Regionals 2009 Recap: (Womens, Open, Mixed)
WOMENS
By Mia Iseman
Showdown wins the South Regional Championship!
Texas Elite women's team Showdown traveled to Atlanta on Oct 3rd and 4th to dominate at the South Regional Championship. The team, which consists of several Austin players as well as all-stars from other cities throughout Texas, was ready for some action. Under the leadership of veteran gunslingers Tina Woodings and Cara Crouch, they outplayed some talented new teams. Saturday's closest match was against Top Shelf, an Atlanta team including two former Austinites, Leigh Gorman and Marta Puyana. The veterans' solid throws challenged Showdown to win it with their fitness and suffocating defense, resulting in a 13 to 11 Showdown victory. So who did Showdown beat in Semifinals on Sunday? That's What She Said. (No joke. That's a team from Dallas.) The game pitted Texan against Texan in a spirited match that Showdown won handily. That's What She Said took fourth place and third place went to the young and athletic FLO from Tennessee.
Showdown advanced to the finals, a rematch from the year before against Atlanta's Ozone, longtime powerhouse of the South Region and first seed in the tournament. Showdown started the game on defense and quickly scored a break. The teams ran hard and traded points until Ozone took half 8 to 7. Showdown stepped up their psycho D, with amazing plays from Nathalie Guimard and Lindsay Lowe Worthington. The team's quick movement on offense and deep roster including some talented Young Guns led to a 14 to 12 victory This is the first time Showdown has beaten Ozone and earned a well-deserved South Regionals Championship. The sharpshooters are looking to make some noise at Nationals and better their 2008 6th place finish. Yeehaw!
Follow Showdown at http://twitter.com/txshowdown
OPEN
By Marcus Gavin
Two Austin based open teams earned secured bids to this year's South Regional tournament in Atlanta, GA: Seuss and Doublewide. Riverside also earned a bid, but they decided to offer it to another team willing to make the trip. Going into the tournament, Doublewide was seeded second while Seuss came in as the 10 seed. This set up a potential rematch in the second round of the double elimination bracket if Seuss could upset the 7 seed Uproar from Tampa. Unfortunately, the athletic Seuss boys fell to Uproar 12-15 and dropped down to the back door bracket. Doublewide easily beat Baton Rouge's Turbodog in the first round 15-0.
In the second round, DW and Seuss switched opponents. Seuss continued where DW left off against Turbodog, and they won 15-12. Meanwhile, the early morning start and Uproar's feisty play combined to give DW all it could deal with in the second round. Uproar played hard, and were it not for a few early breaks in the game, DW may well have been sent to the back door bracket. Several long multiple turnover points resulted in the game getting capped at 12-8.
The close game against Uproar must have woken up DW as they came out fired up in the semi-finals against Tanasi from Tennesee. After trading to 2-2, DW rattled off 6 straight breaks to take half 8-2. DW took the momentum into the second half winning the game 15-5. In it's third game, Seuss found itself in a tight battle against Birmingham's Ironside. The game was close with a lot of great plays by both teams, but in the end, Ironside won on ultimate point 15-14.
Eliminated from the tournament, Seuss showed up ready to cheer on DW as they took on Atlanta's Chain Lightning in the finals Sunday morning. As usual, the game was close in the first half. Chain broke early in the game, but DW got the break back with a great handblock. Back on serve Chain took half 8-7. DW came out fired up in the second half, but the Chain offense gave DW no room for a comeback. They had no turnovers in the second half and broke doublewide serveral times to take the victory 15-10. DW still had a chance to secure the second bid to nationals, but they had to beat Tanasi a second time to do so. In a game very similar to the on one Saturday, DW overwhelmed Tanasi and won the game 15-6.
For a play by play recap of the DW games, go to the DW twitter page linked below. There are also links to the tournament results on the UPLA website and a blog entry with detailed recaps of several games.
http://upa.org/scores/tourn.cgi?div=20&id=6093
http://monup.wordpress.com/
http://twitter.com/doublewidetx
MIXED
By Colleen Conrad
Over the weekend of October 3-4, three Texas teams traveled to HOTlanta for Southern Mixed Regionals, including Austin’s own Chewbacca Defense. Joining the Texas train was Burning Mammoth from College Station, and the always-Spirited Tlacuache from the South Texas Valley. The tournament format included 14 mixed teams from Florida, Tennessee, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. The teams were split into two pools of seven who would play games to eleven.
Following Chewy’s 2008 Regionals Championship, the 2009 Chewbacca Defense roster saw a number of changes, making it simultaneously athletic and relatively green. Though it showed moments of greatness throughout the season, the team was still working to establish its chemistry and cohesiveness as it headed into Regionals. Chewy went 5-1 in pool play, losing only to the soon-to-be Southern champions and 2008 Nationals qualifiers, Atlanta’s Bucket. Though the game was hard-fought and the teams were relatively well-matched, Bucket’s team defense and experience proved successful.
As Chewy continued its run for a bid to Natty’s, they faced off against yet another Atlanta team, Midnight Train to Georgia, in the quarter-finals of the back-door bracket. They saw a familiar face in Train’s Zong Law, formerly of TUFF and Doublewide. Despite Law’s solid leadership and handling, Chewy’s stifling person defense kept the game well in hand and Austin came out on top.
Chewy’s D proved strong throughout the entire tournament, forcing turns against the offense of every team it faced. Unfortunately, Texas’s top seed struggled with scoring efficiency, and wasn’t able to convert on all of their opportunities. At the end of the long weekend, they were not able to string together adequate chemistry, and were eliminated by Atlanta’s Rival in the semi-finals of the back-door bracket.
The Texas love was evident throughout Southern Regionals. The Chewbacca Defense-Tlacuache game was—as always—fun and Spirited, and concluded with Tlacuache’s signature Spirit Circle. That good will went on to include Burning Mammoth’s enthusiasm as well. Though Chewy didn’t play Mammoth in Atlanta, they cheered on the team from College Station as they faced Atlanta’s Rival. Later, as Chewy battled Rival in the semi-finals of the backdoor bracket, Tlacuache provided much-needed and appreciated sideline support against the hometown favorite. Texas can truly be proud of the way that our state was represented at Southern Mixed Regionals, both on the field and off.
Final Standings:
1. Bucket (Atlanta, GA)
2. Jukebox Hero (Jacksonville, FL)
3. Rival (Atlanta, GA)
4. Chewbacca Defense (Austin, TX)
