Seventh Heaven: Fury Takes Another Title With Win Over Riot

SARASOTA — San Francisco’s Fury completed a spectacular undefeated season with their seventh straight Club Championship title after a 15-9 victory over Seattle’s Riot.

Fury is now the greatest dynasty in Ultimate — no other team has won seven consecutive championships in any division. The Boston open team Death or Glory won six straight in the late ’90s.

Riot continues to stand above every team except Fury, who has proven to be their kryptonite over the past decade. They haven’t won a title since 2004 and they lost to Fury five times this season.

Riot was the better team early in the game, holding serve with excellent offensive play from handler Alyssa Weatherford and cutter Calise Cardenas. A zone defense proved effective midway through the first half in the slightly up-and-down crosswind. A nice huck into the wind got Riot on the doorstep for an upwind break.

But after a timeout, Sarah Griffith threw away a blade. But the Riot defense got a goal line stop and punched it in for a 5-3 lead. Alyssa Weatherford would find Rohre Titcomb for the downwind point as Riot extended their lead to three.

But Fury came charging back with a pair of breaks of their own, thanks to stellar handling from Alex Snyder, who assisted on the upwind break. The teams would stay on serve into halftime with Riot up one.

“It seemed like we were knocking on the door throughout the first half,” said Fury captain Lakshmi Narayan. “In the huddle at halftime we talked about working the disc to the upwind sideline so we could ride it out from there.”

The strategic change made a huge difference as the second half was all Fury. They scored seven straight points to take a commanding 14-8 lead. Really, as soon as they took their first lead at 9-8, their win felt inevitable.

“It felt like we had a little bit of a headstart this season,” said Narayan, referencing Fury’s trip to Worlds in early July. “A lot of the strategic adjustments we made throughout the season really paid off in this tournament.” Fury’s depth was evident as many players contributed to the assists and scoring throughout the weekend.

Does winning every year ever start to lose its luster? “It definitely is just as awesome ever year,” said Narayan, playing her fourth season with Fury. “The more I play, the better it gets. You wake up Saturday morning and there’s nothing you’d rather be doing.”

Tagged Club Championships, fury, riot