Posted May 31, 2012 at 3:49 pm by Adam Lerman | Comments (20)
Co-written by Adam Lerman and Ryan Thompson and presented by Spin Ultimate.
Tufts Qxhna Titcomb (Photo by Brian Canniff - UltiPhotos.com)
Biggest Surprises:
- Tufts: The talk of the tournament was upstart Tufts, who started as the 16th seed overall, but ended up tied for 3rd after an inspired run to the semifinals. Aside from attending the Stanford Invite missing several key players, Tufts did not play elite competition before Nationals. But at the Championships, Tufts improved in every game after a poor first half against Virginia, with the veteran leadership of captains Claudia Tajima and Hailey Alm and coach Josh McCarthy setting the tone. This team played incredibly smart ultimate on offense and defense, playing to their strengths and forcing opponents to adapt or fall. With their experienced underclassmen (Emily Shields, Mia Greenwald, and Qxhna Titcomb) and few graduating seniors, they won’t end up on this list again next year.
- Ohio State: Entering the tournament as the 5 seed in their pool, Fever opened strong with a 15-8 win over Sonoma State, led by the play of Paige Soper and Cassie Swafford. After a 16-14 loss to Oregon, Ohio State regrouped with a dominating 15-6 win over Wisconsin, clinching a place in prequarters. In the first real wind of the weekend, Ohio State continued their strong play, winning 12-10 to knock out an Iowa State team many people had picked to win the championship.
- Texas: Texas made it to Boulder by the slimmest of margins, beating Washington University 15-14 to claim the South Central’s only bid. Entering pool play as the #4 seed in Pool A, Melee knocked off Sonoma State, Oregon, and Ohio State to win the pool and take the overall #1 seed headed into the quarterfinals.
(Photo by Brian Canniff - UltiPhotos.com)
Most Exciting Games:
- Washington-Tufts: After Tufts went up 4-1, Washington stormed back to lead 8-5 at halftime. Washington appeared to be in control of their semifinal, with a 12-9 lead at the soft cap horn. But Tufts broke twice to tie the game at 13-13. On universe point, an uncharacteristic red zone turn from Lucy Williams gave Tufts the disc, and Tufts worked it down to the goal line. Claudia Tajima missed an open Emily Shields by inches, and seconds later Leah Fury was bombing a backhand to Margo Kelly for the win.
- Oregon-Iowa: Close the whole way, this quarterfinal game came down to Iowa receiving on universe point. In a sloppy point with each team having more than a few possessions to win, Oregon gritted out the win with Jesse Shofner finding Bethany Kaylor to send Fugue to the semifinals.
- Michigan-British Columbia: The Thunderbirds started out strong in this game, going up 7-4 on Michigan early by virtue of their strong dump defense and Michigan’s inability to string together passes from cutters to cutters. But Michigan roared back and took the lead in the second half, going up 13-11, before an inspired UBC run had them up 14-13 and pulling to win. After Catherine Hui got a great D early in the point, UBC turned it, Michigan overthrew a huck, and then Crystal Koo hucked to Hui who ran past two defenders and caught the disc on the goalline. An aggressive fake sent her mark to the ground, and she found Rena Kawabata to take the win 15-13.
HM: Texas 13-12 over Sonoma State, Wisconsin 14-13 over Texas, Oregon 16-14 over Ohio State, Iowa State 14-13 over Ottawa, Michigan 14-12 over Stanford.
Best Single-Game Team Performances:
- Washington against Oregon: Sometimes everything goes exactly according to plan. Taking advantage of nearly every Oregon miscue, Washington opened up an 8-3 halftime lead. After a small Oregon run to start the second half, Washington made the necessary strategic adjustment by switching to a four-person cup. Element rolled the rest of the game, finishing on a 7-1 run to win 15-7.
- Texas against Oregon: In the most dominating team defensive performance of the tournament, the Texas defenders took away nearly everything against the tournament’s #1 seed. With a high-possession offense and several huge plays from Sarah Levinn, Texas won comfortably, 15-10 putting themselves in position to win the pool.
