Wednesday, May 13, 2009

SOL says Goodbye to Seniors

Paula Meyer--#72

Shannon Abbott--#13


Steph Zinken--#7
Your SOLmates will miss you dearly! Thanks for all of your hard work and dedication :)

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

All-Region Voting 2009

Congrats to Robyn Fennig and Anna Hettler for being named 1st Team All-Region and 2nd Team All Region, respectively for the 2009 season.

Anna Hettler
2nd Team Central Region
Anna Hettler may be one of the most under-rated players in college ultimate. Many people remember Anna as the player who dominated others in 2007 Regionals with
one hand, and the other wrapped up tight, just 24 hours after having surgery on her thumb. Anna Hettler has been playing for SOL since fall 2005. She started out as a handler that fall, but was quickly moved to cutter where she began to excel. Anna works hard in and out of practice to be the best athlete she can be, in order to contribute in any way she possibly can to the team. Today, she is a team defensive leader, getting more hand blocks than anyone else. Her huge mark is advantageous in the many zone defenses that SOL utilizes to their advantage. She is big in the air, and is a play-maker. Plus she has awesome throws. He makes sick lay-out grabs, gets up and has a huge smile on her face. She is a threat in all facets of the game. A co-captain from the 2008-2009 season, she was re-elected to serve again next season. She is a driving force for SOL's success, and she has another year to play. Look for major improvement from her next year: look out, she will be scary good.

Robyn Fennig
1st Team Central Region
Interests include:
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defense
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pulling
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jumping
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ultimate frisbee
Robyn was a co-captain for 2008-2009, and will be back for another season with SOL, serving as co-captain again along with Beth Wright
.

The rest of the awards can be viewed HERE.
Congrats to all winners!

Central Region:
1st Team:
Anna Snyder, Carleton College Syzygy (Sophomore)
Jasmine Draper, Iowa State Women Scorned (Senior)
Melissa Gibbs, Iowa State Women Scorned (Senior)
Georgia Bosscher, Wisconsin Bella Donna (Senior)
Emelie McKain, Wisconsin Bella Donna (Sophomore)
Amber Sinicrope, Wisconsin Bella Donna (Sophomore)
Robyn Fennig, Wisconsin-Eau Claire SOL (Senior)

FOTY--Rachael Westgate, Wisconsin Bella Donna (Freshman)

2nd Team:
Julia Busiek, Carleton College Syzygy (Senior)
Christine Rosen, Iowa State Women Scorned (Sophomore)
Laura Bitterman, Wisconsin Bella Donna (Junior)
Courtney Kiesow, Wisconsin Bella Donna (Senior)
Frances Tsukano, Wisconsin Bella Donna (Senior)
Eyleen Chou, Wisconsin-B Atropa (Senior)
Anna Hettler, Wisconsin-Eau Claire SOL (Senior)

FOTY--Magon Liu, Iowa State Women Scorned (Freshman)


Coach of the Year:
Rachel Dersheid, Iowa State Women Scorned

Loooove,
SOL 2008-2009

Nationals Seedings are O.U.T.

Schedule/seedings = HERE

My predictions about who's in the Championship remain the same...I think that Ottawa and Wisconsin are definitely peaking at the same time. The more and more I think about it, I want to pick Wisconsin over Ottawa. I think that both teams are under-seeded, and should easily be the 1 and 2. These are simply, the best two teams in womens college ultimate right now.

Reasons that Ottawa will win:
-Ottawa's roster is stacked with the Canadian Junior Worlds team PLUS players with club nationals experience...
-HUGE victory over UBC at Centex (15-3)
-Big win vs. UCSB at Centex in the championship game (15-11)
-Top Three Players to watch: Anne Mercier (Soph), Alex Benedict (Sr), Danielle Fortin (Jr)

Reasons that Wisconsin will win:
-They don't have any early games...simple fact, their results improve as the day progresses
-Dangerous handlers to cutters who can bomb it deep.
-Solid Defense.
-Top Three Players to watch: Georgia Bosscher (Sr), Emelie McKain (Soph), Frances Tsukano (Sr)

Friday, May 8, 2009

Pre-Nationals Slowdown

Club 2009 season is almost underway for most. Tryouts are right around the corner.

In the realm of college ultimate, it seems as though things have slowed down until the UPA College Championships. All-region/FOTY/COTY voting is completed, Callahan Award voting is underway (http://www.callahan-mvp.com) .

UPA College Championships (Columbus, OH) = 1 week away

D-III College Nationals (Versailles, OH) = 2 weeks away

-Robyn

Sunday, May 3, 2009

More Mind-numbing Blowing, due to Ultimate Frisbee

Nationals....right around the corner. And ultimate is driving me crazy.

