| ultimate.scoreomatic.com | guhster at stanford.edu | Score Reporter results | Tournament Pictures | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Stanford Invitational is held on Stanford's campus in Palo Alto, and attracts competition from all over the country. This year, the tournament will have 16 women's and 20 men's teams. However, interest is so high that a qualifying tournament will be held two weekends prior to the main event, enabling 16 other teams to battle for the last spots at the Invite. Every year the tournament falls right around the end of the rainy season in the Bay Area, so it often provides the first sunshine that teams from the East Coast get to play in all winter. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Rankings: |
Final Finish:
1. Stanford |
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| Tournament Write-Up:
Due to rain leading up to the tournament weekend, Stanford University closed its fields on campus for Saturday. Fortunately, the women's side of the tournament was able to play out its pool play games at neighboring high schools. Of course, changing venues meant that the schedule was changed as each pool only had 1 field to play out all its games. As a result, the day had 6 rounds lasting an hour and a half each and each team played three pool play games on Saturday. Pool A held seed as UC-Santa Cruz swept the competition. Its closest game was against Michigan, which Sol won 13-9. The game between UCSC and Claremont also provided some excitement; National College Director Josh Greenough stated, "I haven't seen that many hammers in a college women's game ever, but when the girl with the head band on [Claremont] starts to throw the break mark hammer it isn't a fake. I saw her hit hammers of 40+ yards several times but Santa Cruz consistently won the long points." Despite the fact that Michigan scored more points on UCSC than British Columbia did, UBC still beat Michigan handily (11-3). UBC struggled much more against Claremont, winning with only a two point margin. Due to the unusual schedule, there were often games preceeded by un-matched byes, so outcomes all day were often influenced by how worn out teams became in the previous round. Pool B almost held seed, except that Oregon pulled out an upset of Penn State at the last minute. Oregon lost to Stanford in a close match (9-7) and went on to go down to Penn State (7-5 at one point) before battling back to tie up the game and win on universe point (11-10). After this heartbreaking loss, Penn State was exhausted when it matched up against Stanford. Exhaustion combined with injuries on the part of Penn State helped Stanford go up early and win the game 11-6. Despite coming in fourth in its pool, Humboldt played well and was only three points behind Oregon in their 13-10 game. Greenough praised Humboldt, saying that the Hags "are running a spread offense that has a lot of potential to allow their top level players to excel... Teams without as much experience will have difficulty shutting them down." Pool C experienced a big upset as the number 3 team (UC-Davis) took the pool by beating UCLA (10-8) and Brown (9-7). UCLA did not come out nearly as strong as they looked at either the Santa Barbara Invitational or President's Day and barely beat the 4 seed from the pool, PLU, in an 8-7 match. Davis, on the other hand, seemed in control of all of its games of the day. This was Brown's first tournament, and the team did not seem to perform up to its potential. Greenough explains that, "in the game against Davis they were running hard and laying out often but not able to overcome Davis's consistent swings against the zone (in light wind) and break mark throws against man D." Pool D was where the major upsets happened. Cornell had been seeded 16th at the tournament based on last year's finish and the fact that this was the team's first tournament of the season. However, the Cornell Wild Roses suprised everyone when they beat the 1st and 3rd seeded teams (UC-Berkeley and UC-Santa Barbara, respectivelyl) and came within 1 point of beating the eventual pool champs, Washington. Washington ended up going undefeated for the day to take the pool. Greenough observes that UW "is not a one woman team and there are a lot of scrappy solid players who are very fundamentally sound and coached with a high level of intensity." UC-Santa Barbara came in fourth in this pool to face a tough draw in pre-quarters. "The UCSB ladies are willing to put it up deep early and often. They have a few down field receivers with great hands who can get open for 30 yards most every time," says Greenough. On Sunday, a full round of 16 was played out. Because the men's division did not play any official games on Saturday, the tournament was pressed for field space on Sunday and rounds were shortened to an hour and 20 minutes. Additionally there was not space for consolation games for teams that lost in quarterfinals. Due to Cornell's upsets, there were some tough pre-quarters played on Sunday morning. For instance, British Columbia