Statements were made and bids changed hands in the last weekend of the 2024 college regular season!
April 1, 2024 by Jacob Cowan in Preview, Recap with 0 comments
Ultiworld’s coverage of the 2024 college season is 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.
Throughout the spring season, we’ll publishing a bite-sized weekly recap of the action across the college division. This will serve as a supplement to our standard tournament reporting and offer a high-level look at the latest happenings and the biggest stories of the week.
Want your tournament listed? Submit a recap of what happened right here.
D-I Women’s Division
Vermont Dominates East Coast Invite, UNC Loses Again (Twice)
A new top event on the D-I women’s calendar, East Coast Invite provided athletes and fans alike with an exciting Florida Warm Up-style schedule on Saturday before a more typical bracket play on Sunday. #4 Vermont went undefeated, and beat #3 North Carolina twice (first in pool play then in the final), accounting for the Pleiades’ second and third losses in more than four years. Vermont’s wins positions them as a potential favorite for Nationals, especially considering their universe point win over #1 British Columbia at Stanford Invite. Aside from their bouts against Vermont, UNC won all of their games, although it took universe point for them to defeat #9 Tufts in semifinals. To touch briefly on the ever-important bid watch, #20 Northeastern suffered a trio of blowout losses to UNC, Vermont, and Tufts, which, according to frisbeerankings.com, will keep them just shy of earning a third bid for New England. Stay tuned for more in-depth recap coverage coming of this event.
Around the Division
- At Old Capitol Open, Minnesota Matrix looked unbeatable for their first five games, recording two bagels and only allowing nine goals. Then, in the final, they left up seven in a loss to D-III competitor St. Olaf Vortex.
- After losing in pool play to Maryland Helpful Corn, Johns Hopkins Blue-Footed Boobies rebounded on Sunday and took home the tournament victory over D-III Richmond Redhots at the Atlantic Coast Open. Maryland lost to Richmond on universe point in the semifinals.
- Illinois went undefeated at Illinois Invite, although it took a universe point win over Knox in the final round of day one to claim – a win margin Illinois extended to seven when the two met again in the final.
- Rhode Island Disky Business won the 7th place bout against New Hampshire Oriza to decide which team would win the crown of highest placing D-I non-B team at Northeast Classic, a tournament littered with D-III teams.
- At Big Sky Slumber Party, Montana PillowFight beat Montana State Cold Smoke twice, by scores of 13-3 and 10-8. Given the team names, viewers are left curious if Montana State even had a chance at the sleepover.
- Cal State-Long Beach No Regrets beat D-III’s Claremont 10-3 at the Claremont Classic.
D-I Men’s Division
Jojah Win the Rubber Match
The 2024 edition of Easterns promised, and delivered, some juicy results as we caught our final glimpse of the best men’s division teams in the country before the postseason. #3 Georgia Jojah and #1 Massachusetts Zoodisc split their two previous face-offs heading into the weekend, with Jojah beating UMass in a rain-altered Florida Warm Up semifinal and UMass besting Jojah in the finals of Smoky Mountain Invite. This time, Jojah proved the better team, winning 15-11 and not surrendering a break. Jojah came back late to beat #2 Cal Poly-SLO 15-13 in the semifinals, whereas UMass easily dispatched a #6 Pittsburgh team that was coming off of a monumental upset victory against #3 North Carolina in quarterfinals. The topsy-turvy results suggest a more open field than the division has seen in years, setting us up for what is sure to be an exhilarating bracket at Nationals. Stay tuned for tournament recap coverage coming soon, or catch up on all the results in more details with Alex Rubin’s Centering Pass recaps from Day One and Day Two.
McGill Loses a Bid at East Coast Invite
McGill went undefeated and took home the tournament victory in the notably less stacked men’s division of the East Coast Invite. They only let one team come within four goals of them, Dartmouth in quarterfinals who they beat on universe point, and yet they still fell out of the bid earning range. The Canadians came into the weekend in position to earn a bid for New England, but let this be a reminder to us all that strength of schedule, and in turn attending top tournaments, is key for teams hoping to earn a bid for their region. Per frisbeerankings.com, New England will only earn three bids to Regionals, putting teams like McGill, Northeastern, and #17 Tufts in a tough position where they will have to top one of UMass, #8 Vermont, or #9 Brown to make it to the big show.
