Re: Texas Throwdown:: Writeup

Also, results from the weekend are posted here:

http://www.upa.org/scores/tourn.cgi?div=23&id=4710


On Feb 27, 10:50 pm, mdn...@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
Texas Throwdown brought with it the challenges of three teams dropping
out the three days leading up to the tournament (Blue Team and Pitt
due to driving conditions) and uncertain weather conditions
eliminating all of the main fields and backup grass fields for the
last round of Saturday as well as all of Sunday. In addition, the
backup turf fields had also mistakenly been double-booked for soccer
tryouts, so during the second-to-last round on Saturday, I was
informed that from 11:30a-2:30p on Sunday, the number of frisbee
fields would be reduced from 3 to 1. With all of the logistical
challenges at hand, teams braved the situation and brought positive
attitudes and their A game to Columbia, MO this weekend for some top-
tier ultimate.

Before I continue with this write-up, I would like to thank my co-
captain Rebecca Shelton and our Club President Natalie "Balls" Espino
for all of their hard work in making this weekend happen. Their
vision for women's ultimate and their dedication to our sport go above
and beyond the call of duty and they deserve to be commended for all
of the countless hours they spent in organizing this tournament.

I would also like to thank Holly Greunke, Miranda Roth, Gwen Ambler,
Lindsey Hack, Shannon O'Malley, and Jennie Yang for their help with
seedings, format, and general moral support. Georgia Bosscher, Rachel
Derscheid, and Christina Wirkus also deserve special recognition for
trying to help rally other teams to come to the tournament at the last
minute. Lastly, I want to thank Mike Houston, Jourdan Aldredge, and
the rest of the Mizzou men's team; Peter McCarthy, Fresa Jacobs, and
the other Mizzou Ultimate advisors / coaches; and all of the Mizzou
RecSports staff for helping us put this tournament on. This weekend
would not have been possible without these people.

On to the fun stuff...

Wisconsin Bella Donna won Pool A (the power pool) on Saturday,
upsetting #1 seed Michigan Flywheel 13-10. Wisconsin's charge was led
by captains Courtney Kiesow and Georgia Bosscher, capable leaders and
talented players who know how to get their team fired up to win.
Wisconsin's Saturday got off to a rough start as they squeaked out
wins against Illinois and Truman State, after allowing Illinois to go
on a long run. Wisconsin proved themselves the veteran team, pulling
out both wins before going on to beat Michigan and Texas in equally
close games. Laura Bitterman caught numerous goals for Bella Donna,
consistently beating people deep and also making numerous yardage
gaining under-cuts. She is going to be a tough matchup for many
teams, especially for those who are focused on trying to contain some
of Bella Donna's more veteran players-- Bitterman is only a
sophomore. Frances Tsukano and Kari Rongstad also dominated the
cutting lanes for Bella Donna, with handlers Elizabeth Vu, Shira
Klane, and Emilie McKain showing off confident breaks and consistent
swings. Klane also connected with many of Bella Donna's speedy
cutters on longer-range throws. Klane, too, is only a sophomore and
McKain, merely a freshman. The savvy of all of these extremely
talented players was impressive and with Kiesow and Bosscher leading
the charge, the sky is the limit for this team.

Flywheel had a strong Saturday showing as well, with its only loss
coming at the hands of Bella Donna. It should be noted that Flywheel
was playing without co-captain and talented cutter Sarah "Surge"
Griffith and veteran handler Katka Bodova. Emily "Ebae" Baecher led
the Flywheel charge, throwing her high release lefty backhand and
beautiful full-field hucks all day long. Baecher was nearly
unstoppable in every game and her talented play will be a big reason
Flywheel is successful this season. Co-captain Jenny Chan also
anchored the Flywheel offense and her breaks and consistent throws
complimented Baecher's play nicely.

