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2004 College Championships: Women's Division – Saturday 29 May

by Gwen Ambler

Day One Coverage

Day two of the UPA College Championships highlighted some of the best women’s ultimate to step on the field. Never before has the playing field been so even in the Women’s Division, which meant that every round had close games with players stepping up to make spectacular plays in the effort to carry their team through to victory. After it was all said and done, two teams emerged ready to face each other in the finals on Sunday: Carleton and Davis.

The first round of the day featured the four pre-quarters games, of which the closest game was between Virginia and Brown. Brown jumped to the early lead of 4-2 before Virginia started playing zone and went up 5-4. Virginia’s Katie Klein (#15) and Andrea Duran (#29) often hucked for field position and Beth Oppenheimer (#33) was a threat in the deep land. After trading points, Virginia took half 8-7. Brown started playing a zone of its own and began to settle into the rhythm of its zone offense as well. After going on a run, Brown lead 8-11. Virginia came within two points at 12-10, but Brown’s defense at the end of the game forced a number of turnovers when Virginia tried to dump the disc. Jennifer Kim (#49) stepped up for Brown’s handling, while receivers Rebecca Simon (#13) and Cate Brown (#54) kept coming up with big grabs as the team pulled out a 15-12 win.

The other pre-quarters games weren’t nearly as close, with both Texas beating North Carolina State and California-Berkeley beating Claremont by the score of 15-5. Illinois gave California-San Diego a good game, coming within 5 late in the second half, but eventually losing 15-9. San Diego was up 8-2 in the first half, playing mainly zone defense. Katie Banks (#1) for Illinois managed to break the zone going over the cup with a number of scoobers, but when San Diego clamped down with their person defense, Illinois struggled to convert.

The quarterfinals provided four more games of intense ultimate. With all three Northwest teams in the quarters, the NW earned two strength bids to next year’s College Championships. Brown and MIT also earned New England a strength bid for next year and Texas secured an extra bid for the South.

The Stanford-Texas quarterfinals game was tied 2-2 before Stanford switched its defense to a zone and pulled ahead to 6-2. Texas brought it back to 6-4 before Stanford took half 8-4. Stanford’s Kyna Fong (#8) ran her team’s offense this game and also got big D blocks in the zone. Enessa Janes (#7) was a receiver who stood out, as she threw 4 assists and caught 3 goals for Stanford. Texas also showcased a number of great players. Cara Crouch (#5), Lisa Short (#1) and Nazish Waliany (#15) handled the disc with composure and Marisa Krisananuwatara (#69) used her speed to run down the disc on both offense and defense. Nonetheless, Texas was unable to break Stanford’s zone, and Stanford won 15-6.

The Davis-Brown quarterfinals game also saw a fair amount of zone defense played. The wind was not overwhelmingly strong, but Davis was quite effective playing zone upwind and a trapping person defense downwind. Davis jumped to a 7-1 lead before Brown started to find some of the holes in the zone over the top of Davis’s four person cup. The halftime score was 8-3 and Davis continued to increase its lead in the second half. Lindsey Riemenschneider (#22) made a number of impressive skying catches for Davis, but the game winner was a connection between Julie Baker (#11) and Danielle Manning (#17) as Davis secured a spot into semifinals with the final score of 15-7.

California-Berkeley and Carleton’s game was a close match. Berkeley lead 3-1 playing their four person cup and relying on Kath Ratcliff (#13) as a deep deep. Karen Pezzetti (#77) was one of Berkeley’s playmakers in this game, throwing and receiving numerous hucks. Nonetheless, Carleton tied the game at 4’s and pulled ahead to take half 8-5. Carleton’s Maia Pinsky (#21) came up with some nice lay-out D blocks, and Berkeley struggled against Carleton’s suffocating trap defense. Berkeley was still getting turnovers with their zone D, but Carleton converted more often on offense and pushed ahead to win 15-10. The last point saw Jill Bingham (#15 for Carleton) come up with a skying grab off of a huck before punching it in to Carleton’s star player Miranda Roth (#25) after a time-out.

