Tufts is the clear favorite, but regional pecking orders color the bid chase
February 23, 2024 by Grace Conerly in Preview with 0 comments
Ultiworld’s coverage of the 2024 college ultimate season are presented by Spin Ultimate; all opinions are those of the author(s). Find out how Spin can get you, and your team, looking your best this season.
Commonwealth Cup marks the middle of the regular season, with most teams having competed one or two times. It’s a key opportunity for teams to establish themselves as the top team in their region before the Series and for challengers to get another try at knocking them off. Additionally, this might be the last chance for some of the attendees to get the wins they need to earn a second bid for their region.
Tournament Profile
- Date: February 24-25
- Location: Martinsville and Axton, VA
- Weather: High 40s to low 50s, with 10-15 mph winds, and some chance of rain on Saturday
- Top 25 teams: 6 women’s division
- Schedules & Results
- Event Page
Streaming Schedule
All Ultiworld Standard and All-Access subscribers will have access to watch the live broadcasts from this year’s Commonwealth Cup, where we will have one game in each broadcasting round.
The broadcast schedule can be found below:
All times are ET.
Saturday, February 24
10:00 AM: Chicago vs. Yale [W]
12:00 PM: Brown vs. Purdue [W]
2:00 PM: SUNY Binghamton vs. Carnegie Mellon [W]
4:00 PM: James Madison vs. Connecticut [W]
Sunday, February 25
9:30 AM: Prequarter TBD [W]
11:00 AM: Quarterfinal TBD [W]
12:30 AM: Semifinal TBD [W]
2:00 PM: Final [W]
Tournament Preview
Tufts on Top
Top seeded #7 Tufts EWO are coming off of a strong performance at Queen City where they finished fourth – which sounds a little underwhelming if you leave out the fact that the three teams they finished behind are all ranked in our top six. EWO be looking to build on that success here. While there is not another top ten team in attendance, a dominant win at this tournament would prove they’re on the right track. Based on what we’ve seen so far, it would take quite the wild series of events for them not to win Commonwealth.
Regional Intrigue
Southeast: #21 Georgia Athena are back in action this weekend. Their Queen City results were great – aside from a headscratcher of a loss to University of Pennsylvania Venus in pool play. They’re looking to break into the middle tier of college teams and a win over #17 Pittsburgh Danger (or even, if things break right, Tufts) would be great. Their longtime rivals Georgia Tech Wreck, meanwhile, begin their season here. After a fourth place finish at Southeast Regionals last year, they’re hoping for improvement, and racking up as many wins as possible here is the first step.
Ohio Valley: Pittsburgh, Ohio State Fever, Carnegie Mellon Money Melons, and Ohio Stacked Cats1 are all in attendance, making this a huge weekend for the region. While Danger are the current OV favorite, they haven’t played any of these other challengers yet in 2024. An upset win by any of those teams would be huge for their national aspirations.
Metro East: Finally, the world gets a first look at the two Metro East powerhouses: #18 Yale Ramona and SUNY Binghamton Big Bear. The ME has almost exclusively been a one-bid region in the past, but there’s actually a glimmer of hope this year that both of these schools can finish inside the cutoff. The work starts this weekend. If one of them slips even a little, it likely means yet another high-stakes Metro East final later this spring. Regional foils Columbia and UConn also travel to Virginia to set the table for the region.
Great Lakes: #22 Michigan Flywheel put together a solid performance at Queen City, cut short, unfortunately, by the cancellation of consultation play. This will be their chance to see where they stack up against teams in the 15-25 range, namely Georgia, who they lost to at Queen City and were denied the opportunity to play again due to schedule. #24 Notre Dame Echo are another team looking to build on their success from Queen City, where they lost to Pittsburgh 11-10 and to North Carolina Pleiades 10-6 – both quite respectable. If they can get a win against Michigan or another ranked team, that would solidify their top 25 position and give them a great confidence boost going into the series. Reigning Great Lakes champ Chicago Supernova and 2022 champion Purdue will also be in attendance. Chicago have not played a tournament since College Nationals in 2023, so this is their first step in their 2024 campaign. They are the overall no.2 seed at the tournament – let’s see how well they justify the seeding.
Atlantic Coast: A second bid for the region is all but required if any of the likes of Virginia, South Carolina, NC State, or Duke want to qualify for a trip to Wisconsin. With Virginia Tech and James Madison also in the mix, there are a number of AC teams with a chance to do the region some favors. NC State is sitting shotgun for the region currently, and if the season ended today, they’d be in bid-earning position. A deep regional bench might not be enough, so one team will need to deliver.
Editor’s note: Money Melons and Stacked Cats are probably one-seeds when we do a 64-team college team names bracket. Both are timelessly brilliant. ↩
