Your eyes do not deceive you. This is, in fact, a post about ultimate frisbee — BELIEVE IT! — and not basketball, volleyball, Sarah Rosenwinkel, how I don’t have a job, the UConn Huskies, the University of Illinois, Angela Bizzarri, the volleyball team, JSA Stanford, or anything else I tend to write about that’s not ultimate. (Unforch, noting that I am not mentioning Bizz or the volleyball team, both Fozz and My Best Friend have decided that this post isn’t worth their time. Womp womp.)
After eleven months of GTL, everyone’s back in the club, ready to creep and get weird. Sixteen teams will be dance, dance, dancing like it’s the last, last night of their lives, but only one of them gets to go home with a fratstar, er, championship. That’s Club Staysh — I mean, Naysh.
But in all seriousness, it’s the weekend every elite club team has been working towards all year, and it’s gonna be a doozy. This year’s field includes old powers, Sarasota babies, and a couple brand new teams. Every team’s coming ready to play, but how many actually have what it takes to win the title?
Pool A
‘O’ Mylanta. I say this not just because practically every vowel in every team name is ‘o’, but because I like the possibility for upsets in this pool. However, let’s not play around here, Riot is my favorite to win the pool. There is no team in Pool A that comes close to their combination of speed, athleticism, and experience. Perhaps most importantly, no one else in this pool can match Riot’s depth. Riot will take care of business here.
The next three spots, however, are completely open to rearranging. As I’ve said, I think this is the pool most ripe for an upset. It seems like the only tournament that gave Molly Brown any problems this season was Labor Day. They rolled through the rest of the tournaments they’ve played. In comparison, Showdown really put in the miles and has seen each of the top four seeds at least once this season. Both teams have experienced handles and some flat out athletes in the cutting lanes, but I give the edge here to Showdown. I always give the edge to the team who goes out and sees more top competition. It might mean more losses, but it also means more opportunity to sharpen their game.
Revoloution may be seeded 16th overall, but I wouldn’t overlook them just yet. They’re a young, fun team, but they’ve got a couple players who could really help them make a splash. I’ve been a big Abby Stephens fan since we played them at Nationals and Centex, and she continues to be a force for Revoloution. I love her throws, but more importantly, I like her field vision. And Kami Groom, girl you are ridiculous. I forget if it was the Rev/Pop or Rev/Nemesis game we were watching at Regionals, but Kami’s defender straight got a face-full of donk as Kami got UP for the disc. Great hops and great hands. In our game against them, I felt like they threw a lot of skyballs up to her, and she came down with a good percentage of them.
Pool B
Fury. Fury, Fury, Fury. Fury is like the Marcia of the Brady kids. In much the same way that no one in Pool A comes close to Riot, no one in Pool B comes close to Fury. All that needs to be said.
I think this pool will play pretty much to seed. Phoenix is a “new” team, but it brought on a bunch of their Backhoe playmakers. They too have seen each of the top four seeds, and boast a win over the Capitals. It seems like no team dealt Phoenix more losses this season than Scandal, but lucky for them they won’t have to deal with their regional foe in this pool. The team Phoenix has to beat in this pool is Nemesis. Chicago has a lot going on for them, but Phoenix might just be too much for them to handle with their height and speed. 2B is Phoenix’s to lose.
Nemesis brings a good mix of familiar veterans and some new blood. Nemesis has done a good job of corralling in many of the Chicago area’s top young players. One name you’ve read a lot on this blog and in many Nationals writeups is Lien Hoffman, and for good reason. The kid can flat out ball on both sides of the disc. She’s a quick athletic cutter with great command over her throws and is just fun to watch on D. As I’ve said before, all of that is impressive and everything, but what makes this kid stand out is her maturity and her poise. For someone so young, she plays with a great deal of patience and calm. I’m very interested in seeing how she fares against older, more experienced players at this level.
And finally, I don’t know too much about Storm except they have a losing record against all Naysh-qualifying teams.
The game I’m watching for in this pool is the second round on Thursday, Nemesis vs. Phoenix, for obvious reasons — because I think this is a must-win game for Phoenix — and for romantic/sense-sual ones. On Phoenix, I’ve got some glorious stallion of a woman I drunkenly agreed to share my life with, not a big deal. On Nemesis, I’ve got this hot young thang with whom I’ve shared all these secret trysts (namely fisting). It’s rough. I feel like my heart is being tugged in different directions. But I love you both. Win or lose.
