Scandal win an all-time classic to advance to their second final in as many seasons
October 27, 2024 by Alex Rubin in Recap with 0 comments
Ultiworld’s coverage of the 2024 Club Championships 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.
Under a cloud of evening fog and the bright stadium lights, #4 Washington DC Scandal persevered through a back-and-forth game to beat #2 Boston Brute Squad and advance to the championship game. The game had everything a neutral fan would want in a primetime semifinal: lead changes, momentum swings, and an engaged crowd. Players from the other DC-area teams in attendance made their voices heard, cheering for Scandal between every point and making plenty of noise while the Scandal D-line was on the field.
These two teams met on the same field in last season’s final, an emphatic Brute Squad victory. Though each season is different, revenge was absolutely on Scandal’s mind as the teams warmed up. “That was one thing a lot of us have just thought about over the past year,” Ashleigh Jentilet said. “Just thinking about what could have been multiple points in that game where we could have went on a run and we weren’t able to come through on it. It just felt we were just so close, and we left a lot there.”
Like last season’s matchup, Brute Squad took an early lead as the nerves of another big moment seemed to get to Scandal. Tyler Smith and Raha Mozaffari each suffered throwing miscues that gave the Brute Squad defense a short field on consecutive points to help Boston build a 3-1 lead.
Though neither turnover came from a Boston block, their downfield pressure created the conditions for the turnovers. “We try to keep alive the spirit of Brute Squad defense, that it’s just one on one, go murder, and get the Ds,” Ospina said. “I think when we get into the point where everybody has that energy of getting the D, we actually got those D’s and we scored our breaks. When we were not on that mentality was when they were able to score very easily.”
The Boston defense slowed down Scandal, but couldn’t stop DC’s offense completely. Claire Trop spent much of the game cruising through the cutting lanes earning big gainers and then looking to the end zone. Her visionary inside backhand to Amanda Murphy tied the game at four and gave Scandal confidence they could bounce back from adversity and mistakes better than they could at this time last season.
Each team held through nervy moments; the game went back and forth and reached a mini-climax tied at seven apiece with halftime quickly approaching. Scandal worked the disc all the way to the goal line, but struggled to find space for the final pass. Eventually, Trop tried a daring cross-field throw to Mozaffari who dropped the fast flying disc. Brute Squad moved the disc quickly up the field and Ospina placed an upline forehand perfectly into Mangie Forero’s path to score.
With a full halftime to make adjustments, Scandal decided to lean into the zone defense that helped them earn their first half breaks. Rattling off a four goal run of breaks, Scandal played exclusively zone and truly confounded Boston’s offense into stagnation and desperation.
“This zone fulfilled its purpose,” Ospina said. “It created impatience and created this anxiety to break over it. Most of our turnovers were desperation throws like hucks that were not necessary because we needed the patience to keep working.”
“Early in the season we didn’t run [the zone] at all,” Jentilet said, “and we’ve kind of come into our own at Pro Champs and Regionals and now here at Nationals. It’s really worked out for us, and we have people buying into their positions on the field and really owning it and taking that space, and we generate a lot of Ds through that.” The zone defense and a series of fast breaks on the counterattack built Scandal an 11-8 lead.
By the time Brute Squad recovered and found their way through the Scandal zone, they faced a monumental task to rebuild their lost lead against one of the most stingy offenses in the country. Trop and Marie Perivier form an elite duo and can switch throwing and receiving roles with ease. Most teams will struggle to match up with one let alone both of them, but Brute Squad found a way.
A coverage sack and a timely handblock from Ospina on a Trop reset gave Brute the disc. On the offensive side, Samiya Ismail took over. She gathered a flat side reset, rocked a pump fake to send her mark all the way into the backhand lane, and put a beauty of a blade across the flick side to a place where only Floor Keulartz could catch it.
What was bigger, the sky or the kick spike? @100percentBS‘s Floor Keulartz goes up and gets the crossfield dart from Samiya Ismail! pic.twitter.com/CvvkYC7D6u
— Ultiworld (@Ultiworld) October 27, 2024
Going the other way on the next point, Ismail pushed through some contact to get a centering reset and lofted a backhand to the breakside. Ospina had been clearing back into the stack, but noticed the motion and adjusted her route to catch the wide open goal.
As a dense fog descended on the field, an eerie glow cast downward and set the stage for what everyone realized was becoming an instant classic. Brute Squad took a brief, late lead when Malisa Deng slipped and a reset flew harmlessly over her head. Angela Zhu and Levke Walczak pushed the pace and gave Brute Squad a 12-11 lead.