- Tufts against North Carolina: When teams have a night to prepare for their quarterfinal opponents, you can expect some personnel-specific defenses. Tufts executed their defensive gameplan against Lindsay Lang and Shellie Cohen perfectly, with great straight-up marks from Hannah Garfield, Hailey Alm, and Michaela Fallon on UNC’s two big throwers. UNC resorted to desperation hucks and lacked any kind of offensive flow. At the other end, Tufts shredded UNC’s zone repeatedly behind the popping of Emily Shields and Qxhna Titcomb and the handling of Claudia Tajima. The game slipped away from UNC towards the end of the first half and Tufts never looked back, taking it 14-9.
Best Single-Game Individual Performances:
- Sarah Levinn (Texas) against Oregon: Levinn started out with a few big layout blocks, then won jump ball after jump ball, as Texas upset the tournament’s #1 seed 15-10.
- Catherine Hui (British Columbia) against Michigan: Hui was everywhere in this one, getting big D’s deep and on in-cuts, and being the go-to deep option even when ostensibly “covered.” She repeatedly ran past defenders, and with the score tied 13-13, she had a ridiculous sky of two Flywheel defenders and 5’9” teammate Hannah Epperson, leading to the go-ahead break.
- Emily Shields (Tufts) against UNC: Shields was masterful in this quarterfinals victory, as she found every hole in UNC’s zone and quickly continued the disc down the field to the other cutters. She was the link between handlers Tajima, Alm, and Garfield and the endzone, helping Tufts run out to a 14-9 victory.
HM: Lucy Williams (Washington) against Oregon, Danny Karlinsky (Washington) against Oregon.
A sweet line-toeing Oregon layout. (Photo by Brian Canniff - UltiPhotos.com)
Adam’s All-Tourney Team (strongly biased towards players who led their teams deep into the tournament):
- Shellie Cohen (North Carolina)
- Sarah Davis (Washington)
- Jesse Shofner (Oregon)
- Cassie Swafford (Ohio State)
- Claudia Tajima (Tufts)
- Chelsea Twohig (Iowa)
- Lucy Williams (Washington)
Ryan’s All-Tourney Team (limited to players I saw in action, sorry Pools A and B):
- Shellie Cohen (North Carolina)
- Sabrina Fong (UCLA)
- Catherine Hui (British Columbia)
- Rebecca Miller (Iowa State)
- Kathryn Pohran (Ottawa)
- Claudia Tajima (Tufts)
- Lucy Williams (Washington)
All-Underclassmen Team:
- Shellie Cohen (Sophomore, North Carolina)
- Lisa Couper (Sophomore, North Carolina)
- Sophie Darch (Sophomore, Oregon)
- Alika Johnston (Freshman, Virginia)
- Michela Meister (Sophomore, Stanford)
- Jesse Shofner (Freshman, Oregon)
- Qxhna Titcomb (Freshman, Tufts)
Top 5 Handlers:
- Sabrina Fong (UCLA)
- Lucy Williams (Washington)
- Claudia Tajima (Tufts)
- Paige Soper (Ohio State)
- Lindsay Lang (North Carolina)
Top 5 Cutters:
- Cassie Swafford (Ohio State)
- Claire Desmond (California)
- Rebecca Miller (Iowa State)
- Jesse Shofner (Oregon)
- Sarah Levinn (Texas)
Top 5 Defenders:
- Catherine Hui (British Columbia)
- Janel Venzant (Texas)
- Mary Kelly (Virginia)
- Sarah Davis (Washington)
- Anna Almy (Oregon)
Best Fantasy Performances (+20 cutoff)*:
- Claire Desmond (California) +39 (7 games) 5.57/game
- Lisa Couper (North Carolina) +35 (6 games) 5.83/game
- Rebecca Miller (Iowa State) +35 (7 games) 5.00/game
- Mary Kelly (Virginia) +28 (6 games) 4.67/game
- Kirstin Gruver (Washington) +28 (8 games) 3.50/game
- Catherine Hui (British Columbia) +27 (7 games) 3.86/game
- Cassie Swafford (Ohio State) +26 (6 games) 4.33/game
- Liza Minor (Iowa) +25 (5 games) 5.00/game
- Jessica Langr (Iowa State) +22 (7 games) 3.14/game
- Anna Almy (Oregon) +22 (8 games) 2.75/game
- Georgina Tetlow (Humboldt State) +22 (6 games) 3.67/game
- Shellie Cohen (North Carolina) +21 (6 games) 3.50/game
- Jesse Shofner (Oregon) +21 (8 games) 2.63/game
- Tessa Van Leeuwen (Ottawa) +20 (6 games) 3.33/game
- Rena Kawabata (British Columbia) +20 (7 games) 2.86/game
*Unsurprisingly, the four worst fantasy performances came from players who played in the Oregon-Michigan semifinal: Sophie Darch (Oregon) -24, Bailey Zahniser( Oregon) -24, Marisa Mead (Michigan) -21, Katie Weatherhead (Oregon) -21.
