Who are the best players in the Ohio Valley region? This is an open thread to discuss All-Region nominations, All-Freshman nominations, coaching awards, and more. Stay positive and keep it civil.
Hey, all. I’m with Cedarville. We had a great first season, and I wanted to shout out some players who I feel deserve recognition.
Oberlin:
Emma March #11:
She’s got great throws and great athletism and great spirit. As a leader on the very strong Oberlin squad, this is a pretty obvious nomination. I appreciated all the little things she did right, like hopping before catching a strike in order to land in the end zone.
Abagael Cheng #22:
An athletic beast, I most remember her getting way up to knock down over the top throws within the zone.
Helen Samuel #21:
Great speed and intensity. I thought I heard that she is a freshman, so she’ll probably keep getting better too.
Swarthmore:
Leila Selchaif #3:
Great on field leadership and quickness. You could tell she was the core of the Swarthmore team.
Ohio Wesleyan:
Mallory Griffith:
Great cuts and throws and leadership.
There were two other players whose names escape me, but I want to shout them out for their throws and overall benefit to the OWU offense.
Thanks to every team in the region for the great season, and we can’t wait to play you all again next year!
Idk about the other women in the region but here are some Swarthmore Warmother standouts:
Freshmen
Iris Wang
Chelsea Semper
These two are superb additions to the Warmothers. They can both do it all: cut, defend, throw, catch, layout, etc. Definitely excited to see what they can do for the years to come.
Others
Emily Cai - Super versatile player. Can cut or handle, she can do both super well. Extremely good on defense: she gets handblocks, crazy layout blocks, and can completely shut down her person. On the flip side, she really goes after the disc (she has gotten some crazy layout grabs). Great throws and hucks, whipping out the occasional hammer. Always fun to see her churn 110% on the field on both sides of the disc.
Emilie Shepherd - The go to handler for the Warmothers. Extremely smart and patient with the disc: can work the disc through zones, poaches, and tight defense (she’s a tactician). Really pretty throws and hucks, especially over the top of cups/walls. On defense, really good in the air and gets some really sneaky poach D’s.
To be fair, all the Warmothers are great, so you should really just vote for all of them. NOT biased at all.
Hey guys, I feel like we’re all not really active on ultiworld forums, but we’ve definitely got a TON of talent in this region so we should all try to post more! I had such a fun time this season and I want to give some recognition to where it is deserved. Also I’m really slow at writing things and posting things so here it is, three weeks after regionals…
First, I’ll talk about my own team: Swarthmore Warmothers
I’m Emily “Bazinga” Cai (#8) and everything Klai said up there was very accurate and I would basically be rephrasing it. I’d also like to add a few other players to be recognized
Maya Kikuchi (#0) - We could probably make a video of all the people Maya has skied. She’s incredibly athletic and her intensity for the disc is unmatched. Whenever we do a play, she’ll be involved in some way. She also plays a tight, quiet defense where, although she doesn’t get a ton of flashy Ds, she is always next to her person so that they are never getting thrown to. She’s also our top scorer and one of our best offensive players to have on the line.
Emilie Shepherd (#23) - My favorite person to have on the line with me. Super consistent and solid player who is reliably there all the time. Has the craziest grabs and most beautiful throws. She’ll quickly recognize how to destroy a zone or a defense and is a vital player and captain to this team.
Two freshmen that definitely need to be recognized are Iris Wang and Chelsea Semper, which Klai also talked about up there. They came onto this team with some ultimate experience from Radnor HS and Watchung Hills HS, respectively, and really filled whatever roles on and off the field that we needed.
Lehigh – Y’all are so awesome and I wish we got to play each other more this season. Also the fact that each of you have normal-person nicknames really throws me off and makes this job hard and involves a ton of FB stalking.
Juliet “Raven” Chung - SHE’S A LEFTY (it took me most of my freshman year to figure this out), with the most beautiful hucks and smartest throws. A super reliable handler with speedy cuts. Also embodies spirit of the game and always looks like she’s having a great time on and off the field.
Madison “Lily” Cannon - An amazing cutter and intense af defender. Whenever Lehigh scores, Lily is always involved somehow and no matter who we match up to defend Lily, they’ll get absolutely burned eventually.
Dana “eva(?)” Waxenburg - The chemistry between Eva (okay, I’m really not sure anymore if her nickname is eva or if I’m just remembering this poorly so I’m sorry if I’m really wrong) and literally every other handler on Lehigh is insane. She manages to work it down the field so easily and she makes wily handler cuts.
Oberlin – A challenging and super spirited team to play. I really enjoyed watching you guys play because of how well all of you worked the field.
Emma March – The obviously well-deserved Donovan nominee. Her lefty, high-release breaks destroyed our defense, and that’s just a small part of her handling prowess. She can get the disc anywhere on the field and she is such a reliable handler. To sum it up: she’s tall, fast and throws from any height – how are you supposed to defend that when you’re only 5’3’’???
Helen Samuel – An amazing cutter whose speed is unmatched. Any speed you think she is going to go, she will probably go 2x faster. Not to mention the fact that she’s also a super agile defender and will shut you down on defense.
Haverford – A mom’s one true love is our Bi-College sister team, the Sneetches. I love playing with you guys so much and I’m so lucky that we have such a great friendship between our teams (though I think we should hang out more, but alas, I am graduating). To be honest, I am also sad that we never got to play each other much this season and can’t actually remember too many players to shoutout (because regionals was 3 weeks ago lol).
Opal Bednarik – An intense cutter and defender who will literally get on the ground for every throw. She’s one of the strongest cutters on the Sneetches and has an admirable “every disc is mine” mentality whether she’s on offense or defense.
Theresa Diffendal – Solid and smart handler who will make the best decisions with the disc. She’s also very intense and has great spirit.
Nava Kidon – Also a solid handler who contributes a lot to the offensive flow. Also a great defender who will never give up on trying to be right next to you to D the disc.
Dickinson – We only played you guys once in an early tournament this season and unfortunately, I don’t recall much. The one person I do remember enough to give a shoutout to is Emily Grimes. She’s a well-rounded player who can handle, cut, and defend with ease. It’s pretty apparent how much of an effect she has on the field and it’s always really great to watch and learn from her playing.
Messiah – A spirited and intelligent team. It seems like Messiah has a lot of handlers who each make great decisions with the disc. But for now I want to shoutout this duo that I’ve had the misfortune and pleasure to play against for the past four years: Nikki and Ashley.
Nicole/Nikki Singiser – Super athletic with great jumps and speedy cuts. She’s almost always on the field and is almost always receiving a beautiful huck from Ashley and almost always is skying whoever is defending her. Whenever she isn’t almost always doing this amazing sequence of things, she is also an intense defender who will never stop to push through the extra few steps it takes to get a D.
Ashley Hah – A great, versatile handler who is always making reliable handler cuts. Half of the time we play Messiah, it’s us trying to strategize the best way to shut down her throws (except she can literally throw anything and anywhere).
To be honest, I spent waaaaay too much time typing this up, but I’ve met and played wish so many great players these past four years and wanted to give as much recognition as possible to as many people as I can remember! Keep up the good work, Ohio Valley & I look forward to seeing where each of these teams go in the future! 