Women's final commentary

I'm taking a cue from Jim Parinella in his play-by-play analysis of the master's final game, although my recap is a little wordier. Here's the link where you can watch the women's final game once you have a UVTV subscription.

Preview: There was a moderate cross-wind going from right to left across the screen (although also slightly towards the camera) and most of the time, the teams forced towards the downwind sideline. Based on their previous games of the season, everyone expected that the final match-up would be another close game that could go either way. I still think it could have become that anticipated tight game if a couple critical points had gone differently in Riot's favor. (Picture courtesty of Bil Elsinger)

0-0. Fury receives and its handlers move the disc past half-field before the D clamps down. Swing, swing to Alicia White with a nice grab. Swing, swing, reverse to Alicia for the goal. You'll see her name a lot in this recap as she had a great game.
1-0. I unintentionally lull Riot into giving me a poach D by admiring my pull a little too long instead of hustling to get my mark onto Jenn Wilson right away. Setting up a cut for Julie Baker's favorite throw (inside-out flick) makes for the goal.
2-0. Fury plays a trapping D, but Riot breaks it with a dump and big inside-out. The wind catches the pass a little and Miranda Roth reads it better than her defender, giving her a wide open backhand to Joanne Harmon in the endzone.
2-1. Tight defense by Smalls (Kathryn Lawson) leads to Fury miscommunication and its first turnover. Riot puts up a big backhand huck, but it's D'ed by Alex Snyder. An unforced dump turnover by Fury (why not throw a forehand instead of a backhand here?), but Riot throws its first pass OB on an upwind forehand. Alex rips a huge backhand huck and then follows the play to get a dump and poor man's break to Bryn Martyna for the goal. Of note is that this is the first point with multiple turnovers and I think it was a critical point in the first half.
3-1. Riot receives and gets trapped on the downwind side. A poacher clogging up the open side eats up some of the stall count and then the dump pass ends up a little behind the receiver. Fury's handlers swing the disc in their endzone O and Jody Dozono makes an upfield handler cut to get into the goal. Watching the Fury handlers move the disc between each other will become a familiar sight during this game, as will Jody getting open up the line with her quickness.
4-1. Fury sets a four-person trapping zone for the first time. Jenn Wilson takes a shot with her big backhand, but I'm able to get the D as deep deep. A Fury overthrow gives the disc right back 25 yards out of the endzone. Fury sets its zone again, but the cup isn't as tight and Miranda finds a hole to Jenn who throws the goal to Joanne. Inches short/seconds late on my bid. Oh well.
4-2. Riot sets its own zone and Jody hammers out of the cup to Julie who throws a hanging pass that Bryn gets up for over Val Dion. Riot transitions to person defense. Some quick passes get off before the D tightens, seting up Fury's endzone offense again where it's swing, swing, swing, swing, goal.
5-2. Fury forces backhand and gets Riot to put up another incomplete backhand huck. A deep forehand is just out of reach of Stacey Schoemehl's bid. Nice grab by Shannon, but Stacey gets a hand block a few passes later and then throws the goal with a backhand break around.
6-2. Riot turns it over (not caught on tape) and Fury again is in its endzone offense, moving the disc laterally. Manu Argilli makes an amazing go-to layout catch past Joanne to keep the disc alive but Fury ends up with its only redzone turnover of the game as Alicia later rushes a pass from her knees. Kari Deleeuw immediately puts up a big forehand huck to Shannon O'Malley who calls a time-out. Then, Jenn finds Miranda for the goal on the downwind side.
6-3. Alex puts up another big backhand huck, but I get fouled after being tripped from behind. Watching the replay, I still think this was a good call as I had position and a play on the disc, but in retrospect the disc should have probably gone back to the thrower since (as I prove later in this game) it's never a sure thing that someone will catch the disc even if they are open. Nonetheless, the observer upholds my call and I get to make Enessa Janes look good going up for the score.
7-3. Riot is trapped on the downwind side again and Val bends a forehand into the goal where Miranda makes a nice diving catch.
7-4. Fury doesn't really have any cuts from the middle of the field and Julie puts up a late count huck to Alicia. Shannon makes an amazing bid on D and gets Alicia to miss the catch (a visual D?). More turnovers, first as a Riot bendy forehand huck is misread, then as a Fury dump pass gets caught up in the wind (and on which Smalls makes a nice D play), then Sprout gets a phantom D on a Riot huck, then a poach block by Kari on Julie's inside out. Next is an odd play where Miranda makes a nice go-to catch (picture courtesy of Scobel Wiggins), calls foul after catching the disc, and then gets up and hucks a big backhand (which is D’ed by Alicia). Essentially forgetting the continuation rule, we bring the disc back to be checked in after her foul call. Regardless, Fury gets the disc back after an errant throw. More endzone offense and Julie makes a sneaky cut to get open in the goal. This was the second point where each team turned it multiple times. Riot really needed to score this point to gather some momentum and score two points in a row.

Halftime assessment: Riot has thrown 5 incomplete and 1 completed hucks at this point on the video. All the incompleted hucks were going in the direction away from the main camera, the more upwind direction. Fury has not hucked once going "upwind" and is essentially 2 for 3 on its downwind hucks. Fury has also been very patient around the endzone, using the lateral space well. For Riot to overcome its deficit, it will have to be more conservative with the disc and put more pressure on Fury's handlers. So far, Riot has generated 3 turnovers with its pressure, while Fury has generated 6, by my count. Still, both teams can clean up the unforced turnover count.

