PHUEL Girls Championship Writeup

Girls high school ultimate is still growing in the Philadelphia area, but this year they had a city championship of their own, with all four teams playing at Edgely Field this Saturday, opening straight into the semifinals.

Top seeded Lower Merion met Radnor on one field. Radnor is in their first year of existence, and I can attest that over the course of this year, they have significantly improved. They've gone from bagels to fighting for every point, and hopefully Lindi Sabloff can continue their rise. However, they were no match for LM's Lady Babaganouj today, with a callahan on the first point by LM's Hannah Garfield starting the scoring -- a couple early points went long and were hard fought, but LM came up with them and never let up.

On the other field, defending champion Cardinal O'Hara had their hands full with Haverford High. Both schools had their proms last night, and multiple members of both teams were either missing or not at 100%. Despite this, the action was intense, but HUDA seemed to come up with every swilly throw from either team, and managed to cut way down on the turnovers, and took at 7-5 halftime lead. O'Hara fought back to tie it up at 9-9 and force a universe point, but HUDA fought through and scored a large upset over O'Hara to earn their spot in the finals.

The finals would then pit two Central League foes, LM and Haverford, in their fourth matchup of the season, with at least one more to follow under the lights at a nice little event hosted by Haverford this Thursday (featuring both school's JV, boys, and girls teams), and certainly allowing for the possibility of tangling once more at states next weekend.

But no other games, past or future, mattered today. Both teams came out fired up, and Haverford's energy from their previous win certainly poured onto the field. Impressive cuts by Natalie Nunez and impressive catches all around kept the teams close early, but a mid-game run by Lower Merion was able to put Haverford away, highlighted near the end by a beautiful 70-yard huck from Emily Eisner, followed up by a deep cut of her own to seal the game winning point, giving Lower Merion's Lady Babaganouj their first ever PHUEL City Championship, and putting them in a strong position to make a run for the state title next week.

Full results here:
http://upa.org/scores/tourn.cgi?div=33&id=6462

Some notes from PHUEL...

Some notes from PHUEL:

The city championships were last Saturday, and besides a minor upset of LM Babaganouj at the hands of Cardinal O'Hara Waste, it went to seed, with the Pennsbury Falcons capturing the #1 seed, defating Haverford HUDA 15-11 on the back of outstanding play by #19 Denny Beaches. The top 7 teams will be heading to Pittsburgh for States next weekend.
Open results

On the girls side, #6 Katie Erikson led Cardinal O'Hara's GirlSquad to continued dominance of LM and Haverford, finishing their regular season 4-0 against LM and 3-0 against Haverford. After a disappointing winless performance at Easterns, they won their two games in PHUEL to get back on track. All three teams will be heading to states next week.
Girls results

This week, PHUEL gets a nice treat as #2 seed Haverford HUDA hosts LM Babaganouj under the lights Thursday night, for a rare night game before both teams head west for States.

UPA PA State Championships: the PHUEL side

[editor's note there are two separate previews for PA state champs at the moment, you can see the second by scrolling down, or by clicking here]


The UPA PA HS State Championship is this upcoming weekend, May 12-13, at the Brandywine Polo Fields,
260 Polo Road
Toughkenamon, PA 19311

My, fully Philly-centric, preview follows:

PHUEL is sending 7 open teams and 3 girls teams this year.

PHUEL teams being sent to States 2007 (seeds):

1. Pennsbury Peyote (1)

2. St. Joe's Prep Hand of God (5)

3. Haverford High HUDA (8)

4. Council Rock South Fiasco (7) > Radnor

5. North Penn FTM (6) > Cheltenham

6. Cardinal O'Hara Waste of Life (12) > Great Valley

7. Lower Merion Babaganouj (11) > Neshaminy

(4-7 have the team that won the game-to-go > the game that lost the game-to-go, ranked by RRI in order of the original higher-seed)

A slightly more robust system was in place to determine who would make it to states from PHUEL this year. Using the PHUEL standings, which award 3 points for a win, and 1 point for a loss, the top 11 teams were chosen (a number arrived at by taking the total number of bids PHUEL got [7] and adding 4), and then re-ranked by RRI. The top 3 teams got automatic bids to states (Pennsbury, SJP, and Haverford High). The remaining 8 were to battle it out for the remaining 4 spots. 4v11, 5v10, 6v9, 7v8. The latter two matchups provided slight upsets, with LM and O'Hara winning rematches they had lost earlier in the year.

And that set the field for PHUEL's contingent to states.

