The Slugs went undefeated with wins over Cal Poly SLO and surprise fellow finalists Western Washington to win their second Stanford Invite crown
March 10, 2025 by Theresa Diffendal in News
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.
With multiple teams missing their top-line stars for a U24 practice weekend1 and a weaker field than in years past2, the Stanford Invite 2025 trophy was ripe for the taking. While top seeded #7 Cal Poly SLO was able to skirt through pool play with the only real test coming from D-III’s Whitman, second seed #12 Cal stumbled on universe against Western Washington in the last round of pool games, setting up a quarterfinal match between the overall no.1 and 2 seeds.
UC Santa Cruz, however, were primed to go the distance, easily sweeping pool D and never allowing more than seven scores until a semifinal showdown with Cal Poly. Though SLOCORE hung 10 points on the Slugs, UCSC managed to flipped the script on their Presidents’ Day Invite loss to Cal Poly. The stage was set for a date with fellow surprise finalists Western Washington Dirt, who were coming off yet another universe point upset, this time over UBC. Dirt drew first blood, finally capitalizing on multiple break chances with a flick blade that curved out of the reach of any defender and perfectly led the receiver to the back cone for the 6-5 advantage. But a fumble from Dirt two points later put the ball in UCSC’s court, and they easily corralled the clean break to take half, back on serve at 7-6.
And on serve it remained until the very last point of the game. Leading 12-11 with soft cap on, the Slugs flustered Western Washington’s dominator enough for Kien Warren to eventually get a paw on a reset. A low, muscled flick huck from UCSC seemed destined to devolve the point into a back-and-forth affair, but Warren was there on the other end to somehow reel in a catch past a lunging Dirt player, opening up the easy backhand dish for the game, 13-11.
UC Santa Cruz last won Stanford Invite in 2023, upsetting Oregon in semis and taking down Cal Poly on universe in the final to claim the crown. The Slugs’ win this past weekend over Cal Poly contributed heavily to a seven spot jump on the recently updated frisbee-rankings.com, pushing UCSC firmly into second bid territory for the Southwest. Whether they’ll hold that bid and return to Nationals with major tournaments like Easterns left on the table, however, remains to be seen.
Stay tuned to Ultiworld for an extended Stanford Invite recap coming soon, while subscribers can relive all the weekend’s action in our video library.