Washington University Dominates Huck Finn, Holds Their breath for Final Rankings
#23 Washington University Contra looked dominant at their home tournament, Huck Finn, with their closest game coming in a 12-9 win over St. Olaf in pool play, a margin that they increased when the teams met again in the final. According to frisbeerankings.com they are the first team out of bid earning range, behind #15 Oregon State by less than four ELO points. Word on the street is that #25 Brigham Young, who is just above Oregon State, is not attending Conferences and therefore will not claim their bid for the Northwest. Contra will be on the edge of their seat waiting for USA Ultimate to put out their final official rankings to see if they did enough to earn a bid for the South Central or if, like McGill, the teams they faced at their final tournament of the season were not strong enough to earn a bid.
Around the Division
- Duke came out on top of the Atlantic Coast Open, which was populated by many regional-level teams from the Atlantic Coast, Ohio Valley, and Southeast. They beat William & Mary 15-13 in the final.
- Michigan State defeated Iowa on universe point to win Old Capitol Open in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. On the weekend, Michigan State allowed only 25 goals in 6 games played.
- Utah State came as close as can be to going undefeated at Utah Valley Rally, only losing one game. Who was that loss to? High school team Green Canyon on universe point. Green Canyon was beat by Utah Valley, however, who in turn lost to Utah State by two.
- Ball State Cardinals went undefeated at Illinois Invite, a six team round robin. Their closest game came against D-III’s Wheaton (Illinois), which Ball won 8-5.
- Grand Canyon convincingly won Sinvite 2024, beating San Jose State 11-5 in the final.
- Vermont B was the top D-I performer at the Northeast Classic, a tournament filled with D-III teams. They lost to SUNY-Cortland on universe in the semifinals.
- New England Open, another tournament made up of mostly D-III teams, saw Maine emerge as the top D-I competitor. They finished in 10th place.
- West Chester, and their B team, were the sole representatives of D-I at Layout Pigout. West Chester went 2-1, losing to Haverford, and their B team unfortunately did not earn a win.
- Boston College won the Mill Town Throwdown, beating both Wentworth and UMass-Lowell, the only other two teams in attendance.
- Portland State Vitruvious lost both games played at the PDX Round Robin 13-2 and 13-3 to D-III Puget Sound.
D-III Women’s Division
St. Olaf Dominates, North Central Shines at Old Capitol Open
Last week, #3 St. Olaf Vortex rolled through Needle in a Ho Stack, going undefeated and winning every game by three or more goals. Life can’t get much better than that, right? Umm… try again. Not only did Vortex go undefeated at Old Capitol Open but they never allowed more than four goals and only allowed 13 in total. While the tournament was windy, keeping goal totals lower than normal, this is still quite the accomplishment. Their performance in back-to-back weekends should put the rest of the division on notice, and suggests that there may be a new favorite atop The People’s Division.
Elsewhere, soon-to-be-ranked Macalester Pursesnatchers and #10 Michigan Tech Superior Ma’s also had very strong weekends and seem to have locked up bids for the North Central. These three teams, and #4 Carleton Eclipse have played well enough to potentially earn the North Central four bids to Nationals. The Grinnell Grinneleanor Roosevelts, who had a strong season debut this weekend as well, will look to play spoiler in what has emerged as the strongest region of the division, stealing New England’s crown.
East Coast Foes Clash at Northeast Classic
The People’s Division™ accounted for five of eight of the quarter finalists at Northeast Classic. In the end the #7 Haverford/Bryn Mawr Sneetches came out on top, beating Bates Cold Front 11-8 in the final, getting revenge for a 7-5 loss in pool play. Bates had a very strong weekend as well, beating 2023 semifinalist #9 Wellesley Whiptails and #19 Wesleyan Vicious Circles by four goals each on their way to the finals. Their performance demonstrates a lot of growth for Cold Front, who lost to Wellesley 12-2 and Wesleyan 9-6 at a very rainy and cold No Sleep till Brooklyn back at the beginning of March. Both Haverford/Bryn Mawr and Bates, while not yet considered to be among the upper echelon of the division, will look to push for bracket runs at Nationals.
