Adverse weather conditions impacted play across the country but could not dampen a huge weekend of elite-tier competition.
February 18, 2025 by Alex Rubin in Preview, Recap
Ultiworld’s coverage of the 2025 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.
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D-I Women’s Division
T-Birds Triumphant Again
#2 UBC Thunderbirds took home the Presidents’ Day Invite 2025 title with a 13-10 win over #4 Oregon Fugue in the final. Both finalists were undefeated through Saturday’s clipped pools, Sunday’s reshuffled pools, and Monday’s championship bracket. #5 Colorado Quandary summited all challenges until they met Oregon in the semifinal – a universe point thriller that went Oregon’s way. Quandary made it through three universe point games this weekend, but lost the one that mattered most. #16 UC Santa Cruz Sol upset #7 UC San Diego Dragon Coalition, #12 Western Washington Chaos, #14 UC Santa Barbara Burning Skirts, and #15 Utah Spiral Jetty on their way to a semifinal appearance, where they played competitively against UBC.
2024 Nationals finalists #13 Stanford Superfly fell to a disappointing ninth place finish after playing in this tournament’s final a year ago. Superfly lost to Colorado, UCSD and UCSB–which puts them towards the middle of the pack of a deep pool of Southwest contenders. #19 UC Davis Rogue and Utah were the big winners on the weekend, rising from the 12th and 8th seed positions initially to make their way into the championship bracket. Ultiworld’s Graham Gerhart was on the ground reporting on the weekend. You can catch up with his recaps here and watch the twelve recorded games in our video library.
EWO-n the Whole Dang Tournament!
#8 Tufts EWO flew home with a tournament victory, coming away with a 9-7 win in the final over #6 Carleton Syzygy at Queen City Tune Up. Syz upset #1 Vermont Ruckus in one semifinal, while EWO bullied their way past four-time defending champions #3 North Carolina Pleiades in the other to ruffle up our power rankings. #11 Michigan Flywheel also went undefeated, but a truncated format to get meaningful games played despite poor weather forced them to play for fifth place (which they earned with tidy 11-2 wins in the rivals bracket over William & Mary Cypress and #24 Georgia Athena).
Carleton vs. Tufts: Queen City Tune Up Women’s Final Recap
Around the Division
- Commonwealth Cup Weekend 1 was divided into two separate competitions after adverse weather forced the tournament organizers to seek out alternate field sites. Liberty Flames went 5-0 among the round robin that took place on their campus. D-III Kenyon Blu-Ray went undefeated in the round robin at the Smith River field site.
- UC Irvine Grass Ninjas beat the home team Santa Clara RAGE 10-9 in the final of the Santa Clara University WLT Tournament.
Looking Ahead
The action in Virginia continues with Commonwealth Cup Weekend 2. #1 Vermont Ruckus is scheduled to attend after competing at QCTU this past weekend; the other ranked team confirmed in attendance is #21 Notre Dame Echo. Other upcoming events include Mardi Gras, Dust Bowl, Bring the Huckus, PLU Women’s BBQ, and College Huckfest.
D-I Men’s Division
Big Ego: Oregon Kings of the West
#1 Oregon Ego came away with a 13-11 victory over #11 Oregon State Beavers to win Presidents’ Day Invite 2025. This game was a rematch of last month’s Pac Con final, which Ego also won. Oregon knocked off #3 Colorado Mamabird in the semifinal after ‘Bird dispatched #5 Cal Poly SLO SLOCORE one round earlier, as the top three seeded teams found themselves on the same side of the championship bracket. #17 California Ursa Major’s Sunday upset over Colorado forced the imbalance and helped drop SLO to the fifth-place bracket.
The other semifinalists were New England upstarts #21 Northeastern Huskies. They hung close in two games against Oregon earlier in the tournament and knocked out #8 Washington Sundodgers in the bracket. Unranked UC Santa Cruz Slugs were the tournament’s biggest risers, using their Saturday upset over Oregon State as leverage to push into the championship bracket.
