Second Team Feature: Ottawa

http://withoutlimitsultimate.blogspot.com/2011/05/university-of-ottawa-lady-gee-gees.html

Check it out. I think this story about the Lady Gee Gees is great, particularly for developing teams in the Midwest. Don't let the winter weather discourage you from developing a championship worthy team. Anne Mercier and co-captain Kathryn "Kpoh" Pohran were phenomenal to work with for this story.

More stories coming soon! :-D

-Robyn

Robyn's North Central Musings (Revised): Last 4 bids and Seedings Discussion

**NOTE: I have edited this post. Bids to D3 Nationals have been revealed and I have rethought seedings a bit.

Where are these bids going? I mean here's who we've got going where...as of what I know
(Only including teams eligible for regionals for discussion purposes)
D1 North Central Regionals: 12 bids total
D1 West North Central Conference: 5 bids**
1) Iowa State**
2) Iowa**
3) Carleton College**
4) Minnesota**
5) Nebraska**
6) Winona State (DECLINED)
7) Minnesota-Duluth (DECLINED)

D1 Lake Superior Conference: 2 bids allocated**; 1 bid reallocated$$
1) Wisconsin-Eau Claire**
2) Wisconsin**
3) Wisconsin-B$$
4) Wisconsin-Milwaukee (pending acceptance$$)
5) Wisconsin-Stevens Point

D3 North Central Conference
1) Luther**
2) Carleton-B--Accepted bid to D3 Nationals
3) Grinnell--Accepted bid to D3 Nationals
4) St. Olaf--Accepted bid to D3 Nationals
5) Macalester (pending acceptance)
6) Gustavus Adolphus (DECLINED)
7) Drake
8) St. Bens

Question 1: Who gets the next 4 bids?
So last night, Beth Nakamura gave me a lesson in "team wait list." So after the bids go to the original place they are allocated, they must go through a "waitlist" process. The next highest team in the waitlist gets an offer. In our Region it has gone something like this: 1) West North Central (WNC), 2) North Central D3 (NCN-III), 3) Lake Superior (LS) until the bids are all awarded. After the D3 teams accepted bids to D3 nationals, their bids were reallocated as follows:

WNC--Winona State (declined)

NCN-III--Macalester (Pending)

LS--Wisconsin-B (accepted the bid to D1 regionals)

WNC--Minnesota Duluth (declined)

NCN-III - Gustavus Adolphus (declined)

LS - Wisconsin-Milwaukee (pending)

WNC--No teams eligible

NCN-III--Drake

LS--Wisconsin-Stevens Point

There are rumors flying around that the location of the regional tournament (Appleton, WI) seems to have discouraged teams to attend with such short notice? Perhaps. I think it is the low number of players on each of these teams, and missing 2-3 due to work schedules means they may only have 5 players.
Question 2: Seedings?
The top 6 teams have crazy results.

Iowa
*must be below Iowa State, but ahead of Carleton
-1-0 vs. UWEC
-3-1 vs. Iowa State (has to be seeded behind ISU from Conference results)
-2-0 vs. Wisconsin
-2-0 vs. Carleton (has to be seeded ahead of Carleton)

Iowa State
*must be ahead of Iowa and Carleton
-1-3 vs. Iowa (seeded ahead of Iowa)
-0-1 vs. Wisconsin

Wisconsin-Eau Claire
*must be ahead of Wisconsin
-0-1 vs. Iowa
-1-0 vs. Wisco

Carleton
*must be below Iowa State and Iowa
-0-2 vs. Iowa
-1-0 vs. Wisconsin

Wisconsin
*must be behind Eau Claire
-0-2 vs. Iowa
-0-1 vs. Eau Claire
-1-0 vs. Iowa State
-0-1 vs. Carleton

Minnesota
*must be behind Iowa State, Iowa, Carleton
-1-1 vs. Carleton
-0-1 vs. Iowa State
My thoughts:

1) Iowa Stateàwin in the Western North Central; beats Iowa, who otherwise would be 1 seed; loss to Wisconsin is in March irrelevant based on stronger results as of late

