| www.cultimate.com/centex05/college | hudson at cultimate.com | Score Reporter results | Tournament Pictures | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| This competitive tournament is held on the University of Texas' Austin campus--the site of the 2003 UPA College Championships. Due to location and timing, this tournament provides a good spring break trip for teams looking to play quality ultimate during time off from school. Last year was the first year that Centex made a name for itself as one of the top tournaments in the country, and it courted many top teams from traditional spring break tournaments like Easterns. This year, the tournament looks to be possibly the most competitive tournament of the year, as the TDs made sure most of the best teams from around the nation are in attendance. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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(unranked): 1. UC-San Diego 2. Colorado 3. Stanford 4. UC-Berkeley 5. Washington 6. Oregon 7. Georgia 8. Virginia 9. Texas 10. Brown 11. Dartmouth 12. MIT 13. Wisconsin 14. Iowa 15. Carleton 16. Illinois |
Final Finish:
1. Stanford |
 Alex Synder (Colorado) throws past Tracy Woo (UC-San Diego) at the Centex fields during Nationals 2003 (Photo courtesy of Scobel Wiggins) |
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| Tournament Write-up:
Check out the write-up from both Saturday and Sunday. Special thanks go to Leigh Gorman for helping me with some of the reporting. After the first day of play, four teams remain undefeated: Texas, Iowa, Virginia, and Stanford. The notable thing about the day was that during the fourth round there was a lightning warning. The whole fields had to be cleared and the round was ended short. Runnels Pool was won by Iowa, but Colorado played great and almost took the pool itself. The first round of play saw Colorado coming out fired up against an Oregon team that was missing Chelsea Dengler due to illness. Colorado's Alex Snyder and Anne "Pogo" Pogriler proved to be a dynamic combination in the team's isolation offense. In fact, Colorado was up 12-8 against Iowa before the Saucy Nancy women went on a run to win the capped game 13-12. Iowa was often successful off of the hucks of Tammy Kampfe, #9, and #5 and ran hard the entire day. The team's mental game during its comeback against Colorado was impressive and Tammy threw the winning goal to #9. Dartmouth's #3 had some nice long looks as well during the day, but couldn't overcome the other teams in the pool. Hays Pool had Texas' athletic women win games against MIT and Wisconsin. In the shortened fourth round, Texas was playing a close game against Berkeley with a score of 6-4 when the game was called. Cara Crouch was playing especially well for Texas, getting a lay-out D in the endzone and throwing some pivotal breaks against Cal's zone. While Berkeley wasn't able to pull out a win over Texas, the California team was able to come from behind against MIT and Wisconsin. At 3-3 Berkeley was still trying to figure out how to defend against Wisconsin's split stack. A Wisconsin defensive surge helped the team push ahead to 9-4. Berkeley's Amanda Leahy got two pivotal D blocks to help Berkeley tie the game at 11's. The next point turned into universe point based on the cap. With a layout D from the cup by Rebecca Rundle, Berkeley puts in the final goal to take the game 12-11. Kath Ratcliff remains the team's big thrower. Wisconsin ended up barely losing to MIT as well. This game was during the shortened 4th round, although the teams continued playing after the fields were reopened. When MIT wasn't playing zone defense, Wisconsin's Betsy Calkins and Holly (#24) often looked to huck. Jill Hutchinson's confidence with the disc was pivotal on a number of Wisconsin scores, but the Nancy Sun-Angela Tong combo ended winning the game for MIT. MIT struggled against Texas' spread offense. In particular, MIT had trouble containing Tessa Nichols and Amanda Gayle's breakmark throws. Texas does a good job of swinging the disc and using both sides of the field. Texas was up 7-1 at half and won the game 13-9 after a second-half run by MIT. In the Travis Pool, Virginia and Washington (UW) played a close game with a lot of zone defense played by both sides. Virginia was up 11-8 before UW tied up the game at 11's. Virginia scored the next two points to win the pool. UW relies on Miranda Roth for big plays, but has a solid core that works well together with solid fundamentals. Team defense and hard cutting for UW was the difference against UC-San Diego although UCSD struggled with the wind on offense. UC-San Diego won its first round game against Illinois to take the third spot in the pool. Tammy Wang and Kara Davis were big players for Illinois, who was tied 5-5 against Virginia before eventually succumbing. The Harris Pool was swept by Stanford, who did not have a tight game all day. Its closest game was against Carleton (13-6) where Carleton went on a 5-1 run late in the second half. Maia Pinsky and Kara Marlatt were both big go-to receivers for Carleton in this game and the rest of the day. Georgia barely beat Brown in the first round of the day. Brown relies on its defense to keep it in games and utilized a number of different zone, clam and junk Ds throughout the day to generate turn-overs. Throwers Katherine Wooten and Lauren Rapp were crucial in Georgia's ability to score and both put up a number of great forehands. However, Georgia had trouble converting against Stanford's defense and Stanford often was able to force a turnover near its own goalline. The pre-quarters were all pushed back because of the lightning and played on the lit fields. Stanford continued its run and won 11-1 against Illinois, playing mostly zone defense. Colorado also was in control of its game against M.I.T. and took the match 13-4 after