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Ottawa
Ottawa is a team comprised of players with big-game experience and their ability to play up in pressure situations is one of their biggest assets. With a number of their players gaining experience on the Capitals and Team Canada this past club season, and many others with extensive juniors experience, they bring a very impressive breadth and depth of experience that is unmatched by most other college Women's teams.

Anne Mercier, Alex Benedict, and Danielle Fortin lead the charge for the Lady Gee-Gees and are extremely confident and capable captains and field leaders. Their pinpoint throws and poise served as the backbone of the Ottawa offense. On the opposite side of the disc, Mercier was an absolute terror, wracking up numerous layout Ds and monster skies.

With only 11 players in attendance at Centex, every player played a major part in their tournament victory. The team had solid fundamentals across the board, and even at the end of a long weekend, everyone seemed to be running hard. Ottawa pulled all the stops to make trips out to Pres Day and Centex this year, and while they played at both tournaments with an abbreviated roster, that experience should serve them well going into Nationals.

UCSB
This already outstanding team is going to be scary good when Katie Barry is healthy. Carolyn Finney, Andrea Romano, and Kaela Jorgenson are very versatile players who control the tempo of the Skirts offense. They are all dangerous throwers who can work the disc up the field with a hundred passes, but they will also take the quick deep strikes off the transition and burn you for scores. Their ability to mix up their deep looks and short game make the Skirts a very well-rounded team on offense.

Something that UCSB has always been very good at is developing their younger players and finding ways to have them make an immediate impact. Barry, Finney, Romano, and Jorgenson have all been high-impact players since their first or second seasons on the Skirts, and this year, UCSB appears to have a number of other young players ready to step into the spotlight. One such player is freshman Stephanie Karba, who is very athletic and at 6'1", has already made an impact for the Skirts. While players 1-4 on the Skirts' roster are among the best in the game, their ability to develop the rest of their roster will make the difference in whether or not they take home the title this year.

UBC
UBC's semis-appearance may have surprised some people, but they are a very balanced team with strong fundamentals. Tory Hislop and Candice Chan are their two workhorses and they can ball with anyone. Hislop, who played on the Canadian Junior Worlds team in 2004, has the ability to take over games and is a crucial field leader for the T-Birds. Chan catches everything thrown her way and is a quick cutter and defender with elite club experience. With a National Championship and plenty of big-game experience under their belts, these two UBC studs will be playing their best Ultimate come the Series. Jenny Lo and Lindsay Olimer also contribute solidly and bring experience from playing significant minutes last year.

What impressed me most about UBC was their ability to play in the wind. Top to bottom, their roster had extremely good throwing fundamentals, and their ability to work the disc against both man and zone defenses allowed them to earn their way to the top of Pool C on Saturday, where they avenged Stanford Invite losses by beating Stanford and UCLA. UBC was probably the most impressive team in Saturday's windy conditions, and if Northwest Regionals is windy, UBC has an especially good chance of qualifying for Nationals.

I expected the T-Birds to play Ottawa much closer in the semis game based on each team's level of talent, but UBC's top studs looked tired going into that game. UBC will face a very tough field at Northwest Regionals and their depth will certainly be tested, but with a strong showing at Centex, they should bring some confidence into the Series.

Wisconsin
While Bella Donna has had some tough losses this season, I don't think any other team in the country can match their starting line. Georgia Bosscher gets a lot of the spotlight and deservedly so as she is a phenomenal player. Her full-field hucks and layout Ds garner her a lot of attention, but after watching Wisconsin play extensively at Mardi Gras, Throwdown and Centex, there are a number of other players who complement Bosscher and make Bella a truly great team. Sophomores Emelie McKain and Amber Sinicrope anchored the Wisconsin offense throughout the weekend; their breakmark throws were unreal and with the exception of UCSB, no one seemed to be able to cut off that side of the field when those two had the disc. Laura Bitterman and Frances Tsukano, both playing injured at Centex, were unstoppable cutters.

They burned people deep all weekend long, often catching hucks with no defender in sight. After playing Wisconsin something like six times last season and watching them play at three tournaments this year, I am still incredibly impressed with Courtney Kiesow. She is consistently open for 15-yard in-cuts and she quietly makes everyone around her a better player. If you watch Wisconsin play, she won't be the player that pops out at you first, but she will certainly be the player who carries them to victory. The scariest part is that all of these players, save Kiesow, are returning next season. And beyond these six players, there are half a dozen more who will create matchup problems for the majority of other teams.

What were the biggest surprises of the weekend?
St. Louis was the biggest surprise of the weekend. After watching them at Throwdown, I thought they had an outside shot at finishing in the top 8, but they really took it to the house, beating Wisconsin, Carleton, USC, and Berkeley en route to finishing 6th. They are scrappy and their offense is extremely unconventional; I believe they would agree with the statement "huge blading forehands really get the job done." Quite simply, they're good at what they do and they catch a lot of elite teams off guard because these teams aren't looking to defend against the kind of throws St. Louis makes. Kara O'Malley and Teresa "TO" Ogrinc are two clear South All-Region candidates at this point in the season and their field leadership will be key to St. Louis' success over the next month.

Women's College Centex served as a good measuring stick for teams hoping to make a run at Nationals. With at least two teams in attendance from every region, teams were guaranteed new matchups and a wide breadth of competition, from regional foes to teams they had never played before. As the season winds down, teams now have some concrete knowledge about who their primary competition is and it will be interesting to see what strides teams make in the next two months before Nationals.

Michelle Ng was the 2009 Women's College Centex Tournament Director, as well as former captain of both the Texas and Berkeley teams.