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.

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The next post will be up in a couple days, this one from a guest blogger, Robyn Fennig of Wisconsin Eau-Claire.