to the restructuring process, as listed in the UPA online summary. I am going to leave out the 2nd item about enhanced rostering, since I feel benefits all schools equally. We all have to verify our rosters for the series, so having better resources available to all schools is important. For the sake of this discussion I will limit my focus to the other three points.
Eau Claire, WI (like many Midwestern schools) is located in a wonderful climate for many winter activities, unfortunately the sport of ultimate is not one of them. For clarification, our school is located in the Northwest part of the state. Snow, ice, sub-zero temperatures, etc. are an every day experience in Eau Claire for the first two to three months of spring season. Of course climate alone does not dictate team success. Teams like Ottawa and Iowa State who experience similar climate have managed to break into and thrive on the nationals-caliber scene. What dictates success in these sorts of climates, however, is the advantage of having adequate indoor facilities to use. For the teams who get to routinely practice on larger turf spaces have an advantage of playing more realistic ultimate.
UW-Eau Claire is not a school with a lot of indoor facilities, thus we are lucky to receive a single basketball court to drill, scrimmage, and teach the game to our players. We are more fortunate than some of our Central Region counterparts, like the newly created women’s team at UW-Lacrosse, who gets a space misleadingly named the “Multi-purpose room” which is a space smaller than most high school academic classrooms. Imagine trying to develop a team, let alone a successful program in this sort of atmosphere. It is hard to keep new recruits hooked when they are attempting to learn the game in 10 foot x 10 foot space.
This is also especially difficult for teams who share gym space with their Open Division counterparts. SOL often shares indoor facilities with our men’s teams, Eauzone and Eau2. There are advantages to this, yes, but many of them are lost when 60 people are forced to share space. Several of our players have suffered major injuries, simply because there are too many people on a basketball court.
This means that, like many other schools, our experience playing realistic ultimate is limited to traveling long distances to tournaments. This is especially challenging to a team like ours who has been on the brink of qualifying for nationals for three years. Our team dynamic is often challenged when we get outdoors and we struggle to succeed in our first higher caliber tournament of the season…as it is far different than the modified situations we are forced to compete in during the crucial beginning of the spring season in Eau Claire. Like many other up-and-coming teams we must travel long way to experience any sort of realistic ultimate and it takes a few tournaments before we are really flowing.
These relatively poorer performances early on in the season hurt our team when it comes to rankings and earning extra bids for regionals/nationals for our section or region. Teams grow when they are challenged. But poor performance during the regular season at a UPA sanctioned tournament, though beneficial to your team, hurts your sectional and regional opportunities. This gives disproportionate weight to the teams located in those regions with awesome year-round ultimate playing climate an advantage to the regions that have colder climate, and fewer local UPA sanctioned events.
(Side note: I might have less problem with this rule if our spring break fell during the regular season. Our spring break falls after the regular season cut-off date. This means we have to travel far away before spring break. For many teams, attending a spring break tournament helps qualify them for the 10 game minimum.)
I am definitely unsatisfied with the outcome of the restructuring. It harms medium-sized schools in colder climates a lot. We are not even closest to the largest of the UW-System schools, but are categorized the same way as UW-Madison with 40,000+ students. School enrollment (7,500 student body) is not the only significant factor that dictates team success. The Central Region alone provides two wonderful examples of this principle. If you have a team at a huge school, you are not guaranteed to qualify for nationals (i.e. the University of Minnesota). Nor are you guaranteed failure if you have a small student body (i.e. Carleton College).
What do I propose? I feel that a team, in order to qualify for any sort of D-II or D-III National Tournament, must fill out an application to do so. I think this application process should take a combination of “tradition” of ultimate at your school, student body size, location, and funding determines success. My suggestion is for the sectional and regional coordinators to sit down and determine the most qualifying applicants four to five schools from their region to submit the final applications to the UPA who selects the top 16-20 teams to attend this secondary national tournament. Sectional and Regional coordinators are most in tune with the smaller schools in the region. They understand these different qualifications at each school and can make educated and fair decisions; thus limiting the number of applications the UPA must evaluate.