2) Iowaàloses to Iowa State in finals, but strong results vs. everyone else in top 5; head to head win over Eau Claire; wins over Eau Claire against common opponents all season

3) Carletonàloses to Iowa in 2^nd place game (has to be behind Iowa); strong results all season long against tough teams throughout the country

4) Wisconsin-Eau Claireàhas no wins over the top 3; perform below top 3 in common opponent games
5) Wisconsinàloss to Eau Claire at Conferences; strong performance in regular season

6) Minnesotaà Beat Carleton at Conferences in pool play, but lost in bracket play; head to head win vs. Luther at Midwest Throwdown

7) Lutheràhead to head loss vs. Minnesota;  

8) Nebraskaàhas no head to head against the others below them, but they finished in the top 5 in the toughest conference in the Region
9) Wisconsin-Bàhas to be behind Wisconsin, but ahead of Milwaukee

10) Wisconsin-MilwaukeeàHas to be behind Wisco-B based on Conference loss; if they accept the bid

11) Macalester, if they accept the bid
12) Drake or Stevens Point, depending on who accepts bid

This is crazy. I've edited this post 4 times already!

MWTD Preview

MWTD Pools are up. I think seedings are final? I hope so, because I'm going to write anyways.
Division 1
Pool A:
I look for Wisconsin to come out on top here, with no surprise. I did like the match up between Iowa State and Wisco at the Iowa Indoor. They had some good even match ups. No one on Wisco could cover Jasmine "Jazz" Draper. From what I saw, the Gapstur/Jazz connection was pretty strong. I pick ISU in the 2 spot over Colorado. Talking to some of the Woman Scorned players, they are ready to go and looking good. As this tourney is practically in their backyards, I assume a full roster. I am predicting a universe point win for Bella. Colorado, from what I heard, brought a smaller roster to MLC in fall, and played a tight rotation. If the weather is as bad as they forecast, I predict some long points. ISU has the legs to overcome Kali, I think. I haven't seen much from Kansas this year.
Prediction: Wisco, ISU, Colorado, Kansas

Pool B:
It could be my bias towards Saucy, but I'm predicting an upset here as well. Knowing a good deal about the ladies of Gung Ho, I know that they are a handler reliant team. Lien Hoffman is their go-to player. I feel that Saucy has too many "one-ups" in the 1v1 match up. Granted, I would look for Iowa, UWEC, and SLU's earlier games to be a little sloppier...as they are the first outdoor games of the season. I think UWEC will have a stronger showing, as their roster was lacking vets in the Iowa Indoor. Adding Melissa "George" Jordan and Emily Karoblis (former UW-Stevens Point standout) into the mix will bring up their level of play. However, their lack of experienced handlers works a bit against them.
Prediction: Iowa, Northwestern, UWEC, SLU

Pool C:
Wash U should take this pool, pretty handily. I think that their depth and handler power really give them the competitive edge. OSU and Notre Dame, having some outdoor experience already this season at Queen City Tune Up should have a slight edge over Colorado College. I have never seen Colorado College play, and really look forward to it!
Prediction: WashU, Colorado College, OSU, Notre Dame

Division 2:
Pool D
Missouri and TSUnami look like the favorites here. I haven't seen Oberlin play in a few years...

Pool E:
Minnesota is an easy pick here. Lefty junior-worlds handler Depalma leads a great squad, and really anchors the offense.

Pool F:
This pool will be a little more hard fought. The ladies of the North Central Region will be battling it out. St. Olaf, led by Brittany Faust, vs. Wisconsin-Atropa, led by Anna Shanedling, vs. a well-rounded Carelton Eclipse team. I think that St. Olaf will pull it off.

Pool G:
Luther should be the standout team, but don't count out Grinnell. Two of my favorite D-III teams squaring off against each other. This could easily be the semis or finals of the North Central D-III Conference/Regional Championships. My prediction is Luther, FTW.

