Women’s Nationals Recap
Linsday Lowe Worthington throws to Cara Crouch against Zeitgeist.
by Tina Woodings
It’s all about peaking at the right time.
After a laid back preseason starting in March Showdown’s true season began in July. Their first tournament was only one week after their first practice and it showed with a less than stellar performance. Over the next two tournaments leading up to Sectionals the team placed emphasis on creating chemistry and developing its players through equal play time. The tournament scores didn’t necessarily reflect where they wanted to be as they suffered losses against many of the teams they would need to beat to play up to last year’s 6th place Nationals finish.
UPA Club Nationals- Sarasota, Florida
Day 1
Showdown’s pool was perhaps the most difficult with Riot, the #1 seed and Ozone, a team from their region who is consistently a quarters or semifinals finisher. They held their #2 seed in the pool by beating Wildcard (16) 15-10 and Ozone (9) 15-12.
Day 2
Unlike most tournaments, day two crosses over with two games against the top two teams of another pool. Showdown needed to win one of the two games to skip pre-quarters that evening and go straight to the quarterfinals on Day 3. The Capitals (2) from Torronto/Ottawa played an extremely clean game frequently hucking to key receivers and Showdown was unable to break their offense. Final score was 15-7. Fired up to not play a 3rd game, Showdown took half against Zeitgeist (6) 8-3. Zeitgeist made a comeback during the 2nd half preying upon offensive errors bringing the score to 11-9. Showdown buckled down and finished the game 15-10.
Day 3
Modifying their standard warmup to include a short scrimmage, Showdown came into quarters ready to play. The score was tied much of the first half, but Brute Squad (4) was able to break them and take half 6-8. Brute played a solid 4-man cup which Showdown had trouble breaking, and Brute was able to convert. Final 11-15.
Showdown was not too down about the loss. They had their eyes on a bigger prize—qualifying for Worlds in Prague July 2010. The US has 4 bids for the women’s division. With the Capitals, a Canadian team, already assured a top-4 finish, Showdown could still qualify with a 5th place finish.
Their first game to get there pitted them against Ozone, a team they already had faced twice since Regionals. With the score mostly tied during the first half, Showdown was able get a break and take half 8-5. During the second half, Showdown continued to play a clean offense and won the game 13-8. The 5/6th game was against Zeitgeist. Similarly played as the day before, Showdown was able to take half and secure the game 14-9.
One key reason they performed so well at Nationals was due to newly added coach, Allen Clement. It’s due in no small part to his leadership, game-knowledge, and generous giving of time that Showdown had its highest ever Nationals finish at 5th place.
Showdown now looks forward to some time off and then gearing back up to make a run at Worlds. Thank you to all of the fans, friends, and family that cheered us on this season.
