Women's Collegiate Final Four

[Jana]

Thought you'd guys would like to know.....your counterparts in the NWWLA will hold their Final Four this weekend in Yakima.

Saturday evening semi finals:

#2 Western Washington University vs #3 University of Washington
#1 Universtity of Oregon vs #4 Oregon State University

If you see them on campus tonight, wish them well. OSU is the dark horse, they upset #2 WWU last weekend in their final game of regular season, final score 9-8. This result shifted the seedings for #3 and #4 unexpectedly based on league tie breaker policy.

[Timbalaned]

How come there is no representation for the girls at Nationals? Why don't they get an automatic bid? They have in the past and there is no team from this region in the field that was already announced. I am confused.

[tiki monster]

apparently the person who was in charge of that part of the NWWLA dropped the ball and didn't apply for the bid..thus no bid available for the winner of this weekends final four.

[Jana]

The WDIA National board now requires 2 representatives from each regional conference to step up and serve on recognition and rankings committees. Therefore, the NWWLA board asked for volunteers at the Fall Meeting from the collegiate division. Despite repeated pleas, no one was willing to step up. The VP for Collegiate Division was also vacant in the fall, no one wanted that position either.

I think the best analogy is to imagine that the PNLA officers also do all the heavy lifting and administration for their own teams, PLUS set up the entire PNCLL season, plan the collegiate Final Four, All Stars, treasury duties, roster verification, etc. That was pretty much the situation in the NWWLA at the time, we didn't have a single collegiate rep willing to serve at the league level. Only women's team reps were willing to serve. But it wasn't the women's division responsibility to serve on WDIA committees.

The WDIA national deadline to submit names for both committees passed by in December, and as a consequence, the NWWLA lost the automatic qualifier for the year. It was a wake up call for the college teams, the UW coach then stepped up to join the board as VP Collegiate Division.

She is working on some analysis for the team reps, so reps can decide at the fall meeting if it is reasonable to fulfill the WDIA requirements. Alternatively, they could go independent for a few years, and then rejoin the WDIA when the college teams are better equipped for the obligations.

There is no annual application for an AQ, it is awarded to conferences / leagues with a minimum of 8 teams, who play at least 6 regulation length conference / league games, serve on 2 national committees, and submit their rosters on time.

Last year, Oregon came close to disqualification for failing to submit their roster on time, and I called the 2nd place WWU captain to make preparations to go in their stead to the national tournament. I didn't sleep for 2 days, until the national board voted to overlook Oregon's error and allow the team to play.

[Timbalaned]

Sounds like there a lot of issues with stability and organization with our NW female counter parts. Do a lot of the teams have stable coaches and stuff or what is the deal with the instability? I know Oregon had a coach but she has since moved on, but not even sure if they have one this year.

[Dan Wishengrad]

And I'd sure like to hear why the tournament is being played in Yakima, which has no host school and is pretty close to being in the middle of... well, nowhere.

Jana, how did this host city selection come about?

[TheBearcatHimself]

Doesn't Yakima have that really tasty burger place?? We stopped there coming home from CWU in the fall, worth the drive

[Kyle Berggren]

Easton... Exit 70, Mountain High Burger should be the spot you're talking about.... if not, take the trip!

[Jana]

Wish - there is no requirement in the NWWLA that the Final Four be played in a host team's own city. The championships have been played in Vancouver, WA, McMinnville, OR, and Portland, OR (Delta Park) in prior years - all neutral sites.

The original plan was to return to Delta Park for a 2nd year. After we were notified by the organizers of the Portland / LaxWorld / PNLA / Invitational Tournament at Delta Park was to be discontinued, the league officers moved the Final Four to tack onto the Yakima InterDivisional Tournament.

The Yakima location is central to the member institutions of the NWWLA for travel times. For the past 3 seasons it has been exceedingly expensive for the Inland Empire members of our league due to so many west-cascade locations for games and championships. Yakima is a reasonable compromise for all - same travel distance for the Oregon games as coming to Seattle, or for WWU to travel to Portland. But it is just 5 hours for BSU and CofI, and just 2 1/2 hours for GU and Whitman. Same distance for PLU, UW and SU to travel to Yakima as driving to Portland.

Yakima also makes it possible to access more experienced umpires - not just from Seattle, but also Portland and Boise.

