close
close
powertid

DI College Championships 2024: Center Pass Day Three (Women’s Division)

Vaseline

After three rounds of drama, only Stanford can deny a UNC four-peat

May 27, 2024 by in Summary with commentary
Vermont’s Emily Pozzy surpasses Mika Kurahashi’s goal at the 2024 College Championships. Photo: Sam Hotaling – UltiPhotos.com

Ultiworld’s coverage of the ultimate 2024 college season is presented by Run Ultimate; all opinions are those of the author(s). Find out how Spin can ensure you and your team look your best this season.

Welcome to Centering Pass, Ultiworld’s articles on tournament news and event stories you need to know.

VERONA, WI – After a hectic day of action on the field complex, Stanford Superfly will face three-time defending champion UNC Pleiades for the national title after both storied programs came back from four-goal deficits to win 14-13 on universe point. For much of the second half of both semifinals, it looked like the final would be contested between Vermont Ruckus and Colorado Quandary, but in the end Pleiades and Superfly could not be denied.

Stubborn Stanford, unbent UNC

In the beginning, nothing went right for Stanford. In wet and windy conditions, Superfly gave away a series of break opportunities to Ruckus which the New England champions were happy to take advantage of. It didn’t take long for Vermont to build a 6-2 lead in the first half, a lead they held at 8-4 at halftime.

After getting a chance to reset, however, the vaunted Stanford defense stepped up and pulled themselves back into the game with three straight goals to start the second half. Macy Vollbrecht was outstanding as she led Superfly with seven assists and five blocks, while Anika Quon continued her impressive return from injury with a 3G/2A/3D statline. Ruckus was able to regain a lead late largely thanks to the efforts of Kennedy McCarthy (2G/4A/4D) and Isabel Berman (2G/1D), but it was Vollbrecht who had the final say with the final two assists of the match. Stanford advanced to the program’s record-extending fourteenth final.

Although UNC had to make their aforementioned comeback from four goals down, unlike Stanford, they had the lead at halftime against Colorado 8-7. As slim as the lead was, the Pleiades were still in a position to build from there on their way to a final straight appearance for the fourth time. However, just as Stanford had done just half an hour earlier, Colorado emerged as a much better team in the second half, going on a 6-1 run in short order to take a commanding 13-9 lead.

Faye Burdick was Quandary’s key finisher against Pleiades as she scored a quintet of goals along with a pair of assists and blocks, while Clil Phillips and Stacy Gaskill provided the defensive stopping power that fueled Colorado’s second-half surge. Being the defending champions, however, UNC would not go into that good night quietly. After two marathon points for the meat grinder, punctuated by a surging Theresa Yu-lay catch, it was basically all UNC down the stretch. They added three more goals to end it, with Dawn Culton finishing off Colorado in style with perhaps the play of the season to secure the final goal and keep Pleiades’ title defense hopes alive.

Full recaps of both semi-finals will follow soon, and subscribers can watch both semi-finals in our video library.

Carleton comes close, tufts fall late

After their top performance in Pool D, you’d be remiss not to think that UNC, with their title-winning pedigree, wouldn’t advance to the semifinals as they have done the past three seasons. And yet Pleiades’ victory over Colorado in the semifinals was their second match of the day that came down to that final decisive point. Led by the indomitable Tori Gray (2G/3A/3D) and the sharp throwing of Mia Beeman-Weber (4A), Carleton Syzygy pushed UNC to the brink but fell short by the universe, 11-10. Theresa Yu (5A) and Sarah Combs (6G) were the standouts for the Pleiades as they held a narrow lead all the way to the barbed wire in the second half.

UNC’s semifinal opponents, Colorado, were also in danger of dropping their own quarterfinal as Tufts Ewo held a late 13-12 lead before giving up a final 3-0 run, allowing Quandary to run out 15-13 winners escape. After eliminating the top-placed UBC Thunderbirds in the pool, Ewo was determined to make the most of their opportunity and raced to a 3-0 lead before Quandary could catch his breath. Emily Kemp added to her tournament goal tally with a quartet of scores against Quandary, and Lia Schwartz showed off her throwing prowess with a half-dozen assists to fuel the Tufts offense. Even with those stellar performances from some of their star players, Ewo faded along the way and the near-perfect play of Faye Burdick (2G/5A/2D/1T) ensured Colorado would reach a third consecutive late-bracket showdown against UNC.

In the other two quarterfinals, Vermont and Stanford both controlled their fates from the start against UBC and Oregon Fugue, respectively. Ruckus jumped all over the Thunderbirds early as they took a 5-1 lead and never looked back, while Superfly opened with an only slightly more modest 4-1 lead. Whether due to injuries to key players (UBC) or relative inexperience (Oregon), neither underdog team could mount the comeback wave necessary to overcome their early deficits.

Summaries of the quarter-finals will be published in the Ultiworld live blog.

Chalk wins in the front quarter

As the headline says, the opening round of the day yielded only poor results, as every higher-ranked team won and in largely dominant fashion. Oregon thumped UC San Diego 15-3, Colorado rolled over UPenn 15-5 and UBC defeated UC Santa Barbara 11-9 as they led wire-to-wire. The only real warning during the round came in Carleton’s match against Michigan, when Flywheel had a 7-5 lead in the latter stages of the match, only for Syzygy to score five straight goals as the favorites won 11-8.

Summaries of the matches for the quarter-finals will be published in the Ultiworld live blog.

  1. Jenna Weiner

    Jenna WeinerJenna Weiner

    Jenna Weiner is a Senior Staff Writer, co-host of Ultiworld’s Double Overtime podcast, and considers herself a purveyor of all levels of ultimate. She’s mainly played on the west coast, but you’ll likely find her in the nearest ultimate game available.

TAGGE: USAU College DI Women’s, Anika Quon, Carleton Syzygy, Centering Pass, Centering Pass 2024, Clil Phillips, DI College Championships, Dawn Culton, Emily Kemp, Faye Burdick, Isabel Berman, Kennedy McCarthy, Lia Schwartz, Macy Vollbrecht, Mia Beeman -Weber, presented by Spin Ultimate, Sarah Combs, Stacy Gaskill, Theresa Yu, Tori Gray, UNC Women’s

EVENTS:

TEAMS: , , , , , , ,

Related Posts