2004-2005 Tournaments

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INSIDE COLLEGE ULTIMATE

Santa Barbara Invitational
January 22nd & 23rd, 2005

www.santabarbaraultimate.com ShEiRaPop1 at aol.com Score Reporter results Tournament Pictures

This tournament at UC-Santa Barbara usually kicks off the winter season for California teams. A few East Coast squads have made the trek out in previous years too. The men's division is having a qualifying tournament January 8th and 9th, but the women are not having a Qualifier this year. In years past the tournament has had to suffer poor weather and sloppy fields, but that's what happens during California winters...

Ranked Teams:
1. Stanford A
2. UC-Davis
3. UC-San Diego
4. UC-Berkeley A
5. UC-Santa Cruz
6. Claremont A
7. UC-Santa Barbara
8. UCLA A
9. Stanford B
10. UC-Berkeley B
11. UCLA B
12. UC-San Diego B
13. Southern California (USC)
14. CalPoly SLO
15. UC-San Francisco
16. UC-Santa Barbara B

Final Finish:
1. UC-Santa Cruz (6-1)
2. Stanford (5-1)
3. UCLA (6-2)
4. UC-San Diego (5-2)
5/6. UC-Berkeley (4-2)
5/6. UC-Davis (4-3)
7/8. UC-Santa Barbara (3-2)
7/8. Claremont (3-3)
9-16. More information to come...
Laurie Kramer (UC-Davis) Katie Berk (Stanford)
(Photos courtesy of Andrew Davis)

Write-Up:

Saturday of the Santa Barbara Invite saw beautiful blue skies as teams came out to play for the first time this season. Fitting five rounds into the day, many games were capped as there was only an hour and fifteen minutes allotted for each game. The pool play and crossover games still provided plenty of opportunity for teams to try out their new plays and help introduce their rookies to the game.
The four top seeds going into the tournament were Stanford, UC-Davis, UC-San Diego, and UC-Berkeley. Stanford was largely unchallenged in its pool, although the game against UCLA provided a test of the team’s defense. Still, Stanford managed to adjust to UCLA's isolation offense and remained unscathed for the day. UC-Davis couldn't say the same as it was upset by seventh seed UC-Santa Barbara in pool play. UC-Davis was struggling to fill the spots left by the many seniors that graduated last year and the new players couldn't quite carry the team past a fired up UC-Santa Barbara. Claremont also challenged UC-San Diego, but the Psychos prevailed and pulled away to win the pool. UC-Berkeley had to play UC-Santa Cruz for the first place spot in Pool D, and took the first half handily against a Sol team that seemed timid. During the second half, UC-Santa Cruz found its stride to go on a 5-1 run, but the cap came on to prevent UC-Santa Cruz from completing the come-back.
After pool play, pre-quarters were held the last round on Saturday. UCLA was able to beat UC-Santa Barbara B easily, even after putting a lot of energy into its previous game against Stanford. UC-Davis had to play UC-Berkeley B and the Pleiades bounced back from their earlier loss to win against a less experienced team. Claremont also had to play a fourth game on Saturday, beating CalPoly SLO as expected. UC-Santa Cruz also handled its pre-quarters game, defeating Southern California (USC).
On Sunday, the games were to 15 instead of 13 like the day before. However, the rounds had not been lengthened, so some games did not make it past halftime before they were capped. The quarterfinals provided some exciting match-ups. Stanford had to face UC-Davis, UC-Santa Barbara was set against UCLA, UC-Berkeley played Claremont, and UC-San Diego matched-up against UC-Santa Cruz. Two of these games did not go according to seed as UCLA squeaked by UC-Santa Barbara 7-6 and UC-Santa Cruz upset UC-San Diego 11-6. UCLA and UC-Santa Barbara seemed pretty evenly matched as they battled back and forth, often with long points full of multiple turnovers. Ironically, the younger UCLA team seemed to have the more sophisticated playing style. UC-Santa Cruz surprised UC-San Diego by playing zone despite the calm weather. UC-San Diego had yet to practice much zone offense before the tournament and struggled to score against Sol's four person cup. UC-Berkeley beat Claremont after the cap in one quarterfinal game, while Stanford beat UC-Davis 12-6 in the other.
The semifinals pitted Stanford against UC-Berkeley and UC-Santa Cruz against UCLA. Stanford came out fired up on defense and went up by a few breaks early against UC-Berkeley. Aided by the handling of Amanda Leahy and Kath Radcliff and two points of effective points of zone defense, Berkeley closed the gap and managed to tie the game at 8's after halftime. By then, Stanford had proved that it could play no-turn zone offense and went on to score the last two points to finish the capped game 10-8. UC-Santa Cruz also used zone defense to generate turnovers against UCLA. While UCLA matched Pooja Shah and Jesse Amberg well against some of UC-Santa Cruz's star players, Sol simply was able to run more effective offense through its main core. The final score was 12-7 for UC-Santa Cruz.
For the finals, bay area rivals Stanford and UC-Santa Cruz played in a well-fought game. Stanford started out playing timidly and UC-Santa Cruz had inspired defense to take it ahead 4-0. After a time-out, Stanford seemed to find its confidence and handlers Enessa Janes and Lauren Casey were able to generate motion on offense. Defensive plays by Ruth Emerson and Jess Guh also helped Stanford come-back to tie the game at 7's. UC-Santa Cruz had been running huck plays to the far corner and twins Jamie and Bonnie McPike were perfectly happy to throw the goal or lay-out for the score. Sol capitalized on such a play to take the half 8-7. After tying the game at 8-8, the soft cap went on, so it was a game to 10. The teams traded the next few points, until the score was 9-9 for double game point. Claire Meneely put up a big huck for UC-Santa Cruz that Stanford just barely missed on D. After another throw that was caught despite the Stanford defender's bid, UCSC scored the point and won the game. UC-Santa Cruz played with a pretty tight rotation, usually having three of its four top handlers in every point. Even so, Bonnie McPike was able to lay-out practically every point she was in without seeming to show the effects of a grueling weekend too much. Stanford's rotation seemed larger as even the team's newest rookies played a number of points, but the team still relied on a few key players to run the offense. The Stanford UC-Santa Cruz match-up is sure to happen a number of times during the season, and it will be exciting to watch how these teams fare as their rookies and younger players develop.
This tournament had a whole bracket set up to play for third place, so the losers of quarters and semis all had more games to play. As the quarter-finals losers, UC-Davis went on to beat Claremont 10-4 while UC-San Diego bested UCSB 11-7. UC-Davis had earned the right to play UCLA, which UCLA won 10-6. UC-San Diego got to play UC-Berkeley, and earned a win by beating Cal 7-5 in a tough game. The game for 3rd place between UCLA and UC-San Diego was another game with long points. UCLA jumped to an early lead of 4-1 thanks to a great long game isolating cutters going deep. As UC-San Diego adjusted to UCLA's offense, the team was able to score a few points. Tenise Ambler and Tracy Woo worked well as handlers for UCSD, but the team had trouble incorporating inexperienced deep cutters into the flow of the offense. With the break mark throws of "Muff" and tough defense of "Slap", UC-San Diego should be more competitive as the season progresses and its rookies keep learning the game. UCLA still managed to take the game 8-5 after numerous run-through D's by Jesse Amberg and a big lay-out grab by one of the team's tallest players.
This year, the fields seemed in better condition than years past, especially since many of the women's games were played on the school's new turf fields. Playing ultimate on turf was a first experience for most teams, and while there weren't any unexpected holes or divots, the surface was rather unforgiving on lay-outs. Still, a skinned knee usually beats a sprained ankle. In general, this was a great tournament to kick off the college season and teams now have a list of concrete things to work on before their next tournaments...

Pre-tournament Hype:

