Nationals - Some Rambling Thoughts

Here I am, sitting in the Baymont Inn breakfast room at 6:45 a.m. Quarterfinals start at 1:30 p.m. Sometimes, my brain gets all excited and worked up, and there's nothing I can do but submit to its every whim. Sigh.

The Big Stories

1. Washington's Demise - This is easily the biggest story thus far. On the short list to contend for the title, Washington's loss to UCLA in the pre-quarters was a shocking and premature end to the season. Even before their loss to UCLA, Element was clearly out of sorts this weekend. They struggled in pool play, including a monumental collapse against Colorado and two tight wins against significantly weaker opponents. Element is a really talented team with a slew of good young players, so expect them to bounce back next year.

2. Southwest and the Quarterfinals - All four of the Southwest teams are in the quarterfinals. Going into the season, I thought the Southwest had a good chance of supplanting the Northwest as the strongest region, but the Northwest consistently outperformed their counterparts to the south at the major tourneys. I thought Oregon was going to be a cut above everyone else, but I really loved the makeup of the big four in the Southwest.

Going into the quarters, the Southwest is 5-1 in matchups against the Northwest. The one loss was USC to Cal in pool play. Apologies to our Southwest counterparts.

The quarters features two more NW v. SW matchups: Oregon will be heavily favored against UCLA, and Cal faces Colorado in a match that could go either way.

3. Colorado's Run - With their wins against Washington and Stanford, Kali is proving to be one of the most resilient teams in Madison. In the biggest upset of the tourney thus far, Kali went on an eight-point run to come back from a huge deficit against Washington. In the pre-quarters, Kali gave away an early 6-2 lead to find themselves down at half 6-8. Down 11-13, Kali clamped down on defense and scored four straight to take the game and a berth in the quarters. Call them the Comeback Kids from Colorado.

4. Maryland's Near Miss - Helpful Corn demonstrated the promise offered by their run to the semifinals at Centex. Beating UCLA in pool play, Maryland battled Wisconsin and put themselves in a position to win. In the quintessential do-or-die game, Maryland was in the position of either winning the pool outright or being knocked out of the tourney. Because of their 15-9 loss to Stanford, Maryland was certain of losing out on point differential because of UCLA's victory over Stanford. A win over Wisconsin would give them the head-to-head edge over Bella Donna.

Down 10-12, Maryland stormed back with two straight to tie it up. Helpful Corn appeared to get another break when Charlie Mercer pulled down a monster grab which she flipped to a wide open teammate for the score. A travel call brought the disc back, and Wisconsin eventually scored.

Maryland, I'm a big fan.