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2004 College Championships: Women's Division – Friday 28 May

by Gwen Ambler

The UPA College Championships is a three day tournament, but after Day 1, the four pool winners have already emerged as favorites for semifinal appearances in the Women’s Division. In contrast to last year’s scorching Austin, TX, heat, this year’s competition has had to deal with the exact opposite: wind, rain, and cold. Due to the weather conditions, games had more turnovers than usual, but team’s strategists were able to utilize a number of different defenses. Games often saw multiple types of zone or clam defenses in addition to the standard of person-defense.

The biggest upset of the day happened in Pool A when Carleton (seeded 8th overall going into the tournament) beat the number one seed, California-San Diego. In this game, Carleton jumped to a 5-0 lead before taking half at 8-2. San Diego changed their defense in the second half to minimize Carleton’s hucking game by having Tracy Woo (#28) poach in the deep space, but it was too little too late and Carleton won 15-6. This was the game that was going to match up Callahan short-list candidates Alicia White (#49 for UCSD) and Miranda Roth (#25 for Carleton). Both players came up with a number of big plays, but overall Carleton played more aggressive defense and did not have nearly as many unforced turnovers as UCSD.

In the rest of the pool, Brown finished third and Dartmouth finished fourth. Dartmouth gave UCSD a game in the first round, only losing 15-10 despite the best efforts of Lorraine Ferron (#3) and Liz Gannes (#4). Brown lost to both Carleton and UCSD 15-4 and had trouble stringing together passes on offense in the first two rounds of the day. Brown’s veteran cast, including Shirley Wu (#19) and Rebecca Simon (#13), finally started connecting by the end of the day when Brown and Dartmouth faced off. Brown broke seed by beating Dartmouth 15-9.

Pool B ended up following seed exactly. MIT went in as the pool’s one seed and its closest game was 15-9 against Iowa. Many fans had eagerly anticipated the game between California and MIT, but MIT took control of the game early in the first half. MIT jumped to a 5-1 lead as California suffered from a series of turnovers in the endzone and its handlers had trouble adjusting to changing MIT defenses. MIT cutters like April Lehman (#22) and Kathy Dobson (#6) helped the flow of the offense in the downfield and the final score ended up 15-7, MIT.

Rowan Sill (#88) and Andrea Jung (#8) lead California to decisive wins over NC State and Iowa. However, the most exciting game of the pool was between NC State and Iowa. The game remained tight the entire time as the teams traded points back and forth. Iowa’s Tammy Kampfe (#42) and Mackenzie Henryson (#13) seemed to be making big plays for their team while Nicole Chauvigne (#22) and Molly Doyle (#1) stepped up for NCSU. The game finally came down to the double championship point after the cap, with NCSU edging out Iowa 15-14.

California-Davis was largely unchallenged in Pool C, beating Texas, Claremont and Rutgers 15-4, 15-4, and 15-6, respectively. Davis’ Julie Baker (#11) emerged as a force to be reckoned with, but Lindsey Riemenschneider (#22), Brooke Babineau (#13) and Danielle Manning (#17) also proved difficult to contain. Davis combined playing person defense with zone during the course of the day and the defensive pressure they put on teams allowed them enough chances with the disc to capitalize on offense.

The game to watch from this pool was the contest between Texas (seeded second) and Claremont (seeded third). Claremont took half 8-5 and managed to hold their lead through 13-12, largely through the athleticism and precision throws of Lesley Greer (#22). Cara Crouch (#5) lead Texas to get their break and jump ahead to secure the win 16-14. Rutgers also played a relatively close game against Texas, losing 15-11 despite the handling and defensive blocks of Karin Rafaels (#30), Bessie Joy Codera (#9) and Virginia Norling (#15).

Stanford emerged unscathed from Pool D, but the surprise team from this pool was Illinois. In the very first round, Illinois faced off against undefeated Virginia and jumped ahead to a 7-3 lead. Illinois’ zone defense was responsible for part of their lead, but they seemed to be utilizing their dump resets effectively and Katie Banks (#1) and AJ Bowman (#10) came up big in the air in addition to running the offense with their throws. Virginia settled their nerves and came back to tie the game at 8’s and then again at 10’s. At this point, the weather took a turn for the worse, and Illinois faltered in the pouring rain, allowing Virginia to take the lead for the first time and win 15-10. Illinois managed to come up with a win against Penn State. Sarah Lahm’s (#11) hucks, Karen Schulte’s (#44) break mark throws, and Erin Crider’s (#00) bids weren’t quite enough to hold on to the team’s 7-6 lead and Illinois ended up winning 15-8.

Virginia was handed its first loss of the season in its match against Stanford. Virginia ran an isolated offense, which made use of in-cuts as well as long looks, mainly by Katie Klein (#15) or Beth Oppenheimer (#33). Stanford made effective use of both a four-person cup and three-person cup to contain Virginia’s offense and managed to overcome UVA’s hard trap D. Stanford’s offense and defense were lead by Jennifer Burney (#23), Lauren Casey (#11), Karen Milch (#9) and Enessa Janes (#7).

Tomorrow morning will lead off with pre-quarters before teams head into the quarterfinals against the pool winners. On one side of the championship bracket, UC-San Diego will play Illinois, and the winner will play MIT for the right to advance to semifinals. Virginia will match-up against Brown for the chance to play Davis in quarters. On the other side of the bracket, Texas and NCSU play in a third pre-quarters game, the winner of which will play Stanford. The last pre-quarters game between California and Claremont will determine the team that plays Carleton in the fourth quarterfinals game.

Currently, MIT, Davis, Stanford and Carleton look like the teams to beat and are the squads that most expect to make the semifinals Saturday afternoon. These four teams each play with very different styles and provide fans dynamic games full of great offensive plays and tough defenses. MIT plays team defense that aims more to shut-down open passes than bait blocks downfield. The team’s offense is typically very patient and relies on Nancy Sun (#5) as a reset. Davis plays aggressive defense, both person and zone, while the team uses break-mark throws and hucks to open up the field for its offense. Stanford has a series of zone defenses that it uses to change the tempo of the game. The team is also not afraid to huck for field position. Carleton plays an aggressive game where they go to the disc strong and the team has emerged as a deep team where any number of players step up to get a lay-out D or cut deep. Hopefully, the rain will hold off enough to fully showcase these teams’ skills…