Who are the best players in the Southeast region? This is an open thread to discuss All-Region nominations, All-Freshman nominations, coaching awards, and more. Stay positive and keep it civil.
Coach of LSU here. Not very familiar with names so I apologize.
- Sam Daugherty (KSU) is an unreal player. She alone changes the opposing team’s gameplan. My player of the region nomination no doubt.
- Courtney Testa (Florida) is just a solid all around player
- Mia Griner (UCF) is dominant on her team. Shoulders an incredible load esp with a small roster.
- KFed, Maddie Boyd, and Meredith Johnson are all dominant on Auburn
Georgia Tech’s primary iso cutter is incredible. Didn’t get her name though. They run side-stacks for her all day and she’s virtually unguardable.
Also a big fan of Sam Stovall’s coaching at KSU and of course Maddy Frey (duh)
Alright, Regionals is in the books. Time to get down to it.
Auburn: Kristine Fedorenko and Madison Boyd are both great players. Everybody knows what KFed can do as a thrower and she’s grown more developed in other areas. Boyd’s really athletic and can push the pace of play.
Florida: Lauren Bahng is one of the best throwers in the region, maybe the best deep thrower. Power and touch. She’s athletic enough to hurt you down field or make tough catches. Courtney Testa is
UCF: Mia Griner has maybe the hardest job in the region. But she’s a really dynamic and creative thrower, allowing her to set up less experienced teammates.
Vanderbilt: Ashley Yao has an impressive arsenal of throws, she’s excellent at breaking the mark and hurting zones.
Georgia Tech: Ollie Peterson is already one of the best players in the region. Cuts, handles, defends, she can do it all.
For the record, here’s who is back from last year.
1st Team: Kristine Fedorenko (Auburn), Alex Fairley (Georgia), Samantha Daugherty (KSU), Rachel Mez (KSU),
2nd Team: Sarah Burzynski (Emory), Courtney Testa (Florida), Leah Gilbert-Odem (Emory), Bridget Nabb (GT)
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Captain of VUDU (Vanderbilt) here.
I’ll echo some of the same ones from above, just because I believe they should be nominated.
Auburn: KFed and Maddie Boyd as well as Meredith Johnson all deserve shoutouts. All things have been said about them, but they are the main backbone to Auburn. Bringing depth to the backfield as well as athleticism and defensive skill. They’re also just fun to play against, and have really grown the Auburn program.
FSU: Tall handler, brown hair. Played for LSU for the past couple years. Dominant player with some pretty great throws.
KSU: Sam Daugherty - really dominant receiver and super skilled on defense.
Freshmen of the Year: Jacq Wood on Vandy. She has tons of experience from two years of club, and is always in the right place and the right time. Has some of the stickiest hands in the region. Went to U20 tryouts. Excited to see how she grows in the next couple of years.
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Alright, as the coach of Emory Luna, I wanted to take some time to present some of our candidates for these honors.
For All-Region, I urge you to consider Sarah “Bear” Burzynski and Kristi Huang.
Bear’s skills have grown immensely, even from last year when she was 2nd Team All-Region. Her deep throwing proficiency increased and she really started to hurt zones with hammers, scoobers, and well timed cuts. She continued to deliver layout blocks I think she’s known for. Rarely gives the disc away senselessly and plays with a ton of heart.
For my stats people, she led our team in assists, recording almost 30% of our assists with less than 15% of our throwaways. 1st in touches, 2nd in blocks.
Kristi had a tremendous year. Even though she’s only a sophomore, her experience from youth, club, and last year’s All-Freshmen campaign has made her even better. She led our team in goals, scoring almost 20% of them, and was 4th in assists. Extremely low turnover rate. Great at sensing when to attack deep with her speed, but a strong enough thrower (handled all of last season) that she could hurt teams under. Athletic defender who also was 1st on our team in blocks. Even if she doesn’t get selected this year, at this rate, she will deserve consideration for 1st Team very soon.
I’d also like to recognize Valerie Sandoval for All-Freshmen. She’s athletic and aggressive, with enough size to make plays in the air, but mostly uses her length to attack the disc. Has the base for a strong thrower, and while she hasn’t gotten there yet, the skills she has developed helped avoid a lot of turnovers. Strong applying downfield pressure on defense.
I’d like to also shout out some other members of VUDU. For a somewhat development year, we’ve relied heavily on some of our experienced backfield, mainly Sofia Lima, a junior with some high school experience at Blackman. Solid throws, consistent plays, and agile handler defense.
Co-captain Lizzie Carsello, albeit out right now from an injury at Regionals, is a dominant cutter. She’s an every-other kind of player, and does a lot to change our game.
Lastly, I’ve gotta shout out our coaches. Kayla Ferguson and Noel Holmes, both first year coaches for VUDU, and Noel was a coach for UTC Moxie a while back. They’ve brought positivity, encouragement, and a wealth of experience from club (Encore) and now pro! The team wouldn’t be the same without them.
Much discussion on the top SE women has occurred at
Gina Guillory is the player from LSU and played at FSU this year!
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“Courtney Testa is” …???