8-4. A string of open-side passes for Fury. Jody tries to toe the goal line and the observers call her in, even though on tape it looks like her first ground contact was in the field proper. Of course, it's hard to tell exactly when she caught it since her body is shielding the disc, so it could have been legit, but she definitely didn’t think she was in and was ready to keep playing. Where's the other camera angle to show us the truth?
9-4. A no-turn score for Riot. Two backhand breaks in a row and Val throws the goal to Maddy Frey who makes a nice catch. Maddy was a rookie on Riot this year and will definitely be someone to watch out for in the future based on her athleticism and poise.
9-5. I catch the disc along the field's midline and my mark bites too much on the forehand fake, setting up a backhand opportunity to hit a wide-open Alicia for another goal.
10-5. Nice active marking by Enessa, but Riot still gets the reset. A pass later, Shannon puts up a forehand huck to Smalls, who makes the catch despite Alicia's backpack bid. Smalls is another Riot rookie this year who had a great season, lots of tenacity and speed.
10-6. Riot gets it a little off the line before I foul Miranda again on an in-cut. I just can't get around her without contact it seems. Obvious no-contest, but her next pass floats a little too much and goes OB. Julie makes a great layout catch to keep a deep dump pass in play
(picture from Massive Imageworks) and then hits Enessa with a nice break. Arlie then quickly hits Bryn for the goal.
11-6. Alex Ds a high-stall Riot forehand huck. Quick Fury disc movement: swing, swing, strike, dish, strike, and then Jody gets overthrown on another up the line cut into the endzone. Okay, so I guess Fury had two redzone turnovers this game. Fury gets it right back as Jody disrupts a misexecuted dump pass on the goalline. Handler endzone offense and Jody catches the goal (with, yep, an up the line cut).
12-6. A big roller pull put Riot on the sideline deep into its own endzone with a four person trapping cup around the disc. They can't quite break the trap and Fury gets the disc on its goal-line. Nice to see how Alicia set up her cut here to get open for the score from Martita Emde.
13-6. Somehow Fury gets the disc back (Riot's turnover edited out). The camera angle shows some cuts developing in the horiztonal stack for a bit. I wish this film angle was used more. Nice grab by Gen LaRoche to keep the disc up. She dumps it to Jenny Hanscom who swings it to Julie who hucks it to Robin Knowler who puts up a blade that gets saved at the last second by Gen in the goal. But wait. Apparently, Shannon called something way back when on Jenny's throw. Offensive foul or travel, maybe? I never found out and can't quite tell what the call could possibly be from the film. The observers overrule whatever it was, so the disc ends up back at Julie. Trademark low forehand break to Robin, but Joanne gets her hand on a dump pass: turnover. Shannon quickly puts up a huge forehand that flies past even speedster Joanne. Fury marches the disc up 70 yards mostly along the downwind sideline, aided by a nice high grab by Robin. The wind then catches a backhand inside-out break and Riot rookie Alyssa Weatherford almost gets the D over Jenny, but Jenny comes down with it and throws the goal to Gen. NW college scouts will want to watch out for Alyssa running the show at Western Washington this season. Seriously.
14-6 Tight D by Alex and Julie on the dumps and Riot puts up a late count desperation huck. Bryn gets the first piece of the disc and I help finish off the D. Fury has the disc to win on the goalline, but Kari comes up with a big footblock of a low backhand by Alex. Maddy makes another nice skying catch on a floaty high release, but then Julie gets a poach block on Liz Duffy (I think there was a foul called on this play, but it was overruled by the observers). Alex puts up a beautiful forehand to me in the goal for the game. I'm wide open and am so excited to catch the winning goal that I remember telling myself, “lay-out if necessary.” Well, I laid out and it wasn't necessary, so I dropped the pass. Probably my most photographed turnover ever. Ugg. Luckily Fury gets it back on a short Riot huck. This time Fury won't be denied. Julie to Alex to me to Lauren Casey to Bryn to me to Alex to Chewie (Joy Chen). Chewie was in full face paint--a tradition she started back in 1997 at Stanford--so it seems fitting that she caught the final goal (picture from Massive Imageworks).

Second half assessment: Riot was 1 for 5 on its attempted hucks this half, while Fury was 2 for 2 of hucks included in the video. More importantly, Riot didn't seem to be able to generate the defensive blocks it needed this half. Riot only got one D all half and didn't cause any other additional turnovers with tight pressure. Meanwhile, Fury got 3 Ds and tough defensive pressure lead to another 3 turnovers by Riot. This difference was rather uncharacteristic of Riot--a team that is known for its tight, aggressive defense. Perhaps its tough semifinal match against Brute Squad took something out of Riot's top players. Or perhaps Fury’s core was just clicking. Who knows.

Interestingly, I think that this year the women's finals had fewer turnovers than either the men's or the mixed finals. In fact, 14 of the 21 points were scored by a team that didn't turn it over on that point. There were still a couple points with lots of turns, and I have no idea how many turnovers were edited out by Rob (I know at least one more of mine was). But still, not bad.

Fury had a dominating Nationals this year, reminiscent of its 2003 run through the field. This is the third time in a row that Fury has won Nationals in a qualifying year for the WUGC (country Worlds), but the team has not had a good track record at Worlds yet. In 2000, Fury placed 4th at WUGC. In 2002, the team lost in quarters at WUCC. In 2004, Fury placed 3rd at WUGC. Rumor is that Fury is determined not to walk away from another Worlds without gold and is making Vancouver the top priority of its 2008 season. Hopefully this time the team can make it happen.