Personally, I am looking forward to the skills clinics. If you're working on "Big Pulls" with Mikey, make sure you say hi to me, as I will be his fabulous assistant :-)

Iowa Indoor Scrimmage: North Central Top-5 Division I Preview

So the Indoor Turf Practice Facility, aka "The Bubble," played host to a little round-robin style tourney January 22-23. With arguably the top five teams in the North Central Region there, it was an early season opportunity to get some extra practice in before major College Season participation. Here's a little breakdown of the teams...according to Robyn (hey, that's me!) Really, there is no rhyme or reason to the way I wrote. Just whatever team was there I thought of, in no particular order.

University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, SOL (Eau Claire, WI)

SkydMagazine Preview
SOL Blog
My undergraduate alma mater. *Sigh* It sure was weird finally playing against them. The team is rebuilding. Coming back from the huge personnel and leadership losses from the 2009-2010 College Season, SOL is fighting the good fight. Offensively, SOL is anchored by the handling core of captain Brit Gartner (#11), captain Iansa Zaldarriaga (#5), and transfer from Loyola-Chicago Meredith Bray. These three clearly keep the offense going; however, running an offense with three experienced handlers can be difficult. Melissa "George" Jordan (#23) got some experience with Drag'n Thrust. Cutters like Estelle Taquet (#24), Tracie Anderson (#45), and captain Heather Wroten (#41) are much improved, but they need to assert themselves more to really have the same offensive impact they had in previous seasons, especially with the shift to a side-stack offense. Right now, the cutters are marked by inexperience, and seem like they need to know where to go for continues as they explore the side-stack and isos offensively. Jess Haller (#1) and Melissa "Brownie" Brown (#7), in my opinion are the two most underrated, and under utilized players in the SOL roster. Both are splitting time between handling and cutting. It would be great to see them busting deep more...utilizing height, air skills, and their uncanny ability to read the disc. Granted, it was SOL's first time playing since before winter break, I am interested to see what is coming from this young, budding team. Coach Pat Niles has some work to do fixing his chest hair...Ryan Cabrara isn't a good look for him. However bad his chest hair may be, he brings much needed experience to the young team. As he continues to be integrated into the program, he can use some of his world championship (with CLX 2010) knowledge and help get rookies up to speed. I'd like to see him implement the same systems he did for SOL in the past...I would say we were successful with it.

Iowa State University, Women Scorned (Ames, IA)

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Women Scorned Blog

Jasmine "Jazz" Draper (#12; 2010 Callahan Top-10) returns for her controversial fifth year of eligibility. That's a huge story in and of itself. I don't think her field presence can be over-emphasized. The point of this post is not to go on and on about how good she is. I mean, we all get that. But she brings a ton of experience and some leadership to the team. Personally, I like seeing that Magon Liu (#08) and Jessie Erickson (#14) have finally come into their own and have asserted their field presence. Magon's backhand huck is practically unstoppable. Even though she's short, her high-release backhand huck is phenomenal. She's quick. Stopping her strike cuts and keeping her momentum to a minimum is key to getting other handlers to step up. Lindsay Gapstur's (#02) much improved forehand brings added versatility to a solid handler core, combined with Sarah Pesch's (#97) sick lefty break throws. They got some pretty good rookies, like high school stud Cami Nelson. In my opinion, you're going to concentrate on the people I've mentioned. But guess what, the real underdogs here are Becca Miller (#47) and Caitlin "Bosco" (#03). Watch these two. They are fast, have ridiculous hands, and are the pinnacle of the horizontal/split-stack offense. Becca, Jessie, and Bosco tend to get the big gains under, utilizing their speed and read on the disc, looking for continues (not necessarily the big throws). The big throws are left to Liu, Jazz, and Gapstur, who like to put the big ones in the endzone.

