ATLANTIC COAST D-III SECTIONALS

APRIL 22-23, 2017

The Atlantic Coast D-III Conference Championships began on Saturday with divergent narratives developing in each pool. In Pool A, 1-seed Catholic University of America Nun Betta (CUA) won out with the closest contender coming from Elon Wild Rumpus, the reigning Conference Champion (10-5). In Pool B, the games came to closer margins with 2-seed Richmond Redhots coming out on top, followed by the UNC-Asheville Hellbenders, Mary Washington Mary Massacre, and Goucher All You Can Eat, respectively.

On Sunday, aside from Goucher’s solid performance against CUA, the winners of Quarters advanced without much issue. Teams turned up the volume during Semis, featuring two closely fought games. In the match-up between CUA and UNC-A, Nun Betta went up three points to start before UNC-A battled back by throwing zone-D and increasing their offensive efficiency. After CUA took half 8-7, UNC-A responded with back-to-back points to take the lead as the score got capped to 10. While both teams dug deep, CUA forced the game to universe and came out with the final point, ending the game 10-9. On the other side of the bracket, Richmond won the bid to the Championship game despite a strong effort from Elon (11-8).

In the final, the game began with aggressive play as CUA and Richmond traded long points. In addition to their tough defensive intensity, Richmond earned a break through their fiery offensive momentum generated by handlers Jessica Tow "J-Tow" and Bridgette Heine and downfield threat Alexis Porter. From there, CUA went on a 5-point run beginning with an endzone bid from Laurel "Carl" Van Scoy and concluding with Nun Betta up 8-4 at half. While the Redhots came out hard to take the first point after half, CUA took the final two ending with a pass from Bridget "Beef" Finnell to Peggy Stevick (final 10-5). The win earned CUA their first trip to Nationals under the leadership of captains Sarah Abel and Grace Castro, head coach Steve “Scuba” Kreider, and assistant coach Layne Scherer.

Rounding out the rest of the field, the tight match-up in 3rd-place game further demonstrated the depth of the Atlantic Coast with UNC-A beating out Elon by one (10-9). Mary Washington brought home the 5th place game over Goucher (9-5).

The Atlantic Coast Conferences also saw the first tournament appearance of Christopher Newport University Rosemary (CNU), one of the USAU 2017 College Women's startup awardees. CNU opted to attend this tournament over the Atlantic Coast Developmental Conference Championships and delivered a courageous performance over the weekend led by captain and lead handler Caroline Tsui. During pool play on Saturday, CNU pushed St. Mary’s SMUT to universe, and while they were edged out in that game 9-10, they followed with their very first win as a program over Davidson DUFF (5-3).

Layne Scherer is the Assistant Coach for the Catholic University of America’s Women’s Ultimate Frisbee Team, a proud alum of the University of Michigan B-Fly, and has played club for Suffrage out of Washington, D.C.