Scobel Wiggins Photography

Starting with our D-Line.

Handlers
Andrea Jung, aka Chowdah, will be guarding any handler. You'll see her flying through the air getting layout-D's or bouncing around on the mark getting handblocks. Her signature move is a swan-dive-layout-defensive-catch. She is not afraid of pulling the trigger, with very accurate aim, and has one of the sharpest forehand laser hucks in the game.

By her side shutting down any squirrelly handler is Anna Nazarov, aka Maddog, also want to leaver her feet and destroy dreams of completed passes. Her speed prevents much forward handler movement, and her mark is yes, doggedly stifling.

Rounding out our D handlers is Tasia, old-school UC Santa Cruz captain turned prominent Canadian Traffic controller. She is solid, consistent and will lead the D handlers with her plethora of experience, playing styles and leadership roles. Tasia makes excellent decisions with her long throws but is never afraid to reset to work for a better look. When we play zone, she'll secure the back of the field as a critical communicator, showing great field vision and anticipation in her Deep-Deep position.

Cutters
Leslie Calder, with her veteran expertise, legendary speed and wily mind will be joined by Cate Foster, Maddy Frey and Anna Neraassparklingbeckley. Cate Foster is coming off of an "awesome" showing in Taipei, where she demonstrated huge bids and nasty speed to blow by her opponents and never let them the chance to touch the disc. The advantage my downfield defenders have is certainly their speed, but not only—they are first and foremost excellent athletes, that can read the field, player positioning, angles, and are NEVER afraid to make a play in the air, on the ground, or in their mind to gain advantage. These four runners are just that—not merely super speedsters but women with endurance to earn run-through D's game after game after game until the concluding points of Finals.

Finally, once we get the D, which will be after a mere few passes, I trust anyone on this team to pick up this disc and get moving. Our strength is certainly taking advantage of a quick turn and busting on the fastbreak for an immediate score. If the offense sought it better to set up in formation, we'd run a flat stack to give our cutters as much room as possible, or better yet a spread, to really open up the middle of the field and give each speedster free range to blow deep or push their defender to respect them back for a huge gain on the undercut.

Here are two versions of our zone. The Four-Person-Cup:

• Cup: Maddy, Maddog, Chowdah, and Leslie
• Short-deeps/wings: Anna N. and Cate
• Deep-deep: Tasia

Or a more traditional Three-Person-Cup:

• Cup: Tasia, Anna N., and Maddy
• Short-deep: Cate
• Wings: Chowdah and Maddog
• Deep-deep: Leslie

And now for the offense:

Handlers
Kathy Dobson, Yuki Mori, and Aleja Torres will create the foundation of our offense.

Kathy's patience, experience and reliability is the anchor of this handler bulwark, with the field vision, strategic mind and deliberation necessary to ground a dynamic group.

Yuki and Aleja are our international not-so-secret weapons: Yuki was one of the leaders of the Japanese Women's team at Worlds in Vancouver last summer, assisting around 30 goals for her team's run at the gold metal. Yuki also was selected for the co-ed Worlds team to represent Japan in Taipei this July, confirming her excellent handler skills. We'll look to her for her incredible quick first step, up-the line cuts and squirrely give and go movement. While Kathy will be more of the conservative handler, Yuki and Aleja intend to push downfield and pound the disc forward with short, crisp passes. Aleja's IO forehand is virtually unstoppable, and her forehand canons will be sending our cutters well into the endzone. That being said, all three of our handlers have the green light for sending bombs into scoring territory. They all have equally dangerous forehand and backhand hucks, but in additions excellent reach in their pivots, so even marking straight-up will not prove detrimental to their throwing prowess.

Cutters
Where to start with all this speed and talent...? The speed, quickness and vision of all our offensive downfield cutters will allow us to begin from any number of offensive sets, ultimately only a starting position for smooth improvisation and seemingly effortless scoring.

In a horizontal stack, Georgia and Lindsay will be our middle initiator cutters. They both have excellent throwing skills which make them a threat to catch the disc underneath, and both demonstrate impressive athleticism when in the air or flying to catch a disc wide or far, so that they are deadly if given the away. They can get open on moment's notice, and play off instinct—they are young, candid, unmerciful and with endless energy to jumpstart the offensive set.

In this ho-stack, Gwen and Vivian will be the outside lane cutters—after years of playing at the highest level of women's ultimate, their experience and field vision will greatly increase our ability to leave space for the middle cutters and create crushing continuation cuts. Both Gwen and Vivian have solid disc skills, so once in motion all cutters can flow in the offensive cycle, freed from an oppressive, permanent position. Both Vivian and Gwen are dominant in the air; their height, aggressiveness and relentless desire to keep possession will translate to countless scores. While Lindsay and Georgia offer an uncontrollably fresh juice of excitement and youthful glee, Gwen and Vivian bring well-oiled pasts of superior play to the offensive stage. Gwen's leadership positions throughout her college, club, and world-caliber teams will provide visionary offensive strategy with the best athletes in the game.

Either Georgia or Lindsay or Gwen would also be a choice ISO cutter, should we choose to start our offense with a central node. Otherwise, a spread stack with Georgia and Gwen on one side, and Lindsay and Vivian on the other, will optimize that open middle space, leaving maximum field for our cutters sweet jukes and full gain of yardage.

In conclusion, my O team is unstoppable, and my D team will crush. When's game time? Let's get this party started.

Underground is a new Women's Ultimate team from Seattle in 2009. Their drafting was led by Berkeley alum Heidi-marie Clemens.