Nationals 2012 recap

This year we went into Nationals seeded last - that's okay!There's no where to go from there but up, right? It was unfortunate that we were missing 3 players - #79 Jahleel (Jello) Bonaobra, #1 Leigh Stewart, and #19 Sarah Innes - as it would have been a great experience for them to develop for next year's tournaments. Our entry pool went something like this: D1 California (Pie Queens) D2 Virginia (Hydra) D3 Iowa State (Women Scorned) D4 Tufts (EWO) D5 Ottawa Gee Gees (us) We had played 3/4 of these teams before, and were excited for the opportunity to rematch. Based on the chatter that was floating around blogs and whatnot, not a lot of people were expecting 20th seed Ottawa to give them much of a game, likely. On day 1 we played Iowa State, and California. We took both teams to high scores, with teams on either side making great plays. The games were long, and went to time cap. Ottawa ended up losing to Iowa State in a close, close game of 14-13 over Ottawa, with the Gee Gees being on defense and Women Scorned taking the last point. Similarly, in the California game Ottawa started up at the beginning. With a lull around half time, the Pie Queens started to come back. Pie Queens for the time-cap win of 14-11 over Ottawa, taking the last three points. On Day 2 Ottawa played against familiar team Tufts EWO in the morning. Tufts had some players who had returned from injury, but so did we. With a slow start from the Gee Gees, Tufts pulled away after half, taking the game 15-9. Props to Tufts who continued this winning streak and took Washington to a close game in the women's semi-finals. Day 2 game 2 against Virginia Hydra was not much better. The Gee Gees were not able to match up with the defenses that Hydra threw at us, and Virginia took an early lead in the game, with Ottawa not catching up in the way that we wanted to. Final score Virginia over Ottawa 15-6. These loses in pool play dropped us to the 13-20 bracket for Day 3. This was not somewhere that we had anticipated being as a team leading up to the tournament - our goal had been to make quarter finals - and for a lot of team members it was frustrating to have 4 early pool play loses. Day 3 gave us an early game against Wisconsin Bella Donna. In our two match ups against Bella Donna earlier in the year, both had been Ottawa losses (15-5 in Nashville, and 11-8 at Keystone Classic). This game, the Gee Gees played as a team, and there was a determination and heart that had been lacking the last couple of days. We didn't pull out the win, but this was the first game of the tournament where coach Ken told us that we "played as a unit" and that made him proud. Final score was hard-capped at 11-10. This loss meant that we played for the 17T/19T spot. We played against Humboldt State, a team that had come out of the woodwork this year, and made some huge upsets in their region (taking 2nd place in the Southwest behind California). Keeping with the trend, the Gee Gees ended up losing in a close game of 15-13, leaving us tied for 19th place at the end of the tournament. Well, we did go up from 20th seed. A 19th place tie isn't much better, but we took most teams to tight games. While some teams may misjudge us, saying that the Metro-East region is weaker, maybe... but maybe not: while the Gee Gees lost all games, we proved that we're a team to be afraid of, and not to underestimate - that we could roll with teams who were seeded 4th, 6th, 8th, etc overall in the tournament and make them fear for their seed. All this being said, the tournament was a great experience for everyone who

was able to attend. The opportunity to play against teams from other regions, play offense against various types of zones, and see the capabilities and strategies from other teams is unmatched. We're excited for "the show" again next year, as that is and continues to be our goal.

Regionals - WIN!

Day 1: Ottawa wins all 3 of their games, gaining a straight-way to quarters on Sunday. 15-5 over Wesleyan 15-0 over Hamilton 15-1 over Rochestor Day 2: Ottawa wins quarters, semi's and finals, winning the only bid to nationals! 15-1 over SUNY-Buffalo 15-5 over Rutgers 11-7 over U-Conn (Connecticut) Final Standings: 1. Ottawa * 2. UConn 3. Rutgers 4. Hofstra 5. Yale (tie) 5. NYU (tie) 7. Cornell (tie) 7. SUNY- Buffalo (tie) 9. Rochester 10. Ithaca 11. Cornell - B 12. Conn College 13. SUNY Binghamton For full results, check out the score-reporter

1st place at conference championships

The University of Ottawa's women’s ultimate frisbee team has returned from Ithaca, New York where they competed in the Conference Championships. Playing against teams from the USA in the USA Ultimate Western NY Div 1, the team won each of their games by convincing scores: April 14 13-2 over Cornell-B April 14 13-2 over Syracuse April 14 13-3 over Rochester April 15 15-6 over SUNY-Buffalo April 15 15-4 over Cornell (Finals) Based on these results, the team advanced to the Regional Championships in Saratoga Springs, NY which will take place from April 28-29, 2012.

