Southwest Regionals Recap

About ten days have passed since the biggest win in USC history. It still feels great, but we're now looking forward to the big show in Madison. Seeds came out last night, and we'll be the 5th seed overall. Cool deal.

Pool Play
SDSU gave us the toughest game in pool play. The bulk of our game was an upwind / downwind match. At the game's start, we were a bit sluggish on both the offensive and defensive ends of the disc, and the Lady Chachas did a great job of maintaining a high level of energy throughout the game. I had been looking forward to seeing SDSU in action since I'd heard good things from my buddy Spencer Barr who helps coach the team.

We got our first upwind break to go up 4-2 and broke again to get the downwind advantage. We traded to half and then stormed out of the half with two more upwind breaks to essentially put the game away at 12-5. The Chachas fought back and got an upwind break of their own to close to 12-8. The rest of the game was holding the downwind advantage. 15-10 final.

In the next game, we were originally slated to play Denver University, a very new team formed with the help of USC alumna Aisling Winston aka Viking. We were psyched to play them, but due to injuries and last second drops, they couldn't attend Regionals. Sadness. Instead, we found ourselves playing Arizona State. Our game was a lot of fun and we'll always have fond memories of Gummi Bear Girl. I've never seen anyone break out congratulatory treats to the opposing team in the middle of a game. Bold. Crazy. I like it.

Our final pool game was against Colorado College. I really like what they're building; Emily Anderson (coach) and Sophia Herscu deserve a ton of credit. Herscu is a great young player and I remember being impressed with her last year at Regionals. Her supporting cast is much improved this year and they've come through with a couple of big wins (over Northwestern and Wash U, both of whom qualified for Nationals).

Unfortunately, injuries took a toll on this young team and coming into our matchup, they lost a tough double-game-point match against SDSU. After the start of our game, I think they were content to focus on the next game and stay alive in the 4th place bracket. This worked out as they won a tight game against Long Beach.

Semifinals
After winning our pool, we were now in the semis against Colorado, one of USC's favorite rivals in the entire division. Kali is a fun team with great personalities and a coach (Tina McDowell) that I respect a ton. In each of the previous season, we had beaten Kali in our first matchup of the season, only to lose when it most mattered (Regionals in 08, Nationals in 09).

SW Regionals in 09 was the same format and the same four teams made it to the semifinals. Last year, we played UCSB and got slaughtered. That game was when I recognized that UCSB had hit another level altogether and asserted themselves as the favorites in Columbus. This year, the Hellions were intent on going through the front and avoid the potentially long Sunday slog through the backdoor.

The open division was done for the day, so both Mamabird and the Ghettobirds were watching from opposite sidelines. Kali got an early break to go up 2-1, but we stormed back with five straight points to take a 6-2 lead. I think the crucial point during this run was at 4-2, a turnover heavy point (11 total TOs). This point ended up being a huge swing in both score and momentum. Kali ended the run at 5 to close to 6-3. We held serve and broke again to take half, scoring on a bit of a lucky deflection off a Colorado defender.

Despite us holding a five-point lead, the difference in the game wasn't huge. Kali was making a number of uncharacteristic drops that we took advantage of. Generally, their offensive play was strong, but the run we made had a pretty big psychological effect on them.

In the second half, the two teams traded to 12-7 with some very strong offensive possession by both. We got the first break of the half to essentially clinch the game. Kali was able to get a break back but we ended the game with another break to win 15-9 and clinch a bid to Nationals.

Finals
This game was easily the most fun game of the year so far and definitely on my short list of my favorite games ever. I've really come to enjoy our games against UCSB. In the past, our rivalry was heavily one-sided, but this year it's been much more even. I'm particularly impressed with how clean our games have been. When I first started coaching in 2007, the Skirts had a terrible reputation for their on-field behavior. Over the past three years, they have completely flipped that around and their leadership deserves a ton of credit.

There were a number of similarities between this game and our previous finals matchup at Sectionals. In both games, we got the early lead, took half and had a 3 point lead midway through the 2nd half. In both games, UCSB stormed back with a run. At Sectionals, we had been up 12-9 before the Burning Skirts scored five in a row to win the game. Ouch.

We started on O and got the first break of the game to go up 4-2. We got another break a couple points later to go up 6-3. After that, we traded points to 8-5. The first half featured solid offense from both sides as neither team turned it over more than twice on a point. There were only three points where either team had two turnovers.

The first point the second half pitted both teams' strongest lines against each other. We were looking for the immediate break to put a ton of pressure on them. Both teams turned it over three times, something that I think was partially attributable to both teams playing better defense. Both teams adjusted and I believe that the next five points were turnover-free.

At 11-8, UCSB made their run, building their momentum with a Callahan goal (I think by Bree). UCSB scored 4 straight to take their first lead of the game at 12-11. Unlike at Sectionals, we bounced back with a big hold in serve to tie the game up. Next to the final point of the game, the battle to get to 13 was the most crucial point of the game. I burned our last regulation timeout to keep that line as fresh as possible for defense. Fortunately, it ended being a really smart move. That point was an epic battle with something like 9 turnovers. Both teams were taking shots at the end zone when available and grinding out possessions when needed. I'm looking forward to watching the video of this point because it felt agonizingly long.

We came through on a Screech to Jaws connection, but wow, this was a tough point. Getting the break back to take the lead was huge. It also gave me the flexibility to sub a completely fresh line in on defense. UCSB's big guns stayed on the field, again proving that they are among the most fit players in the college division. I don't know how they do it.

We got the disc on the next point, but we weren't able to do much offensively. UCSB held serve and it was now game to 2. We had an easy O point and nudged ourselves to game point. UCSB responded with a fairly easy O point of their own to send it to universe point. Apparently, I remembered the first possession incorrectly, so I'll have to wait for the video footage (it takes a few weeks for video footage to develop here in Los Angeles...). The main thing I remember is that we turned it, UCSB turned it on a huck that was too far, and we maintained possession of the disc for a long time, grinding out the possession until we finally capped it off with an I/O backhand break from Uzi to Screech.

Regional champions!

As I've mentioned to my wife several times, you don't ever wish to be in super-tight games like this. They take years off your life. But when you do battle through a game like this and pull out the win, it makes you a million times tougher. This game might have been the best thing for us going into Nationals. If we have a really successful run in Madison, I'll point to this game as the one that took us to another level. Great opponent. Great game.

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Because of familial obligations, I wasn't around to see the UCSB v. Colorado game or much of the UCLA v. Colorado St game. I do know that Colorado State had a great run to emerge out of a crowded field to get into the game to go. Despite the recent close games between UCLA and UCSD, I thought there was a pretty sizable gap between the top four teams and the next tier. After that, there were a number of very solid teams who were all capable of beating each other - UCSD, Colorado State, Claremont, Colorado College, Arizona, SDSU, Long Beach. Just getting to the last game-to-go is a great accomplishment, and I believe it is Hell's Belles' first in team history. Congrats!

Next year, the Southwest will be even more wide open. More teams are rising and the strong programs won't be fading anytime soon. The Hellions will be looking to prove that they are a great program and join the likes of UCLA, Colorado and UCSB.