I believe PHUL has been lucky enough to get 8 bids both of the last two years, so they merely send all the quarterfinalists in their (much more organized) playoff system?

Add in the 1 CPHUL playoff winner (Boiling Springs this year [I believe the first time a non-SCUF team has played outside of CPHUL?], SCUF last), and you have your state field set.

Do any other states need to allocate bids, or is PA lucky in that we must turn people away because it has three booming leagues?

Back to the teams:

Pennsbury has to be a favorite to easily make the finals, if not win it. Noah Saul, Mark Dundala, and Scotty Wright may be the three best players in the state, and they're all here to prove they deserve it (and to get back in gear for easterns next week).

Any other PHUEL team would be very fortunate to make the finals, and even a semis appearance would be impressive for many of these teams. But many of these teams are still dangerous, with SJP playing better every time they take the field this spring (although their prom tonight may interfere with a good pool play showing, look for some underclassmen to step it up), and Haverford, North Penn, and Council Rock South (an unknown before this year, playing with a fire lit by Mike Lenz) playing very well but still untested against other outside top competition.
LM won't be graduating any difference-makers this year, (co-captains Adrian Galbriath-Paul and Harry Friedman are juniors) so this is a bit of a rebuilding year, though they'll bring all the game they can.

We may be even able to see an all-Easterns matchup in the finals if Pennsbury and North Hills hold seed. But this year should be closer than others, with anything possible.



Girls teams:

1. Cardinal O'Hara (2)
2. Pennsbury (5)
3. Lower Merion (6)

The seeds are a little more meaningless in this one, as there's been practically no playing outside of each respective league, and no common opponents between the PHUL teams.
I've been talking a long time about Cardinal O'Hara's girls, and this is their chance to prove they can game outside of the open division.
I don't know much about Pennsbury, but they have the advantage of having played some competition in the rest of the country; experience is lacking in here
LM's team is built almost entirely on sophomores and frosh (see Nina Bar-Giora and Emily Eisner, respectively), so even a weak showing this year is a good sign for years to come. The mere existence of this division is a good step for PA Ultimate.

The other 3 teams are all PHUL teams, North Hills, Fox Chapel, and Hampton as each league only send in 3 bids, I believe. Not quite a full division, but very good.

Unfortunately none of the PA girls teams are going to Easterns, but a state tournament here is a good first step in sending teams in future years.

Hiphoponpop Preview

I got beaten to it by an anonymous commenter in the original post, and every day I get further and further away from the Philly scene, but I try to stay up on it:

According to Mark Rosser, Hiphop TD, he feels "Hopefully, having 3 divisions will reduce the number of routs and help create a lot of very close games." For an early-season high school tournament, I feel this is a wonderful idea and should be nice for all teams involved.

Note that the divisions inside themeslves aren't really seeded, per se, but organized to give teams travelling further the first-round byes, avoid re-matches, provide good matchups, etc.

Let's see what one random observer expects:

(Editor's note: click on "continue reading..." to read an entire rundown of all the pools in every division)


Pool A
Pennsbury Petyote (2-0)
Council Rock South Fiasco (1-1)
Montour (0-2)

Pool B
Princeton P-HUC (2-0)
The Pterodactyls (1-1)
Stuyvesant Sticky Fingers (0-2)


Finals: Pennsbury over Princeton
Semifinalists: Council Rock South, Pterodactyls.
Pittsburgh teams have always had a hard time bringing out full squads to Hiphop or Kitkat, so I'm hesitant to pick them to do much here. If they do manage a fuller squad, this second-year team could make some more noise. The Pterodactyls have already beaten Stuyvesant this spring, so that pick I can't go against.
Stuyvesant over Montour in the 5th place game.

I'd love to see a 3rd place game though (given my predictions, at least), with Council Rock South taking the most recent matchup, and currently leading the PHUEL standings, but the Pterodactyls have been doing better against top opponents this year. Alas, field space prevents this. A disappointing 15-12 win over CB East by CR South clouds the picture even more.

And do we really need to explain what dominance to expect from Pennsbury? Especially after a disappointing Paideia cup (at least, disappointing to anyone who expects them to win Easterns), look for them to come out swinging.

Game of the day: Princeton vs. Pterodactyls





DIV II
Pool C
Haverford High HUDA (1-1)
Cheltenham Spirit Animals (2-0)
Neshaminy Llamas (0-2)

Pool D
Lower Merion Babaganouj (0-2)
St. Joe's Prep Hand of God (2-0)
Great Valley Patriots (1-1)


SJP over Cheltenham in the finals; The Prep took them out in a regular season matchup this week, and seem to play even better at tournaments when more is on the line, it seems.