Ultiworld’s Emmet Holton was on the ground reporting throughout the weekend. You can catch up on daily recaps here and subscribers can watch all of the recorded games in our video library.
Oregon vs. Oregon State: Presidents’ Day Invite Men’s Final Recap
Darkside Back on Top
Amidst heavy wind and rain, Queen City Tune Up switched to a truncated format to get meaningful games played despite poor weather. #7 North Carolina Darkside won the tournament relatively unchallenged (Yale Superfly scored 6 points against them in pool play during their closest game).
The drama took place in the next tier of contenders. #24 South Carolina Gamecock Ultimate upset #12 WashU Contra 11-10 in the semifinal before getting blown out by their AC neighbors-to-the-north in the final. #15 Penn State Spank likewise got blown out by Darkside, but they recovered to score an 8-6 win in the third place game over Contra in a game between two teams with credible claims as “the People’s Team.”
Chicago Fission had one of the strangest weekends in recent memory: they upset Tufts E-Men, Maryland Space Bastards, and William & Mary Merry Men in pool play and beat Alabama-Huntsville Nightmares in the 5th place semifinals… before losing 11-0 to Tufts in the fifth-place game during which multiple reports indicated that both teams were trying.
UNC vs. South Carolina: Queen City Tune Up Men’s Final Recap
Around the Division
- Denver Sourdough made the final at Commonwealth Cup Weekend 1, but lost to D-III’s Elon in pool play and the final. As a torrent of rainy weather descended on the region, the tournament was divided into two competitions. The other site saw Liberty Flames perform the best of the D-I teams, but D-III Davenport and Oberlin ended up with the best records.
- Grand Canyon University Lopes went undefeated to win Vice Presidents’ Day Invite. Top seeded San Diego State Federales went undefeated until their 8-7 loss to GCU in the final.
Looking Ahead
Earning top billing this coming weekend is Eastern’s Qualifier with the winner getting a spot at the prestigious Eastern’s tournament in late March. Other events include Mardi Gras, Dust Bowl, Bring the Huckus, Bluegrass Brawl, and Monument Melee.
D-III Women’s Division
Lots of D-III Success at Commonwealth Cup
#11 Davenport Panthers (4-1), #24 Richmond Red Hots (2-3), Kenyon Blu-Ray (6-0), Davidson People’s DUFF(4-2), Cedarville Queen Bee (5-1) were the 7500 Club teams at Commonwealth Cup Weekend 1. The tournament was divided into two separate competitions after adverse weather forced the tournament organizers to seek out alternate field sites. Kenyon were responsible for Cedarville’s loss, while Davidson lost to both of the aforementioned teams at the Smith River site. At the other field site, Davenport beat Richmond to affirm their relative positions in our Power Rankings.
Around the Division
- Occidental lost only to the finalists over the course of a 4-2 weekend at the Santa Clara University WLT Tournament.
Looking Ahead
#4 Haverford/Bryn Mawr Sneetches and #5 Wesleyan Vicious Circles are set for a showdown at Bring the Huckus. PLU Women’s BBQ has not yet released a team list, but presumably at least Pacific Lutheran Reign will be there alongside other Northwest teams
D-III Men’s Division
CoCupdate
#1 Davenport Panthers went 5-0 in their season debut at Commonwealth Cup Weekend 1,including a win over #17 Oberlin Flying Horsecows. Oberlin otherwise won all of their games. Because of weather-related schedule changes, the tournament was divided to two field sites. #10 Elon Big Fat Bomb won the bracket on the other site, including a semifinal win over in-state rivals #16 Davidson DUFF.
Looking Ahead
#2 Oklahoma Christian Eagles are scheduled to play at Dust Bowl in their season debut. 2023 Nationals team Butler Big Dog will play at Bluegrass Brawl. A full team list has not yet been announced, but Bring the Huckus typically has a handful of Mid Atlantic and Metro East D-III teams in the field.