had to play UC-Berkeley, UC-Santa Cruz had to play UC-Santa Barbara, and Penn State had to play UCLA. Nonetheless, there was only one upset during the pre-quarters round: Penn State beat UCLA after a tough battle that ended with Penn State scoring on universe point. While UCLA has the athleticism and disc skills to compete against most top teams, the UCLA sqad came out flat against Penn State and did not contain their opponents breakmark throws effectively enough. In fact, many of the pre-quarters' rounds were close, with the exception of Washington's win over Claremont and Stanford's win over Pacific Lutheran. The quarterfinals matched UC-Santa Cruz with Oregon, Washington with Penn State, Stanford with British Columbia, and UC-Davis with Cornell. The side of the bracket with UCSC, Oregon, UW and Penn State was decidedly more competitive as UCSC, Oregon and UW each had a legitimate shot at making the finals. The UCSC-Oregon game was close for the first half before Oregon was able to go on a 7-2 run to finish the game 15-9. UCSC relied on its long game, often with Claire Meneely or the McPike twins putting the disc deep to the opposite corner of the field. Meanwhile, Oregon had its top players cutting in an isolation offense that UCSC ultimately found difficult to contain. Oregon was also able to capitalize on UCSC's unforced mistakes to help pull ahead. Washington seemed in control of much of its quarterfinal against Penn State, although Penn State might have put more points on the board if two of its top players, Erin Crider and Kim Breese, hadn't been injured. The team's offense still seemed to move through the throws of Karen Schulte. Although Penn State utilized its dish play effectively and had a zone offense that kept the disc moving well, UW was simply a deeper team which was able to player harder defense and convert more efficiently. Stanford was also in control during its quarters match-up with British Columbia. While UBC had great handler resets (especially with the quickness of handler Kira Frew), Stanford managed to keep enough defensive pressure on the downfield cutters to generate turnovers. Greenough noted that, "UBC seems to have a good structure and once all of the new players learn the system they will be dangerous, but at the moment they are a little inconsistent." UBC's Keeley Hibbert made some nice grabs as a receiver, but Stanford took the game 15-7. Cornell continued to prove itself as a contender from the Metro East region in the quarterfinals against UC-Davis. These teams traded points for most of the game and Davis was only able to win 12-11 after Cornell scored the last point on the hard cap. Cornell utilized its long looks through out the game and did not even have 5 of its veteran players in attendance at the tournament. Making the quarterfinals of such a competitive tournament bodes well for the rest of Cornell's season. The semifinals pitted Stanford against UC-Davis and UC-Santa Cruz against Oregon. Stanford and Davis play similar styles of a dump-swing offense and these two teams know each other very well as sectional rivals. Although Sarah Pitiligio and Lindsey Riemenschneider's fluid handling was aided by some great plays by Cristina "Eppie" Buss, the team had trouble converting and Stanford jumped ahead. Davis got its first break after half-time, but Stanford answered right back to win the capped game 10-4. The other semifinal between Washington and Oregon was arguably the most exciting game of the tournament. Both teams have a number of skilled veterans who raised the level of play to the point where big lay-outs and great throws were par for the course. Miranda Roth and Krisann Schmitz played especially well for Washington while the trio of Chelsea Dengler, Merrill Kusyk and Mary Gray stepped-up for Oregon. After trading for most of the game, the score was 10 to 10 with the hard cap in effect. Each team had chances to score, but first Roth got a D in the Oregon endzone and then Cheri Young made a lay-out block on the UW endzone line. UW had been playing zone, but Oregon broke a hole in the cup and found Dengler in the endzone on a huck to end the game 11-10. According to former UC-Berkeley coach Matt Tsang, "The big difference for Fugue this year is picking up two throwers in Tobey [Beaver] and Lauren [Prince]. These two, along with the handling skills of 2nd year Cheryl Young, free up Mary, Chelsea, and Meryl to play up field, making their "Euro" offense very effective." The finals was thus a rematch of a pool play game from the day before between Oregon and Stanford. Oregon was the more tired of the two teams going into the finals as all of its elimination games that day had been more competitive than Stanford's. Lead by the play of Enessa Janes, Stanford started the game fired up and rattled off point after point in the first half--building a lead of 8-1 by half-time. Oregon switched out of its isolation offense formation to a more standard stack set and the second half was much closer (7-6, Stanford). Despite a few multi-turnover points, many of