I would take Haverford over Great Valley in a theoretical 3rd place game.

LM over Neshaminy for 5th.

This division will be very, very close, and really everyone has a legitimate shot of winning it, so expect a lot of very competitive close games, especially Great Valley vs. LM and Haverford vs. Cheltenham.

Game of the day: SJP vs. Cheltenham (really, any finals matchup will be amazing)



DIV III

Pool E
Cardinal O'Hara Waste of Life (2-0)
Perkiomen Valley Gravity (1-1)
Columbia B (0-2)

Pool F
CB East Nasty (2-0)
Radnor (1-1)
Lower Merion B (0-2)

O'Hara over Perkiomen in a finals rematch.

CB East and Radnor in the semis, a brand new team (from my home Central League, for those "normal" sports) and a team hoping to rebuild after years at the top. I had CB East on top in the pool play, but that one could be a good game.

The B-teams battle it out for 5th, with Columbia B taking it: these teams have played often over the years, and though I'm sure many of the faces are changing, I expect the spirit and friendship to stay high.
For instance (story time), at Hiphop Div I-AA, in Medford, last year, the teams were to play again for 5th (or so), and instead of playing out the rematch of a few times that spring, they mixed up the teams and played for fun. It was a great sight.

Game of the day: CB East vs. Perkiomen Valley/Cardinal O'Hara.



Best of luck to all the teams, everyone will play well and some of these pools are so close I wouldn't be amazed to see my predictions turned totally upside down: my project 6th takes 1st or 2nd take 5th. That's why we play the games!

My requisite plea at the end of any of my posts: Post your results on scorereporter. E-mail them to a UPA member if no one on your team is (heck, I'll post them for you). Post your team on scorereporter. Give yourself a name, a contact, a roster, just fill stuff in, report scores, the more the better.

Hiphop on Score Reporter

Hip Hop on Pop Pools released

Hip Hop will be played at Edgely next weekend with the following pools....

Division I
Pool A Pool B
1 Pennsbury (PA) 1 Princeton (NJ)

2 Council Rock South (PA) 2 Pterodactyls (PA)

3 Montour (Pitts) 3 Stuyvesant (NY)

Division II

Pool C Pool D
1 Haverford High (PA) 1 Lower Merion (PA)

2 Cheltenham (PA) 2 St Joes (PA)

3 Neshaminy (PA) 3 Great Valley (PA)

Division III
Pool E Pool F
1 Cardinal O’Hara 1 CB East (PA)

2 Perkiomen Valley (PA) 2 Radnor (PA)

3 Columbia B 3 Lower Merion (PA)

PHUEL All-Star Game this weekend

In addition to the tournaments there is also the PHUEL All-Star game this weekend, the rosters below c/o Mark Rosser...

DARK BLUE TEAM:
Radnor - Matt Guy and Brett Schlesinger
Lower Merion - Harry Friedman, Adrian Galbraith-Paul, Andrea Bowring, Nina Bar-Giora,
Wissahickon - Michael Plunkett, John Stavinga
Perkiomen Valley - Maura Hanley, Julian Gorski
Council Rock South - Scott Kinney, Mike Kinney,
Neshaminy - Jeff Brunermer, Steve Sherman
BC Tech - Matt Bohacz

WHITE TEAM:
DVFS- Jonathan Miller, Sam Haines
Cardinal O'Hara- Jason Pardini, Mike Szkudlapski, Tricia Crouse
Haverford High- Adam Pelleg, Matt Lowenthal
Great Valley- Dave Guo, Steve Rosso
North Penn- Brian Bauer, Michael Baer, Sarah Hedrick
Cheltenham - Dan Erkes, Dave Rosenberg
CB East- Carly Maconaghy, Grant Schuster, Geremy Graham

Conspicuously missing: St. Joe's Prep, The Pterodactyls, Pennridge, William Tennet, Abington, Methacton, Penn Charter, Moravian and Pennsbury. Pennsbury has a tournament obviously, but for the others the only game scheduled that day is between Cheltenham and North Penn, where are the rest of the all-stars??

None the less, the game will be at 4:00pm at Edgely Field on Saturday of this weekend (April 14th), and promises to be a display of some of the top talent from PHUEL.

If local colleges were wise they would be sending representatives to Edgely and recruiting like their lives depended on it.

We'll let you know how the game turns out.