Best Uniforms:
- Oregon blacks.
- Texas whites and blacks.
- Ohio State reds.
Worst Uniforms:
- British Columbia both jerseys. (Just look at this. -Ryan)
- Washington gold on purple. (I did not enjoy trying to figure out numbers in the UW-UBC prequarter. -Adam)
Adam’s Favorite Photos:
- Oregon players celebrating after their win over Iowa, Coach Lou Burress celebrating with Bailey Zahniser and Sophie Darch.
- Washington’s Sarah Benditt can’t toe the line against British Columbia. Turnover.
- Texas’s Julie Paik with a game-saving layout D on universe point against Wisconsin.
- Aubri Bishop with a sick layout catch D against Wisconsin in Oregon’s first game of the weekend.
- Texas’s Diana Charrier comes up with an unconventional block against Sonoma State.
Incredibly Premature 2013 Finals Prediction:
- Adam: Ohio State over Oregon
- Ryan: Oregon over UNC
Feature photo of Washington’s Amanda Kostic by Christina Schmidt (UltiPhotos.com)
Posted May 31, 2012 at 8:17 am by Jonathan Neeley | Comments (34)
A new decade?
The establishment knows it. “First non cut, Wisco, or Florida win since 2005,” read the @cutrules Twitter on Monday. “Darkhorse [that means cool. Or something.],” replied Brodie.
Pitt knows it too. “There have been five teams since the first year that Pitt made Nationals that have been to the final,” said Pittsburgh coach Nick Kaczmarek. “Brown, Colorado, Wisconsin, Carleton, and Florida. Since the second year, only three of them have won it.” Add in 2002 champion Stanford, a regular semifinalist, and you have to go back to 1999 to find a winner outside of the usual suspects.
Pittsburgh’s national championship is more than the crowning of a program that has worked tirelessly to reach the top. It’s the signaling of a new era, one in which on-field talent is present upon move-in day and coaching and organizational skills are not monopolized by a few. The best teams are certainly going to stay good (my money is on Pitt to repeat in 2013), but today’s explosion of youth, athleticism, and hunger to succeed makes me think that the throne is going to become a bit more accessible.
Alex Thorne drops bombs.
Thorne’s throws took down Wisconsin. When the Hodags went man, he hucked it upwind (the full-field upwind backhand), downwind (he placed it perfectly into the downwind endzone, something that Wisconsin missed on multiple times), and break side (that backhand break that Tyler DeGirolamo got up huge for). When they threw zone, he found the open guy (usually with a blade to his brother Max, who was standing 35 yards downfield in between a wing and the deep deep). And when they needed to work it, he did that too.
Before the game started, one of the announcers said that the wind (I didn’t really know how windy it was until the first Wisconsin pull went up and barely reached half field) would favor the Hodays. Hmm. Thorne’s throws are really good. Really, really good. I first noticed how good they were when he was shredding zones with cross-field dimes at the super windy Easterns 2011. Wind or no wind, he puts the disc where it needs to be when it needs to be there. When that kind of thrower is the centerpiece of your offense, I think the wind favors you.