Fall 2011

Our fall season was our prep season to get into gear for the rest of our year.

We attended 3 tournaments: Easterns, Carleton Invite, and Canadian Nationals.

Easterns: after a loss to McGill on day one, the Gee-Gees cleaned up their act and rolled through the remaining teams to win it all. Saturday saw pool play against McGill, Toronto A, and McMaster. Saturday's games were against Toronto B, Western, Guelph, and finals versus Queens. The Queens came was tight, with Ottawa pulling ahead near the end to win the tournament.

Carleton Invite: Ottawa scrimmaged Carleton, Queens and McGill, beating Queens and McGill and losing to Carleton. This mini-tournament gave experience for the Gee-Gees, who played these games without key starters Brianna Jaffray, Kathryn Pohran, and Vivianne Fortin.

Nationals: Ottawa attended the three day tournament in Waterloo. The team played all weekend long in extremely poor weather conditions - we're talking wind storm warnings, and horizontal rain. 

Day 1 Game 1 matched up against against Brock: final score 10-5 Ottawa. 

The second game was an extremely close one versus McGill. McGill pulled out the win 9-8 over Ottawa. Ottawa's third and final game on Friday was against host school Waterloo, with Ottawa beating them 10-5.

Saturday's weather was even worse than Friday. Games were so close and very low scoring due to the weather conditions - most teams were only able to score down-wind.

Ottawa's first game was against Montreal, and the Gee-Gees ended up beating them with a final score of 5-4.

That win brought the Gee-Gees into pre-quarters, matching up against McGill B. Rookie players get a lot of play-time, with newcomer Romy Proulx getting her first real introduction to competitive ultimate. Watch out for this girl! Ottawa beat McGill's second team with a score of 10-7.

Quarter finals against Queens - a tough-fought game all around, with Ottawa catching a break upwind. Sweet plays made by "Ninja" Fortin, and handler "BJ" Jaffray takes care of the disc on offense. Starter Kathryn Pohran lays out to make a play on defense and dislocates her shoulder, putting her out for the game. A half-time-cap rule puts Ottawa back on downwind defense after half time, and Queens scores with the wind easily, winning the game 9-8 over Ottawa.

Day 3: Pohran is still unable to play for the day.

First game, Ottawa matches up against rival McGill, who has beat the Gee-Gees all year. Ottawa loses once more, 10-8.

In the 7/8 placement game, Ottawa plays Toronto A. The team plays to get experience, and play time is fairly equal across the board. Players step up into their roles, with "rookie" lines making big plays. Pascale R-C has some great hands, making some quick snatches to keep the disc in play. Captains and vets Laura Evgin and Kaylee Sparks control the disc calmly throughout the game. Finally, Ottawa loses to Toronto 15-10.

USAU College Championships

Making it to Nationals was a huge accomplishment for the Gee Gees this year. We were excited to go to Boulder Colorado, and were entering the tournament seeded 10th.

Day 1

Our first day of play was Friday, where we matched up against seeds 4 and 5 of Pool B (we were B3), Carleton College and Florida State, respectively.

We had a late start, which was much appreciated after our late night arrivals on Thursday night. Our first game against Carleton started off strong, even after coming off a tiring warm up in the morning - remember, altitude does that to ya! Our Carleton game began strong, with the team running hard and taking it to our opponents. We rolled through their zone, and scored some easy points man-to-man as well, taking half 8-3. Our second half was not as fortunate. Whether it was mental weakness or physical tiredness, we let Carleton come back into the game. It finished at soft cap with a score of 14-11 Ottawa. While they were able to come back with several breaks in the second half, we knew that we could not be a single-half team anymore. Our next game was against Florida, a team that we had battled with in San Diego several months earlier who would be out for a much-desired win.

