University Women’s Indoor Regionals 2024: Scottish Preview
By Alice Bates
As we fast approach the end of November, there is only one thing left on the minds of the Scottish ultimate community: university women’s indoor regionals (UWIR). Arguably the best, most beautiful event in the Scottish university ultimate calendar, this weekend, the uni minibusses will trundle along the M9 one more time to fill Dundee RPC with *women*.
Last year, St. Andrews took home the Scottish gold in a 1-point win over Glasgow. Edinburgh came in third, with all three teams placing in the top 8 at women’s division 1 nationals in February. Edinburgh 2 closed out the top four, an impressive feat for a second team. They earned the final spot to division 1 nationals, where they proved themselves the best 2nd team in the UK. At UWIR 2023, Dundee placed 5th, followed by Heriot-Watt, Glasgow 2, and Aberdeen, who all earned spots to division 2 nationals in Glasgow. Aberdeen placed the highest out of these teams at nationals.
To build anticipation for this year’s tournament amongst players, and to fill in anyone who hasn’t had the pleasure of being involved with the university season this year, I’m pleased to present you with my predictions! My goal is mainly to inform, but also to provide some more accurate predictions than Kb’s current record of 1/5 and 1/12 correct guesses for UXIR and UMIR, respectively. Unfortunately, Heriot-Watt couldn’t field a team for UWIR, so I won’t be able to horrendously underpredict their results.
This year at ScUWIR, there are only 10 teams competing for 8 nationals bids1, so every team will begin the weekend with a nationals spot in touching distance. Highly coveted SSS medals are also on the table, so the fight for the top spots will still be furious. Overall, we can expect to see two teams fighting for gold, both with an easy path to the final. Besides this, the highlight of UWIR 2024 will likely be the fight between many evenly-matched teams for the bronze medal, and for the fourth bid to division 1 nationals.
Predictions:
1st – St. Andrews 1
It’s recently been highlighted that St. Andrews have claimed 9 out of the 11 most recent Scottish indoor titles. And, as much as I wish it wasn’t the case, they’ll likely continue their chokehold over Scottish university ultimate and take that record into double digits with a win this weekend in Dundee. This year, it appears to be a two-horse race for Scottish gold, with St. Andrews 1 and Edinburgh 1 as the only real contenders for the title. However, I think St. Andrews have a convincing upper hand. Their team will be relatively unchanged from the small, but mighty, squad who claimed 4th at UWIR in February. With their pinpoint throws and formidable receivers (yes, Sophie Chowgule and Marta Orzechowski are both still at uni), anyone who faces them will struggle to put many points on the board. While St. Andrews will have a relatively easy ride to the final, it will be there that they may struggle to win.
2nd – Edinburgh 1
The other 2024 division 1 national team without major changes to their roster this academic year is Edinburgh 1. A fast, well-drilled team with great chemistry and confidence, their journey to the finals will not be dissimilar to St. Andrews. Edinburgh’s first team will be a deeper squad of many female athletes with experience and skill, some of whom got extra reps together this summer in Heck’s debut season. Keisha Bedor’s throws to Sophie Wilson plus Ariel Koh and Adreena Ann’s captaincy and the team’s general competence will help them go far. I see Edinburgh 1 gaining accuracy and honing their strategies throughout the weekend in preparation for the final.
If the weekend progresses as predicted, we will see Edinburgh 1 and Saints 1 face off no less than three times. This means that, by the final, the teams will know each other’s game style inside out, so strategy and adaptability will be crucial to win gold. Whilst Edinburgh will end up with the silver (Saints have already proven their superiority at BUCS), if they channel their momentum as underdogs in the final and use all their players to shut down St. Andrews’ stars, the final scoreline could be tight.
3rd – Glasgow
Surrounding the (relatively uninteresting) success of the top two teams, UWIR 2024 will be a fight for 3rd and 4th: the remaining bids to division 1 nationals. It may surprise those who haven’t been around the uni women’s scene this year, but five teams, Aberdeen, Dundee, Glasgow, Stirling, and Strathclyde, are all in the running for these final spots, so we’ll see nail-biting games between them throughout the weekend. By the end of Sunday however, the Flung women will have harnessed their skills and spicy defense to take the final win for third place.
While they may not match their second place seeding, considering last year’s UWIR team (along with most women in the club) have graduated, Glasgow’s development and performances so far this year put them in a strong place heading into regionals. This year’s women’s team gained valuable experience at Glasgow One Day and came into their own at BUCS, beating Saints 2 (13-2) and Dundee (9-7) only two weeks ago. Captain Charlotte McFazdean brings her GB and GUXYZ experience to the team, complemented by the grabs and skills of Faith Amifor, Siobhan Moore, and several ‘freshers’ who are no strangers to the game of ultimate. Furthermore, their seeding and pool will give them precious opportunities to develop on Saturday before facing any knockout games. While Flung won’t go unbeaten this weekend, I (and The Release Point) back them 100% to find wins where it matters and come out with the coveted bronze medal and a division 1 spot.2
4th – Strathclyde
Claiming the final spot to division 1 nationals will be Strathclyde. Whilst the teams from further north will be hot on their heels, the Glasgow teams will maintain the upper hand this year. After playing Strathclyde at a friendly this Tuesday, they’ve convinced me that they could add a division 1 women’s nationals trip to their 2024/25 calendar. It seems to be a good year for Strath, so inspired by Kb’s confident (and somewhat delulu) predictions, I boldly predict Strathclyde women, who are seeded 9th and haven’t managed to field a BUCS team, will have a heroic rise to 4th.