On Contending with the Regional Powers: Madison and Carleton
It is definitely challenging on many fronts developing a program in a region that is dominated by Wisconsin-Madison and Carleton. When I started playing in Spring 2007, our team finished 4th at Central Regionals, in our first year making an appearance at that tournament. The next year, our captains tried to get us as many high quality games as possible to try to get our newer players as much experience as possible . We got in 3 games at College Terminus (though it was rained out…), and a few good games at Frostbite.
Since then our program has come a long way. What our captains have stressed every single year is that we need to get as much experience as possible. On a team where even our most experienced players are sitting on two years of mid- to top-level co-ed club experience, it’s hard to compete against players with junior worlds and elite high school experience. Wisconsin-Eau Claire is not exactly a school that draws a ton of ultimate players, even with our proximity to Minnesota. I don’t see that happening until we break into nationals.
With that being said, we take it season by season, with our focus being on trying to get our players as much game experience as possible. This means traveling to do this. This spring we will be heading to Philly Classic (17 hours away), Chicago Invite (only 5.5 hours away), and Centex (20+ hours away). I really appreciate the work of Michelle Ng and her crew at Midwest Ultimate are doing to help teams like ours get high quality games closer to home.
Another thing our team concentrates on is getting creative with what we have. Our practice facility consists of two basketball courts side by side. We concentrate on doing modified scrimmage situations with 4 on 4 and 5 on 5, and really emphasize our younger players getting the disc in their hands. We have experimented with randomly “freezing” game play to discuss positioning and strategy based on where players are standing. This has been successful on teaching field awareness. We rely on our captains and coach (Pat Niles) to come up with challenging, but game-like drills with the limited space we have.
As we found out two weeks ago, our facilities are not exactly what our Central Region friends have access to. We went to Iowa State for a turf/court scrimmage. Yeah, the turf was rough, but the fact that we could huck the disc was enough to excite us. I think that the scrimmage with Iowa State and Wisconsin-Madison was a good step to see how we’re developing this season. Next season will be difficult, there will be a lot of turnover for SOL. What the captains do next year I think will be a defining moment in the development of our program. Anna [Hettler] and I will be available to help in any way we can.
On How to Improve College Women's Ultimate
I think that women’s ultimate in general has a lot of work to do. As a former college athlete at a high level D-III program, I saw the type of work that we did to support high school and middle school-aged players. I feel that this type of relationship has yet to really be developed between elite women’s club teams and women’s college teams. The work that Michelle Ng and her crew are doing with Midwest, most noteworthy with the skills clinic and roundup division at Midwest Throwdown are the start of something. I feel that our club teams need to reach out more to the college teams, especially programs like ours. We do not necessarily know where to go for help, or even what to ask if the help is there. Once this sort of exchange takes place, womens college ultimate will thrive.
Fennig's Preview of the Central Region
University of Wisconsin (Bella Donna)
Yet again, the Bellas have one of the deepest, most ridiculous teams in the nation. Led by 2009 Callahan Award Winner, Georgia Bosscher, and all-region selection Emelie McKain, their talent pool is never ending. Impact players Frances Tsukano and Sandy Jorgenson now have elite level club experience. Add Laura Bitterman, FOTY ’09 Rachael Westgate, and Jenny Gaynor offer the team athleticism and speed. This team has the potential to be unstoppable.
Carleton College (Syzygy)
This team is always a mystery to me until Regionals in May. Their strength during mid-February is relatively weaker than the team that shows up to Regionals, as it should be. This team always peaks at the “right” time. Most other teams in the Central refer to this phenomenon as the “Carleton Learning Curve.” I expect an equally impressive squad come May. Anna Snyder is in my opinion, the most dominant player on their team. She’s athletic and has a field presence matched by few in the region.
