With so many teams in the region, the Metro East is practically guaranteed a size wildcard every year, ensuring the region two bids to the UPA Championships. One of the exciting aspects of the region is that the balance of power is constantly shifting and stories of upsets and rising teams abound in the ME. Nonetheless, Cornell is still the favorite to take the region. Despite losing a number of talented players to graduation, most notably All-Region pick Jessica Cofrin, Cornell has the deepest roster in the region. In fact, Cornell has a B-team squad in addition to the Wild Roses, adding to the number of women in the program. Additionally, the team is led by captains All-Region player Hilary Corsun and Riki Cullingford and new coach Lauren Childs (formerly of Duke). Clare Rittschof also returns, although she is currently injured.

Penn State could challenge Cornell for the Regional title, although the team's ability to play in the UPA Series is still in question as its suspension from last season is currently still in effect. The team has been competing in pre-season tournaments under the name State College and has a rock-solid core of players. In fact, the team has only graduated one starter since the squad played at the 2004 UPA Championships in Seattle, WA, where it finished tied for 13th/14th. In addition to its group of returners, the team added two 5th year grad students to the roster this season. Players to especially watch for include Erin Crider, Kim Breese, and Karen Schulte.

Other teams that should go far into the bracket play on Sunday of Regionals include Rutgers, Rochester, and Delaware (UDel). Rutgers now has the experience of playing in the championships, which probably helped its recruiting efforts as there are more women playing with the team than ever before. While the linchpin of the team's offense, Linda Dolan, graduated after last season, the 2005 Freshman-of-the-Year, Amanda Davies, has stepped up as the team's go-to player. Rutgers will have to work to regain its long game without Dolan's hucks, but its larger roster could facilitate any necessary changes. On the other hand, Rochester returned most of the players who played in last year's game-to-go and also had a good recruiting class. In fact, the team's core played together at a number of tournaments with the club team Rivet and has developed great chemistry over the years. Abbey Green and Beth "Tower" Goldstone run the offense, often utilizing handler dominators and hucks to the team's fast receivers. UDel looks to have improved after a slower year last season. This year All-Region player Kayla Burnim is joined by reciever/defender Caitlin Redding and other teams will be hard pressed to stop the combination of Burnim's throws and Redding's speed. Although not incredibly deep, UDel's roster does have a group of solid players to support the team's stars.

Queens, George Washington (GW), University of Pennslyvannia (UPenn), and Maryland could also each have some surprises and possible upsets during the season. Queens has not competed in the series for the past few seasons, but the team showed it can be a competitive squad as it took Penn State down to the wire at the Spring Fling last season. George Washington has a large team with a number of veteran players, lead by Courtney Wang. Wang's hucks are completemented by a number of receivers with great hands. Additionally, GW benefits from the coaching experience of Trudy Phillip and could be ready to make a run this year. UPenn barely missed making it to the game-to-go last season, but unfortuntately its roster was hit hard by graduation. Nonetheless, some of the older players competed in the Club Series with the mixed team Donkey Bomb, and the team has lots of enthusiastic rookies and younger players. Alex Chan is especially effective on defense and played with the mixed club team Hooray. Maryland struggled with consistency last season, but the return of a few players from abroad could be the missing key to the team's offense. Katie Zimmerman is a player to watch as she adds club experience after playing with women's team BNOGO this fall. Additionally, Maryland's defense is known for its fire and ability to generate turnovers.

Also of note is that the CMU/Pitt consortium is no longer valid this season, forcing the schools to compete as two separate teams during the series. This split will likely hurt CMU more than Pitt as Pitt retains some strong throwers and a number of athletes.

Of course, all these predictions are pre-season hype. Who knows which teams will rise and which will fall during the course of the season as teams compete and give their all at pre-series and series tournaments. Good luck!