This seeding, following their struggle with low numbers last year, will put them in a very difficult situation on Saturday in their pool with St. Andrews 1 and Edinburgh 1, who will initially exclude them from the top four. After building confidence in the lower power pool, they’ll have to cross over up into the semi’s. This will be possible, as returners including Martyna Bakon and Grace McElroy are joined by ex-Flung captain and PhD recruit Becca Hardman-Carter. It’s due to this significant pick-up that Strathclyde will climb up through the ranks on Sunday. It’s great to see the women’s team at Strathclyde beginning to thrive again after a few quieter years.
5th – Aberdeen
One team that will threaten the top four is Aberdeen. Having built their women’s team back recently after being absent from UWIR for a year or two, Aberdeen’s team are mainly returners from last year. Their team last year placed 8th at UWIR, then developed throughout the year to be the highest-placing Scottish team at division 2 nationals. This experience and chemistry will earn them wins at UWIR as they begin to reassert themselves as the threat in Scottish women’s ultimate that Aberdeen has historically been. Hannah Kelly and Katie Henry will stand out with their GB and club experience, respectively. However, the team will also feature several lesser-known players who are not to be underestimated.
Whilst we have yet to see their women’s team compete this year, Aberdeen placed disproportionately highly at mixed regionals (7th out of 15) compared to men’s regionals (10th out of 12) this year, indicating that their women are currently performing well. Furthermore, Aberdeen’s seeding (helped by their 2023/24 nationals performance) places them in the easier pool B, from which they may well make their way into the upper power pool. We’ll wait to find out whether these games against the tougher teams will be a valuable or demoralising experience; the 4 v 5 game to go to division 1 could be very close indeed.
6th – Stirling
Taking the second spot to division 2 nationals (which they missed out on last year) will be Stirling. The Blazettes will return to Dundee, hungry to prove themselves by winning a women’s nationals bid to add to their mixed regionals success, and they have a good chance of doing so. Stirling women have proved their commitment to development and competition by fighting through their BUCS games with an inexperienced squad last year. And this year, they’ve had only seven players holding down the fort throughout three outdoor games. This grit and experience will serve them well this weekend.
Stirling and Dundee women may well build up somewhat of a rivalry this year, with similarly matched squads. While Dundee women took the win at BUCS (7-6), any games between the two this weekend will be won by whichever team has the most confidence and fire. Because ‘Blaze is my [second] favourite team…’, with big contributions from rising player Soffía Sigurbjörnsdóttir and growing confidence throughout the weekend, Blaze will come out on top of Dundee this weekend, taking the 6th spot.
7th – Dundee
Whilst Glasgow, Strathclyde, Aberdeen, Stirling, and Dundee are all in with a chance of winning a division 1 spot, they won’t all be able to come out on top. It’s been great to see Dundee’s women’s team developing, with more players involved than on the men’s side of the club in the past year or two. In addition to their core of returning players, they’ve built their chemistry this year at BUCS and, as mentioned, came out ahead of Stirling and Saints 2. Plus, their mixed regionals placement does not reflect the experience of their women. While Dundee will rightfully qualify for division 2, and I would be glad to see them outperform this prediction, their development throughout the tournament may be stunted by some stifling pool games, leaving them in 7th place.
8th – St. Andrews 2
With St. Andrews entering three women’s indoor teams this year, we’re expecting to see some of their outdoor first team players on the second team, as well as some from the outdoor second’s. The exact makeup of this team will hugely sway Saints 2’s success this weekend – outdoors, Saints 1 are easily topping the league with Saints 2 bringing up the rear with a total of only 2 points on the board after three games. While Saints 2 and Ro Sham 2 have both experienced success recently in the women’s division, this year, the second teams won’t come up so well against the first teams from smaller universities with experience. However, St. Andrews 2 will still claim the final bid to nationals, which they narrowly missed out on last year, due to their strengths as a larger, more experienced squad than this year’s iteration of Edinburgh 2.
9th – Edinburgh 2
Edinburgh 2, who just last year were the best second team in the UK, have suffered harshly from the loss of players either moving to the first team or graduating. Edinburgh has been boosting the number of teams competing at Scottish women’s regionals for years, and have experienced success since the arrival of ultimate in Scotland. Unfortunately, this year, their players are low on the ground, and Ro Sham 2 will be hindered by their small squad. Despite their initial high seeding, they won’t have the energy to win their 5 v 8 semi, which will be their game to go to division 2 nationals.
10th – St. Andrews 3
Rounding up our 2024 Scottish women’s teams will be St. Andrews 3. As the only third team at regionals this year, they will struggle with a lack of experience on their team. This can sometimes be made up for by a large sideline from the rest of the club, but this year’s schedule, with games played at the same time, will not permit them this advantage. St. Andrews 3 will match up against Edinburgh 2, both in the pool stages and likely later in the tournament, both of which should be close match-ups. The wooden spoon is all to play for.
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With competition rife between several evenly matched teams this year, UWIR will be an interesting tournament to follow. Or, this whole article could be severely misjudged and a tidal wave of discposting memes are about to be posted. Stay up to date by following Scottish Student Ultimate on Instagram, or with scores as they’re inputted on the schedule.
1 Whilst there are 6 regionals regions for mixed and men’s national qualification, due to the lower number of women’s teams across the UK, teams compete in just 4 women’s regions. Hence, there are more bids per regions than for men’s or mixed.
2 Just want to point out that everyone did have an opportunity to write for TRP this year. If for some reason you believe that Flung isn’t the pinnacle of Scottish ultimate and you take issue with this, feel free to get involved with The Release Point!
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Featured photo by Tristan Millington Photography.
If you missed them, have a read of our Scottish University Men’s Indoor Regionals preview and review!