Iowa State University (Women Scorned)
SOL has a friendly rivalry with Iowa State. They are some of my closest friends and greatest competition that pushes me to my limits. Jasmine Draper and Christine Rosen are the two that most people know by name and face. They both played for the Chad Larson Experience (CLX) who took 2nd at UPA Club Nationals and are heading to Prague this summer. However, many overlook impact players like Jessy Erickson’s huge plays, Sarah Hoistad’s sick break throws, and Jiear Vang’s overall skills add depth to Women Scorned.
Wisconsin-Eau Claire (SOL)
SOL has been on the brink for three years. This year we have some good depth with some players that are extremely under-rated. But this is the year where people will get to know them. Anna Hettler, one of our co-captains, gets 3-4 solid handblocks a game is a great leader on O and D. Brit Gartner is a versatile, balls-to-the-walls player that any team could hope to have. Martha Harris’ low breaks and sick throws…Jess Haller’s athleticism, Melissa Jordan’s ridiculous NCAA D-III championship sprinting speed. We are looking to make some noise and throw off the status quo.
Other players to look for:
-Alyssa Olson, Minnesota (Ninjas)
-Depalma sisters, Minnsota (Ninjas)
-Megan Greenwood, Iowa (Saucy Nancy)
-Eyleen Chou, Wisconsin-B (Atropa)
-Emily Karoblis, Wisconsin-Stevens Point (Shockwave)
-Alex Haroldson, Wisconsin-Whitewater (Schist)
-Hailey Bronson, Winona State (Bad Monaz)
-Beth Langer, St. Thomas (Rainy Day Women)
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Sunday, March 21, 2010
2010 Stanford Invite (aka President's Day Recap - Part Two)
As the return from hiatus continues...
FJR and wife were busy moving from one location to another so life has been a bit crazy over the past few weeks. Intertubes access was a bit spotty, and I spent the bulk of my Ultimate-related time focusing on prep for Stanford Invite and the UPA College preview. Maybe I'll figure out a way to get paid writing this stuff...
THE STEVINSON INVITE - The Dead Cows and the Dirty Ground
While Cultimate generally deserves a fair amount of criticism, making the decision to move to Stevinson was the smart thing to do. Sure, it's not exactly the awesome backdrop of Palo Alto, but it did allow teams to make contingency plans and mentally prep for the relocation. The fields weren't great but decent enough, but the relatively few and entirely full porta-potties left a lot to be desired. There are some images you simply cannot wipe away from the brain.
My major gripe ended up being with the bracket -- the quarters ended up having two rematches with one of them (Wisconsin vs. Stanford) being seeded for a rematch. I fought pretty hard to get our matchup switched since I felt that we deserved a matchup with a different pre-quarter winner since we had previously beaten UCSB to get into the quarters. Additionally, it was annoying to have the rematch be a intraregional matchup, an important consideration since the regional wildcard will swing between the Southwest and the Atlantic Coast.
There's no guarantee that we would have beaten Stanford, Cal or Western Washington but I'm sure that none of those teams would take offense if I thought our chances of winning were much better against them than against the Burning Skirts. This seems like a small thing, but it means a ton to a team like ours. Getting into the semifinals of one of the prestige tournaments is a big step and we finished tantalizingly close to that goal. Hopefully, Centex will bring bigger and better things.
Tier One - Oregon, Wisconsin, Washington and UCSB
Element climbs upward and the Burning Skirts take a bit of a hit after the weekend. UCSB had a disappointing weekend but they will be back; be sure of that.
At this point, there's a good argument for putting Oregon in its own tier (Super One) and the other three teams into Tier Not Quite One. On paper, Wisconsin should be the biggest threat to Fugue but neither of their matchups has been close. Element knows Fugue the best and put up a tight fight in the finals of the Stevinson Invite.