Three more regionals going on, and I have an exam at 8 am, Monday morning. I'm worthless for a few more days.

Northwest Region....WTF!? UBC is not going? They looked super strong at Centex beating a super strong Wisconsin team in the 3rd place game. Oregon getting pwned by Washington in the crossover game 5-13, AND losing to Stanford in the semis? They did set themselves up nicely to take that third bid, with a pretty easy game vs. Humboldt State in the backdoor semis, while UBC had a more difficult game vs. California. That's some crazy stuff, from a crazy awesome region. I really wish they had four bids. If there was a cause to argue for an additional bid to a region, I think the pure strength of this region for sure is argument enough. I WISH that I could have seen these games....especially the 3rd place backdoor game. I told Martha it was my prime game I wish I could watch.

New England. I'm a little nervous to see how Dartmouth and Northeastern perform. To say the least, Dartmouth got smoked in the "upper tier" of Centex, where most of these nationals teams fit in. Northeastern got smoked 1-15 by Carleton. I wouldn't mind seeing these teams pull a few upsets, but I'm going to say that they finish towards the back of the pack.

Great Lakes: played out nearly how I had imagined. Other than Notre Dame winning out their pool over Northwestern quite handily. Michigan takes the 1, Illinois takes the 2. As long as it's not too windy, Michigan could place fairly high. Illinois is a personal fav of mine. If they play consistent, they have a shot too. From what I saw of them, they can be a little streaky, but when they're playing well, they're playing well and can hang with some ballin' teams.

Nationals discussions coming soon.

-Robyn

Ultimate Blows Martha's Mind.

Martha says:

Oh my God. I have way too much to do, and can only think about ultimate. I'm not even playing, but I have the need to constantly check score reporter or read rsd. It is still too soon to talk about our fourth place finish at regions. However, I have no problem discussing everyone elses. Seriously. SERIOUSLY. Ultimate is any one's frigging game, and as I watch scores and results being updated, it just proves it. Focusing quickly on the men's Great Lakes region, I have a small addiction towards the men's team at Illinois who took first in their region after being seeded fourth. Beating out Michigan (1) in a semi-final game12-9, going on to beat Ohio State in the finals 15-10 for the championship spot and a guaranteed spot at natties their second year in a row. Just, wow. Congratu-fucking-lations. Regional champs for the first time in six years. I love Illinois. Their women's team is playing sick I hear. I'm writing this before I know their final placement, but I am wishing them the best of luck.

Ok I lied. I'm going to briefly talk about our regionals. All in all, it was a spectacular weekend, and we played our hearts out. It was just not our day. Iowa State is a very strong team, (also full of sweethearts), and for some reason did not pull it out against them. Our first game against them ended up 10-11, extremely close. In the game to go, 9-12. We fought all weekend in pouring rain and wet/cold uniforms, with sick plays and grabs all around the field. Damn you Gibs and your ridiculous hammers to the endzone, and Jazz for your ridiculous 10 foot high layout. You give me jitters. Congratulations to Iowa State and I look forward to watching them at nationals. Next year..look out for SOL. I am a bit perturbed that SOL never got a chance to take on Carleton Syzygy. Regardless of who would have won or not. Our only chance was to play them in the fall at NoWisconsequences, where we did come out with a win; however, they brought a smaller team with maybe 9 players, and missing some awesome ones.

Off the field at regions, there is always a different story to be told. This weekend many players focused on the games ahead of us and made sure to stay well rested. Can I just mention that it is Sunday, one week after regionals, and I think I just became unsore yesterday. That's worse than Centex and Sectionals. Anyway, we stayed in a former EauZone players house 2 minutes from the fields. Nice place. Cole, Brit and I shared a king size bed. It was nice to drift off to sleep as Cole would read us "Oh The Place's You'll Go" by Dr. Suess, or a book called "The Meaning of Life", with lots of pictures of animals. How lovely. Tattoos were put on, movies were watched, stories were told, and pool was played. SOL played a motivating "game" on Saturday evening where everyone circled it up, and shut their eyes. Three people were in the middle, tapping other Solmates that best fit the description of a describing word from a previously written list. This activity is way cooler than it sounds, and brought our team very close and lots of laughs. Words like "best friend", "beautiful", "strong", "fashionable", "unforgettable", "studious", and tons of others were mentioned. You don't know who taps you, but you know someone on the team is thinking about you. :) I love my Solmates.

Tears fell in our huddle after the game. Mostly about how we all pulled it together that second half, but just not in time. We fought hard, but hey, it's over now. Next year. D3 is still in order to be discussed later in the week...

