Albany women's backer zone defense against Stony Brook

The Albany women's defense plays a backer zone against Stony Brook during the 2016 America East Tournament championship game. The backer was primarily midfielder Emily Mizer #17.

[@butttterssss]

I don't understand how a backer defense can be effective at the college level. If you move the ball fast, you're gonna find the open player, right? If you pause at almost any time, you can find the unmarked player. She cuts or dodges off a quick succession of passes and you have a quality scoring opportunity. Is there something I'm missing?

[@KELLYKH]

We ran a backer def in college, and most of the time it was successful. However, we had a system in which if the ball was skipped to the other side of the field and our backer couldn't get there in time, we switched backers. This also helped save energy. It's just a lot of talking, covering adjacents, being big, and packing it in on the 8. If we came out any further than the 8, our whole defense would screw up. Also, there were certain teams we absolutely could NOT run this backer defense against.

[@marvinhollingsworth2007]

It seems to me, an sustained open set by the offense would be much easier to cover by the backer. When SB put two girls at the top of the eight they got cutters and forced the defense to commit more. SB was patiently trying to wear down the girl playing the backer but made poor decisions with the ball afterwards. That builds on it's self and put's more and more pressure on the offense. next thing you know, they are pressing. Then mistakes really begin to flow.

[@hollykm]

So who won?