The biggest issue facing Fugue might be the pressure that comes with being undefeated. This is one of those annoying talking points that seems to come up way too often during the pro football season, but there is certainly some truth to it. I'm not even sure how many women's college teams have had a legitimate shot at an undefeated season (I think Stanford actually did it several years ago?). It wouldn't surprise me to see Fugue slip up at either Centex or Regionals. If they remain undefeated going into Madison, I don't think they'll be feeling the pressure at that point (except maybe in the finals). On the contrary, being undefeated will likely give them another level of confidence and make them wicked scary. Like Tier Super One scary.
Tier Two - USC, Stanford, Colorado, North Carolina
Right now, these stand as the current best bets to either climb into the top tier or take out one of the four teams. I'd include UCLA as a dark horse but the season-ending injury to Atari (Sarah Peters) and the serious injury to Hawkins really hurts them going into Centex. Once Hawkins gets back, they'll be a dangerous team during the College Series.
At this point, the only team to take out any of the top four teams (not including those four) is the surprising Hellions from USC. Crazy that.
USC
Let me get this out of the way because these things should be known to everyone outside the Southwest region. Mary Kate 'Uzi' Hogan deserves serious Callahan consideration for blazing a new trail for this team, rising from a regional punching bag to the current heights (7th in the last rankings). I think Lindsey Cross should be on the next Team USA in 2013. Let me move on.
I think we're pretty darn good and getting better. Prior to Pres Day, I guess we had developed the rep as a team that would come really close to big wins but fall just short. Kinda like the Dallas Mavericks. Or Charles Barkley. Or... *gulp*... the Buffalo Bills.
Last year, we had a string of seven straight double game point losses (twice to Cal, Oregon, Ottawa, UCLA, St. Louis, Wash U.). [There was a one point victory over Arizona at Centex but Scorch scored the final point after the hard cap had sounded.] This year, we had two double game point losses at Santa Barbara Invite (UCSB and UCLA), running the total to nine straight.
There was a huge difference in how we handled those losses. The cliche about what doesn't kill you making you tougher is definitely true. We are a much tougher team than we were last year.
This was finally evidenced on a tough Sunday at Pres Day. After beating Element the night before, we were on cloud nine. Of course, we came back to earth with humbling losses to both Cal and UCSB. We had gone from the verge of a bye and a spot in the quarterfinals to a tough pre-quarterfinals game against Carleton. Yikes.
Beating Syzygy on double game point might have been more significant to us for the long term than the win over Element. Obviously, I'd rather take a win over Washington than over Carleton this year, but the way we beat Syzygy meant so much more. After going up 4-0 on Carleton, they roared back to life with five straight to take the lead. We eventually earned our break back, but they broke us late in the game to go up 10-9. In fact, had they taken a little longer to score the hard cap would have sounded and the game would have been over.
Given a second chance, we held serve and got a fairly quick block on double game point. When Bambi hit Jaws for the game-winner, we landed a spot in the quarterfinals, something that had eluded us by the smallest of margins at Pres Day and Stanford Invite the previous year.
We took a major step forward at the Stanford Invite by (a) beating UCSB for the first time ever, (b) advancing to the quarterfinals and feeling confident that we could win, and (c) beating Stanford for the first time ever en route to a 5th place finish. Even better than our actual finish is that the Hellions fully believe that the best is yet to come.
There are obviously consistency issues to deal with (big win over UCSB followed by big loss to Element, solid first half against Bella Donna followed by a poor second half, Sunday at Pres Day), but these issues are great problems to have. They are what separates being very good from being great (one of the top four teams in the division).
Stanford
Emily Damon is one of the top handlers in the nation this year. I love her game and her leadership. Caitlin Rugg is stepping up in the role Jenny Founds possessed last year. Ana Brown is one of the most underappreciated defensive players in the division. And their jerseys still have Stanford written on them. That goes a long way.
The one major hole in Stanford's offensive game is that they are missing a definitive go-to receiver. Last year, they had Danielle Platt and Liz Cassel who could command the middle of the field. They have a number of solid cutters but so far, nobody has stepped up as that person who is going rip down 50-50s and force defenses to shift their focus.
