After cruising to victory in the Northeast region, Princess Layout will be heading into the national tournament seeded number 15.
The team will compete against Colorado, Georgia and Emory in the four-team, round-robin pool play on Friday for placement into bracket play on Saturday.
Though not considered a contender for the national title, as defending champion Stanford and top seeds UCLA and Colorado are predicted to have the best shot at winning it all, Princess Layout will only graduate three seniors this year and should only improve over the next couple of years.
The team will look to give its competition a run for its money, but Layout's primary goal for the weekend is to get its relatively young squad valuable experience at the sport's highest level.
"We want to have fun and compete at our absolute best," said captain Liz Middleton '06 of the team's goals. "Hopefully, that will mean breaking seed and proving that the Northeast isn't a weak region."
Princess Layout has been at the top of the Northeast region for the past few years, and this will be the team's third trip straight to the national tournament. In previous years, the team often relied on sheer experience to take control of every game, but with the graduation of a number of solid players last year, the team has needed its youth to step up and contribute.
The young guns have responded. Princess has improved steadily through the course of the season, to the point that it successfully defended its regional title, beating Tufts in front of a large Dartmouth contingent in the regional tournament held here earlier this month.
"Thinking back to where we were last fall, this team has made amazing progress," captain Lakshmi "Shmisus" Narayan '06 said. "We've really learned to play together and capitalize on our strengths.
"The underclassmen have been an integral part of our success this season. I think the fact that only six of our 16 players are returning A-teamers and we still managed to win our region is pretty amazing," she added.
The women have also benefited greatly from the guidance of coach and veteran ultimate player Mikey Lee '00, whom Narayan describes as simply "amazing."
The team has spent many hours working in the gym and on the field to come as far as they have, and will be looking to continue to build on the work that has been done with a strong finish to their season.
Along with the many hours devoted to training, the members of the team also sacrificed their time fundraising to cut travel costs on trips to some of the country's biggest and most prestigious tournaments this year, traveling to Las Vegas in February and Austin in March for the sake of playing their sport.
"Personally I'm excited that so many of our players will be getting their first nationals competition and I hope our team works together as well as we have in the past," said Middleton. "Every player on our team has improved immensely -- especially the younger players -- and I'm really proud of the team for teaching and supporting each other."
The open college nationals will be held at the same site, so the weekend should prove exceptionally exciting, as the best teams in the country converge in Columbus.
Layout's progress over the weekend can be found online at http://ultimate.scoreomatic.com/upa.
