Carleton went undefeated to bag their first tournament win of the season and move into second overall in the unofficial rankings
March 24, 2025 by Theresa Diffendal in News
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#4 Carleton Syzygy went undefeated through an essentially mini-Nationals field at Northwest Challenge that featured 14 of the top 20 ranked teams in our power rankings. Syzygy were pushed by #10 Washington Element in pool play, at one point down 6-5 before going on a 6-2 run to quash any upset hopes and secure the top spot in Pool B and the bye to quarters.
While preseason expectations would’ve pegged a Carleton/Vermont quarters matchup as scintillating, Ruckus are not performing like a preseason #1, instead falling to Carleton by an even wider score line than their Queen City Tune Up faceoff. That set up Carleton’s toughest match of the tournament, a semis game against a Fugue team coming off a win over #6 North Carolina.
The back and forth match started all Syzygy — until #3 Oregon erased their lead with a break to take half, as Trout Weybright laid out to deny an under and Acacia Hahn secured the goal off a floaty upline pass. But if Fugue took the first half, Syz took the second, scoring three in a row to put the game back on serve at 10-9. A big layout from Carleton’s Melba Henley was the final break and the dagger, and the two teams traded out to the final score, 13-11.
On the other side of the bracket, #5 Colorado Quandary were on quite the tear, beating North Carolina for the first time since Centex 2008 on universe to clinch Pool D and dispatching then-undefeated #1 UBC in semis like it was just another day at the office. But any hopes of a promotion were quickly extinguished in the final, where Carleton led wire-to-wire, jumping out to a 4-1 lead they turned into an 7-4 halftime advantage. Carleton had multiple opportunities to score the game-winner, Colorado committing multiple throwaways against Syzygy’s zone, until a series of upline strikes concluded with Eliza Barton in the end zone. Game over, 13-7.
The Northwest Challenge win marks Carleton’s first tournament victory of the season after a narrow loss to Tufts in the final of QCTU and a two-point semis game that instead went Oregon’s way at Santa Barbara Invite. A frisbee-rankings.com update after the weekend slots Carleton up a spot to second overall. They hold the North Central’s only bid, and (fun fact) the next-highest ranked NC team also comes from Carleton: D-III’s Eclipse. Safe to say, we could be talking about another tournament win for Syzygy in just a few weeks — Nationals.
Stay tuned to Ultiworld for an extended Northwest Challenge recap coming soon, while subscribers can relive all the weekend’s action in our video library.
