Tournament Talk: Santa Barbara Invite 2025 (Men’s Division)

Results from 2025's first packed weekend of tournament play!

January 28, 2025 by Matt Fazzalaro in Recap

Ultiworld’s 2025 college coverage 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.

Here we are, the start of the 2025 college season, and what better place to kick things off than sunny Santa Barbara?¹ Teams from all over the West Coast – and as far east as Colorado State and Illinois – traveled to duke it out in yet another edition of the Santa Barbara Invite. Thanks to its position as one of the first high-level tournaments of the year, SBI is often a good litmus test to see who will be in bid-earning territory for both the Southwest and Northwest regions. This year was no different, with notable teams such as #3 Cal Poly SLO SLOCORE, #16 Cal Ursa Major, #17 Washington Sundodgers, BYU CHI, and UBC Thunderbirds in attendance. So – time for a little recap: What went down? Who went off? And, most importantly, what does it all mean for the division at large?

Cal Poly SLOwing Down?

Definitely not. Even with the loss of Calvin Brown, last year’s finalists looked to be in form against almost all their opponents this weekend. Kyle Lew stood out. Taking the reins from Brown as center handler and deep shot expert, Lew dominated his matchups all weekend. I want to particularly highlight his ability to break the mark: it is in my opinion the most necessary and sometimes difficult skill that must be mastered to be the best, and Lew is one of the finest in the division. Anton Orme, last year’s POTY runner-up, was Lew’s favorite target downfield and oftentimes their most dangerous and called upon initiating cutter.

The only game SLOCORE dropped all weekend was in the showcase against BYU. With many plagued by a case of the drops and suffocating defense by BYU Chi, Cal Poly were definitely made aware of chinks in their armor. They could stand to apply more defensive pressure.

After that, their only real test came in the final against California. In a weather-shortened game, Cal went up early by way of opportune breaks that came from weather-related turns. The eventual tournament winners, SLOCORE were able to tighten up and punch in a pair of their own breaks to bring things back to even. SLO then took the game over from there, mostly thanks to some incredible downfield defense by Lew after the ‘CORE offense turned it over. It looks like Cal Poly are early favorites once again to play meaningful games on Sunday of Memorial Day weekend as long as Lew and Orme can continue to play at the level expected of them.

Clyburn’s Senior Spin in California

1. Too bad it wasn’t sunny on Sunday. It POURED folks. ↩