California-San Diego faced MIT in the last quarterfinal game—a rematch of the quarterfinals match-up from last year’s College Championship where MIT won 15-13. This year, the game was close right from the start as the original number 1 and number 2 seeds of the tournament faced off. MIT was up 4-3 before San Diego jumped ahead 6-4 thanks to setting a four-person cup zone. As San Diego switched back to person-defense, both teams had a few throwaways and drops. MIT managed to tie the game at 6’s after MIT’s Kathy Dobson (#6) got a handblock on the goal line. San Diego battled back and took half 8-6. Again, MIT tied it up and the teams traded points back and forth till the game was even at 12-12. San Diego was playing a spread offense against MIT’s person defense and after scoring to go up 13-12, the team set another zone. After an MIT turnover on the goal line, San Diego scored 14-12. Again, relying on zone defense to contain MIT in its own red-zone, San Diego’s Amy Ruff (#23) got a block and allowed her team to score the final point, winning the game 15-12.

The sidelines of the semifinals were crowded with fans eager to watch the four best women’s teams battle it out under the CSTV cameras. Carleton and Stanford played in one game while California-Davis and California-San Diego matched up in the other. The Carleton-Stanford game began with Stanford scoring the first point after Stanford came up with three big defensive blocks on long throws by Carleton. Carleton answered back against Stanford’s person-defense and from then on Stanford only played zone D. Carleton trapped forehand for most of the first half and Stanford scored a few straight off the pull with a huck connection between Fong and Janes. Carleton was also hucking and Stanford’s Jennifer Burney (#23) went up against Roth time and time again. This was the match-up of the game with both players laying out for the disc and taking turns skying each other. When the score was tied at 4-4, Stanford strung three points together. While Carleton answered with a two point run of its own, Stanford finished the half up 8-6.

After halftime Stanford scored to go up 9-6, but then Carleton scored with no turns off of the pull and went on a 4 point run to take the lead 10-9. In the first half, Maria Grigoryeva (#44) connected on a number of big hucks to Roth. Stanford had adjusted its zone to play a box-and-one with Hannah Griego (#10) on Grigoryeva to prevent the huck. In the second half, Carleton adjusted and had all of its handlers look to huck the disc to Roth waiting in the deep space. Burney came up with multiple D blocks as deep deep in the zone and Stanford came back to take the lead 11-10. As the weather became wetter, Stanford struggled to convert against Carleton’s tight person defense. Stanford opted to huck the disc instead of trying to work it up the field, a strategy that was less successful in the second half when Carleton’s marks got closer and more aggressive. Carleton scored again twice after big skying grabs by Roth and lead the game 12-11. After trading downwind points, the score was 14-13 Carleton. After an incomplete Stanford huck, Carleton marched the disc upwind to finish the game 15-13. Roth was definitely the MVP of this game as she was the player who came up with big plays practically every single point of the game.

The Davis-San Diego contest was equally exciting. Davis jumped to a 2-0 lead after scoring against San Diego’s three-person cup zone defense. Davis maintained this lead to 5-3 when San Diego scored to bring the game within one. San Diego set their zone again and capitalized on a dropped disc by Davis to tie the game at 5-5. Taking the lead for the first time, San Diego went up 6-5 before Davis answered. Davis was using its four-person cup to minimize San Diego’s running game and the cup managed to contain San Diego’s swing quite effectively. San Diego put up a few hucks against the zone, notably by Ruff and Alicia White (#49), and the teams traded point before Davis strung two points together to take half 8-7. The first half of this game established Davis’ Baker as the key to her team’s offense. Baker’s penetrating throws despite any wind were the factors that helped Davis move the disc quickly whether San Diego was playing person or zone defense. Nonetheless, San Diego’s athletic roster matched-up well with the skilled players of Davis.

The second half saw the score tied at 8’s, 9’s, 10’s, and 11’s before San Diego took the lead at 12-11. San Diego’s White had been connecting with Tonya Lenaburg (#2) against Davis’s zone and when White came up with two crucial defensive blocks her team pushed their lead to 13-11. Davis then converted on turnovers generated by their four-person cup zone and came back to tie the game at 13-13. San Diego was hucking for field position, but was unable to connect on as many of the deep throws as it had previously. Without looking back, Davis rattled off two more points to win the game 15-13.

The level of intensity and desire that the two semifinals showcased was inspiring. Fans also had the opportunity to watch the top three women players in the Callahan award voting. Carleton’s Miranda Roth won the Callahan this year, with Stanford’s Jenny Burney coming in second, and San Diego’s Alicia White taking third. All three of these women, as well as countless other players on each team, left everything they had on the field. Now Carleton and Davis look forward to facing off in the finals of the UPA College Championships. These two teams have not played each other all season yet and will surely provide the spectators at Marysville-Pilchuck a game to remember this Sunday.