Texas took 3rd in Pool A with a strong showing on Saturday after
coming out a little shell-shocked against Michigan in a first-round
game that had a good layer of snow all over the field. Texas bounced
back to beat Illinois, regional rival Truman State, and then lost a
close game to Wisconsin Bella Donna, in a fun, intense matchup that
saw lots of great plays from both teams. Co-captain Rebecca Shelton
led the Texas team with her throws, defense, and hard cutting. Her
hard work in the offseason with Texas Showdown is quite evident and
her leadership will be key to Texas' quest to return to Nationals.
Natalie "Balls" Espino and Gina Phillips also played well for Texas,
sharing handling duties with Shelton and making big plays on both
sides of the disc. Katie "BS" Blyth is one of the best young players
in the game and while she is currently flying under the radar of most
teams, look for her to have an enormous role for Texas in the coming
years. Sophomore rookie Rachel Massey also had a breakout day for
Texas, catching multiple goals and using her speed to run down plenty
of long hucks.

Truman State finished 4th in Pool A, with captains Amanda Carron and
Mona Baucom running the show. Their breaks, give-and-gos, and big
hucks kept TSUnami close all day, including extremely close losses to
top seeds Michigan and Wisconsin. Carron and Baucom are extremely
talented leaders and their inspired play carried their team throughout
the tournament. Noelle Peterson, Morgan Shahan, and Emily Tobias
helped move the disc further downfield and their confident cutting and
aggressive play will take TSUnami far this season. TSUnami's offense
flowed primarily through these five players and as other players begin
to develop, TSUnami will be firing on all cylinders.

Illinois finished last in Pool A, but gave teams tough games all day.
Led by co-captain Tania Reitz's dominant play, Menace took their shots
at the top teams, nearly upsetting Wisconsin in Round 1. Reitz's
cutting abilities and pure grit shone through for Menace, as she
fought through a shoulder injury to get back on the field to lead her
team against TSUnami. The Illinois handlers also consistently put the
disc over the top, using well-placed hammers to attack the break-mark
side. With the return of co-captain Ashley Chan from injury, Illinois
will be looking to challenge at Great Lakes Regionals come April.

While I did not get a chance to see many of the bottom pool games on
Saturday, a couple of notes on players and teams:

Katie Patterson of Vanderbilt is one of the most underrated players in
the South Region. She is only in her second year of eligibility, as
last year was VUDU's first year participating in the Series.
Patterson has all the tools to be a huge threat and you should look
for her in the coming years, as she plans to use the rest of her
eligibility in law school somewhere. Her inspirational play will lead
the young VUDU team far. Vanderbilt was missing top players Sarah
"Eddie" Edmonds and Sara "Gibbs" Gibson, but look for VUDU to
challenge the nation's top teams at Centex next month.

St. Louis University was the story of the weekend, winning Pool C on
Saturday and finishing 3rd after upsetting Texas in quarters and
beating Truman State in the 3rd place game. Led by co-captain Kara
O'Malley and handler Tricia Wong, SLULU will be looking to take the
sole bid from the South Region come April. While this team's offense
is less structured than most of the other top teams, they do what they
do well. They break the mark to tight spaces and they catch
EVERYTHING. O'Malley's all-around play was extremely impressive, with
her poach defense generating numerous Ds for her team and her play on
offense providing her team with a huge spark.

Washington University also had an impressive showing led by co-
captains Abby Stephens and Kate Stambaugh. Stephens is a great all-
around player and Stambaugh's throws make WUWU a force to be reckoned
with. WUWU is scrappy and they clearly love to play the game--they
will be another team to watch closely at South Regionals.

A few other random notes: Tasha Parman of Kansas Betty will be a key
player to watch over the next couple of seasons. Her forehand hucks
are impressive and she is a confident leader who plays with a ton of
heart. Chicago also looked strong, even without co-captain Emma
Fuller in attendance. Look for them to continue to develop over the
rest of the season. Indiana was a very scrappy team--I wish I had
gotten to see more of their games but the athletic play of co-captains
Laura Jones and Juliet McNamara stood out to me. They are going to be
interesting to watch in the coming months, especially with more subs,
and I can definitely see them upsetting some teams at Regionals. I
also want to shout-out Texas B. Any B team willing to travel 13 hours
to play against some of the best competition in the part of the
country deserves some recognition. Mayhem's potential is highlighted
by their double-game point loss to Kansas during their crossover game
on Saturday. Mayhem's play this weekend was led by co-captain Laura
Markham, stellar cutting by Julie Paik and Libby Cravens, and great
play from a host of other young players.

Sunday...