The long awaited college ultimate season is upon us. The Santa Barbara Invite is the first tournament where teams have split into A and B squads and are at relative full strength. Of course, the many rookies on each team mean that the level of play in January isn't what you'll find in May, but it's a good indicator. Last year UC-Davis kicked off their tremendous season by making finals this tournament (losing to UC-Berkeley), but both these teams will have some stiff competition this year.
There are eight teams this year that are all but guaranteed to make quarters, as there seems to be a sharp cut-off between the top eight teams and the bottom eight teams at the tournament. The favorites to make semis are Stanford, UCSD, UC-Davis, and UC-Santa Cruz. That ought to leave UC-Berkeley, Claremont, UC-Santa Barbara, and UCLA to fill out the rest of the championship bracket. UC-Berkeley made the quarterfinals of the UPA College Championships last year, but graduated most of the team that lead them there. Nonetheless, the team has experienced leaders Kath Ratcliff and Julie Shortridge and a solid cast of players (many who moved up from the B team this season) who could take the team past UC-Santa Cruz in pool play to an easy quarterfinal match-up. Claremont qualified for the UPA College Championships last year, but also graduated much of its roster. Last year's history and Claremont's play at the fall SoCal Warm-up will give the team an edge over many Southwest teams, but it probably won't be enough to break through to semis. UC-Santa Barbara has the homefield advantage in this tournament, and the team has a dedicated core who are working to build up the Burning Skirts program. The team should be more competitive than last year. UCLA is a team that should also be more competitive than it was last season, which is saying a lot since the team almost qualified for the UPA Championships in its first year of existence. The team's core of good athletes will be looking to upset Stanford in pool play, although it probably does not have the depth to pull it off.
The semifinals will surely both be exciting games. If they hold seed, UC-San Diego and UC-Davis are slated to meet up in the semis, in a re-match of the UPA Championships where UC-Davis came from behind to win and go on to earn the national title. This year, UCSD has the edge with something to prove and a solid cast of 11 experienced returners, many of whom played during the club season this fall. While Davis lost some key starters from last season, the team will be run by Lindsey Riemenschneider and Sarah Pittiglio, a formidable combination. UC-Santa Cruz is looking to make this season the season it qualifies for the UPA Championships, and the team wants to start that run with a strong performance in Santa Barbara. Its rock-solid core, lead by Claire Meneely, will be tough for other teams to stop as the team's precision throws make defenses struggle. As a result, the team has a good chance of upsetting UC-Berkeley in pool play and making it all the way to semis Stanford should still have the advantage over UCSC if they meet up in semis, both in team size and history's mental edge. Stanford has a large roster full of talented players, lead by duo Lauren Casey and Enessa Janes, and the challenge will be finding a way to integrate new teammates. Of course, the team can't look past UCLA in pool play or UC-Santa Barbara in quarterfinals...
Oregon State was originally slated to play as well, but pulled out the week of the tournament.

