Scobel Wiggins Photography

One of the ongoing conversations that I have been having with UCLA coach Alex Korb is about the parity this year in the Women's division. Traditionally, there have been two or three dominant teams that are easily a cut above the next tier. In turn, that tier has been clearly above the one below that.

This season, while there are certainly four or five teams that are a cut above the rest (UCSB, Oregon, Wisconsin, Ottawa and arguably a revitalized British Columbia squad), the divide between this tier and the next is very thin. Case in point, Wisconsin has lost to St. Louis twice now (pool play at Centex and bracket play at the Midwest Throwdown) and UCSB lost to Stanford at the Santa Barbara Invite. Oregon has only lost to Santa Barbara, but they have been pushed to double game point by Stanford, USC and Western Washington. The bottom line is that many teams have a realistic chance of upsetting the top teams at the College Championships.

Some might attribute the wide range of Saturday's results at Centex to the windy conditions, but the reality is that Women's teams are rapidly improving throughout the United States and Canada. More and more teams are hungry to improve and believe that they can beat any of the top teams. The end result is a much larger number of teams in the second and third tiers, where perennially sound programs like UCLA, Berkeley and Stanford are now joined by new faces like Western Washington, St. Louis and USC.

So what currently separates these two tiers and how can teams from the second tier beat teams in the tier above them? One of the most apparent qualities of the top tier teams is simply big game experience. In the past two years, UCSB's core has made it to the finals of the College Championships. As two traditionally strong teams who carried young squads to Boulder last year, Fugue and Bella Donna also have a number of players with Junior Worlds experience. Ottawa is led by players who have played at the highest levels on the club circuit with the Capitals and Team Canada. These are all teams that are used to high-intensity games and know how to deal with the pressure.

Another characteristic of these teams is their impressive depth. Wisconsin and Oregon have two of the deepest squads that I have seen, capable of putting out two very solid lines that enable them to keep their top players fresher than those on the opposing team. Santa Barbara still relies on their big guns to carry them to victory, but they have a very impressive group of young players led by Milena Jovanovich, Marie Madaras, and Briana Cahn who allow the Burning Skirts to sub deeper than in years past.

What will other teams have to do in order to beat the teams that made semis?
First, an upset-minded team has to limit the other team's primary playmakers and force their non-star players to step up and make tough throws. For Ottawa, the focus should be on Anne Mercier, Alex Benedict and Danielle Fortin; for Santa Barbara, Kaela Jorgenson and Andrea Romano; and for Wisconsin, Georgia Bosscher and Amber Sinicrope. Oregon is tougher to key in on, but I would start with Shannon McDowell, Jenica Villamoor and Julia Sherwood.

Obviously, containing players of this caliber is much easier said than done, but one effective way to do so is to simply make them work as hard as possible on the defensive side. Players like Mercier, Bosscher and Jorgenson are certainly playmakers on the defensive side of the disc as well, but if you can force their top players to exert a good amount of energy on defense, you also increase the chances of limiting their effectiveness on the offensive end.

The corollary to containing their key players is to identify players your team can produce turnovers from and force them to touch the disc as much as possible. On top of this, although these teams are among the most gifted at making in-game adjustments, it is critical to keep giving different defensive looks to these teams. The alternative—trying to contain their top players as their offenses settle into groove—is not a very attractive one.

On a related note, my hope is that Centex will remain an expanded field for the Women's division. Doing so only improves the quality of Ultimate in the division and provides more opportunities for up-and-coming teams to gain confidence against the perennial powers. Perhaps more important than any specific game strategy is the need for the second-tier teams to simply get as familiar as possible with the top-tier teams.

Frankie Rho is the coach of the University of Southern California team.