Even still, Stanford is like a zombie (and the zombie film genre) and will keep coming back no matter how many times you think they are dead. Wisconsin owned Superfly in their first two matchups this year, but in the quarterfinals, they were down 8-3 at half. Certainly, it has to be mentally draining for Superfly to know that they had full control of the game and let it slip away, but if any team can handle these kinds of ups and downs, it is Stanford.
The margin of our game against Superfly is misleading. They were down after two grueling games (Wisconsin and a long, tough battle with Cal) but they still kept things close in the first half. We broke the game wide open in the second half and ran away with the game. Plus, they hold the edge in our matchups 2 to 1.
Stanford has a legacy of coming up big at Nationals, and I would hate to be the team to face them in the quarters. They will almost certainly match up with one of the teams in the top tier and be a pain in the ass for that team. Ask Wisconsin about last year.
Colorado
Kali returns a number of players from last year's squad that consistently improved over the course of the season. Tina McDowell is doing a great job as coach, as reflected in their 6th place finish at Pres Day (despite missing a few of their top players). They also won the Midwest Throwdown with relative ease, infusing the team with a great deal of confidence.
With Heather Waugh gone, the heart and soul of this year's team lies with Courtney 'Cougar' Verhaalen. I wrote a bit about Coug in the upcoming UPA preview so I'll let the article speak for itself. Brenna Hokanson is also back after a FJR-esque hiatus from school. FOTY in 2008, her return is a big boost to Kali's handling corps. She gives Kali the ability to stretch the field and can be a consistent source of break mark throws.
Of the teams I've seen this year, I think Kali is the squad that has the potential to improve the most over the course of this season (aside from the Hellions, of course).
North Carolina
I didn't get a chance to watch much of UNC at the Stanford Invite, but Leila Tunnell is the obvious centerpiece of the Pleiades and will be a cinch to finish top 5 in the Callahan voting. You might be able to find five better all-around players, but very few offer the complete Callahan package like she does. Her leadership and commitment to sportsmanship are top notch and set her apart from other players on the Callahan short list. I'm also speculating that Tunnell will benefit from a large East Coast contingent rallying around her.
Tunnell's supporting cast includes Janna Coulter and rising star Lindsay Lang. Only a sophomore, Lang has plenty of Juniors experience and a strong candidate to be on the Juniors Worlds squad.
Despite traveling across the country with only 12 players, UNC was able to play tight games with Stanford and Washington and notch a couple wins against top-tier teams, a 15-6 drubbing of British Columbia and a split of two games with UCLA. Pleiades is a good bet to take the top spot out of the Atlantic Coast and find themselves in the quarterfinals in Madison.
-----
The next post will be up in a couple days, this one from a guest blogger, Robyn Fennig of Wisconsin Eau-Claire.
FJR and wife were busy moving from one location to another so life has been a bit crazy over the past few weeks. Intertubes access was a bit spotty, and I spent the bulk of my Ultimate-related time focusing on prep for Stanford Invite and the UPA College preview. Maybe I'll figure out a way to get paid writing this stuff...
THE STEVINSON INVITE - The Dead Cows and the Dirty Ground
While Cultimate generally deserves a fair amount of criticism, making the decision to move to Stevinson was the smart thing to do. Sure, it's not exactly the awesome backdrop of Palo Alto, but it did allow teams to make contingency plans and mentally prep for the relocation. The fields weren't great but decent enough, but the relatively few and entirely full porta-potties left a lot to be desired. There are some images you simply cannot wipe away from the brain.
My major gripe ended up being with the bracket -- the quarters ended up having two rematches with one of them (Wisconsin vs. Stanford) being seeded for a rematch. I fought pretty hard to get our matchup switched since I felt that we deserved a matchup with a different pre-quarter winner since we had previously beaten UCSB to get into the quarters. Additionally, it was annoying to have the rematch be a intraregional matchup, an important consideration since the regional wildcard will swing between the Southwest and the Atlantic Coast.
