University Women's Outdoor Regionals 2019
Sophie Tran, Emily Beatty, Anna Anossovitch, Abi Marklew (coach), Catherine Tran, Panna Chauhan, Kasia Warburton, Becca Harwin, Emily Hoyt, Fi Chang, Helena Andres
Saturday
SBW v Oxford (9-5)
This was a slightly sleepy start to the day for both teams, with Cambridge definitely waking up first (#closertohomeadvantage). We gradually got our flow going on offense, with Abi calling both our horizontal and vertical stack to keep us thinking about our cutting patterns. There was some great person defence from Cambridge, especially when marking out the dump. We also had the chance to find our feet with our zone, and were able to put much more pressure on their handlers as we found the holes and adjusted. We've decided that this was the real Varsity match.
SBW v Imperial (5-11)
Imperial was a strong team, with very confident handlers and plenty of deep looks. The jump in level really took us by surprise to start with, and they took half easily as we struggled to keep up. However, we came back from halftime and focused on our basics, taking higher percentage options with confidence and not letting ourselves get intimidated. Our level of play really stepped up, and we went on to score 3 points in a row in the second half, including a beautiful example of a well-timed end zone cut from Kasia (despite her emphatic protests that she wasn't free).
SBW v UEA (3-10)
This was a really fun, well-spirited game. We came out on defense and put on our zone, which had improved so much throughout the day and resulted in a very long first point. For the next few points, they capitalised on fast turns and were able to score a few quick points to take the lead. However, we kept pushing them hard, utilising our swings to work it up the pitch and then executing our endzone play, with some great iso cuts from Noss and Jemima.
Sunday
SBW v Sussex (9-1)
It was a cold and wet start to the day for our Sussex game. We came out looking to play hard defense, focusing on taking away the unders and hoping to force Sussex to take less comfortable options. Sussex had to take on lower percentage deep shots, which were tough as the wind was picking up. As the game went on, we lost ourselves slightly, taking downfield looks that weren't on but then regained our focus to finish the game with a comfortable win.
SBW v UCL (2-9)
This was a well-fought game from Cambridge, which isn't quite reflected in the score-line. We put what we had learnt in our zone offence trainings into practice, and gradually worked it up the pitch on many occasions. There was some great handler movement, with give and goes through the middle and swings across the pitch to break their zone (#cutterscanhandle). On defence, we worked hard to stop the up the line handler cuts, but UCL's athletic cutting and big around breaks rewarded them with some quick scores.
SBW v Surrey (3-6)
The wind had really picked up by this point in the day. There were some really long points, and we did a great job of pushing hard through all of them, especially as this game had lots of deep looks from both teams. It was enjoyable to play a more expansive offensive game and take on those deep shots, something we which hope to take forward and keep practising for nationals! On defence, we focused on shutting down their handler movement and did a great job at shutting down the dump behind, and also got better at protecting the up the line. Surrey were able to get a couple of upwind breaks by maintaining their focus near the endzone, and took the game. This loss meant that we finished the tournament in 5th (#threewaytie), qualifying for div 2 nats. It was so much fun to finally play an outdoor tournament together and put everything that we'd been learning in training into practice, especially with so many new faces on the team this year. We're excited to see what they bring to nats!
MVP: Noss
MSP: Emily Beatty