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www.santabarbaraultimate.com	ShEiRaPop1 at aol.com	Score Reporter results	Tournament Pictures
This tournament at UC-Santa Barbara usually kicks off the winter season for California teams. A few East Coast squads have made the trek out in previous years too. The men's division is having a qualifying tournament January 8th and 9th, but the women are not having a Qualifier this year. In years past the tournament has had to suffer poor weather and sloppy fields, but that's what happens during California winters...
Ranked Teams: 1. Stanford A 2. UC-Davis 3. UC-San Diego 4. UC-Berkeley A 5. UC-Santa Cruz 6. Claremont A 7. UC-Santa Barbara 8. UCLA A 9. Stanford B 10. UC-Berkeley B 11. UCLA B 12. UC-San Diego B 13. Southern California (USC) 14. CalPoly SLO 15. UC-San Francisco 16. UC-Santa Barbara B	Final Finish: 1. UC-Santa Cruz (6-1) 2. Stanford (5-1) 3. UCLA (6-2) 4. UC-San Diego (5-2) 5/6. UC-Berkeley (4-2) 5/6. UC-Davis (4-3) 7/8. UC-Santa Barbara (3-2) 7/8. Claremont (3-3) 9-16. More information to come...	Laurie Kramer (UC-Davis) Katie Berk (Stanford) (Photos courtesy of Andrew Davis)
Write-Up: Saturday of the Santa Barbara Invite saw beautiful blue skies as teams came out to play for the first time this season. Fitting five rounds into the day, many games were capped as there was only an hour and fifteen minutes allotted for each game. The pool play and crossover games still provided plenty of opportunity for teams to try out their new plays and help introduce their rookies to the game. The four top seeds going into the tournament were Stanford, UC-Davis, UC-San Diego, and UC-Berkeley. Stanford was largely unchallenged in its pool, although the game against UCLA provided a test of the team’s defense. Still, Stanford managed to adjust to UCLA's isolation offense and remained unscathed for the day. UC-Davis couldn't say the same as it was upset by seventh seed UC-Santa Barbara in pool play. UC-Davis was struggling to fill the spots left by the many seniors that graduated last year and the new players couldn't quite carry the team past a fired up UC-Santa Barbara. Claremont also challenged UC-San Diego, but the Psychos prevailed and pulled away to win the pool. UC-Berkeley had to play UC-Santa Cruz for the first place spot in Pool D, and took the first half handily against a Sol team that seemed timid. During the second half, UC-Santa Cruz found its stride to go on a 5-1 run, but the cap came on to prevent UC-Santa Cruz from completing the come-back. After pool play, pre-quarters were held the last round on Saturday. UCLA was able to beat UC-Santa Barbara B easily, even after putting a lot of energy into its previous game against Stanford. UC-Davis had to play UC-Berkeley B and the Pleiades bounced back from their earlier loss to win against a less experienced team. Claremont also had to play a fourth game on Saturday, beating CalPoly SLO as expected. UC-Santa Cruz also handled its pre-quarters game, defeating Southern California (USC). On Sunday, the games were to 15 instead of 13 like the day before. However, the rounds had not been lengthened, so some games did not make it past halftime before they were capped. The quarterfinals provided some exciting match-ups. Stanford had to face UC-Davis, UC-Santa Barbara was set against UCLA, UC-Berkeley played Claremont, and UC-San Diego matched-up against UC-Santa Cruz. Two of these games did not go according to seed as UCLA squeaked by UC-Santa Barbara 7-6 and UC-Santa Cruz upset UC-San Diego 11-6. UCLA and UC-Santa Barbara seemed pretty evenly matched as they battled back and forth, often with long points full of multiple turnovers. Ironically, the younger UCLA team seemed to have the more sophisticated playing style. UC-Santa Cruz surprised UC-San Diego by playing zone despite the calm weather. UC-San Diego had yet to practice much zone offense before the tournament and struggled to score against Sol's four person cup. UC-Berkeley beat Claremont after the cap in one quarterfinal game, while Stanford beat UC-Davis 12-6 in the other. The semifinals pitted Stanford against UC-Berkeley and UC-Santa Cruz against UCLA. Stanford came out fired up on defense and went up by a few breaks early against UC-Berkeley. Aided by the handling of Amanda Leahy and Kath Radcliff and two points of effective points of zone defense, Berkeley closed the gap and managed to tie the game at 8's after halftime. By then, Stanford had proved that it could play no-turn zone offense and went on to score the last two points to finish the capped game 10-8. UC-Santa Cruz also used zone defense to generate turnovers against UCLA. While UCLA matched Pooja Shah and Jesse Amberg well against some of UC-Santa Cruz's star players, Sol simply was able to run more effective offense through its main core. The final score was 12-7 for UC-Santa Cruz. For the finals, bay area rivals Stanford and UC-Santa Cruz played in a well-fought game. Stanford started out playing timidly and UC-Santa Cruz had inspired defense to take it ahead 4-0. After a time-out, Stanford seemed to find its confidence and handlers Enessa Janes and Lauren Casey were able to generate motion on offense. Defensive plays by Ruth Emerson and Jess Guh also helped Stanford come-back to tie the game at 7's. UC-Santa Cruz had been running huck plays to the far corner and twins Jamie and Bonnie McPike were perfectly happy to throw the goal or lay-out for the score. Sol capitalized on such a play to take the half 8-7. After tying the game at 8-8, the soft cap went on, so it was a game to 10. The teams traded the next few points, until the score was 9-9 for double game point. Claire Meneely put up a big huck for UC-Santa Cruz that Stanford just barely missed on D. After another throw that was caught despite the Stanford defender's bid, UCSC scored the point and won the game. UC-Santa Cruz played with a pretty tight rotation, usually having three of its four top handlers in every point. Even so, Bonnie McPike was able to lay-out practically every point she was in without seeming to show the effects of a grueling weekend too much. Stanford's rotation seemed larger as even the team's newest rookies played a number of points, but the team still relied on a few key players to run the offense. The Stanford UC-Santa Cruz match-up is sure to happen a number of times during the season, and it will be exciting to watch how these teams fare as their rookies and younger players develop. This tournament had a whole bracket set up to play for third place, so the losers of quarters and semis all had more games to play. As the quarter-finals losers, UC-Davis went on to beat Claremont 10-4 while UC-San Diego bested UCSB 11-7. UC-Davis had earned the right to play UCLA, which UCLA won 10-6. UC-San Diego got to play UC-Berkeley, and earned a win by beating Cal 7-5 in a tough game. The game for 3rd place between UCLA and UC-San Diego was another game with long points. UCLA jumped to an early lead of 4-1 thanks to a great long game isolating cutters going deep. As UC-San Diego adjusted to UCLA's offense, the team was able to score a few points. Tenise Ambler and Tracy Woo worked well as handlers for UCSD, but the team had trouble incorporating inexperienced deep cutters into the flow of the offense. With the break mark throws of "Muff" and tough defense of "Slap", UC-San Diego should be more competitive as the season progresses and its rookies keep learning the game. UCLA still managed to take the game 8-5 after numerous run-through D's by Jesse Amberg and a big lay-out grab by one of the team's tallest players. This year, the fields seemed in better condition than years past, especially since many of the women's games were played on the school's new turf fields. Playing ultimate on turf was a first experience for most teams, and while there weren't any unexpected holes or divots, the surface was rather unforgiving on lay-outs. Still, a skinned knee usually beats a sprained ankle. In general, this was a great tournament to kick off the college season and teams now have a list of concrete things to work on before their next tournaments...

