SW Women's Regionals - All-Region and FOTY
Franklin
to represent the SoCal section). Best of luck to all and I hope that
you bring the wildcards back to the Southwest.
A FEW NOTES ON REGIONALS...
UCLA looked dominant all weekend. None of their games were
particularly close and they are peaking at the right time. Alex
Korb's controversial decision to indoctrinate the team in the ways of
Scientology has paid off in a big way. Rumor has it that Tom Cruise
will give the team a ride in his spaceship if they win it all.
The UCSD/Colorado game to go was a crazy game of runs. Colorado
scored the first three points of the game, to which the Psychos
responded by putting up seven straight. At that point, I had
mistakenly figured that the game was over so I went for a run to
Chipotle. Much to my dismay, the game went to universe point and my
burrito was badly mixed (poor distribution of guacamole and cheese,
but tasty overall). Kudos to Colorado for clawing back into the game
and for battling through a weekend of tough games (they also scored
the most number of points against BLU, as many as UCSD and UCSB
combined).
SW ALL-REGION
This list is certainly not comprehensive and serves only as a starting
point for discussion. I didn't get to see much of Colorado or Arizona
this spring, so I apologize for their absence on this list.
UCLA
- Anna Nazarov (Maddog) - This is a no-brainer. Of the Callahan
candidates I've seen this year, she's got my vote. She deserves extra
consideration for helping to make BLU a dominant program from
absolutely nothing.
- Pooja Shah - Another no-brainer. She's a dominant receiver and top-
notch defender.
- Lisa Vampola (Clyde) - For whatever reason, she gets confused with
Anna despite being considerably taller and looking clearly like a Lisa
and not an Anna. She loves the hammer and the hammer loves her.
- Angie Sanan (Taz) - BLU is a very deep team so it becomes difficult
to single out other players, but Taz is a very strong handler and will
be one of the top players in the country in next year's college
series.
UCSB
- Alden Fletcher - Korb's comments in his Callahan review are spot
on. She's a central cutter for their offense and a tough defender.
- Claire Fletcher - She makes a lot of the big throws for their
offense.
- Andrea Romano - Very good cutter for the Burning Skirts. I kept
confusing her with Alden though I'm sure they looking nothing like
each other.
- Allison Maddux - I think that's her last name. She's the Asian
handler who plays confidently and does a great job of running the
Skirts' offense.
UCSD
- Laura Wishingrad (Beignet) - The offense runs through her handling.
She's quick and moves the disc very well. Very good defender as well.
- Kristen Boles (Crush) - She is a big target for UCSD and was a big
part of the win over Colorado.
Other Standouts
- Syd Fleischer (Claremont) - She's a phenomenal player and her
receiving a concussion during the Claremont/UCSB game was a big blow
to her team. If injuries hadn't plagued her all of last year and this
season, she would deserve to be on the short list of Callahan
candidates worth consideration. She is wicked good.
- Erin (Cal Poly SLO) deserves serious consideration for All-Region
(sorry, I don't know her last name but she wears a yellow cap). SLO
Motion relied heavily on her play and would not have been nearly as
competitive without her. If she played for one of the top programs,
she would be close to a shoo-in.
My votes:
Anna Nazarov
Pooja Shah
Syd Fleischer
Alden Fletcher
Erin from SLO
Laura Wishingrad
Kristin Boles
SW FOTY
Okay, I'm certainly biased (and this is an overt plug for my team),
but I can't imagine the FOTY going to anyone who doesn't play for
USC. The team has relied on a number of impressive rookies all season
with two players standing out in particular. Mary Kate Hogan (Uzi)
and Lindsey Cross (Curly) are names you should get familiar with.
Mary Kate's forehand shot to Lindsey early in the USC/UCSB game was
one of the best throws I saw all weekend. I think it took UCSB by
surprise and her play was critical in keeping the game close early
on. As for Lindsey, she's crazy athletic and has given defenses fits
all season. Look out for the Hellions in 2008.
FJR
USC Coach
emily.g...@gmail.com
from colorado
Bones
> this list is sorely incomplete without mentioning any of the ladies
> from colorado
Agreed. I wish I had a better memory for these things, because there
were a lot of excellent players on Kali, but I do recall #33 and a
girl with very short hair making some standout plays on the weekend.
I'd also like to give a shout out to the freshman on USC who have
sustained the team for the entire season. This is especially
impressive given that one of their captains was sidelined with a torn
ACL until this tournament. They're gonna be quite a team next
year . . .
Then again it's 4 AM and I'm all hopped up on vicodin from surgery on
Monday. Either way it was my pleasure to watch Kali from the
sidelines and observe several of the teams mentioned above. Good luck
to all that are going to Nationals and I can't WAIT until Memorial Day
weekend and next year's college series!
Bones
poopt...@yahoo.com
> Agreed. I wish I had a better memory for these things, because there
> were a lot of excellent players on Kali, but I do recall #33 and a
> girl with very short hair making some standout plays on the weekend.
Very short as in recently shaved? The one and only J Fast.
kris...@umail.ucsb.edu
number, who (rumor has it) was playing with a broken hand all weekend.
she was making some amazing grabs and lay-out-D's in the UCSB/Colorado
game. props to that chick.
-ucsb alum
Bones
> Very short as in recently shaved? The one and only J Fast.
Yup, that's the one. I've since come down from my high and my
roommate confirmed that she is in fact deserving of praise.
Here's to prescription medication and top-tier ultimate!
Bones
mbwh...@gmail.com
weekend. Probably should have been in a cast but she couldn't have
thrown with that. Jfast (Julie Fast) was the shaved headed wonder who
made huge plays all weekend including the great skying grab to send
the UCSD game to double game point. Our offense pretty much ran
through Heather Pavlak "Dozer" and Heather Waugh (the lefty) with
Krista Miller "Dteam" playing great down field. Half our team was
freshmen and several of those could be great choices for FOTY, but
they all played fantastic ultimate, so need to single any of them out.
I couldn't be prouder of how the Kali ladies scrapped and battled all
weekend. Hats off to UCLA, UCSB, and UCSD. I believe that Kali was
good enough to at least make quarters at Nationals this year but we
got beat by three very good teams who played great ultimate and made
clutch plays when they had to. Best of luck to all of them in
Columbus.
Whit
Kali Coach
burnin...@gmail.com
reciever on UCSB, dominating in all the key games. And she has
amazing throws already. Check out this photo of her skying in the
Centex finals:
http://photos.jasonmechler.com/p/2007centex_sun_highlights/jmp_20070325_47952
Watch out for her in the coming years!
jessup...@gmail.com
year at Cal Poly, so she won't be out again next year unless we can
talk her into a little grad school ultimate action.
I want to say thanks to Caltech for being hard-core. With only nine
players, they still played hard all the way through the last round on
Sunday. Sarah was playing through a lot of foot pain (blisters, I
guess), but she still had one of the sickest layout scores I saw all
weekend.
Dixie
Cal Poly SLO - SLO Motion