Metro East Regionals Recap (team listserve edition)

METRO EAST REGIONALS 2006 RECAP
Rochester, NY April 29-30

2-2, 5th/6th place out of 16 teams

SATURDAY

ROUND OF 16
NYU 13, Vassar 8

We opened Regionals against Vassar, against whom we closed out our Sectional
championship campaign. Confident we were the superior team, we were able to
work through our beginning-of-the-tournament jitters, as well try out a few
of the concepts we worked on in practice earlier in the week, such as the
zone-to-man transition defense. We fell behind early, tied it at 3, then
took half 8-4. Our depth was on display as every Femme played a key part in
preserving our lead in the second half. Mia had 9 assists and 5 d's. Sarah
and Ellen caught 3 goals apiece, while Claire and Amanda each caught 2.
Lisa added 3 d's.

QUARTERFINALS
NYU 11, UPenn 6

UPenn, the 12-seed, upset the much-hyped George Washington team in the first
round. They had a couple of skilled handlers and some hard-running cutters.
But they had only a few subs, so we wore them down with our superior depth
and fitness. The turning point came with the scored tied, 3-3. UPenn
called timeout to set up an end zone play and we surprised them with our
trap-cup zone. We got the quick d, then went the length of the field on a
series of in-cut/dishy passes to score a game-changing goal. We closed the
half with a 5-0 run. Our trap zone defense created many turnovers with Mia
as the monster deep. This was surely the biggest victory in NYU ultimate
history: it put us the final four, two wins away from Nationals, and most
importantly clinched our season goal of reaching day 2 of Regionals. Mia
had 6 assists, 2 goals and 3 d's. Linh had 4 assists and 2 d's. Sarah and
Krisztina each scored 2 goals.

SEMIFINALS
Swarthmore 15, NYU 3

Before we knew what hit us, we were down 3-0. We made it too easy for them
turning it over early and often in our own end. Trailing 6-1, we decided to
sit Mia for the remainder of the day to rest her sore leg, once again giving
our newer players a chance to step up in the second half. Frantzen had a
breakout performance, taking charge of our offense as the primary handler to
move the disc against a very tough Swart defense (Swat kept their top
players in the entire game). Krisztina had 3 d's.

SUNDAY

BACKDOOR GAME
Rochester 14, NYU 9

For the fourth consecutive game, we came out flat, quickly falling behind
3-0. Rochester was an athletic, skilled team that liked to put it long. We
called a timeout during which we acknowledged that Rochester had already
laid out many times and we had yet to do so, so our first step was turn up
the intensity. We also adjusted our defense and played some zone and
zone-to-man transition to slow their vertical game. We traded points the
rest of the half, scoring with our own deep game of Mia's hucks to some
well-timed deep cuts. We eventually switched to a backhand force to give
our downfield defenders a better chance of d-ing their hucks. At one point,
an exasperated Rochester player screamed to her teammates, "Do NOT throw it
ANYWHERE near Mia ok?!" Her teammates agreed. The game's turning point
came with the cap looming and Rochester on top 11-8. We worked the disc the
length of the field only to turn it over on the goal-line. We couldn't stop
Rochester's fast break as they marched all the way downfield to take a 12-8
lead. Unfortunately at that level, against such a quality opponent, we have
little room for error. A lackadaisical couple of points, or one failure to
execute our goal-line offense can cost us the game. But we showed a ton of
character to bounce back from the rough start. At 3-0, Rochester thought
they were in for an easy game but we made them work for it. We got an
opportunity to play well on the big stage - day 2 of Regionals, with an
observer, in an elimination game against a very good team. Outside of our
two primary handlers, Mia and Linh, no player had more than one turnover in
the game. Mia had 7 assists and 2 d's. Sarah caught 4 goals and Krisztina
caught 2. Beth added 2 d's and an assist.

OVERALL...

Ever since Atlantis, Ken and I have been saying that the theme for this
season has been "Exceeding Expectations." When we first heard that your
goal was to make day 2 of Regionals, we thought that maybe, if we got really
lucky we might have an outside chance. After Sectionals we thought we had a
legitimate shot but it would be hard. You guys made it look easy. Winning
a Regional quarterfinal game is HUGE. After we beat UPenn we realized that
we were one win away from a game to go to Nationals and it began to sink in.

But on Sunday we also realized there's a lot of work to be done in the next
year. Swarthmore is 37-0. There's no shame in losing to them this year,
but there's no reason to think that can't be us next year. Remember what it
was like to watch them storm the field after they won the finals screaming,
"We're going to Nationals!" You might have felt a little twinge of envy.
That's not a necessarily a bad felling. It's the hunger that should fuel
you this summer and it has to burn inside you throughout the fall, during
your winter conditioning, and all the way through next year's series. This
was Swat's and Delaware's year. Next year is our turn.

All your achievements -- going from not advancing out of Sectionals last
year to making the semifinals of Regionals this year -- are a testament to
the staggering amount of hard work you each put into this team. You truly
exceeded all expectations.

Ken and I will send a season recap and individual evaluations in the next
week or so. The "evaluations" will essentially be a short list of things
that each of you should focus on this summer.