[Insert morning] Quarterbackin’
The Hodags have always built an identity in playing tight and relentless man defense, and given their dismantling of Oregon, I don’t think anyone was surprised to see them rely on it early in the final. When Pitt’s offense came out hot though, I liked Wisconsin’s decision to slow them down by going zone. The problem was that aside from the turn they got when Isaac Saul threw one dish too many and a cup member swatted it down from behind, Alex threw over the four-man cup and downfield pretty easily. I think they should have switched to a three-man and bumped the extra defender downfield to cover the gap. He was going to throw over them even if they had six guys in that cup so they may as well have conceded some swings and looked to make Pitt throw it more.
A friend that knows Wisconsin pretty well noted that the Hodags have always had trouble maintaining a cohesive cup or wall. With a team built on making plays man-to-man, this makes sense given that the cup is more about moving as a unit whereas playing wing or deep can still boil down to making a play as an individual. Perhaps Wisconsin should have stayed man for a few more points, tinkering with match ups until somebody stepped up and made a block; the same friend thought that Tom Coolidge could have stayed with Thorne and, at some point, would have given him trouble. Before the game, announcer Tyler Kinley said that Wisconsin coach Hector Valdivia’s plan was to focus on shutting down the players around Alex Thorne in order to force discomfort and, subsequently, turnovers. In other words, he was acknowledging that Thorne was gonna get his and choosing to put resources into stopping the supporting cast. I’ve always liked this logic, but maybe Wisconsin should have gone more all-in on bodying Thorne and backing DeGirolamo.
Really though, Wisconsin’s fatal mistakes were on offense. Taking a look at the score progression at Leaguevine, Pitt broke to go up 2-0, 3-0, 4-0, 7-4, 9-5, and 11-6 while the Hodags’ only breaks were to make it 5-3 and 7-5. Update: Of Wisconsin’s 17 total turnovers, the O line was responsible for 11. Pitt’s dump defense made resets very difficult and their physical fronting made downfield cutting discouraging, and both led to offensive miscues. When a team’s offense is as versatile and stingy as Pitt’s, you’re going to lose if you’re not just as good. The 4-0 hole pretty much meant game over.
They’re reloading.
Pitt’s glaring losses for 2013 are Colin Conner, and Julian Hausman. Conner, a senior captain, was a key defender with good pulls and a big team leader. Hausman, a fifth year, was this year’s best mark and played a huge role in the semis comeback against Carleton. Senior Jason Kunsa, a steady O-line handler and strong dump defender, is also a significant loss.
I think Pitt will be fine, though. First and foremost, Alex and Tyler are coming back. That college ultimate’s most potent duo is giving it another go should scare everyone else in the division. Beyond that, this year’s freshman class was nasty. On top of Max Thorne and Trent Dillon, talent that everyone knows about, Pat Earles is a great thrower and Joe Bender is a workhorse that will find his role just fine. Also, Marcus Dropcho and Michael Brenner are names that I heard here and there but I think are still waiting to burst out of their shells. Add in some role players stepping up their games and a freshman class that I’m sure will be good (they’re getting at least one Junior Worlds player in Jay Boyle) and Pitt looks like its in good shape to defend the throne.
Congrats, Pitt. You’ve joined the list.
Feature photo by Adam Lerman
Posted May 30, 2012 at 10:42 pm by Sarah McAra | Comments (1)
This article is presented by USA Ultimate and Spin Ultimate
The teams at DIII Nationals had to rely on their fundamental disc skills to succeed in Appleton. Claremont, the 2012 Champions, did just that by demonstrating their superior field positioning, decision making, and man defense that all of the teams tried to achieve throughout the weekend.
Trends
Photo by Brandon Wu (UltiPhotos.com)
Bracket play on Sunday brought together the dominate teams to faceoff on another windy day where tight man defense and reliable short passes were the key to success. Though the players who made it to Nationals clearly have a good grasp on catching, throwing, and cutting, the competition and wind still challenged some of the best teams. A lot of down field looks were over thrown, or cutters couldn’t read the disc in the wind. I was also surprised by how frantic some of the teams were with the disc, often losing possession by throwing to teammates who were not open. Luckily some teams figured out how to succeed in the wind by moving the disc quickly and smartly to score upwind breaks.