Pool C
I like Brute Squad to win this pool. They’ve got a really experienced squad, and I think Brute probably surprised some people by playing into the finals game last season as well as finishing fourth at Worlds, but it happened for a reason — BS isn’t bullshittin’, they’re good. I don’t know that they’re on the level of Fury or Riot quite yet, but they’re up there. I like watching Amber Sinicrope play, and I’m really, really excited to see what VY Chow can do for this squad.
It should be a fun battle between Traffic and Pop for 2C. Traffic’s matched up against top competition all summer long, playing top seeds Fury, Riot, and Brute a combined total of eight times. They haven’t won a game against any of those teams yet, but no one in this pool — not even Brute — has met up with the Big Two as many times this season. While Pop has definitely logged some miles of its own, traveling to both Colorado Cup and ECC, they haven’t seen the same competition as Traffic. That said, Pop also has the advantage in head-to-head matchups this season, a 14-12 win at ECC. I’ve seen a couple players on Traffic before, namely the very exciting Kira Frew. Great player, definitely looking to her to make some plays on both sides of the disc. I’ve only ever played against/seen Pop once so I haven’t quite had the opportunity to scout out standouts, but they definitely have a lot of young college talent from the Midwest (Carleton, Iowa State, Wisconsin, Eau-Claire, etc.), including Christine Rosen, who was something ridiculous like the fourth or fifth leading goal scorer for champion CLX at Worlds.
Sorry to say I don’t know too much about Ozone … >.<
Pool D
This will be the shortest pool writeup of all … because I know little to nothing about all these teams. So … uh … how about them Capitals?
Final Four
My final four are Riot, Fury, Brute, and Capitals. I like these teams the best for their combination of experience, talent, and athleticism. What sets these four apart from everyone else is their depth. When you’re playing competitive games all day in oppressive heat, it’s to your advantage if you can rest your top horses as much as possible. The teams with the most options on their sidelines are the ones that go further in the tournament than everyone else. It’s true for almost any sport or team, unless you’re Florida, apparently. If you think these final four picks are boring, you’re going to hate my Championship game pick.
Championship Game
I think that we’ll once again see a Riot/Fury final. Boring and predictable choice, yes, but I’m hoping the game is anything but that. While the women’s field as a whole continues to get better and better, we have yet to see the parity that can be seen in the men’s field, where a number of different teams (Ironside, Revolver, Doublewide, Chain) could very well win the title, and slip-ups can occur at any time in pool play. It just isn’t the same in women’s ultimate. To be sure, all sixteen of the teams playing in Sarasota this weekend are great, great teams, but there is a very clear separation between the top two — Riot and Fury — from the rest of the competition. That is, no one else comes close. Riot and Fury have only lost to each other this season and it’s going to stay that way, for this year at least.
As for the champion, I’m rolling with Fury in a close, close game over Riot. It’s a tough call, but Fury is the World Champion and I believe they also hold the tournament finals edge over Riot this season. My hope is that this game is going to be a close one, no blowouts and beatdowns. Both teams have just absolutely filthy athletes, and I wanna see them make plays.
Now. The all-important logo contest. Revoloution has far and away my favorite logo of all. Far and away. Great incorporation of their city with their logo, and I love the outline of the girl’s legs and the disc. Hell of cool.
Shout out to my friends competing this weekend, and special holler at all the Illinois Women’s Ultimate alums that will be in ‘Sota this weekend: Fozzy Oso — full names here because c’mon, this is Club Naysh (Nemesis), Megan J. Hofner (Dirty Birds), Shawn Whall (CLX), T-Bag Reitz (Phoenix), and the player on Revoloution who spoke with Kelly at Regionals (and anyone else I might have missed/don’t know)!
Safe travels to and from Sarasota everyone, and best of luck to everyone competing!
Looking forward to some sick footage/photos/stories/tweets…
[On a completely unrelated note, I used to do a lot of hyperlinking to photos and whatnot, but haven’t felt comfortable doing it recently because I’m not sure where to find photos anymore (the photos that I link are more often than not the photos that I’ve taken myself, and have put on Facebook). It used to be I could link from guys like Matt Lane or Andrew Davis, but more and more I’m seeing photos on Facebook, and I don’t know how comfortable those people are with me linking their photos. Anyway, anyone know of any photo sites where I can link from, or sites where the photos have already been watermarked?]