Umpire shortages are getting worse for the women's game. The addition of 4 NCAA women's teams in the NW over the past 7 years has been great for the sport. But the NCAA requires 3-umpire mechanics and takes away our most experienced umpires on weekends. The NWWLA requires 2 umpires, but prefers 3 in the Final Four. By having the Final Four join the Yakima tournament, we knew we would have umpires on site, who could work the 4 extra games of the Final Four.

In addition, more HS teams are scheduling weekend jamborees and tournaments. In the days of yore, the HS teams played on weekdays, and the collegiate club and adult club teams played weekends. So the umpires could work games during the week, play on their own teams during the weekends, and ref 1 game when their own team has an hour off, or ref more if their own team isn't scheduled to play at all.

This weekend I officiated 6 games, but begged off the 7th (championship game) due to shin splints, by that point I was barely able to run. Even at Yakima, we did not really have enough umpires. Several NCAA games, and a Boise HS tournament on Saturday. All NWWLA teams are required to have a player-umpire, but still, it's not enough to handle all the games.

[Jana]

Results from the weekend:

Saturday:
UW (10) vs WWU (7) - close game in the 1st half, WWU very effective on the breakaway shots, and UW effective on settled attack. UW got ahead 2 goals in the 2nd half and ran an effective stall for the remaining game time. WWU just couldn't find a way to break the stall, the WWU parents were clearly upset, but the rules for women's lacrosse are set up for a high scoring game, with limits on how defense can check ball carriers, and settled attack allows for the stall to go on seemingly forever. I don't make up the rules, I just enforce them.

OSU (6) vs UO (7): This was the game of the weekend, OSU scored 1st, within 30 seconds, the game went back and forth with 1 goal differential for the full game, with OSU leading for half the game. With about 3 minutes to go UO went ahead 1 goal and prevented OSU from scoring at 30 seconds. We were running out of light, if we had overtime, I would have postponed Overtime until Sunday morning at 8am, OSU gave it everything they had and came very close to knocking off UO, and they left the field with a lot of confidence and pride. IMHO, UO had slightly better skills at midfield passing under pressure, which allowed them to control the ball for more game minutes. The Yakima Police Athletic League hosted us and their volunteers were won over by OSU and cheered them on. OSU started from scratch just 4 or 5 years ago. Team to watch in the future.

Sunday:
WWU (7) vs OSU (13) Consolation Game: OSU won by about 5 goals, dominated the game, they were clearly building on the momentum of the night before, and confidently picked apart WWU's defensive schemes.

UW (6) vs UO (11) Championship Game: UW kept it competitive for the first half and early 2nd half - within 2 goals. But UO was simply more accurate shooting on goal. Congrats to UO for winning another championship.

[tiki monster]

Oregon didn't even travel with their full roster and as a result were missing key players and had no subs the entire weekend. Sure would've made a difference in the 'tight' games as they pounded OSU something like like 17-4 during the season. Heard from multiple sources that the refs where playing their part for an upset. Hopefully next year the nationals situation will get taken care of so the seniors at UO will be able to reap the rewards of all their hard work.

[Jana]

OSU improved throughout the season, knocking off a strong #2 seed WWU just 10 days before the Final Four. No one needs to make excuses for UO, or blame umpires for calling the safety fouls. UO won the match, and there is no shame in respecting a worthy opponent. All teams traveled, many had missing players due to injuries or studies, and all teams played hard every minute of every game.

The UO opportunity to participate at the natioanl level will depend on the collegiate division voting whether to continue with the WDIA (or not), the WDIA national board's decision to grant an AQ (or not), and UO meeting all league obligations in 2009, and of course - winning the 2009 Final Four Championship game.

[Sonny]

The UO opportunity to participate at the natioanl level will depend on the collegiate division voting whether to continue with the WDIA (or not)

What exactly does that mean?

[Jana]

The NWWLA collegiate division may decide the WDIA national obligations are not reasonable to meet with any quality, at this time. Even if the vote goes for the NWWLA, if just 7 teams vote yes to renew, but the other 4 do not, then the NWWLA would not be eligible for an AQ (need 8 teams).

To answer an earlier post, 4 teams have coaches (as of now):
UW, SU, PLU, BSU. The other 7 teams are self coached.

[Timbalaned]

To answer an earlier post, 4 teams have coaches (as of now):
UW, SU, PLU, BSU. The other 7 teams are self coached.

That my friend is your first major problem. These teams need to have some sort of coach in place to help make sure these deadlines and stuff are met. Not that I am offering cause I still don't really understand our counterparts' game, but it is sad to see that these universities can't attract coaches especially with the growth of the game.