UCLA and UCSB Return to the Championships

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TUCSON, AZ
April 26-27, 2008

Southwest Regionals was held in Tucson this year and teams had to battle the bright sun as well as each other while fighting for the two bids to the UPA College Championships. With two pools of six, only the top three finishers in each pool had a shot to stay in it and the pool winners went straight into finals.

Saturday

The top three in each pool held seed, with UCLA, Arizona, and Claremont finishing in that order in Pool A, and UCSB, Colorado, and USC finishing in that order in Pool B.

Pool B was the more competitive of the two pools. USC's coach, Frankie Rho, describes the pool as "a nice three-way battle of past (Kali - the traditional power of the SW, along with UC-San Diego), present (UCSB, who along with UCLA is the current class of the region) and future (USC, hoping that we'll get to the top as soon as next year)." All three games between these teams were close.

The very first round of the weekend saw UCSB face off against USC. UCSB's Andrea Romano was playing again (she sat out some previous tournaments due to a foot injury) and was a difference maker with her handling against USC's different zone and junk defensive looks. UCSB started off the game with an early 3-1 lead before USC was able to tie the score at 5's. UCSB got a critical break to go up 7-5 after two unfortunate drops by the Hellions. Riding momentum, UCSB increased its lead all the way to 9-5 before USC closed it to within two at 9-7. Santa Barbara played patiently during the softcap and put in the next two points to close out the game 11-7. Notably, Steve Dugan was a presence on the Santa Barbara sideline. He and Fury club player Jennifer Hanscom have been serving in advisor roles to the team, but at Regionals Dugan was playing the role of an active coach. Rho noted that "if [Dugan is] on the sidelines for them in Boulder, that’s definitely a huge addition for them."

Next up for USC was Colorado Kali. USC had beaten Colorado at the Stanford Invite and was eager to repeat the upset. During the first half, the teams seemed to be trading breaks and Rho described it as "a slugfest between two hungry teams." Colorado took half (8-6) after forcing a quick turnover and putting in a big score to Courtney Verhaalen. Rho noted that freshman Brenna Hokanson was a key player for Colorado, whose throws added versatility to Kali's offense and strengthened the team's handling game considerably (Hokanson was not playing at the Stanford Invite). In the second half, Colorado increased its intensity on defense ("the best person defense I've seen all season," said Rho) and was able to shift the momentum in its favor. Playing straight-up to backhand helped Colorado go on a 6-2 run to close out the game 14-8.

After seeing Colorado play with so much heart, Rho felt that Kali was ready to upset UCSB in the final game of the day. The game for a ticket to finals was tight the entire way, with no team ever getting more than a two point lead. In this round, the wind started to become a factor and UCSB earned an early upwind break. Colorado surged back and jumped ahead to take half 8-7. Rho noted that "as the wind grew stronger, the pressure built on both teams to hold serve and manufacture an upwind break." Colorado had an advantage late in the game, going up 12-10 with the game capped at 13. However, UCSB scored downwind and then answered with a critical upwind goal from Kaela Jorgensen to Romano. On double game point, the Burning Skirts were able to use their momentum to score in the downwind endzone and take the game.

Pool A had fewer close games, with the notable exception of the game between UCLA and Arizona to take the pool and secure a spot in the finals. Arizona's athletic squad brought it to UCLA and the half-time score was as close as it gets, 8-7 UCLA. In the windy round, the first half ate up most of the allotted time as points were often lengthy with multiple turnovers. After half time, UCLA scored two in a row to jump into the lead. The hard cap sounded and Arizona had one last chance to tie the game and push in into overtime, but UCLA prevailed and won 10-8.

Sunday

After the last round of pool play, the teams settled into bracket play with the third place teams from each pool playing the second place teams from the other pool in the road through the backdoor. USC matched up against Arizona for the first time all season and stormed out to a 4-1 lead, aided by a Callahan on the second point of the game by Anne Ohliger. After an Arizona time-out, Scorch moved from its zone defense to person D, modeling its straight-up mark on the D it had seen Colorado play against USC the day before. With this adjustment, Arizona was able to rattle off four points in a row to take a 5-4 lead. USC tied it at 5's, but the young Hellions were not as confident with their offensive looks in the crosswind and Arizona capitalized by scoring the next three points to take half 8-5. The softcap horn sounded during the last point of the first half and halftime ate up much of the remaining time in the round. Although USC scored the first point in the second half, it was too little too late and the hard cap went off on the next point, sealing the game in Scorch's favor.

Colorado took down Claremont 15-3 in the other backdoor game, setting up Colorado against Arizona for the right to play in the game-to-go and see the loser of finals for the last bid to the championships. Although Claremont didn’t make it very far in Sunday's brackets this year, the team has two great players returning (Katie McDonald and Kate Bayliss) and the team is expected to benefit from a top-notch Juniors player coming from Hopkins. The senior-laden Arizona team held its own for much of the game against Colorado, but not consistently enough to keep it close towards the end of the match. Colorado won the game 13-8.

While the Arizona-Colorado backdoor game was being played, UCLA and Santa Barbara were fighting in the finals for the number one spot out of the region. Both of these two teams previous match-ups had been decided by two points in UCLA's favor, most recently a 13-11 game at Sectionals. UCLA kept their edge this time and won the game 12-7.

The final game-to-go is usually the most exciting game at Regionals and this was to be a re-match of the universe-point game from Saturday between Santa Barbara and Colorado. Unfortunately, the heat had taken its toll on Colorado and the team struggled to create the same intensity and energy it had played with the day before. UCSB had played fewer games than Kali on Sunday and the extra rest surely helped as the Burning Skirts were able to win decisively 15-3.

UCSB and UCLA return to the championships as the tournament's runners-up from 2007 and 2006, respectively. This year, both teams will be looking to hold off the competition from the North and earn the coveted trophy.