The annual test of championship potential, Atlantic Coast strength, and resiliency in the face of inclement weather is just around the corner.
February 12, 2025 by Bridget Mizener and Edward Stephens 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 Queen City Tune Up 2025 Event Page for livestreams and updates throughout the weekend.
One of the main pilgrimage sites every year for teams hoping to make their mark on the season, Queen City Tune-Up returns with a heavyweight women’s division field and a strong, if less top-heavy, men’s division. In both divisions, Atlantic Coast title favorites look to defend their turf against formidable traveling contenders. Drive, polish, and an ability to adapt to what could prove to be poor weather conditions should determine whether the home or away sides come out on top. Read on for full video streaming details and top storylines heading into the tournament.
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 Queen City Tune Up 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
The changes in format, schedule, and locations has altered our streaming schedule significantly from our original posted schedule. We will attempt to update if there are additional changes.
Full Competition Schedule & Results
Tournament Preview – Women’s Division
Who, What, Where, When, Why, How
As a bona fide journalist, I know the importance of the 5Ws and 1H. The answers might be found in Queen City.
Who’s the true top dog?
I don’t envy the TD here. If you’re building pools, who’s your no.1 seed: four-time champ #3 UNC Pleiades, who’ve lost some key contributors but still hold the title? Or powerhouse #1 Vermont Ruckus, with arguably the scariest roster in the division and the most recent head-to-head win?1. Either way, we’re likely to get some firsthand data this weekend if these teams hold seed. #6 Carleton Syzygy and #8 Tufts EWO round out the clear top rung of teams and will look to play spoiler.
What does this weekend mean for the bid picture?
#23 Northeastern Valkyries: A shot at sweet, sweet rankings points. As New England gets more inhospitable with Tufts and Vermont solidifying their status at the top of the division, it’s imperative that the Valks get their own ticket to the big dance. Every point matters to the algorithm, even in early season tournaments — a fact I’m sure they’re aware of after they finished the 2024 regular season a mere 12 points outside the bid cutoff.
#22 Wisconsin Bella Donna & Minnesota Matrix: Justice for the North Central. Opportunity abounds for Wisconsin and Minnesota to get out of Carleton’s regional shadow if they can make a push here. Sydney French is the real deal but it depends what sort of production she’ll get from the rest of Bella Donna; Minnesota has been close in previous years but failed to get over the hump. With the potentially resetting #24 Georgia Athena, rebuilding Northeastern, and middle-of-the-pack Pittsburgh Danger ahead of them, the field is as wide open as any we’ve seen at Queen City.
Where do Michigan fall in the national pecking order?
Kat McGuire and Calliope Cutchins are fresh off a club championship, and many other contributors return to a #11 Michigan Flywheel team that gave Carleton a scare in prequarters last year. Have they developed enough since last spring to really take a swing at being a quarters team? A hot start this weekend could prove that they’re able to hang with the big kids and set them up mentally to compete for a spot in the bracket come May.
How will top teams replace the production of their stars?
The wheel keeps on turning in the college division, and with the departure of some big names, title contenders have big holes to fill.
With the loss of Dawn Culton, UNC have the toughest task by far, but they’re not the only ones. Vermont have a heck of a supporting cast — so much so that supporting cast is probably a misnomer — and shouldn’t stumble too much as Caroline Stone and Emily Pozzy take the helm for good after the departure of Kennedy McCarthy. Tori Gray and Edi Lam also leave solid teams behind. Tufts’ roster is in full win-now mode with vets Emily Kemp and Lia Schwartz at the height of their powers; the young talent around Mia Beeman-Weber at Carleton, on the other hand, still has some time left on the clock. Things are much more uncertain for Georgia, with Fiona Cashin off to Boulder, leaving backfield linchpin Quincy Booth to find a similar thrower-receiver connection with several younger players.
By no means should we expect these teams to have it all figured out in February, but getting some questions answered early will set them up for success down the road.
When will we have a full picture of the relative strength of the coasts?
The trouble with early season tournaments is that since the competition is highly regional, it’s hard to benchmark teams against each other. Sure, #5 Colorado Quandary got steamrolled by UBC in the SBI semi, but should they really be outside the top four? Yes, #9 Cal Poly SLO SLOmotion have some great wins so far, but are they in the same galaxy as Tufts? Enter Carleton: the cross-country connection heroes we need. With any luck, we’ll get two top-8 matchups featuring Syzygy this weekend and can begin to paint the picture of relative regional strength.
Why do we play on the East Coast in February?
This one’s purely existential. With a rain-out highly likely and the organizers already planning on snagging some backup turf fields, this question could also be phrased “Why do we do this to ourselves?” Here’s hoping that we get a full slate of games despite the weather.
Tournament Preview – Men’s Division
Teetering Titans? Or: the Odds of a Darkside Victory
Less than two weeks ago, it was all-systems-go in Chapel Hill, as perennial championship contenders #7 UNC Darkside geared up for another run to (at least) semis at Nationals. The usual cast of Atlantic Coasters (and a few others looking for early season reps) came to pay their annual tribute at Carolina Kickoff. And then something odd happened: Darkside lost to #13 Georgia Tech Tribe in quarters. Could that blemish be a sign of vulnerability?
Perhaps. It’s staggering to see Darkside face any adversity whatsoever at a tournament they’ve dominated time out of mind, let alone actually lose a game. It could be a sign that their ceiling and floor for May are not what they have long been, and the division is in for a change. Or, alternatively, it could be that they just missed their star Ben Dameron, who was at the Team USA World Games tryout that weekend2, and got off to a slow start on Sunday morning. Queen City offers them a chance (with Dameron this time) to get right. Josh Singleton, Eli Fried, Kevin Pignone and company are the class of the tournament on paper, and the smart money says they’ll put whatever ailed them in the rear view.
Two hardy challengers await in the form of #12 WashU Contra and #15 Penn State Spank, though, and even though their names are not quite as famous, they could both (and I recognize that ‘could’ is doing some heavy lifting here) match UNC’s top-end talent. Contra stormed their way to semis at Florida Warm Up two weeks ago. Cam Freeman, Ben Reimler, Joel Brown, and Noah Stovitz lead a blitzkrieg of a squad who hang points in the blink of an eye. Spank, on the other hand, have yet to make their debut. Based on last season’s surprise charge, though, they’re a serious threat. Logan Piercy and Doug Hoyer lead a sneaky-deep side who appeared to lean heavily on defense and fundamentals in the fall. Tribe already skywrote letters for the whole division to see that UNC can be beaten, so don’t be shocked if it happens again.
AC Scrum
What would be a shock is if a program other than those top seeds walk away from Rock Hill with the title. What is far more likely to happen is a classic Atlantic Coast royal rumble. Pick your favorite fighters, you’ve got plenty of good choices. First up, thanks to their second-place finish at Carolina Kickoff, the Gavin Russell- and Michael Cote-led #24 South Carolina Gamecock Ultimate. Or would you prefer the two-player terror of U24 teammates Miles Grovic and Isaac Lee with Maryland Space Bastards? Henri Lessard is the headliner for an always strong NC State Alpha side hunting for their sixth straight Nationals appearance. Ben Greenberg, a two-way playmaker like Lessard, could help push William & Mary Merry Men up the regional standings. As far as cores go, it’s hard to do better than the Stewart Kelley-Ryan Manuel-Christian Belus triangle for UNC Wilmington Seamen.
Or could one of the out-of-region interlopers, like Tufts E-Men or Michigan State ARC or Purdue Undue or Alabama-Huntsville Nightmares, crash the party and come out ahead of them all?