Around the Division
- #17 Richmond Redhots made it to the final of the Atlantic Coast Open where they fell to Johns Hopkins by a score of 9-7. Their results did not prove to be enough to get them up into bid earning range, so the Atlantic Coast will only have one bid per frisbeerankings.com.
- Knox Alley Cats were the lone representative of D-III at Illinois Invite, and finished very well with a 3-1 record, beating a trio of midwest B teams and only falling to Illinois on universe point in pool play.
- Over on the West Coast, Occidental WAC shut out the Claremont Greenshirts in an 8-0 rout, previewing who is the (heavy) favorite to earn the autobid up for grabs at Southwest Confregionals.
D-III Men’s Division
St. Olaf Dominates, Colorado College Doesn’t at Huck Finn
#2 St. Olaf Berzerkers played phenomenally all weekend at Huck Finn, only losing (albeit twice) to D-I Nationals hopeful Washington University. Their season finale against strong regionals-level D-I teams should prepare them well for the postseason when they will return to facing off against D-III schools. Remarkably, four of the Berzerkers games were streamed on the weekend, so there is plenty of tape for competitors to comb through to try to find a chink in the armor. Reigning champions #11 Colorado College Wasabi stumbled through the weekend, finishing 17th and likely losing a bid for the South Central and making their road back to Nationals much more difficult. #17 Michigan Tech DiscoTech was also in attendance but unfortunately did not do enough to push up the rankings and earn a third bid for the North Central.
Around the Division
- #7 Richmond Spidermonkeys solidified themselves as the favorites for the lone Atlantic Coast bid with a strong performance at Atlantic Coast Open this weekend. While they finished in 7th, they lost in the quarterfinals on universe to eventual champion Duke.
- #25 Bates Cool Whip defeated #19 Bowdoin Clown in the final of New England Open. The tournament field was full of New England teams and provided an exciting preview of what is sure to be a bloodbath between a number of competitors for the third bid in New England which, according to frisbeerankings.com, Bates did just enough to earn.
- Macalester Flat Earth was the highest placing D-III finisher at Old Capitol Open, winning the third place game 10-6 over Colorado B. The conspiracy theorists also notched an impressive universe point win over #10 Colorado School of Mines. #24 Davenport also beat Mines on their way to winning the fifth place bracket.
- Navy Poseidon scored a key upset and nearly notched another with a universe point win and loss through the first two rounds of pool play at East Coast Invite. But they stuttered in the bracket and lost to Syracuse Doom, victims of Poseidon’s universe win the day before, to fall to eleventh place.
- SUNY-Cortland Team Rocket won Northeast Classic, beating Wesleyan Nietzsch Factor 12-8 despite going 0-2 in pool play, where they lost to Wesleyan on universe and Vermont B by two. Impressively, they rebounded from pool play with a win over #21 TCNJ in the crossover round on Saturday.
- Puget Sound Postmen scored two blowout victories over Portland State, winning 13-2 and 13-3. They sit right outside bid earning range according to frisbeerankings.com, so will be working to prepare to steal a bid from Whitman or Lewis & Clark come Regionals.
- Haverford Big Donkey Ultimate won their home tournament, Layout Pigout, beating the higher seeded West Chester 11-8 in the de facto final of the round robin.
- Wheaton (Illinois) Mastodon and Knox River Rats both posted winning records as the two D-III representatives at Illinois Invite. In their game against each other Wheaton won 9-7.
- The Claremont Braineaters beat a trio of B teams, and lost to a trio of others, to finish with a solid .500 record at Sinvite 2024.
- At Mill Town Throwdown Wentworth Concrete Jungle lost to Boston College before pulling out a universe point win over UMass-Lowell.
Looking Ahead
This weekend marked the final events of the 2024 regular season. After a weekend off for teams to rest, Conference Championships will take place across the weekends of April 13th and 14th and April 20th and 21st. Then, Regional Championships will be held the two weekends following Conferences, before Nationals at the end of May.