Pre-tournament Hype: The long awaited college ultimate season is upon us. The Santa Barbara Invite is the first tournament where teams have split into A and B squads and are at relative full strength. Of course, the many rookies on each team mean that the level of play in January isn't what you'll find in May, but it's a good indicator. Last year UC-Davis kicked off their tremendous season by making finals this tournament (losing to UC-Berkeley), but both these teams will have some stiff competition this year. There are eight teams this year that are all but guaranteed to make quarters, as there seems to be a sharp cut-off between the top eight teams and the bottom eight teams at the tournament. The favorites to make semis are Stanford, UCSD, UC-Davis, and UC-Santa Cruz. That ought to leave UC-Berkeley, Claremont, UC-Santa Barbara, and UCLA to fill out the rest of the championship bracket. UC-Berkeley made the quarterfinals of the UPA College Championships last year, but graduated most of the team that lead them there. Nonetheless, the team has experienced leaders Kath Ratcliff and Julie Shortridge and a solid cast of players (many who moved up from the B team this season) who could take the team past UC-Santa Cruz in pool play to an easy quarterfinal match-up. Claremont qualified for the UPA College Championships last year, but also graduated much of its roster. Last year's history and Claremont's play at the fall SoCal Warm-up will give the team an edge over many Southwest teams, but it probably won't be enough to break through to semis. UC-Santa Barbara has the homefield advantage in this tournament, and the team has a dedicated core who are working to build up the Burning Skirts program. The team should be more competitive than last year. UCLA is a team that should also be more competitive than it was last season, which is saying a lot since the team almost qualified for the UPA Championships in its first year of existence. The team's core of good athletes will be looking to upset Stanford in pool play, although it probably does not have the depth to pull it off. The semifinals will surely both be exciting games. If they hold seed, UC-San Diego and UC-Davis are slated to meet up in the semis, in a re-match of the UPA Championships where UC-Davis came from behind to win and go on to earn the national title. This year, UCSD has the edge with something to prove and a solid cast of 11 experienced returners, many of whom played during the club season this fall. While Davis lost some key starters from last season, the team will be run by Lindsey Riemenschneider and Sarah Pittiglio, a formidable combination. UC-Santa Cruz is looking to make this season the season it qualifies for the UPA Championships, and the team wants to start that run with a strong performance in Santa Barbara. Its rock-solid core, lead by Claire Meneely, will be tough for other teams to stop as the team's precision throws make defenses struggle. As a result, the team has a good chance of upsetting UC-Berkeley in pool play and making it all the way to semis Stanford should still have the advantage over UCSC if they meet up in semis, both in team size and history's mental edge. Stanford has a large roster full of talented players, lead by duo Lauren Casey and Enessa Janes, and the challenge will be finding a way to integrate new teammates. Of course, the team can't look past UCLA in pool play or UC-Santa Barbara in quarterfinals... Oregon State was originally slated to play as well, but pulled out the week of the tournament.