Carleton College, Syzygy (Northfield, MN)

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Syzygy Site
Their roster is stacked. That's all there is to it. Anna Snyder (#23) and her little sister, Julia, have some ridiculous throws. Elise Rasmussen (#25) is sick. Personally, my favorite player on their team is soccer player, Marlena  "Marley" Hartman-Filson. Though they have taller players (i.e. Flannery McArdle), Marley is the most athletic tall player in the region, if not in the country. Dead serious. Put her up there with former Bella Donna Sandy Jorgenson. But what makes Marley so freaking good: she has phenomenal disc skills to match her athleticism and ability to read the disc as a defender. Oh yeah, she can run you into the ground. I was disappointed that Merritt Swain (#17) wasn't playing. She had ankle surgery in fall, which is sad. I hope she recovers soon and is back on the field. She's another one of those girls I love playing against. This team is stacked from top to bottom with more experience than any other team I know (most of these ladies have been playing forever...well, they have lots of youth and junior worlds experience to boot). They look deep a lot offensively, using their height for isos underneath. They don't do anything snazzy. They play good hard D, and smart O using their height and athleticism.

University of Wisconsin-Madison, Bella Donna (Madison, WI)

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Bella Donna Blog
I'll be honest. I thought the Bellas would be hurting more than they were. The roster I saw in fall is significantly different than the one they brought last weekend. I was wondering: where did all the vets go? But rest assured, like half of the semi-finalist team from last season is back again. Emelie McKain (#17, FOTY '08, All-Region Selection), Al Ellis (#16, Central FOTY '10) and Rebecca "Reebs" Enders (#12) anchor the handlers. Without the cutters from last season, it's giving long-time players like Becca Ludford and Rachael Westgate (#26, Central FOTY '09) the chance to shine. And shine they will. Both have great hands, great throws, and make great decisions. Sarah Scott (#31). Get used to hearing that name. She was a noob on Bella last year. Mikey and I call her "Torpedo Girl." She's so explosive in her layouts, she gets picks up trash like you wouldn't believe. I like her playing style a lot. Coach Courtney Kiesow (Multiple All-Region selection, Callahan Winner '08) brings more experience and knowledge of the program. Defensively, the Bellas are bringing back the poachy zone look that they introduced last spring. Though it gave them some troubles in the semi-finals at nationals last year vs. UC-Santa Barbara, the look proved particularly useful against the more inexperienced teams/players. Offensively, McKain and Reebs are looking for the hucks, while Sara Scott and Becca Ludford look for the cuts.

University of Iowa, Saucy Nancy (Iowa City, IA)

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Saucy Nancy Blog
Where to start with our team. I feel like I talk about us enough. I mean I could do a breakdown of our whole roster, but what fun would that be? I feel like it would ruin this whole blog thing right now. I'll be writing more about us as the season goes. But here's a taste, I guess. Me...well, I like throwing and wearing skirts. No shocker there. Preferably to Chelsea Twohig (#10), she's good...she was super sick this weekend and actually didn't play on Saturday (which saddend me). Katie Johnson (#7), you can read all about her athleticism and stats HERE. Liza Minor (#3), good. Jen Nowak (#49), good, wears neon, and doesn't like basketball jerseys. Audrey Erickson (#6), underrated and fast. Good hands. Kristen "Apple" Appelson (#1), fast. Bekah Hickernell (#13)=chill, jack of all trades. Head Coach Mikey Lun (Multiple All-Region selection, CLX standout) brings experience and fundamentals to the team. While assistant coaches Steve "Birdman" Hanson and Dan "FBO" "PDA" "DK" Kresowik are able to add even more one-on-one time and expertise to the team. Our team is young, lacking some high level experience that the players on Bella and Syzygy have, but we are eager to learn and thirsty for success. The Saucy O is about taking advantage of mismatches, especially from the pull.  There's not a ton to do against it but play good D. As the season goes on, look for us to be more conservative with the disc, and our young core of handlers to keep improving the chemistry. Though we lack the swing looks now, it's definitely a point of emphasis. Defensively, I would predict us to play lots of man, as we continue to work on the fundamentals, and take advantage of the raw athleticism our players have.

I mean, I'll do a thourough D-III and Conference Previews for D-I closer to tourney time. Much season left to go!