Stanford X beats local competition in Santa Cruz

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SANTA CRUZ, CA

Nov 11-12, 2006
BY: Miriam Allersma

Saturday morning started with a lot of rain. I didn't think I'd be breaking out the muck boots, polyurethane pants and golf umbrella so soon now that I've moved to California, but I guess I was wrong. Mostly. The rain let up by mid morning.

I only got a chance to watch a couple games besides those that Santa Cruz played, so I'm just summarizing from the results sheet mostly.

Hightlighted Players Pictured at NW Regionals 2005, seniors Lillian Berla (UCSC) and Christina Contreras (Stanford X) played especially well this past weekend. Miriam Allersma noted that Contreras was "everywhere deep on O and D" and Berla was "pulling the team out of tough situations whenever needed." As fourth year players and leaders on their teams, watch for them to continue to make an impact this season.

Pool G was the only pool that played to seed as UCLA Y swept, followed by Stanford Y, Humboldt, UCSB and Alameda. UCLA's games against the other college teams were all pretty close- only 3 point victories. But then Stanford beat Humboldt and UCSB handily and same thing for Humboldt over UCSB. UCSB started out with a 2 point lead against Stanford Y, but couldn't hold on to it and lost 13-4. Not sure why those games weren't closer (on paper). I watched some of the Alameda-Humboldt and UCLA-UCSB games and both looked like tough back and forth battles with long points. Stanford co-coach Robin Knowler mentions that "UCLA looked good - athletic cutters and a deep threat." She explained that UCLA coaches called subs and the team played with a varied rotation during the day. Both UCLA's most recognized players, Anna "Maddog" Nazarov and Pooja Shah played on UCLA Y.

Pool F went almost to seed with Stanford X taking the pool easily. However, UC Davis lost to Berkeley Y, Cal Poly SLO and Chico State. The latter three finished to seed. The only close game (at least on paper) was the 8-7 victory of Chico over Davis.

Pool E was the most evenly matched with four games decided by 2 or fewer points. UC Santa Cruz won the pool followed by UCLA X, Berkeley X, Claremont and USC. Notes from the SC games follow: Round 1 vs. Berkeley X, SC jumped out to an early lead but then the Pie Queens brought it back on some great fast breaks. Then the teams traded points the rest of the way until Sol won the game on a Callahan goal. Lots of zone and lots of turnovers in the rain. Round 2 vs. UCLA X, again SC goes out on a quick early run and just as BLU starts coming back, goes on another run to take half. UCLA had not played a first round game in the rain and was perhaps not ready for the conditions. However, in the second half UCLA definitely picked up their game and found their throws (and especially their continues) scoring the last three points of the game but it was too late as time ran out in the hard cap. Round 4 vs. the hot pink Hellions of USC, the score was lopsided but the points were not easy as Sol won. Round 5 vs. Claremont was another close game. Again Sol jumped out to an early lead but then Claremont brought it back with their own run. On one point they showed great open side flow and on another, great breakside flow. This game came down to universe point and Sol won.

The results of Saturday set up Santa Cruz, Stanford Y, Stanford X and UCLA Y with byes into quarters on Sunday. Sunday's weather was perfect. You could see all the way across the bay to Monterey.

The fields at UC-Santa Cruz overlooking the Monterey Bay. -photo by Shirley Wu

PreQuarters:

Humboldt over SLO
Cal Y over Claremont
Cal X over UCSB
UCLA X over Chico

Quarters:

Santa Cruz over Humboldt (13-9)
Cal Y over Stanford Y
Stanford X over Cal X
UCLA Y over UCLA X (apparently it was a blowout, Y over X)

Semis:

Santa Cruz over Cal Y (13-11)
Stanford X over UCLA Y

Finals:

Stanford X over UCSC 15-8

Stanford was impressive in the finals. Their handlers, namely Kara Johnson and Ruth Emerson, worked the give and go well which set them up nicely to huck deep to a corps of strong receivers. They did not give the disc up very often either - unlike pretty much every other team at the tournament. This coupled with pulls that regularly landed in the endzone and tough D proved too much for Sol.

The three split schools dominated the quarterfinals and beyond with only Humboldt and Santa Cruz able to crack into the top eight. Watch out when Berkeley, UCLA and Stanford recombine their teams to full strength.