This preview and the 2014 College Tour are presented by Spin Ultimate.
With the first day of DIII Warmup in the books, we’ve got your recap of all the action: What went as expected? What didn’t? What were the dominant strategies?
Big Games and One Upset
While the first four rounds went to seed, the biggest nail-biter of the day came in round three, with the Claremont Greenshirts matching up against Carleton Eclipse. They began by trading points. Claire Leichter from Carleton matched Claremont’s Marianna “Banxx” Heckendorn pull for elegant, deep pull. It quickly became evident that Claremont would be able to utilize their home-field advantage as stifling handler defense broke down Carleton’s offensive flow. A huge point block from Greenshirt Nicole “Scrappy” Yu and an excellent run-through D from Sarah “Joey” Laws compounded the Greenshirts’ momentum, leading to a 13-9 victory.
Saturday’s biggest surprise took place in the last game of the day when Rice’s Torque broke seed to beat Carleton Eclipse 13 – 7. Led by the sheer dominance of handler Monica Matsumoto, Torque took half 7 – 5 and kept a comfortable lead throughout the rest of the game. Puget Sound’s “Clearcut” came in seeded fourth but earned a share of the spotlight with their high-risk, high reward playing style, ending the day 2 – 2 including a hard-fought game with the first seed, Claremont.
Tournament Trends
Excepting some notable bidding by UPS Clearcut’s Becca Ebert, Saturday was defined by teams playing a tough huck game without many layouts or vertical pressure. Upping the intensity in the air (vertically and horizontally) could be a critical aspect to winning the upcoming faceoff between the two currently undefeated teams, Claremont and Rice.
Though a fairly still day here in Riverside, California, nearly every women’s team at the tournament threw out at least a few points of zone against their opponents. In general the disruption of the zone served to interrupt offensive flow for a few points until the handlers could readjust.
The tournament continues tomorrow with the end of pool play and the start of the championship bracket. Follow Score Reporter here.
Many thanks to contributor and writer Margaret Rosano, who volunteered her time, help and expertise to write this feature. Feature photo by Margaret Rosano.
Comments Policy: At Skyd, we value all legitimate contributions to the discussion of ultimate. However, please ensure your input is respectful. Hateful, slanderous, or disrespectful comments will be deleted. For grammatical, factual, and typographic errors, instead of leaving a comment, please e-mail our editors directly at editors [at] skydmagazine.com.