With a pep talk from Coach Ken, our team was ready for battle again. We re-focused and knew that we must work as a team and not individuals in order to get our game-flow and keep it for the entire game. Florida was athletic, and it was a well-fought game throughout the entirety. There were big plays made from both teams, although Ottawa's offensive flow really would not be matched this game. A final score of 15-9 Ottawa secured our second win of the day - we celebrated that evening with Applebees and cake!

Day 2

Our first game on Saturday was against Oregon - our last encounter with Oregon had been at the 2009 UPA college championships when we lost to them in the quarter finals of Nationals that year. We knew that Oregon boasted a team of athletes, who prided themselves on being able to capitalize with their athleticism rather than their value of the disc. The game was indeed a run-and-gun style from Oregon, who transitioned with quick lateral's or give-and-go's to key players (often Julia Sherwood #18 and Bailey Zahniser #4) who would huck it deep for a receiver. However, our defense and offense were a tight match for Oregon in the first half of the game, with points being traded and Oregon taking half at 8-7. The rotation from both teams was tight. The second half of the game was not as close, with Oregon going up a couple breaks after half, and maintaining the lead until the soft cap horn went off.  Oregon ended up winning the game 14-10 over the Gee-Gees, but we certainly exhausted their top end.

The Gee-Gees second match up of the day was against UNC Pleiadies, a team which we had an 0-2 record with. Going into the game we were prepared for long bombs from UNC's Leila Tunnell, and have athletic receivers in the lanes and on defense. Our plan was simple: to run our zone offense system and break through their zone defense for the easy scores. However, not everything turns out the way you plan it. Our offense was not at all according to what we had practiced all spring - our handles were tight and we had trouble breaking through their 4-man cup, and our receivers were not on the ball (we had more than enough turnovers from drops and throwaways). When we broke through the defense and worked it down to the endzone, we could not execute and our turnover resulted in easy huck points for UNC. UNC took half 8-3, and the Gee Gees decided to play it out and rest for our pre-quarters game later in the day. The second half looked much prettier, with the new lines working beautifully through the cup and often right to the endzone. The Gee Gees only scored 2 more points in the second half though, giving UNC a huge 15-5 victory over us.

What we thought was leading us to a pre-quarters game against UNC-Wilmington, actually ended up being our team's downfall. Losing both of our games on Day 2, and with Carleton upsetting Oregon in pool play that same day, put us in a 3-way tie with UNC and Carleton College. A point differential would determine which 2 teams would move to pre-quarters and which would be left behind. UNC +2, Carleton College -1, uOttawa Gee Gees - 6. Our team sadly did not make our expected pre-quarters, and instead we were done for the day and would play for the 13th place tie on Sunday's Day 3. It was a big disappointment for all, but the lesson the whole team learned was that every point counts - winning a game sometimes isn't enough.


Day 3


Sunday rolled in, and we rolled to the fields, catching a glimpse at what may have been our quarter-finals game before we cleated up and started our warm up.

First game: we played against Virginia Hydra, a team that we had never played before. We did not know their style of offense, or their defenses. We started on defense, and Virginia scored an easy offensive point. A little shocked, the Gee Gees roared back, determined not to let Hydra run away with the game off the bat. We scored, and then again, and then some more, taking half at 8-2 and rotating lines all the way through. Continuing with mixed lines in the second half, Hydra scored only one more point, with Ottawa winning the game 15-3. The Gee Gees would move on to play for T-13.

Second game: Tufts. We had seen them before at Keystone Classic in early April, but that was over 6 weeks earlier and a team can change drastically in that time (we did!). Nothing was unexpected, and nothing would be given up. Still rolling lines, the Gee Gees played great against Tufts, contesting the deeps that were going up and really focusing on no-open-side unders as well. The Gee Gees took half at 8-3, and finished the game strong (still with every player playing almost equally!) with a score of 15-8.

While disappointed that we didn't finish in the top-8, as was our goal, the team really came together and ran hard and played well as a team on Sunday - winning games using every single player on your bench sometimes can be a better feeling than ranking high.

