May 23, 2015 by Liz Gates and Katie Raynolds in Coverage, News with 0 comments
Pool A
Central Florida (12) vs. Victoria (17), 14-9
In a game with no bracket implications, Victoria fell to Central Florida, 14-9.
Pool B
Dartmouth (7) vs. Washington (11), 14-13
Dartmouth ended Washington’s championship dreams with a double game point win 14-13. This win went to seed, with Dartmouth hustling to win to hold seed while Washington fought to make the bracket.
Dartmouth came out hot with a 3-0 lead and two breaks. Washington gathered their bearings to break back to tie the game 5-5. The teams traded points downwind quickly with motivated looks from Emma Kahle and Eva Petzinger. Dartmouth broke for half 8-6 on a big outside in flick from Angela Zhu to Sophia Siu upwind.
Washington came out of half fired up, but Princess Layout had different plans, breaking upwind with a Zhu put to Petzinger who toed the line to score, 9-6. Washington answered with an upwind score of and a break, 8-9. Washington consistently executed their offense, with Grace Noah and Nora Landri scoring a majority of their goals off longer looks.
But they weren’t able to stop Petzinger and Zhu. Wherever she was on the field, Petzinger got what she wanted, whether it was stalling Sarah Edwards, throwing the game winning assist, or waiting on the wing as a reset for Dartmouth. For her part, Angela Zhu threw 6 assists, and she added a measure of composure to Dartmouth’s game. When Washington wanted to win fast, Dartmouth slowed the game down.
Dartmouth maintained their two break lead for most of the second half. Washington began to rally back at 12-10, closing the margin to 12-11 when the game was capped. They needed a pair of breaks, upwind and down, to continue their season. They earned the upwind break, but Dartmouth responded with infuriating patience, throwing thousands of passes until Zhu found Susman upwind to nullify Washington’s break. Despite Washington working to bring the match to double game point, Dartmouth’s talent was undeniable. Petzinger found Rebecca Leong with a soul-crushing crossfield backhand upwind to win the game, 14-13.
Pool C
Carleton (6) vs. British Columbia (10), 11-9
Carleton came through in the clutch with some patient offense to take advantage of UBC’s mistakes and claim Pool A with an 11-9 win.
The game’s key moment came with the teams tied at 5-5, each with a break. After catching the pull, UBC floated the hitch pass over their handler’s headed. Mira Donaldson – who had assisted on 3 of UBC’s first 5 goals and caught another – charged in for a layout to attempt to save possession, but was unable to catch the disc and remained on the ground. She was forced the leave the game with a shoulder injury severe enough to send her to the hospital and send British Columbia spiraling. Carleton immediately broke once play resumed, taking a 6-5 lead. Syzygy scored two more consecutive breaks to take an 8-5 lead into the half.
Donaldson’s absence created three issues. The first was that it took away their best upwind thrower, allowing Carleton to lock down on handler cuts and more aggressively defend upwind unders. The second was that it allowed Syzygy to move Emily Buckner onto other key cutters on the Canadian’s roster. The third, and arguably most important, was that it yanked the energy straight out of them.
Carleton’s intelligent disc movement allowed them to fight off any comebacks the T-Birds had planned. Lucia Childs-Walker (4A) was again their offensive pillar, consistently breaking the mark. Claire Rostov was also vital to Carleton’s success, particularly with their skilled teammate Katie Ciaglo out for the tournament. Emily Buckner (3G, 3A, 1D, 0T) and Megan Chavez came up with big plays offensively. Chavez and Childs-Walker each had monster handblocks during crucial UBC attacks.
Carleton’s victory vaults them in the quarterfinals and sends British Columbia to the prequarters. The domino effect is that it puts UCLA into a tie with Texas, who advances to prequarters with their head to head upset over the pool’s top seed. UBC plays reigning National Champion Ohio State in quarterfinals, while Texas plays Dartmouth. Carleton matches up with the winner of Whitman and Florida State.
UCLA (3) vs Pittsburgh (15), 14-10
UCLA recovered in this game and confidently beat Pittsburgh 14-10.
The first point had plenty of turnovers from both teams before Pitt found the endzone. They followed up with a break, then UCLA rattled off 5 straight points. Pitt gradually caught up and tied it at 6, but UCLA took half and slowly pulled away.
Like every other game so far this tournament, long points made for a long game, but in this instance neither team looked particularly tired. The first half was full of great defensive plays, with skies and diving blocks commonplace. Unforced turns became more frequent as the game went on, possibly as both teams opened up their lines to combat the long points.
Carolyn Normile kept Danger in the game, with 6 assists and a handful of blocks on defense. She connected with Marla Jacobs multiple times to contribute to Jacobs’ 3 goals, including the break that tied the game at 6. Katelyn Loughery helped out on defense, getting credit for 3 blocks as well as one assist.
UCLA came out to play this game, perhaps in retaliation from a disappointing loss to UBC this morning. Pitt attempted a zone cup on UCLA’s handlers but kept playing man downfield, which did not seem to phase them at all. When they did turn it, it was due to an overthrow on their part. BLU clearly had some players who were more comfortable with the disc, like Han Chen, Julia Tang, and Mel Kan, and Margot Stert. Chen was unstoppable around the disc, snatching it out of the air or throwing for a point. She ended the game with 5 assists and 3 goals. Camille Wilson was the most common receiver found with the disc in her hands in the endzone; she had 5 goals on the stat sheet.
Pitt seemed to realize the game was over around when soft cap sounded. They reached double digits before UCLA cruised to victory, and didn’t seem too unhappy with their last game of the season.