While Grinnell relied on their quick zone to take home a great win over Bowdoin, they were the expectation during bracket play: most of these highly skilled teams forgot about zone and turned to tight man defense. Even the teams who started the day off with zone often dissolved to man as their opponents worked the disc around the cup. From the sidelines of the quarterfinal games, coaches and sidelines from all four fields were reminding the players to force the opponent in, since handlers had a hard time completing away passes upwind. The most effective man defense came from the players who stayed right on their opponents’ side and physically got in their way from getting into the open lane on an in cut. While it seemed as though zone would be the go-to option for the conditions, man defense proved to be the successful alternative.
Notable Matchups
While pool play on Saturday showed a lot of uneven games, bracket play on Sunday brought a lot of really great matchups. The two games with the (surprisingly) closest competition in quarters were Truman State University vs. Carleton Eclipse and Valparaiso vs. Haverford. In the TSU vs. Carleton game, the first half of the round was dominated by a lot of turns on both sides. While TSU threw a traditional zone and Carleton stuck with their ever-effective man defense, neither team saw a lot of completed continuation looks downfield. Eclipse eventually calmed down and began to see better field positioning and smart throws. While TSU took half at 8-7, Eclipse came back from half with a lot of energy to tie it up at 9s, and went on to win the matchup 13-10. In a similar game on the next field over, Haverford also fought through Valpo’s zone. Haverford used their great handler movement to get the disc around the cup and find openings for deep looks down the side. Haverford also smartly hucked the disc downfield when they got trapped near Valpo’s endzone, a tactic which I think ultimately helped them take home the win.
Photo by Brandon Wu (UltiPhotos.com)
In their semi-final game against Claremont, as well as throughout the entire weekend, Carleton Eclipse showcased the value of being patient with the disc in the wind. While Claremont started off with a zone D set, the seemingly obvious choice for the windy conditions, they soon had to revert to man as Eclipse broke through their cup. Carleton showed a great balance of small, reliable passes as well as well placed deep looks downfield when there were no other options. They also continued to use their man defense to shut down Claremont’s primary cutters. Carleton demonstrated the importance not only of field positioning but also decision making in this highly contested round.
In the final showdown between Grinnell and Claremont, both teams played a similar type of game. There were clearly great disc skills as well as powerful defensive lines on both sides, and the two teams exchanged points throughout the entire round, neither one scoring an upwind break. Since a lot of the downfield throws were carried too far by the wind, most of the completed passes were short and crisp. Claremont noticed this trend early and focused on forcing the cutters of Grinnell’s spread offense out for the deep looks. The handlers on both teams were looking for both inside and outside breaks, but Claremont completed them more consistently on the endzone line, especially the high-release backhands. Ultimately Claremont was able to secure the final downwind point of the game to take home the title of 2012 DIII National Champions.
Weekend Overall
I think everyone was surprised to see how much the seeding was mixed up at the end of Saturday’s pool play. Maybe it was the hot and windy conditions or maybe it was a lack of inter-region competition during the regular season, but it’ll be interesting to see how rankings change in the future.
While on both days I saw a lot of great man D, I wonder if it was because it really worked better or because most teams weren’t ready to throw effective zone sets. If Nationals are ever in a windy place like Appleton again, I think some teams would benefit from building stronger zones during regular season competition. That being said, the defense overall this weekend was pretty impressive. On top of shutting down open-side cuts, there were a lot of layout Ds and good reads on deep looks. This kind of defense forced a lot of teams to look off their first and second options downfield, and the teams with the strongest break throws found a lot more success when they couldn’t find any other open cuts.
