Dub Regs

by | May 2, 2012, 10:49am 0

It’s short for Double Regionals.  I know Dub Regs is the most awkward name of all time and I don’t have the foggiest idea of how to pronounce it, but it was a sweet two weeks and it hints at a possible future for ultimate that is even cooler than what is happening now.

Up here in the Pacific NW we have a weird situation in the women’s division.  Despite the presence of three top-shelf teams (British Columbia, Washington and Oregon) there is only one D-I Conference which has the odd effect that our Conference Championships are almost identical to Regionals.  The only difference was Whitman rising up from D-III to replace Washington-B.  So two weekends in a row, everyone played pretty much the same teams.  And even though Western took two big swings at UW, they fell both times (9-12 and 14-15).  What ended up happening was what a regular season should be: you play the teams you are most familiar with, the teams that are your biggest rivals and you play them again and again.  The big three teams shared eight games over two weekends, six of which went to half 8-7 or 7-6.

  1. Oregon v. UBC (11-7)  First game of the weekend and both teams were testing the water.  Oregon’s depth was the edge.
  2. Oregon v. Washington (9-7) This game was a defensive bloodbath.  9 breaks in a game with only 16 points scored.
  3. UBC v. Washington (11-8) UBC surprised Washington with their quality and pulled away at the end with easy goals in transition.
  4. Oregon v. UBC (12-7) Another very intense defensive game, but a big early lead held up for Fugue.
  5. Washington v. UBC (15-13) I missed the end of this one, but Washington pulled out a game where UBC refused to go away.
  6. Oregon v. UBC (13-11) Showcase game under the lights.  Play was very sloppy on both sides, with Oregon in control until suddenly UBC had the disc to tie at 12s.  A huge goal-line block and a lefty backhand ended the game.
  7. Oregon v. Washington (15-8) With UBC 0-2, this was a warm up game for the finals.  Oregon was fired up and Washington wasn’t.
  8. Oregon v. Washington (12-10) This game had a wholly different feel from the morning game.  It was very reminiscent of the CC game in the rabid intensity of the defense on both sides.

That’s what a regular season should be.  I like playing Michigan and North Carolina and Carleton, but those games feel like a preseason, whatever USAU wants to call them and whatever they are worth.  I’m not making any suggestions or offering any ideas of how things could be different and better (there’s already plenty of that), but rather just saying that what the NW Women have is great and it’d be great if more of y’all could experience it.

Feature Photo of UW’s Lindsey Wilson at last year’s Bellingham Invite (Photo by Eric Zink)

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