Friday got out to an intense early start for the Women’s division as the 1 and 2 seeds faced off in the last round of pool play. I was witness to a barnburner of a game between France and GB, where both teams started out trading points until a key timeout by France allowed them to cash in a break and go up two. Down 5-7, GB rallied off some clever handling from Alize “Bob” Clough and scored five in a row to secure the game. France had a chance to come back, but GB’s Ellie Hand scored the last point to win the game 11-8. Meanwhile, in Pool B, an equally intense game saw Latvia secure their spot in the upper half of the bracket by beating Austria on universe, 14-13. Callie Burks for Austria was huge in the endzone, coming down with five goals. However, Latvia continued to use their excellent chemistry to force team unity, sharing the disc and spreading play out all over the field. With the game tied up Dace Cīrule found Sandra Minova in the zone to secure the victory for Latvia. In Pools C and D, Germany put a surprise beating on Italy, 12-5, and Switzerland won against Finland 12-10.
After pool play finished, the standings looked as such:
Pool A:
Great Britain 3-0
France 2-1
Denmark 1-2
United European Islands 0-3
Pool B:
Russia 3-0
Latvia 2-1
Austria 1-2
Czech Republic 0-3
Pool C:
Germany 3-0
Italy 2-1
Ukraine 1-2
Belgium 0-3
Pool D:
Switzerland 3-0
Finland 2-1
Poland 1-2
Spain 0-3
The next women’s round of the day was a crossover between teams of the same ranking across pools. Although it provided for some good games, due to the format of the tournament the matches ultimately didn’t mean much as the winners and losers would only be relegated to different sides of the championship bracket. This was reflected in the play of some of the games, which coupled with the increased wind, meant that turnovers, turfed discs, and dropped throws were abundant. Notable games: Switzerland took down Germany 9-7, and Russia handled GB 9-8 in an exciting livestreamed game from the arena pitch.
Headline photo by Edmundo Mercier
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