Day Two Women's
by Lindsey Hack and Katherine Wooten

Stanford/Dartmouth: Dartmouth had their best game yesterday in the first round against Colorado, and they look ready to give Stanford another good game. Stanford goes up to a 4-0 lead early, but some of the points are battles, and Dartmouth starts closing with some nice shots from Lorraine Ferron (33) and Lakshmi Narayan (66). Stanford is having a lot of turnovers, but also resting their big players for later in the day. Dartmouth is playing all heart and making great grabs. Enessa has some trouble running the offense without the rest of Stanford all-star cast, but Superfly still powers through the game to reach 15 before Dartmouth can make it too close. Final score: Stanford 15, Dartmouth 10.

Quarterfinals

Brown vs. Colorado - From start to finish Colorado dominated this game. From what was witnessed, it appeared that the Brown team was mentally and physically drained from their pre-quarters game and did not have much left in the gas tank. Colorado looked crisp and led by #42 Carolyn Matthews, they appeared poised to take on semifinals at full speed.

Texas/Cal-Berkeley: Berkeley is still rolling after their pre-quarters win over MIT, and they take advantage of some Texas turnovers to go up 2-0. Texas calls a timeout to regroup, but comes out still rattled and continues to turn it over. Berkeley isn’t giving it back, and they increase the lead to 5-0. Kath Ratcliff is one of the most commanding handlers here; she can dictate the Pie Queen's offense and work the field at will with nice breaks and deep looks. Finally Texas calms down and works it downfield in the zone to put their first up on the board. 5-1. Looking fired up, Berkeley answers back to make it 6-1 and Texas calls another timeout to take away their momentum. The next points are big, as Texas goes on a 7-1 run to take half 8-7. This game is the most lopsided turnaround of the tournament, and Melee comes out of half still in the groove. Berkeley will not score again, as Texas steamrolls the rest of the game to win 15-7. Cara, Tina Woodings (25), and Lorig Hawkins (18) work well together handling, and Tessa Nichols (55) brings down some huge scores in the end zone when Kath Ratcliff pinches in too far. Lisa Short (4) is probably the player of the game though, with no fewer than 7 or 8 sweet d’s for Texas. It looks like Texas has found their rhythm, and is ready to battle in the semis.

<>Stanford/Iowa: I was really looking
forward to this game, and it didn’t disappoint. Iowa is probably the
fastest team at Nationals this year; this quarters match-up was a fun
one. Superfly jumps to an early 4-1 lead, but Iowa never gets upset and
they keep their heads throughout the game. Stanford takes away Iowa’s
speed with a good zone, and even though this isn’t the strongest aspect
of Iowa’s game, Mary Oppold (5), Tammy Kampfe (42), and Mackenzie
Henryson (13) have nice enough throws to work it patiently for some
good scores. Iowa gives the zone right back, getting d’s in the middle
of the field and taking the score to 5-3. The next point Iowa remembers
that they are faster than Stanford and gets a really nice offensive
flow going to keep Stanford on their heels. They pull within one, 5-4.
Saucy Nancy cannot convert the next few points and Stanford takes half
8-4. Coming out after half, the Iowa throwers do a great job of tiring
out the Stanford cup and put two up to make it 8-6. At this point
Superfly manages their offense well and begins to use their chemistry
to get things going. Lauren Casey (11), Jenny Burney (23), and Crystal Cook (#22) are so experienced with the frisbee that the next few
scores are easy and Stanford’s lead increases to 12-7. Iowa never backs
down, but they run out of time (and upwind opportunities) and cannot
catch up. This is the first game of the tournament in which Stanford
actually looks like the dominant team. Their offense is clean and they
win it 15-10.

Semifinals

Washington vs. Colorado - All day it had been windy, but during this round the wind picked up particularly. Washington came out with their four person cup. Washington had some drops and miscommunications in the cup that led to a 3-1 Colorado early lead. Alex Snyder (#4) and Carolyn Matthews (#42) were the main handlers for Colorado and had perfect low break throws through the cup and Matthews was always moving around - giving the UW cup a hard time. After a long point at 4-3 Colorado with multiple drops, Ds (Gallagher of UW with handblock), and tight grabs, Colorado scored with a throw from Jen Wolchansky (#22) for the score. Colorado goes up one more with a poachy D on one of Roth’s throws by Jenn Masamitsu (#25). The score is now 6-3 Kali, and it looks like Colorado may start to run away with this one. But, the Washington ladies go on a little run with Jackie Williams (#37) making sick grabs in the endzone, Fowler breaking the mark, and Gallagher getting Ds on bad Colorado decisions. Washington brings it to eights with Roth turning it up a notch and forcing upwind hucks. Washingtons endzone offense is very patient and integrates Roth about every other throw. Washington goes up 10-9 with an up the line cut from Roth in the endzone. Colorado fought back and at 12-10 Washington, Anne Pogoriler (#15) of Colorado had a devastating foot block on Roth that caused the disc to blade about 20 yards up into the air and behind Roth. Roth turned, launched, and caught the blade one handed to keep the disc alive. Eventually, Washington won that point and distanced themselves from Colorado. Colorado began to look not as deep as Washington and their handlers began to make little mistakes and have less and less receivers to look to. On the other hand, Washington opened up their rotation even more and Gallagher made an insane one handed, full extension, layout grab in the endzone to put Washington up 14-11. The following point featured a timeout from Washington, a few turns, and a eventual score by Washington (Gallagher to Shmitz) to close out the game. Washington moves onto finals to face Stanford in a Northwest regional matchup. Washington has already won against Stanford this weekend, and it will be exciting to see these two teams square off again for the championship game.