the points scored by either team were no-turn scores and there was no shortage of long looks all around. In particular, Shirley Wu and Lauren Casey completed a number of hucks deep for Stanford and Dengler was the top recepient of long passes by Kusyk, Gray and Beaver for Oregon. This game had observers, although they mainly functioned as time-keepers because not a single call went to them for a ruling. Of course, having the time between points enforced kept the game moving faster than when the two teams met on Saturday as the Stanford coaches have a tendency to spend a long time on the line before each point. By winning the finals 15-7, Stanford won the Stanford Invite for the third year in a row. Of note is that this was Jenny Burney's first tournament of the season with Stanford as she had just decided to finish out her 5th year of eligibility. This weekend Burney proved to be a valuable addition to a roster already full of talented players. While Stanford did not get a chance to avenge its early season loss to UC-Santa Cruz or match-up against Washington for the first time of the year, there can be no doubt that Superfly is the current favorite to take the number one seed from the Northwest Region in 2005. Tsang mentions that, "Stanford is consistently the deepest team around and this year is no exception. Their bottom 7 are still athletic and can run with your starters." Less than two weeks way, Centex will be the next time the top teams from the nation will get a chance to test themselves against one another. So stay tuned... |
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Pre-tournament Hype:
Congratulations to UC-Santa Barbara, Humboldt State, and Pacific Lutheran for coming in first, second, and third (respectively) at the Stanford Invite Qualifier to earn bids to the Stanford Invite. With the incomplete and unreliable results of President's Day 2005, this year's seeding and predictions for the Stanford Invite are more difficult than usual. Additionally, there was a last minute re-shuffle of the teams as UC-San Diego ended up not able to attend the tournament. Nonethelss, this will still prove to be a competitive tournament as everyone holds their breath for no more rain on the west coast. Fans can follow the action throughout the weekend on the Score-O-Matic (SOM) website. UC-Santa Cruz, Stanford, and UCLA have consistently played at a high level this season and seem to be a step ahead of the rest of the competition. Expect to see UC-Santa Cruz and Stanford re-match in the finals if they can each stave off upsets. This should be an exciting match as UCSC only came out ahead by 1 point when these two teams battled in the finals of the Santa Barbara Invite. Pool D could end up in a three-way tie with UC-Berkeley, Washington, and UC-Santa Barbara all having strong teams. The winner of this pool gets the coveted bye into quarterfinals, so the stakes are high. This could be the chance Washington has been looking for to prove they are a top NW team, even without the high school Suver twins. Berkeley beat UCSB at President's Day with a score of 4-3, and the Pie Queens will probably have even more of an advantage in a full-length game. Still, UCSB has posted an impressive early season thus far with an 11-4 record. This will be Cornell's first tournament of the season. None of the other pools have clear-cut 2nd and 3rd place teams either. In pool A, Michigan could upset British Columbia as Michigan has played close games with nationally ranked teams Penn State, UNC-Chapel Hill, and NC State (beating NC State at Queen City Tune Up). However, UBC should have more of their complete roster this weekend as compared to President's Day. As a result, UBC should play UC-Santa Cruz to a closer score than 8-2 (the teams' President's Day score) and will probably not let Claremont come as close as they were at President's Day (12-9 score for UBC). Pool B should be even more competitive. Although Stanford has the edge, both Penn State and Oregon are not far behind. Penn State made the quarterfinals of QCTU, only losing to the champs by 1, and has some athletes that are tough to contain. Oregon's successes will also rest on the play of a few key players, although the team hasn't had much opportunity to play together at tournaments this season so far. Humboldt State was a step above most of the teams at the Invite Qualifier, but it will be hard pressed to keep up in such a stacked pool. Pool C could see UC-Davis upsetting Brown, especially if the east coast girls haven't found their grass-legs yet after playing indoors for so much of the winter. Davis has perhaps underperformed so far at tournaments, so this could be the team's chance to knock off some higher seeded teams and move into quarters. Pacific Lutheran stepped up at the last minute to fill the spot that UC-San Diego vacated. Hopefully this young team will be able to bring their full roster to compete against the big names in the region. Check back for updated results Saturday night... |
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