getting a needed rest during the lightning break. Georgia went up early against UCSD and although San Diego closed the gap near the end of the game, it was too little too late. Berkeley and Oregon played an extremely close game. Chelsea played for the first time for Oregon today during the pre-quarters round and she added some nice plays to the performances of Mary Gray and Meryl Kusyk. The game was decided after on hard cap in favor of Oregon despite Berkeley scoring the last point. The UW-Brown game was even closer; it was decided on universe point. UW had been ahead by two before Brown took the lead. Trading points during the softcap, the game was finally decided after some quick disc-movement for Brown. Rebecca Simon and Cate Brown played especially well for Brown, but the whole team picked it up a notch from its play earlier in the day. Sunday morning in quarterfinals saw Stanford play Oregon, Colorado match-up against Virginia, Texas with Georgia, and Iowa play Brown. Oregon and Stanford both started off their game with lots of huck scores; Meryl Kusyk for Oregon was especially hard to contain in the air. Oregon took an early lead before Stanford adjusted its defense to help take away the lane from the isolated cutters. Hannah Griego for Stanford came up with some big layouts, on offense and defense. Stanford took half 8-6 and pushed ahead in the second half to take the game 15-10. Virginia was undefeated on Saturday, but had a tough match-up against Colorado in quarters. Colorado played a lot of zone defense and Virginia had trouble handling Kali's trap zone. Colorado looks like an entirely new team from the squad that showed up at President's Day and seems to be settling into the team's new offense. Coach Mike Whitaker has the team playing an isolated O that also makes use of handler give-go's. While Virginia had some nice defensive plays, the team wasn't able to stop Colorado's offense, and Colorado won the game 15-7. Georgia had struggled against Stanford's depth on Saturday, and faced a similar problem against Texas in quarters. Katherine Wooten continued to lead her team, offensively and defensively, but Georgia didn't have enough to stop Texas' efficient play. Iowa and Brown played a really close game. Brown kept the game tight and had the potential to go ahead, but Iowa wouldn't give up its lead. Brown looked improved over the team's performance at the Stanford Invite and has the personnel to go far this season once its offense starts clicking on a more consistent basis. In the semifinals Iowa faced Texas. These two teams had played each other at Mardi Gras where Iowa came out ahead by one. This time, Texas seemed to be playing more effortlessly and used effective breakmark throws to keep the disc moving quickly on offense. Texas was up 12-9 before rattling off the next three points to win the game. The other semi was between Stanford and Colorado. Stanford was able to break through Colorado's zone and most of the game was played with man defense. Colorado took half 8-7, but Stanford came back after stepping the team's defense up a notch. Colorado gained a nice pick-up in Shalini from John Hopkin's. She and Alex Snyder each had some great breakmark throws and Anne Pogoriler was a tireless cutter on offense. The finals was a battle between Texas and Stanford. The wind had really picked-up by the finals round and both teams played a lot of zone. Texas generated turnovers quickly with its four person cup and went up 2-0. Stanford answered back after playing a zone of its own and capitalizing on Texas errors. Texas' patient zone offense and nice defensive blocks by Cara Crouch and Tessa Nichols put Texas ahead 4-2. At this point, Stanford started getting turnovers with its zone defense and went on a 6 point run to take half. During this half, Stanford's Lauren Casey threw 6 of the team's goals as the team played endzone offense after Texas turnovers. In the second half, Stanford started punting for field position to play defense. Lauren Casey was the main hucker and connected with Enessa Janes for one crucial point. On defense, Anna Hare was a mainstay pushing in the cup and got three footblocks on the endzone line. Still, Texas came back from half and tries to fight its way back in the game. Great D blocks by Lisa Short and Tessa Nichols help the team get started and at 11-9 Texas looks like it will pull within one. However, Stanford takes advantage of a Texas error to go up 12-9. The teams trade points and then Texas' Tessa Nichols makes a big catch after a MAC. Stanford punts to play zone again. After a long point with a number of turnovers and Ds (a footblock by Stanford's Anna Hare and a layout block by Amanda Berens), Texas works the disc all the way up the field and Cara Crouch throws the score to Amanda Berens. Texas is now within one point at 13-12. The next point sees both teams trade punts before Stanford scores with its zone offense. Stanford then finishes the game on an unlikely catch by Jess Guh, 15-12. These two teams seemed really well matched, with a number of veteran players all stepping up to make big plays. It would have been really interesting to see them play each other in a game without as much wind, since while each has a solid zone offense and defense, the teams' athleticism in a running game is probably what separates them from the rest of the competition seen so far this season. The ninth place bracket was won by UC-San Diego over UC-Berkeley. UC-Berkeley had played tight games all weekend, and relied on its depth to carry it through at times. However, UC-San Diego had just as big a roster and this was a fun match-up to watch. UCSD seemed to finally be clicking together on offense and take an early lead. While UC-Berkeley came back, UCSD is able to finish off the game 15-11. UC-Berkeley had beat MIT 13-11 at the cap to get to the 9th place game.
