October 18, 2013 by in Recap with 0 comments
Let’s get this out of the way: Fury is still really, really good. Arguably the best. While the pool wasn’t full of surprises, we got an expectedly tight game between Capitals and Ozone. Perhaps the most surprising thing was that Fury did have some moments where they were pushed.
Round 1
The day opened with Fury taking on Ozone and Capitals meeting with Bent in a Regional rematch.
Fury vs. Ozone was a game of runs. Fury opened with a break against Ozone, but the Atlanta women got back just two points later. San Francisco rattled off three breaks to go up 5-2, forcing the pool three seed to take a timeout. Atlanta roared out of that, pushing Fury to 7-6, powered by the play of Katherine Wooten. The most important string of scores in the game was Fury coming out of half with four straight, creating too big a deficit for Ozone to recover. Fury opened the weekend with a 15-10 win.
Capitals, who had easily handled Bent just a few weeks prior at Northeast Regionals, was met with a much tougher New York squad in round 1. The two went back and forth in the first half, resulting in an 8-7 lead for Caps. Toronto took a couple of early points out of half to stake out the game winning lead, finishing the game 15-10.
Round 2
Ozone and Capitals seemed like a pretty even match up coming in, and the two teams proved it in one of the tightest games on the weekend. After trading scores, Caps would grab the opening break to go up 3-1. Led by the cutting of Anna Hare, Ozone’s offense would avoid any more breaks in the half, with Toronto holding the slim lead at the break. Atlanta took a break to take their first lead, 9-8, early in the second half. After a few more strong points, the lead was cut to 13-10. Caps fought back to make it 14-14, which eventually led to double game point at 15-15. Maddy Frey would deliver a huge handblock and eventually the bookends score to win it for Ozone.
It wasn’t quite as exciting for Fury and Bent, unsurprising for the game between the one and four seed. Bent didn’t make it easy, but Fury wasn’t threatened on their way to a 15-9 victory.
Round 3
The pool one seed versus the pool two seed is usually an exciting affair, and while Capitals’ loss to Ozone may have tempered some of that anticipation, nobody told Caps. They played tight with Fury to start, and netted their first lead of the game after breaking to make it 5-4. A long & turnover-filled point followed, with Fury tying it up at 5-5. Within spitting distance of taking half at 7-6, Caps couldn’t hold off Fury, who battled back to take the 8-7 lead into the break, with Kaela Jorgenson reeling in the huck. The reigning champs opened up a larger gap in the second half, but both teams continued to play sloppily on the way to a 15-9 Fury victory.
Ozone started with a similarly competitive game against Bent, but the score wouldn’t remain that close. Atlanta made a run behind Mo McCamley and Miranda Knowles to take half 8-3. Bent struggled to ever pull within a reasonable distance, falling 15-9.
See more photos from the College Championships on UltiPhotos.