Come From Behind Victory for UCLA Y

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SAN DIEGO, CA
Nov 18-19
There were twelve local teams at this year's SoCal Warm-up which provided an early look at the Sectional rivals that will be competing for the Southwest region's three bids to the College Championships. This weekend's tournament format was two pools of six which played at different parts of the day due to field space issues. Both UCLA and UCSD brought X/Y split sqads.

Highlighted Player Andrea Romano lays out at Sean Ryan 2005. Romano is still recovering from a car accident that killed two of her club teammates in October

UCLA X won one pool. UC-Santa Barbara won the other pool with UCLA Y finishing second. One of UC-San Diego's split teams beat UCSB, but came in third after losing to UCLA X. UCLA coach Alex Korb explained, "It was hard to judge UCSD since they were split, but they looked decent, but somewhat inconsistent, which I imagine applies to most teams at this point in the season." UCSD will benefit from the addition of former UCLA player Emily Gauthier who has recovered from ACL surgery and is going to grad school at UCSD.

Claremont had its star handler, Syd Fleisher, sidelined with injuries. She is still on the mend after an ankle surgery earlier in the year. One of UCSB's core players was also not at 100%. Although she played at the tournament this weekend, Andrea Romano is currently recovering from a car accident in October that killed two of her mixed club team Gendors' teammates, Will Wiersma and Doug Baker.

The "surprise-up-and-comer" of the tournament was USC. Korb mentions that with the help of the team's new coach, Frankie Rho of open club team Monster, that USC "may have a shot at one of the nationals bids." The team has a lot of athletic rookies and a few key players with experience handling the disc.

In the semifinals, UCLA Y defeated UCLA X and UCSB defeated Cal Poly-SLO. The finals lead to a re-match of UCSB and UCLA Y. UCSB had won the first match-up in pool play and went up 7-2 in the finals. UCLA Y battled back to tie the score just before the hard cap sounded, pushing the game to universe point. UCLA Y got a break to score the final point and win the tournament.

Reflecting on what this weekend's tournament portends for the region's future this year, Korb says, "It is unclear at this point who will be taking the three bids to nationals.  My guess is it'll be some combination of UCLA, UCSD, UCSB, USC, Colorado or Claremont ... probably the widest open it's been in awhile."