There's no guarantee that we would have beaten Stanford, Cal or Western Washington but I'm sure that none of those teams would take offense if I thought our chances of winning were much better against them than against the Burning Skirts. This seems like a small thing, but it means a ton to a team like ours. Getting into the semifinals of one of the prestige tournaments is a big step and we finished tantalizingly close to that goal. Hopefully, Centex will bring bigger and better things.
Tier One - Oregon, Wisconsin, Washington and UCSB
Element climbs upward and the Burning Skirts take a bit of a hit after the weekend. UCSB had a disappointing weekend but they will be back; be sure of that.
At this point, there's a good argument for putting Oregon in its own tier (Super One) and the other three teams into Tier Not Quite One. On paper, Wisconsin should be the biggest threat to Fugue but neither of their matchups has been close. Element knows Fugue the best and put up a tight fight in the finals of the Stevinson Invite.
The biggest issue facing Fugue might be the pressure that comes with being undefeated. This is one of those annoying talking points that seems to come up way too often during the pro football season, but there is certainly some truth to it. I'm not even sure how many women's college teams have had a legitimate shot at an undefeated season (I think Stanford actually did it several years ago?). It wouldn't surprise me to see Fugue slip up at either Centex or Regionals. If they remain undefeated going into Madison, I don't think they'll be feeling the pressure at that point (except maybe in the finals). On the contrary, being undefeated will likely give them another level of confidence and make them wicked scary. Like Tier Super One scary.
Tier Two - USC, Stanford, Colorado, North Carolina
Right now, these stand as the current best bets to either climb into the top tier or take out one of the four teams. I'd include UCLA as a dark horse but the season-ending injury to Atari (Sarah Peters) and the serious injury to Hawkins really hurts them going into Centex. Once Hawkins gets back, they'll be a dangerous team during the College Series.
At this point, the only team to take out any of the top four teams (not including those four) is the surprising Hellions from USC. Crazy that.
USC
Let me get this out of the way because these things should be known to everyone outside the Southwest region. Mary Kate 'Uzi' Hogan deserves serious Callahan consideration for blazing a new trail for this team, rising from a regional punching bag to the current heights (7th in the last rankings). I think Lindsey Cross should be on the next Team USA in 2013. Let me move on.
I think we're pretty darn good and getting better. Prior to Pres Day, I guess we had developed the rep as a team that would come really close to big wins but fall just short. Kinda like the Dallas Mavericks. Or Charles Barkley. Or... *gulp*... the Buffalo Bills.
Last year, we had a string of seven straight double game point losses (twice to Cal, Oregon, Ottawa, UCLA, St. Louis, Wash U.). [There was a one point victory over Arizona at Centex but Scorch scored the final point after the hard cap had sounded.] This year, we had two double game point losses at Santa Barbara Invite (UCSB and UCLA), running the total to nine straight.
There was a huge difference in how we handled those losses. The cliche about what doesn't kill you making you tougher is definitely true. We are a much tougher team than we were last year.
This was finally evidenced on a tough Sunday at Pres Day. After beating Element the night before, we were on cloud nine. Of course, we came back to earth with humbling losses to both Cal and UCSB. We had gone from the verge of a bye and a spot in the quarterfinals to a tough pre-quarterfinals game against Carleton. Yikes.
Beating Syzygy on double game point might have been more significant to us for the long term than the win over Element. Obviously, I'd rather take a win over Washington than over Carleton this year, but the way we beat Syzygy meant so much more. After going up 4-0 on Carleton, they roared back to life with five straight to take the lead. We eventually earned our break back, but they broke us late in the game to go up 10-9. In fact, had they taken a little longer to score the hard cap would have sounded and the game would have been over.
Given a second chance, we held serve and got a fairly quick block on double game point. When Bambi hit Jaws for the game-winner, we landed a spot in the quarterfinals, something that had eluded us by the smallest of margins at Pres Day and Stanford Invite the previous year.