PHUEL Spring Preview 2007

The snow is melting yet again, and the discs are beginning to fly in the Philadelphia area. Lower Merion just sent me their spring schedule, and it already has me excited. Their first game is next Monday, against Cardinal O'Hara, and they'll kick the season off well, I'm sure. (If any other teams lay claim to starting the season, I apologize; by all means, let us know, and please post your games on the score reporter!)

With the college season already in full swing (and Paideia making their noise there), high schools are soon to gear up as well. Pennsbury, one of Paideia's main obstacles at the Amherst Invitational and the Paideia Cup, will look to dominate PHUEL action this year, but some other teams would certainly like a say in the matter.

The Phall PHUEL tournament gave us a great chance to see the field without Pennsbury, though it was still missing some possible contenders such as North Penn. The Pterodactyls took out Cheltenham in the finals, 13-5.

Kit Kat was the chance Pennsbury had to shine, and they took full advantage, never letting anyone come close to them in dominating all day, including a 13-1 win over the winners of the aforementioned Phall PHUEL champion Pterodactyls.

Granted, Fall events don't mean anything on the field in the spring, but they give a good indication of how the field might shape up.

My idea of ranking the top dogs:

1) Pennsbury Peyote
An easy call. They only graduated one senior from last year, the dreadlocked wonder Franky Frank. They still retain an amazing core of handlers that can dominate all over the field, especially Noah Saul, Mark Dundala and Scotty Wright. With everyone healthy as well, something they could rarely say last year, they will be looking to play at a very high level, with a legitimate chance of winning both Amherst and Paideia's tournaments.

2) The Pterodactyls
Peyote's classmates, but rivals on the field, they proved themselves winning the Phall PHUEL tournament. They, too, graduated only one senior, Dave Hanyok who went to play for perennial Nationals contending Brown. Handler Kevin Taylor and deep threat Jinal "Weapon X" Patel will bring this team to play.

3) Cheltenham Spirit Animals
In years past, you could always pencil these guys in for a near-top spot, but a stellar graduating class of '05 made last year a rebuilding year. They took advantage of that year, however, and return most if not all of their top players from last year, should be a very sound team that will take work to put down, and want to put Cheltenham back on the map.

4) St. Joe's Prep Hand of God
Starring Joe Kruse and two of the brothers of the legendary McCabe family, St. Joe's was just outside the elite echelon of PHUEL last year. They return the aforementioned core of the team, hoping to make some noise and atone for a poor showing at Phall PHUEL.

5) Lower Merion Babaganouj
A team that graduated their entire A team, save its lone female, Andrea Bowring, to top schools including Brown, Carleton, and Wash U. Lower Merion was lucky enough to have a B-team that got plenty of experience last year, and features a few players ready to step up and take charge at a higher level, especially Justin Rubin and co-captains Harry Friedman (brother of last year's co-captain Gabe Friedman) and Adrian Galbriath-Paul. They, too, disappointed expectations at Phall PHUEL, and hope to live up to last year's impressive showing for a team in its first year. What will the second year bring?

Note that those 3-5 rankings are more of a nod to the Fall results than anything -- my alma mater LM could easily make some huge strides when playing for keeps with a real A team, and there's no reason St. Joe's shouldn't be far better than they were (and no reason they shouldn't report all their scores on the score reporter).

Also look out for:
North Penn: who missed out on the Fall season, but could very well make some noise this spring, after upsetting St. Joe's for the 5th place finish at Cities last spring.

Pennsbury B-Unit. Yes, _another_ Pennsbury team, but they comported themselves well at Fall Brawl this year, and since Peyote didn't lose anyone, they didn't need to take many players from B-Unit last year, so they're progressing nicely.

Cardinal O'Hara Waste of Life: If PHUEL made a true switch to a mixed division, Waste would have no trouble adjusting, as they can already field an entire girls line, and probably the best girls in the city.

Missing:
Wissahickon: Graduating a few top players to Pitt was too much for them, though we always see to say that and they always manage to surprise us; look out for Michael Plunkett, one of, if not the only, the few non-Pennsbury juniors on SEPDA last year.

CB East Nasty: Again, the top players go to Pitt and Cornell, and the team suffers. Carly Maconaghy will try to lead this team by example, as one of the premiere females in PHUEL.

The state tournament this year is already scheduled (May 12/13), and looks to be even better organized this year. Can anyone from PHUL stand up to the Peyote? Can PHUEL maintain their lockhold over both finals spots for another year? More questions and answers will come forth this spring.