A great weekend, a great tournament, and the Gee Gees can't wait for next years USAU College Series! Now, instead of having 5 players who have played at College Championships we have 19.
Giddy up Gee's! We'll be back!

ME Regional Championships

The Gee Gees come out of the Metro-East Regionals victorious! After playing in the cold, rain and wind for the past few months, the Lady Gee Gees got to play in some sunshine in Princeton NJ for Regionals. The team played 5 games on Day 1 of the tournament, winning all of them with a combined 11 points scored against us all day. This took the Gee-Gees to a single-elimination Sunday, where the we played against Columbia in quarters, NYU in semi's, and met Cornell once again in the finals.

After scoring a few easy points against a man-to-man defense against Cornell, the Roses adapted to play zone-defense once again - a very familiar situation for our previous games against each other. The Roses played both a 4-man cup, and a 3-man cup with a pest against key handler Anne Mercier, but we had very competent players who stepped into her role, and we continued to score. 

Key receiver's during the game were endzone stars Tessa "TNT" van Leeuwen, Alisha Zhao, and Gabrielle Robineau-Charette. A final score of 13-8 meant that the Gee-Gees were going to the USAU Championships in Boulder, Colorado at the end of May. The team was so excited, and you could tell from the loud sideline help throughout the game, and the smiles and hugs that went around right after the last point was scored!

Check out the full team results from the weekend below:

2011 USAU Metro East DI College Women's Regionals
April 30	11-4	Yale
April 30	11-0	Cornell-B
April 30	11-1	Connecticut
April 30	11-5	College of New Jersey
April 30	11-0	SUNY-Buffalo
May 1	15-1	Columbia
May 1	15-7	NYU
May 1	13-8	Cornell

Conference Championships Results

So we traveled down to Youngstown NY for Conference Championships... the entire weekend was a weather disaster, but it was fun to play and a great experience for the team. We fought through rain and wind and mud on both days (followed by hot showers and a good meal on Saturday night) to finish the weekend as number 1.

Saturday's games were played against RIT (13-0), Cornell B Thorny Roses (12-2), Cornell A Wild Roses (13-2) and SUNY-Buffalo (13-0). 

Both games against Cornell (A and B teams) were the toughest of Saturday's match-ups. After a close game with Cornell at Keystone Classic earlier in the pre-series season, the Gee-Gees were determined not to let the same thing happen again here at Conference Championships. The athleticism from both teams made these games go the full time length, however the Gee-Gees offense would not be stopped today. With huge hucks from Merk, and consistent zone-O play from handlers Rock and BJ, the Gee-Gees would always find their way into the endzone for a score, with a significant number of points being scored by our speedy cutter Gab. Gee-Gees rookie Tessa Van Leeuwen made some stellar layout D's and had a handblock against Cornell's Wild Roses which amped up the team even further.

Walking up and down the sideline to give sideline help made for more mud puddles to splash through, although that didn't stop anyone from storming the field point after point to celebrate with our team as they conquered on the field.

Sunday's games started off cloudy with peeks of sunshine now and then - we were SO happy!

Walking through opponents Syracuse (13-0) and Rochester (13-0) brought us back to Cornell A - the Wild Roses - for the WNY Conference Championship final. Cornell played a zone-D the entire game, almost taking it right into the endzone before melting to a man-to-man defense. With the high winds (tracked at 35-40km/hour!), this started as a good idea. We started on offense and took the first point, making the game 1-0 Ottawa. However, Cornell took the next 3 points (1-3 Cornell), then Ottawa took 3 points... and so forth... with the Gee-Gee's getting smarter on the field and finally taking half.

There were definitely more turnovers than there needed to be, from both teams. However, we'll say that the hail that started halfway through the game added to that, as running into the hail was slightly blinding and got cold on the hands after a while.

The soft-cap concluded that the game would wrap up at 11 points, and the final score ended up being 11-8 Ottawa. A bit drawn out, but we're working on improving our mistakes : )

See you at Regional Championships Cornell!

See all final scores from WNY Conference Championships HERE

Keep up to date with the Ottawa womens scores: http://scores.usaultimate.org/scores/#college-womens/team/5797