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Team Underground is a very strong team but will have some significant problems with matchups on D and with getting open on O. Leslie Calder is one of the best women to ever play the game and a personal role model, but she may not still be the player she used to be. If she were on the O team, I would say no big deal, she'll still draw a great defender, make things happen and be aware of making her teammates look good if not still dominating everyone. As it is, on the D team, she along Tasia and Andrea may have a hard time covering the folks they need to cover to allow Maddog, Anna and Cate to take the faster folks downfield. On O, I think Team Underground may be looking at too many potential turnovers and a strange combination of folks who are just breaking into the womens' scene and not quite ready to lead an offense without getting frustrated. This team will be relying on Gwen and Georgia to bring them through and in the end, two great individuals can't beat a great team.

The Huddle's team has a lot of fantastic players with lots of great experience. The offense should have no problem scoring with Alex, Deb and Lauren behind the disc. Lauren always knows the right cut to make, the right pass to throw and rarely makes unforced errors. This composure in combination with Alex's unbelievable breaks and Deb's giant hucks should prove unstoppable, not to mention the fact that they can huck it to some of the best deep cutters in the game, particularly Slap and Manu. Manu has also developed her throws and used them more in the last few years to dominate both the under and away space. I believe this team may have problems matching up against other teams' O-lines—their D team is comprised of too many people that I would not particularly consider D players. While Drew, Claire and Katherine can all play defense, they are all much more comfortable as O-line players and are not multi-dimensional defenders. Cree, Jess and Amy are ridiculously fast and Liz has a great mark, no doubt. But if another team has fast smart handlers, or multiple wily O cutters that can't be beat with speed, this team could suffer.

The key for Team Michelle is to start on D and stay on D. Cara, Angela, VY and Pogo in particular are some of the most experienced and accomplished D players in the country. They can guard many different types of players. Combine that with the speed and individual defensive power from Shannon and Shanye and you have an incredibly dynamic D team that can absolutely score and score quickly when they create turns. The O team, while looking great on paper, had better score without turns every time or they might be in trouble. Dom, Nancy, Mo and I were never known for our speed or individual D and some of us are getting toward the twilight of our careers. While we have the power to dominate on O, we would certainly have to rely on our younger teammates (Enessa, Shmi and Rana) to help get the disc back if we fail on our first offensive shot. However, it is tough to overthrow Enessa or to overpower Shmi or Dom so this O team will be a force to be reckoned with.

Five Ultimate has Viv, Jenn and Becky: three of the most powerful, versatile and dangerous throwers in the game. Defenses would have to adapt to these three and would most likely look to play more junk than person for fear that they could get a few quick handler passes off and then put the disc to a fast cutter like Kate or Liz anywhere on the field. This O-line could suffer once the disc gets to the cutters, however, there are no dominant throwing cutters on this O-line so this team would want the handlers to put it to the endzone pretty much every time. Five Ultimate's D-team is also very interesting. They have some of the best one-on-one defensive players in the game with Kira, Surge and Loriana and a great puller (as long as they stay in bounds) in Val. Skyla is also a FANTASTIC pick—someone who plays coed generally but could dominate women's ultimate on D or O with her athleticism. Unfortunately for this team, defense is more than just individual talent and I think that other teams could exploit this by isolating cutters and running lots of aggressive handler motion.

UltiVillage has a very interesting team all around. The general theme of the UltiVillage squad is experience and composure over youth and athleticism. I get the sense that this offense would be stingy and would churn the unders with Julie as an initiating cutter. Jamie and Kath both have great breaks but would have to be patient and work with each other most of the time to get the most out of this offense. Jen would be in charge of the occasional deep strike, most likely from Julie or other cutters rather from the handlers directly. The D team is also a very accomplished composed team that can play possession O with the best O-lines out there. The challenge for them would be to use their smarts to play some junk D. A1 (Alicia), Alyson, Lindsey, A-M and Chelsea are all some of the most intelligent women's players around so I'm sure they could think up something exciting to create blocks or fluster other teams at the very least.

Overall: I think that The Huddle's team is the strongest and would win in a tournament between these four teams. There is really no answer for Deb's hucks and Manu's cutting power. The only changes I would really make to this team is switching some D-line folks (Claire, Drew, Katherine) for O-line (Manu, Alex, Slap) to really use the best that each individual has to offer. The beauty of this team above all others is that pretty much every player can do pretty much everything. Deb plays great D and throws tons of goals. Slap has crazy lefty hucks and gets some of the sickest layout Ds in the game. Congratulations to The Huddle, I think you'd beat us (Team Michelle) in the finals!