We took a major step forward at the Stanford Invite by (a) beating UCSB for the first time ever, (b) advancing to the quarterfinals and feeling confident that we could win, and (c) beating Stanford for the first time ever en route to a 5th place finish. Even better than our actual finish is that the Hellions fully believe that the best is yet to come.
There are obviously consistency issues to deal with (big win over UCSB followed by big loss to Element, solid first half against Bella Donna followed by a poor second half, Sunday at Pres Day), but these issues are great problems to have. They are what separates being very good from being great (one of the top four teams in the division).
Stanford
Emily Damon is one of the top handlers in the nation this year. I love her game and her leadership. Caitlin Rugg is stepping up in the role Jenny Founds possessed last year. Ana Brown is one of the most underappreciated defensive players in the division. And their jerseys still have Stanford written on them. That goes a long way.
The one major hole in Stanford's offensive game is that they are missing a definitive go-to receiver. Last year, they had Danielle Platt and Liz Cassel who could command the middle of the field. They have a number of solid cutters but so far, nobody has stepped up as that person who is going rip down 50-50s and force defenses to shift their focus.
Even still, Stanford is like a zombie (and the zombie film genre) and will keep coming back no matter how many times you think they are dead. Wisconsin owned Superfly in their first two matchups this year, but in the quarterfinals, they were down 8-3 at half. Certainly, it has to be mentally draining for Superfly to know that they had full control of the game and let it slip away, but if any team can handle these kinds of ups and downs, it is Stanford.
The margin of our game against Superfly is misleading. They were down after two grueling games (Wisconsin and a long, tough battle with Cal) but they still kept things close in the first half. We broke the game wide open in the second half and ran away with the game. Plus, they hold the edge in our matchups 2 to 1.
Stanford has a legacy of coming up big at Nationals, and I would hate to be the team to face them in the quarters. They will almost certainly match up with one of the teams in the top tier and be a pain in the ass for that team. Ask Wisconsin about last year.
Colorado
Kali returns a number of players from last year's squad that consistently improved over the course of the season. Tina McDowell is doing a great job as coach, as reflected in their 6th place finish at Pres Day (despite missing a few of their top players). They also won the Midwest Throwdown with relative ease, infusing the team with a great deal of confidence.
With Heather Waugh gone, the heart and soul of this year's team lies with Courtney 'Cougar' Verhaalen. I wrote a bit about Coug in the upcoming UPA preview so I'll let the article speak for itself. Brenna Hokanson is also back after a FJR-esque hiatus from school. FOTY in 2008, her return is a big boost to Kali's handling corps. She gives Kali the ability to stretch the field and can be a consistent source of break mark throws.
Of the teams I've seen this year, I think Kali is the squad that has the potential to improve the most over the course of this season (aside from the Hellions, of course).
North Carolina
I didn't get a chance to watch much of UNC at the Stanford Invite, but Leila Tunnell is the obvious centerpiece of the Pleiades and will be a cinch to finish top 5 in the Callahan voting. You might be able to find five better all-around players, but very few offer the complete Callahan package like she does. Her leadership and commitment to sportsmanship are top notch and set her apart from other players on the Callahan short list. I'm also speculating that Tunnell will benefit from a large East Coast contingent rallying around her.
Tunnell's supporting cast includes Janna Coulter and rising star Lindsay Lang. Only a sophomore, Lang has plenty of Juniors experience and a strong candidate to be on the Juniors Worlds squad.
Despite traveling across the country with only 12 players, UNC was able to play tight games with Stanford and Washington and notch a couple wins against top-tier teams, a 15-6 drubbing of British Columbia and a split of two games with UCLA. Pleiades is a good bet to take the top spot out of the Atlantic Coast and find themselves in the quarterfinals in Madison.
-----
The next post will be up in a couple days, this one from a guest blogger, Robyn Fennig of Wisconsin Eau-Claire.
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