| www-acs.ucsd.edu/~squids/ | ultimate at ucsd.edu | Score Reporter results | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| This three day tournament on UC-San Diego's campus usually draws a big crowd of top teams from around the country. The format is modelled after the UPA Club Championships, with power pools on the second day of play. The tournament also usually features an exhibition game Saturday night and a party Sunday night. Another special feature is that each team votes for the top seven players in its division for the All-Pres Day Team. The men's division has a Qualifier tournament set for February 5th and 6th, but there is no qualifier scheduled for the women's division, despite receiving over 30 bids. However, for the past couple years UC-San Diego has put on a B-team tournament for local teams trying to get more experience. If your team did not get into Pres Day, contact Cecil or Patch for information about whether there will be a women's B-team tournament this year. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Unranked Teams: 1. UC-San Diego A 2. UC-San Diego B 3. UC-Davis 4. UC-Berkeley 5. British Columbia (UBC) 6. Texas 7. UC-Santa Cruz 8. Wisconsin 9. Colorado 10. Dartmouth 11. UCLA 12. Washington 13. Yale 14. Oregon 15. UC-Santa Barbara 16. Claremont 17. Oregon State |
Final Records: (incomplete)
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  Claire Meneely (UCSC) v. Jill Hutchinson (Wisconsin); Kath Ratcliff (UC-Berkeley) v. Mary Gray (Oregon) in 2003 (Photos courtesy of Scobel Wiggins) |
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| Tournament Write-Up:
Sunday Power Pools:
Unfortunately, this tournament hit a few road-blocks this year. First, there was some confusion and miscommunication that led to 17 teams being admitted into the tournament. This resulted in an unconventional format where one pool was forced to play extra games. Also, teams did not have a chance to make it into the championship bracket if they placed fourth or fifth in their Saturday pool. The second (and more important) problem was that the weather did not cooperate. Heavy rains leading up to and during the tournament weekend forced UC-San Diego to officially cancel the tournament due to lack of field space. Teams still managed to schedule games on Saturday and Sunday off-campus on their own, but the championship bracket of Monday was never held. Hopefully the UC-San Diego teams will not be held too much responsible for any fields' damages. Due to the windy and rainy conditions, the games that were played were low-scoring games with lots of zone defense. Teams that had practiced their zones were the most successful, and those that relied on only a couple of handlers often had difficulty working the disc the length of the field. Texas, UCLA, UC-Santa Cruz and Wisconsin seemed to be the top teams of the weekend, although Washington had a strong showing as well. This shows a notable rise of less well-known teams on the west coast this year. Texas benefits from the play of Cara Crouch and some great receivers, all of whom play good defense in addition to being offensive threats. Utilizing its height and speed, Texas showed it could keep the disc moving and often relied on break mark throws to jumpstart its stack offense. UCLA's group of athletes was led by handlers Jessie Amberg and Anna Navaroz. Although sometimes hasty with the disc, UCLA seemed confident it its ability to get the turnover on defense and managed to pull out some close wins over Wisconsin (7-6), UC-Berkeley (5-4), and Washington (7-5). UC-Santa Cruz was playing the weekend without their two coaches, but the experienced leadership on the team managed to take the competition in stride. With a solid core of players and Claire Meneely's no-look passes, this team was often successful against other teams' zone defenses. Wisconsin has a number of veteran players, notably Jill Hutchinson and Jane Benzschawel, and is proving itself to be one of the teams to beat this year. Washington played with two ineligible juniors players who were crucial handlers in its offense during the weekend. Nonetheless, the team chalked up some nice wins before Miranda Roth was sidelined on Sunday afternoon. This team was also without its coach for the weekend and seemed to have a reliable long game, even despite the wind. Here are some notes on some of the other teams at the tournament: British Columbia (UBC) did not come to San Diego with its complete roster. This might be a rebuilding year for the team as it works to fill some of the holes left by graduated players. UC-Berkeley relies on Kath Ratcliff's handling to a large extent, but is still struggling with its zone offense at this point in the season. UC-San Diego was without co-captain and handler Tenise Ambler during the weekend and also had some difficulty with zone offense. Players like "Slap" and "Muff" continue to step up for the team and the team just narrowly missed having a shot at moving up in the pools (UCSD lost to Colorado 6-5 after going down 4-0). Colorado has some solid handlers (mainly Carolyn Matthews and Alex Snyder), but was not able to consistently convert in the wind. However, this young team could be quite damaging without inclement weather. Dartmouth did not seem quite ready to play outside yet, but should be a solid team once it practices on grass some more. Its handlers are quite effective at breaking the mark and the team has some players with big lay-outs. UC-Santa Barbara's scrappy team is not afraid to huck the disc and played a close (even if truncated) game against UC-Berkeley (3-4). Many of these teams will face each other at the Stanford Invite in early March, which should hopefully yield more reliable results. (Write-up information contributions by Miranda Roth, Tenise Ambler, and Kath Ratcliff) |
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