Who are the best players in the New England region? This is an open thread to discuss All-Region nominations, All-Freshman nominations, coaching awards, and more. Stay positive and keep it civil.
Annika Wolberg has consistently proven to be an anchor on the Wellesley team. Her cutting ability, excellent throws, and high motor make her unstoppable!
This is Aliza from Nova!
Firstly, I know I am biased, but I genuinely think that New England has an insane level of talent that 2 bids does not represent. The level of play at regionals was incredibly high, but there are teams that can’t even afford to pay the bid fee to come to regionals, let alone regular season tournaments. As a captain who has been in the trenches counting pennies to get us through the season, I really believe that there should be more opportunities for affordable and competitive play geared toward DIII womens on the East Coast. DIII Grand Prix is incredible in advancing opportunities for the “peoples division”, but the reality is most of us are no where near affording plane tickets to play in the regular season. It was great to watch our counterparts WUFO play at DIII Easterns, but the womens division needs some love too.
Off my soap box and onto player shoutouts.
Annika Wolberg is an incredible all around player for Wellesley. She cuts, handles, throws dimes, and has insane Ds. Also, incredibly nice person and always a pleasure to play.
Amherst Sparkle Motion needs to be on the national radar. They have proved themselves a force in New England thanks to standouts Sofia Taberski, Carys Shepard, and Mickie Webbeking. I’m pretty sure that Carys and Mickie are only sophmores, so expect to see great things from them in the future.
No surprise that Ella Widmyer was a leader for Middlebury, but Lucy VanNewkirk was also a standout.
Mount Holyoke was less in the rankings conversation due to only getting 6 regular season games, but has a great core in handlers Jamie Eldridge and Molly Potts and cutters Charlotte Moynihan and Eliza Williams-Derry. They challenge us every time we play them.
And of course, I have to pour out my love for Nova. Firstly, our year was bookended by ACL tears: promising frosh Phoebe Young coming fresh off of her second place finish with BUDA at YCCs tore her ACL in the first week of practice and has been out for the year. At sectionals, senior cutter, top goal scorer, and monster handler defender Jocelyn Bliven tore their ACL in our last game, missing out on their final regionals. Injuries kept our numbers to 17 or fewer players at every single tournament, and yet we put on a show at regionals. Senior captain Emily Stanger was out for the entire year with concussion related complications, but came back for regionals in a massive way. Emily is a menace to guard. She is insanely fast and goes from skying to bidding in a flash. What a joy to get to play with her again. Our other senior captain Skylar Yarter is a legendary player. I’ve never seen a calmer handler in my life. Throws absolute dimes every single time. Leads with a calm, understated composure that keeps our team together. Carol Hon needs to be in the conversation for all-frosh: in her first season ever playing she was a standout cutter and our other top goal scorer. Sophmores Sonia Zinkin-Meyers, Maxine George, and Susanna Boberg held our D-line together. And finally, shoutout to our coach Garrett Clay who probably spends more money in gas to get to practice every day than we pay him. He is incredibly dedicated to this team. I could write a paragraph for each member of Nova but I’ve already gone on way too long.
1 Like
Brandeis coach here!
First, I very biasedly wanted to shoutout Pulse, Jedi, and Halo from Brandeis. Our offense has completely run through Pulse and Jedi in the handler space and they have consistently shown spectacular hucks and insides and all sorts of throws. Halo is always open as a cutter and can catch anything, in addition to always taking the hardest matchups on defense.
Second, (as a former Midd player) I wanted to shoutout Lucy and Liz on Midd. Fantastic senior captains that are absolutely incredible anywhere on the field, offense or defense.
Other shoutouts - Sofia Taberski and Carys from Amherst. Sofia is probably one of the best throwers in the region. She can throw the disc at any angle anywhere on the field and has the most insane hucks (and layout Ds on the mark!). Carys also showed off her crazy hucks, in addition to being there for run through Ds and deep Ds all over the field. Nomination for regional coaches for the Amherst coaches for bringing a super new, young team (mostly first-years and sophomores I believe?) that I believe hadn’t won a game last year until Lemony, to the team that placed an incredible fourth at regionals yesterday. Sid and Bubbles from Wellesley. Sid is all over the field and can catch anything and uses her speed to always be open. Bubbles is one of the most hard-working defenders and gets so many run through Ds. Shoutout to the entire Bentley team for being almost savage at every single tournament, and in particular shoutout to Grace for being the center of their offense and constantly cutting and getting the disc and sometimes going every other. Also a great defender who has shut down some of our best cutters.
This is Sandy, new coach for Bowdoin Chaos Theory.
I think our senior captain Kaylie Harlin aka Nike deserves mention here. Our team was unable to go to regionals this year despite winning the NNE conference and handing Middlebury its only D3 loss of the season. Playing conditions were terrible (37° and raining), so you probably shouldn’t read too much into that result, but Kaylie essentially single-handedly dismantled the Pranksters’ defense.
She’s fast, very hard to cover person-to-person, has solid breakmark and deep throws, and is also an outstanding defender. I think it would be worth getting some opinions from the Pranksters for an unbiased perspective, but despite our no-show at regionals, I think Kaylie should be in the conversation for All-Region.
1 Like
Mt. Holyoke: Charlotte is a fantastic cutter who always found a way to get open and be competitive in 50/50s deep.
Midd: Lucy and Liz are both strong players who carry a lot of the Prankster movement
Bates: The duo of Pascal (indefensible and extremely gritty cutter) and goat (steady handler) were the core of the Bates offense
Whiptails: Sid and the player who wears the black headband (19 I think?) were Wellsley’s strongest players and just a lot of fun to play against
Aliza Cotton for Williams is a strong handler who really stepped up this year into a co-captain and leadership role.
Skylar Yarter is also a commanding handler and plays strong D as well. Emily Stanger came back strong from a concussion- she shuts down her opponents on defense and is nearly always open on O.
1 Like