Stella takes top seed for Canadian Ultimate Championships
Ontario Women’s Regional Tournament, July 8–9, 2006

It was a cool Saturday morning in Toronto’s Sunnybrook Park. The dew-covered fields were empty except for the occasional dog that had escaped its owner and wandered over to enjoy the lush green space. All was quiet.

Then, from the direction of the parking lot, a haze of green and yellow appeared. At first it was almost imperceptible. It could have been anything—a swarm of wasps on absinthe, a pride of lions chasing after Komodo dragons, a lemon-lime Sprite truck. But as they got closer, it became clear that this was no ordinary occurrence. Amid cries of PEAS AND CORN and OTTAWA/ULTIMATE, Stella descended upon the Toronto ultimate scene with a vengeance.

Starting out lined up against Toronto’s Snatch, Stella played a man defense and offense for the most of the first game. Snatch is an experienced team with one older cutter who lays out at every opportunity (and then some). But Stella won out in the man-to-man match-ups, with Rachel and Kate Crump getting several run-through Ds. Final score: 15–3.

Next, Stella faced Lotus’ B team, Lilly. This is Lilly’s first year and its roster boasts some familiar faces, including former Lotus and Eve players. Lilly tried the offensive spread that Stella saw in Boston, but Stella had her practise in and was able to shut the play down quickly. Lilly then pulled out her long game, but Stella stopped their deep threat every time. Stella took the game 12–1, with a fantastic layout grab from Magoo at game point.

After a short bye, Stella played Toronto’s Eve. The wind picked up for the second half of the day, and Stella had some rough points playing against Eve’s zone defense. But after taking the half 8–4, Stella regrouped and cleaned up her act. The second half saw Baby D make some incredible defensive grabs, which helped finish the game 11–4.

For her final game of the day, Stella met up with Lotus for the first time since last year’s Canadian Ultimate Championships final. This was certainly Stella’s most challenging game of the day, as Lotus has a strong roster with several returning vets. But the team was coming off a weak showing in Boston, and appeared to be having some trouble gelling. Playing a man defense, Stella did an excellent job of holding the force and stopped Lotus from getting the swing off. Stella also showed Lotus some zone defense, and cuppers Crump, Love and Becker shut down Lotus’ handlers, taking away their downfield options. When Lotus tried to force the disc downfield, Sully stopped them cold with a phenomenal layout D. Shannon Becker finished off the game with a double happiness: foot block and layout grab to score. Final verdict: 10–6.

For Saturday’s games, Stella handed out the offensive cape to Magoo for her countless layout bids and laser-accurate throws. The defensive pickle went to Rachel Robichaud for the run-through Ds she racked up every game.

Sunday morning, Stella showed up bright and early for her final round-robin game against her sister team, Scarlett. Anne Mercier got things off to a great start when, on the second point, she sped downfield chasing her own pull to get a layout D on the first pass. The wind that had picked up on Saturday afternoon was still blowing on Sunday, so Stella played mostly zone defense against Scarlett. Stella’s cup and mids did an excellent job of containing the handlers, and Stella closed in on the deep threat whenever a long bomb went up. Scarlett’s cutters worked hard at filling in the holes in the zone defense, but in the end Stella shut them down 15–1.

After finishing the round robin format in top spot, Stella met up with Lotus again to defend her ranking. Stella came out hard with the same zone defense she had used against Lotus on Saturday. Lotus answered with a zone defense of their own, but Stella’s handlers were quick to throw through and around the cup. They were also quick to strike for one another—Alex made a great strike and layout bid to score off a fantastic huck from Shannon Elliot. The final score was 10–6.

Stella clearly learned her lesson in Boston. At Regionals, she graduated from a second-half team to a full-game team. Spurred on by Sully’s new rodeo-inspired cheer (YEEEEEEEEEHAW! Giddy up Stella!), Stella started out every game with incredible energy and never let up until the whistle blew.

Missing in action were Carrie Lugg and Tanara Pickard; injured was Amanda “Danger” Sage.