We all went our separate ways after the tournament, a few to my residence in Orono, MN, where grilled food and a hot tub was waiting. Going back to a busy end of the year with school SUCKS. It was nice to still see people coming to practice though. I still got to go to the caf, and play some ultimate. Oh, our frisbee formal was Friday evening. It was an awesome way to put closure on the men's and women's teams seasons. I'll stay out of the sloppy details, but I think hearing everyone devotions throughout the season brought back and made some of the best memories in ultimate ever. Awesome season Eau Claire!

Also, some members of cool squad went night fishing last night. SOL makes fire! But catches no fish..

Why am I writing this and not working on my paper/ad campaign/media plan book all due in the next two days? It's hard to say. I'll probably just blog more, I'm not really close to being done. Ultimate is awesome. You are awesome. Illinois is awesome!

Marfa

Womens College Ultimate--Pre-Nationals Discussion Part 1

Chatter from April 25-26 Regionals

Atlantic Coast: UNC-Wilmington (1), UNC (2)
Central: Wisconsin (1), Carleton College (2), Iowa State (3)
Metro-East: Ottawa (1), Pennsylvania (2)
South: Washington University (1), St. Louis University (2)
Southwest: UC-Santa Barbara (1), Colorado (2), UCLA (3), USC (4)


Robyn:
Atlantic Coast
This one played out exactly how I thought it would. UNC and UNC-Wilmington are really strong teams. The 3rd - 5th place teams are good, but still not on the same tier as UNC and UNCW.


Central
Maybe I'm a little biased, but Wisconsin Bella Donna will be in the semis this year. They are stacked top to bottom. Their big losses were at Centex, in heartbreakers. I think their team has pushed hard to improve since then, and they are looking better than ever. Georgia Bosscher, leading the way, is a Callahan Nominee at the head of the pack of skilled players. Supported by handlers Amber Sinicrope, Emelie McKain, Jenny Koll, and several others...with cutters like Frances Tsukano, Laura Bitterman, Sandy Jorgenson, and Jenny Gaynor playing ridiculous defense and scoring on you all the time. Carleton College...I guess they're peaking at the right time. Ana Snyder is pretty fly. Iowa State is going to surprise some really good teams this year. I think they were completely overlooked by a lot of teams outside of our region. They can play in the worst weather (i.e. Midwest Throwdown and Central Regions) and can hold their own in the good stuff as well. Very versatile, and deep roster. Melissa Gibbs rules the skies, and Jasmine Draper will layout D you with her eyes shut.

Metro-East
I'm really surprised how the Metro-East Played out. Maryland gave Ottawa such a great game in the finals, and lost in universe point to Pennsylvania. That's a real heartbreak. Maryland's Charlie Mercier is one of the best women in college ultimate, and a really great leader. She did a lot for her team this year, and last year. They finished 10th at Centex. Ottawa is one of the best teams out there. They've got some good height and can run for days. The Lady Gee Gees should be looking to finish better than they did last year, in their first UPA College Series and first UPA College Championship appearance, ending in the quarters (placed 5th). Pennsylvania? Where did this team come from. Yes, they won their section, and were seeded 3rd, but they have really been missing on the "upper" level tourney circuit this year. Excited to see how they place.

South
The real Cinderella story of the 2009 UPA College Championships is Washington University. WUWU has made huge strides of improvement that most other teams did not. When we saw WUWU in fall, I did not think they were nationals-contending at all. But when I saw them play at Centex, it was a completely different team. They won the South, and are ready to surprise some people, I think. They beat SLULU, who has challenged some great teams this season, and pulled lots of upsets at Centex themselves. SLULU is very physical, very scrappy, and a great team. My question, is what happened to Texas? They lost to SLULU twice in the weekend, which I think is crazy.

Southwest
Once again, UC-Santa Barbara is leading the pack. Heads and shoulders above every other team in their region (their closest game was in the semis, 16-7 vs. UC-San Diego). They have only lost three games all year; that is saying something big. I think this team is for sure semis, if not finals bound this year. Colorado is peaking at the right time this year. In the fall, they had two losses to UW-Eau Claire, which I'm super proud of. Granted, fall season isn't a huge indicator of a team. But this team is a totally different team from then. Having some strong cutters back in their line-up, they've got a veteran team full of ballers. UCLA...their win over UCSB in sectionals is huge, but I would say that UCSB must have had a bad game. It's not that UCLA isn't good, they finished 3rd in a ridiculous region, but I don't think that they're capable of pulling out that win nine times out of ten this year. Blu is an ultimate dynasty and perennial nationals qualifier. Let's see what they can do. USC Hellions of Troy, despite their pokey skills off of the field, is a great team. They have been putting up good scores against good teams all season, but have come out of the woodwork to get to nationals. They played 15 games within 2 weeks. Pulling out some key wins says that this team is in good shape.