The Quarters matchups were as follows: Wisconsin (1) v. Wash U (8),
Truman State (4) v. Illinois (5), Texas (3) v. St. Louis (6), and
Michigan (2) v. Indiana (7). Everything went to seed except for St.
Louis upsetting Texas in a close 6-4 game. O'Malley's play led the
SLULU charge and while the teams traded points early on, Texas'
inability to adjust to St. Louis' scrappy game hurt them in the end.
On the other side of the bracket, Wash U took Wisconsin to 8-9, but
Bella Donna was able to pull the win out.

Semis featured Wisconsin v. Truman State and Michigan v. St. Louis.
Wisconsin took control of their game early, taking advantage of the
depth of their squad against the smaller TSUnami team. Carron,
Baucom, Peterson, Shahan, and Tobias still played well for Truman
State, but while Wisconsin was able to put out fresh lines nearly ever
point, TSUnami was forced to rely heavily on the play of these five
players. Bosscher's huge flick huck was unstoppable, finding
Rongstad, Tsukano, and Bitterman deep countless times. Bosscher is
nearly unstoppable on O and Wisconsin frequently isolates her on an in-
cut, setting her up to throw deep to a speedy cutter, of which Bella
Donna has plenty. While Bosscher was making the big plays for Bella
Donna, Kiesow, as always, quietly anchored the team on both sides of
the disc. Much to the delight of a few tired Texas players, she also
threw a couple of scoobers over the top, acknowledging any and all
heckles with a smile and by tooling her matchup around. The Michigan
v. St. Louis game was close early but Baecher and Chan led the more
experienced Flywheel team to a 13-7 win, pulling away after half.

Unfortunately, Illinois decided to leave after their quarters game,
leading to more re-shuffling of matchups. Given the field constraints
and already hectic schedule, Texas sacrificed their second game of the
day in order to ensure that Wash U would not get left without a second
game on Sunday. WUWU ended up beating Indiana 13-2 in the consolation
game while most of the Texas players got on the road a few hours
earlier than expected to embark on their 13-hour car ride.

Finals was Wisconsin v. Michigan, a rematch of the CCC finals. This
time Bella Donna would not be denied and while the game stayed close
throughout, Wisconsin was clearly in control. Baecher led Flywheel
with every throw in the book, but Wisconsin simply had too many
weapons. It will be interesting to see how the return of Griffith and
Bodova changes the Bella Donna v. Flywheel matchup--it will be fun to
watch. Bitterman was on fire this game, scoring numerous goals and
cutting hard every point she was in. Bosscher also had a phenomenal
game. At one point on the sidelines, a Bella Donna player exclaimed,
"Someone get out the video camera! This is ridiculous!" I could not
agree more as Bosscher made huge plays for Bella Donna on both sides
of the disc, leading her team to their second tournament win of the
season. Also, props to McKain on her sweet highlight videos from
Bella Donna's two previous tournaments--check them out on YouTube.

I did not get a chance to watch many of the consolation games while
the championship bracket was being played out, but following Finals, I
had the opportunity to watch Vanderbilt v. Mizzou and Kansas v.
Mizzou. Vanderbilt's full squad will be capable of running with the
top teams in the South as evidenced by their win against Truman State
at Mardi Gras just a few weeks ago. I had the privilege of watching
that game as well and both teams left it all on the field--it was a
gritty, hard-fought game and pointed to the increased parity between
teams in the South Region. Patterson and missing players Edmonds and
Gibson all have valuable experience with club team Deliverance and
bring their great chemistry to the field. Handler Jamie McCormick
loves her hammers and hucks and will also contribute to VUDU's success
down the line. Mizzou is a young team but as their throws develop,
they will challenge numerous more established teams. They, too, are
very athletic and exciting to watch. Kansas has strong leadership in
their coach and captains-- I would not be surprised to see them get
some quality wins at Regionals.

Congratulations to Wisconsin Bella Donna on winning Texas Throwdown
and a big thank you to all of the teams involved for their patience
and understanding as we dealt with numerous situations beyond our
control. We feel very privileged to have had the opportunity to host
this tournament in an effort to promote more quality women's ultimate
in this part of the country. Good luck to teams on the rest of their
seasons. See you on the field!

Michelle #10
Berkeley Ultimate '04-'06
Texas Ultimate '07-'08

.

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