The Skirts win the Stanford Invite.
The Santa Barbara women’s college Ultimate team began in the fall of 1984, a team which by 1988 dubbed themselves the Burning Skirts. Under the guidance of the founder Liz (Stoltz) Allen, the Skirts made their inaugural appearance to the College Championships in 1988. The Skirts won their second and third College Championship titles in 1990, and 1991. After a thirteen year hiatus from the national scene, the Skirts returned to the Championship game again in 2007 and 2008 falling just short of the title. In 2009, the team brought home its fourth title. After appearing in the finals game for the last four years, the Skirts look to continue the streak as they head to Boulder for the 2011 College Championships.
After losing Kaela Jorgenson and a number of other players to graduation or study abroad programs the Skirts thought the team would be in a rebuilding year getting young players to step up into bigger roles. After a somewhat rough start to the season in early January and February the team really came together at the Stanford Invite and after losing to Oregon in pool play we stepped up their defense to win tournament. They went on to win Women’s Centex again losing to a team in pool play that they beat in the finals of the tournament (UNC-W). After a bit of a break between Centex and the Series they continued to mesh well and won the So Cal Conference and Southwest Region. Young players such as rookies Brianna Miner and Kaila Pollart and second years Alicia Thompson and Monique Marchetti have stepped up their games which has been critical to the Skirts’ success this season. Though they came out of Regionals somewhat banged up with few unfortunate injuries, the Skirts are anxiously waiting to take the fields on May 27th and hope to continue to bring the intensity on the fields in Boulder.
Notable Players:
Captains: Marie Madaras #14 and Carolyn Finney #11
Cutters: Shannon Bubb #18, Arianne Johnson “A” #7
Handlers: Stephanie Karba #1
Regional Champs.
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