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| Pre-Tournament Hype:
The interesting thing about Centex is that the tournament does not seed the teams ahead of time. Rather, the tournament directors try to create four balanced pools of equal strength that provide regional diversity and avoid previous match-ups. This means that it's hard to predict who will actually match up against each other in the championship bracket because it's slightly random how the teams get assigned after pool play. The Runnels Pool will likely be won by either Iowa or Oregon, depending on which team comes out more fired up. While Iowa went undefeated at Mardi Gras in early February, Oregon has had more intense competition recently at the Stanford Invite. Both teams have a few phenomenal players, so the test will be which team's players step up once you get past the starting line-up. Neither Darmouth nor Colorado have many games reported this year, as their only tournament was the rained-out President's Day. Each has a few skilled handlers that will be tough to contain, but the teams are unlikely to be able to compete with Iowa or Oregon for an entire game at this point. The Hays Pool should provide an exciting re-match between Wisconsin and Texas. Wisconsin came out ahead 10-9 when these two teams last met at Mardi Gras, and at President's Day Texas was undefeated while Wisconsin went 5-1. Texas gains the home-field advantage this time around. Although this is the team's first tournament of the season, MIT can't be overlooked as they usually come out strong--even early in their season. The team still returns a number of their veterans from last year, many of whom played together during the club season as Brute Squad. Berkeley has been struggling a little this year to find its groove, and suffered at the Stanford Invite. While it has the potential to win some games on Saturday, this is an unforgiving pool to find itself in. The Travis Pool is also full of heavyweights (I guess that's what happens at such a competitive tournament...). Virginia remains undefeated for the season, winning the Queen City Tune-Up, although it has not faced many top teams. Meanwhile, Washington went 3-3 at President's Day and made the semifinals at the Stanford Invite. The Virginia-Washington contest should be the game to take the pool. Illinois surprised some teams at Nationals last year and has only wins reported on the Score Checker. Centex will be its first test as it has not played any teams outside the usually weak Great Lakes region. UC-San Diego has suffered by missing out on the Stanford Invite and being banned from practice for three weeks in reprocussions from hosting President's Day on unauthorized fields. However, overcoming this type of adversity could give the team the cohesion it has been searching for thus far this season. The Harris Pool pits Stanford against Carleton in a re-match of the semifinals of Nationals from 2004. However, this time Stanford is highly favored to win after its sweep of the Stanford Invite. In fact, Georgia will be the team most likely to challenge Stanford in this pool. Georgia beat Carleton 9-2 at Mardi Gras, advancing to the finals, and made the semifinals at the more competitive QCTU. Brown will be looking to improve upon its low finish at the Stanford Invite and joins Carleton in the category of teams that have a slow start to the season. That said, the great thing about this tournament is that no team and no game can be looked past. These are some of the top teams from across the nation (although notable absences include UC-Santa Cruz, NC State, and UNC-Chapel Hill) and there should be no easy road to the finals. The way this tournament ends up should be a good indicator of how the UPA College Championships will finish out in May. Also, as the last chance many of these teams will get to see each other before the College Championships, it should prove to be the best place to scout the Callahan potentials. While most teams have not annouced which player they will nominate for the prestigious award, here are the teams at Centex with a list of players to watch out for:
Iowa - Mackenzie Henryson, Tammy Kampfe, Mary Oppold, Kris Tiedt Of course, last year's winner, Miranda Roth, will be playing with Washington and the Callahan winner from 2003, Chelsea Dengler, will be playing with Oregon. Neither winner is in contention for the award this year. |
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