Once again, this game took another turn. “It’s how sports are,” Ospina said after the game. “We came with a very good mentality. We got our breaks, we were up, then they came back. So it was like a roller coaster of emotions.”
Mozaffari marshaled Scandal to a patient hold to get the Scandal D-line back on the field. A coverage sack stranded Lia Schwartz and forced a punt. Trop saw Ismail’s takeover and raised the stakes. She notched the block on that coverage sack and then scored the goal to get Scandal back in the lead. On their next offensive possession, Trop wrapped a backhand around the stack to Smith coming across the back of the end zone. It was the type of throw a player like Trop made look easy, but was executed with a degree of difficulty raised by the weather, the stakes, the fatigue clearly setting in, and the knowledge that it brought Scandal just one point away from the final game of the season.
Scandal’s zone had one more turnover to force. “It was a non-conventional zone,” Ospina said, “and it took us a good amount of time to identify how to get out of it.” Brute Squad had been reluctant to try any throws over the top of through the zone, instead hoping to swing the disc side to side and get gainers in the open space after a swing. For the first time in the game, trailing 14-13, Brute broke through between layers and Ismail had the disc on the backhand sideline with twelve players all trailing behind her. Seeking to press the advantage, Ismail launched a cross-field backhand into the path of Amy Zhou. The disc hung high in the air and Jentilet had time to adjust her position and swat it into the track that surrounded the field. It wouldn’t have mattered, the throw was already five yards out of bounds.
Perhaps looking to make up for the turnover, Ismail sailed past Trop trying to block her in-cut. Instead, Ismail’s momentum carried her out of the play and Trop was able to wind up a long backhand huck that only Allie Wallace could catch with three Brute Squad defenders hopelessly in pursuit. Again, Trop made the difficult look simple. A smooth windup and crisp release hides the mental calculations Trop needed to make to weight the throw with perfect shape in front of Wallace with enough height to get over the defense but enough edge to keep it in bounds. It was simple, powerful, elegant, and ultimately jubilant as Trop pumped her fists and jumped up and down from 60 yards away, triumphantly knocking out the team that ended Scandal’s season a year ago and once again advancing to the National final.
Scandal is moving on 🔥🔥🔥 A massive throw sends @scandalultimate into the finals as Trop and Wallace connect for the final goal!#USAUltimate | #USAUNats pic.twitter.com/COL9Pmkj6a
— USA Ultimate (@USAUltimate) October 27, 2024
While there were highlight plays from both teams throughout, the story of the game was Boston’s inability to figure out how to score consistently against Scandal’s zone. Brute’s talented throwers could not find their way around the collection of players in front of the disc and scarcely tested Jentilet in the deep space. “That’s a huge credit to our people running and taking those marks and the wings that just they’re not allowing that space to throw a huck up,” Jentilet said.
“It feels very much like a living zone,” Laurel Oldershaw said, “where it’s constantly updating based on the points, based on who the handlers are and who the zone folks are and how we’re adjusting within it.” Oldershaw and Deng were often the players tasked with guarding Brute’s handlers, and their shifting marks allowed the next wall of Scandal defenders to squeeze the available downfield space. Groom excelled at the middle of the zone alongside Kat Ritzmann, Lauren Johnson, and Jackie Wang.
Scandal will hope their zone is similarly effective in the final against #1 San Francisco Fury.
“There’s no practice for big games until you get in them,” Oldershaw said. “We’ve reflected a lot on that journey of what needs to happen to put a championship team together for four great days. And so I’m really excited to go against Fury tomorrow, who has a history of that competition strategy, and really see everything that we’ve worked on over the last year come to fruition.”
For Brute Squad, this result represents a disappointing end to a promising season. Though they fell short of their goal, Brute Squad made the semifinal round for the tenth consecutive season and did so with a more balanced and full roster than in years past. No longer is this a team reliant on international pickups like Walczak, Ospina, and Keulartz to carry the team past their expected ceiling. Instead, the team is investing in local young players and building the next wave of stars.
“We have many young people in our team this year,” Ospina said. “I think they’re going to be big names in the future. So like Emily Kemp, Lia Schwartz, Nikki Chen, they are very young people that are being so impactful in our team already. I’m very excited to see them grow and how we as a team can bring them to a level to carry the team in 2025. So I’m very excited to see what’s coming, and we’ll be back.”
