The three-day extravaganza will write the next chapter of narratives established at last month's Santa Barbara Invite, with a few new plot elements thrown into the mix.
February 12, 2025 by Emmet Holton and Graham Gerhart in Preview, Video
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.
Follow along on the Presidents’ Day Invite 2025 Event Page for livestreams and updates throughout the weekend.
All aboard for the second stop on the Southwest Triple Crown Tour. With a slightly retooled format, the long holiday weekend promises fireworks aplenty as Nationals-level programs (including several potential title contenders) from both divisions clash in sunny SoCal. Who are the out-and-out favorites? Which strength bids are on the line? How many surprise teams could realistically play their way into semis on Monday? Check out our full streaming schedule below and read on for everything you need to get prepped for three days of prime college action.
How To Watch
We’ve got you covered for all the exciting action this weekend. You will need an Ultiworld Standard or All-Access subscription to be able to watch games from the Presidents’ Day Invite 2025 Event Page. Or get access for your entire team and coaching staff with a 2025 College Team Pack!
The event begins February 15, LIVE on Ultiworld.com. All broadcasted games will be available on-demand for viewing immediately following the live broadcasts.
Full Broadcast Schedule
Tournament Preview – Women’s Division
The Title Card Is Shaping Up To Be A Grudge Match
It’s no secret that the Santa Barbara Invite is often a preview of the field at Presidents’ Day. This year is particularly close, with only #6 Carleton Syzygy and #9 Cal Poly SLO SLOmotion missing from the teams listed at both events. This means that we’re likely going to see the best games from Santa Barbara repeated only three weeks and 215 miles away. Even though Power Pools were done away with this year, it’s almost unfathomable to think that #2 UBC Thunderbirds, #4 Oregon Fugue, and #5 Colorado Quandary are not going to make it back to semis. That does leave a spot open for the likes of #7 UC San Diego Dragon Coalition, #13 Stanford Superfly, or even #12 Western Washington Chaos to sneak into the final four, but the eyes will be on the favorites as they work their way to a slot on Monday’s schedule.
UBC have the biggest target on their backs, no question. It doesn’t seem to matter, though. They’re performing at a level most other teams cannot match at this point in the season. The Thunderbirds don’t rely too heavily on their handlers to initiate the offense, and instead make tremendous gains downfield with Mika Kurahashi and Claire Weng slicing up opponents and serving the defense on a platter for good measure. Oregon aren’t too far behind thanks to the throwing prowess of Trout Weybright and Syris Linkfield, especially with targets like Miko Magnant downfield. Oregon were experimenting a lot at SBI, so expect Pres Day to give a lot more answers on how Fugue want to play, especially against their in-region rivals.
Both Colorado and Western Washington are hoping to play spoiler to the anticipated rematch between the Northwest’s top teams. Quandary have already proven themselves to be a semis-caliber team, but the drumming they received from UBC at SBI must still be fresh in their mind. Integrating Liana Bradley1 and Fiona Cashin has been slow, but they’re both poised to have a breakout tournament in San Diego. For WWU, the jury is still out on what this team can do, but the jury is very much IN on Amaya Krutsinger and Alexa Jeantette-Coca, both of whom are returning to the team and could be the difference makers in their attempt at a deep run through the bracket.
The Southwest Shuffle Continues
While Presidents’ Day has long been a destination tournament for the best teams up and down the West Coast (and some surprise guests from afar in past years), the mainstays of the tournament continue to be the elite Southwest college programs. Every year the hierarchy the teams resets and the trifecta of SBI, PDI, and the Stanford Invite help determine the pecking order in arguably the nation’s most contentious region. 2025 is no different. Alongside UC San Diego and Stanford, the tournament also features #14 UC Santa Barbara Burning Skirts, #16 UC Santa Cruz Sol, and #19 UC Davis Rogue. Every single one of these teams knows the importance of playing well and trying to earn a bid. Without an influx of bids to the Southwest, the region will turn into a rockfight by the postseason. Luckily, the tournament will give them plenty of opportunities to show their worth.
UC San Diego have already proven to be among the best in the nation. Abbi Shilts and Margot Nissen helped lead D-Co to a quarters loss at SBI, which would seem short of expectations, except they handed UBC their closest game of the season so far in that quarters game, and judging by how the team was playing, they could have made it even closer. In contrast, Stanford have had a slower start to their season and got booted from the bracket early by D-Co at SBI, but they’ve always been a program to focus on the journey, and they have too much talent to be on the outside looking in. Expect a big tournament from Sage McGinley-Smith and Anna Fisher Lopez.
Both UC Santa Barbara and UC Santa Cruz are a little top heavy with their roster, so there’ll be plenty of learning opportunities at the tournament for each of them, but it’s hard to see them finishing outside of the bracket with the likes of Devin Quinn and Laura Blume leading the Burning Skirts, and Rachel Chang marshaling Sol.
The tournament definitely skews towards the Southwest, so it’s crucial that these teams perform well against the out-of-region teams. With the Northwest looming over them, there’s no assurance that this tournament is going to go in favor of the ‘home’ teams.
Tournament Preview – Men’s Division
What’s the Pecking Order at the Top of the West?
This weekend will be our first chance to see the western conference title hopefuls square off. #1 Oregon Ego and #5 Cal Poly SLO SLOCORE each have a tournament title under their belts, in Pac Con and Santa Barbara Invite, respectively. #3 Colorado Mamabird remain shrouded in mystery so far in 2025, but both recent history and program legacy suggest they’ll come out hot in San Diego. A season ago, this tournament ended in a signature SLOCORE win, cementing their contender status, but Colorado’s run to the final and Ego’s semis appearance both portended strong regular seasons and high Nationals ceilings. If that was any indication of the weightiness of this tournament, we may come away from Pres Day looking at three national semis-caliber squads.
How Good Is the Next Tier?
#8 Washington Sundodgers and #11 Oregon State Beavers have both made early pushes into the contender tier of this year’s field, though their seasons exist in dramatically different contexts. Oregon State are looking to build on an impressive 2024 campaign that saw them make it to the big dance and hang a loss on the eventual national champions. They return almost all of their major contributors and will be playing through a core of impressive upperclassmen. Washington on the other hand, are defined by their youth and enter a clean slate season after 2024 ended in the mud of Northwest Regionals. With what feels like half their roster being first- and second-years, and an impressive win over BYU (their only loss this season) in Santa Barbara, the sky may be the limit for the Sundodgers. #17 California Ursa Major have yet to show themselves capable of beating the teams above them, but a weather affected SBI bracket makes it hard to draw conclusions about the team’s ceiling yet. And then there are the long haulers from New England: #21 Northeastern Huskies. Years of pent up potential have them thirsty for a ticket to Nationals, but they’ll need to do some bidwork first. Three days of (hopefully) weather-unaffected ultimate should give us a good sense of where they stack up.
Can the Underperformers Turn It Around?
#25 Victoria Vikes, Utah Zion Curtain, and UC Santa Cruz Slugs all have the on-paper talent to earn bids this year, the question is whether they have the discipline and health to put that talent to good use. With so many teams with their eyes on Sunday of Memorial Day present, each of these programs should have multiple opportunities to prove they belong in that same conversation.
who’s return from injury has been highly anticipated ↩
