Ultimate Women finish 3rd as hosts of Stonehill Invitational
On Saturday and Sunday, the Stonehill Women’s Ultimate Disc team placed 3rd in the largest home tournament in the history of Stonehill Ultimate. The tournament featured 20 teams from colleges and universities throughout the Northeast. The opening match against Boston College B was a blowout for the Stonehill team as they crushed their opponents 13-0. Sophomores Maggie Carmona and Jane Dudley scored 3 times each while seniors Lauren McNamara and Kerri Caulfield made 4 assists apiece. In their second match of the tournament, the Stonehill ladies continued to demonstrate offensive excellence as they dominated against University of Farmington Maine. The team came out with a strong zone defense and quickly took half 7-0, en route to cruising to a 13-0 victory.
In the third game of the day Stonehill took on UNH. The purple and black would deliver once again getting out to a 7-0 halftime lead. The shutout streak of the day would end in the second half, but Stonehill finished off UNH 13-2. Freshman Kelsey Hoffman lead the defensive effort for Stonehill with 3 D blocks and sophomores Dudley and Grace Walkowicz lead the team on the offensive end with 3 assists each. In their final match of the day, Stonehill played their undefeated rivals, Wellesley College. Dominating from the start, the match was never in doubt as the ladies gained a 7-1 lead at the break. In the second half, Stonehill continued to excel with a 13-4 victory propelling them into the quarterfinals. The offense was led by senior McNamara who had 9 assists and sophomore Kate Twombly who scored 5 points.
In the quarterfinals on Sunday morning, Stonehill played one of the best teams in New England, Harvard University. The game started off rocky with a bad turnover right by Harvard’s end zone that Harvard converted for a 1-0 lead. Stonehill quickly rattled off 4 straight points to take a 4-1 lead en route to a 7-2 half time lead, and a 13-4 victory. The team was led by Caulfield who had 7 assists and Twombly who had 3 scores and 3 D blocks. The semi-finals would pit the ladies against fellow unbeaten team Brown University; however neither team was able to get their offense to flow under the harsh wind. In the first half, Stonehill had several unfortunate turnovers that Brown quickly took advantage of, and for the first time in the weekend, Stonehill found themselves down at half, 7-4. In the second half, the ladies were able to keep the game close due to the defensive efforts of McNamara with 8 D blocks and Carmona with another 7. Unfortunately, Stonehill was not able to recover, losing 9-6, to the eventual tournament champions.
In the final match of the tournament, Stonehill faced Amherst Regional High School a team ranked in the top five in the country, for 3rd place. Fortunately, Stonehill jumped out to a 4-1 lead on the strong play of senior Kathryn Coggeshall and senior Meg Sullivan. By halftime, Stonehill had the lead 7-4, and would not give anything back in the second half, finishing up with a 9-6 victory and third place in the tournament.