Feature photo by Brandon Wu (UltiPhotos.com)
Posted May 30, 2012 at 5:37 pm by Adam Lerman | Comments (1)
Co-written by Adam Lerman and Ryan Thompson and presented by Spin Ultimate
- Several times over the weekend Michigan displayed a zone with a 5-woman cup – essentially the front four of a 1-3-3, another person in the cup pressuring the open side swing, and two wings/deeps responsible for everything behind the cup. It had varying degrees of success, but it was incredibly vulnerable to teams willing to go over the top.
- A lot of teams successfully used straight-up marks to defend great throwers, often times also sagging off of her dumps and into the throwing lanes. UNC did it to UCLA’s Sabrina Fong during prequarters, and then Tufts did it to UNC’s Shellie Cohen and Lindsay Lang in quarterfinals. It’s particularly effective against a ho-stack, and while UNC did eventually switch to a sidestack, it was too late in the game to be effective.
- UBC’s pool play success was based on tight handler defense, which forced a lot of turnovers from Florida, Michigan, and Stanford. A lot of quick defenders like Laurel Jay, Kristen Cheung, Victoria Lam, and Amanda Ho played extremely tight defense and didn’t let handlers like Jackie Fane, Lili Morris, Vicki Chang, or Marisa Mead any space going upline or going backwards. They also like to face up handlers on the open side and force teams to throw tight IO passes.
- Tufts lined up in a 6 person stack quite often when Claudia Tajima had the disc, clearing all poachers out of the handler space and allowing her to use her break throws, hucks, and give and go’s to initiate the offense. This is something that Boston open teams such as DoG have historically run.
- Oregon missed Bailey Zahniser during the finals. Zahniser has the experience and touch on her throws to make even her punts catchable, and with tall, physical receivers like Ashley Young, Anna Almy, and Liz Jones threatening deep, Washington would have had to respect that more, potentially allowing Oregon to actually develop an underneath game.
- Washington played fantastic defense in the finals, pressuring the throwers with great marks and the resets with tight defense, then taking away the underneaths with tight downfield defense. All Oregon had left against Washington’s man defense was hucking, and Element’s marks combined with the wind made their hucks look more like punts.
- We saw several teams successfully abandon their zone defenses in high wind. In their prequarter against UBC, Washington shut down everything by forcing middle and fronting downfield. Michigan had some success working against Oregon’s zone in the semifinal. Once Oregon switched to man, Michigan had no answer.
- Both Texas (Diana Charrier) and Tufts (Hannah Garfield) scored Callahans against Washington in bracket play. Both teams ended up losing.
- If Oregon had not lost to Texas or if Washington had not lost to Iowa, Oregon and Washington would have met in the quarterfinals.
- Besides Oregon, several teams could make a case for being the second-best team at the tournament. Texas (who beat Oregon) and Tufts both won their pools and were knocked out by Washington in bracket play. Iowa lost to Oregon, but was the only team to beat Washington.
USA Ultimate and Leaguevine gave us plenty of statistics to look at. Here are some things we noticed:
- Triple-doubles (10+ Goals, Assists, & D’s): Catherine Hui (UBC), Shellie Cohen (UNC), Claire Desmond (Cal), Rebecca Miller (Iowa State), Hailey Alm (Tufts), Kathryn Pohran (Ottawa). Cohen, Alm, and Pohran did it in six games.
- UCLA’s Sabrina Fong had 35 assists and 30 turnovers. Among the 28 players with over 15 assists, Camille Nelson of Iowa State (21 A, 20 TO’s) was the only other player with more assists than turnovers.
- In the windy Oregon-Michigan semifinal, Paula Seville had 15 turnovers (14 total in her other games), Marisa Mead had 24 (13 in other games), Sophie Darch had 35 (29 in other games), Vicki Chang had 21 (9 in other games).
- Washington had 80 more attempted passes than Tufts in semis (242 vs 162) and 76 more attempted passes than Oregon in finals (205 vs 129)
- In semifinals against Michigan, Sophie Darch had 38% of Oregon’s touches, followed by 20% for Bailey Zahniser, with nobody else above 10%. Zahniser played 8/18 points while Darch played 17/18.
- Total completion percentage by game: Washington-Tufts, 88%; Oregon-Michigan, 63%; Washington-Oregon, 80%
