Everything you need to know as we head into the latter stages of the bracket
May 25, 2025 by Kiana Hu and Bridget Mizener in Recap
Ultiworld’s coverage of the 2025 college ultimate 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.
BURLINGTON, WA — The bracket is built and the quarterfinals are set after a jam-packed, emotionally charged Saturday at the D-I College Championships. Pool play wrapped with a few final twists before a prequarters round that delivered high drama but few upsets. The result? A quarterfinals slate heavy with rematches, revenge games, and championship aspirations. With the defending champs out and eight title hopefuls still standing, the stage is set for a heavyweight Sunday.
Storylines
Scintillating Prequarters Slate Winds Up Chalk
As bracket play began, one pattern emerged: star-driven underdogs ran out of steam against deeper, more balanced contenders.
Oregon 13-11 UC Santa Barbara: Game Recap | Stream
After a lackluster first half, Oregon rallied from an 10-8 deficit to slip past a UCSB team that just plain ran out of gas. Oregon’s offense faltered early, but Fugue found the gumption to notch two late breaks and white-knuckle it across the finish line. Oregon’s Miko Magnant (4G/3A/1D) was involved in the game’s final two scores, and Skirts power duo Laura Blume (2G/3A) and Devin Quinn (1G/3A/2D) gave their all but were slowed by zone and fatigue. With this loss, two of the strongest representations of the Atlas-like do-it-all college archetype exit the tournament stage left.
Though they gritted out the win, Oregon has yet to put together two halves of excellent ultimate at this tournament. Maybe that’s cause for concern — a title cannot be won without two good halves — or maybe that’s a sign that the best is yet to come for Fugue, because their B and C game is enough to make quarters. Time will tell if their A game will make an appearance before weekend’s end. They’ll need it if they’re to move on: they’ll meet a UBC team against whom they’re 0-4 this season.
Colorado 15-10 Cal Poly: Game Recap
Coming off their emotionally and physically taxing will-they-won’t-they flirtation with the bracket that persisted through the very last point of pool play, SLO Motion petered to a stop as the sun set over the complex. Against SLO’s fatigue, it was a matter of time until Quandary broke the game open — their offense was largely humming, while their D-line got break chance after break chance. Eventually, Clil Phillips (4G/6A/2D) and Colorado started converting, and the game ended on a 6-2 run. Quandary will face off against Pool C victor Washington in tomorrow’s quarter.
This marks the end of the line for Katherine Jackson (5G/1A/3D) and the rest of the young SLO core (Poppy DeArmond-MacLeod et al.). Reaching the bracket in their first-ever Nationals appearance is no small feat, especially after a 0-2 day one, and there’s a lot to be excited about for the Cal Poly program in years to come.
Tufts 15-12 Michigan: Stream
In what’s become a recurring theme, the underdog’s stars hit a wall against a more balanced team. Michigan Flywheel relied heavily on Kat McGuire (4G/3A/1D) and Sophie Harvey (5G/1A/1D) all weekend long, and they continued to shine in the bracket but could not will their team to a victory. Tufts’ offense was remarkably stingy, giving Michigan only four break chances, none of which they were able to convert. Two breaks in the first half for EWO made the difference in the end, and they maintained that three-goal lead all the way to the last point.
Lia Schwartz’s (1G/6A) throwing prowess was on full display in the near windless conditions. Case in point: a pinpoint hammer from nearly midfield to Mina Brown (3G/2A) in the end zone.
EWO will need to improve their break conversion rate if they hope to make a deep run. 2/15 might’ve been enough in this case, but they simply won’t get that many chances against a much deeper Vermont team.
Stanford 14-12 UC San Diego: Game Recap
The headline of this game has to be Anika Quon’s return to play for Superfly. Quon had sat out all of pool play and she breathed new life into a Stanford team coming off an exhausting game against Colorado. She made an immediate impact, catching both opening break scores to give Stanford a 2-0 lead.
Abbi Shilts (4G/1A/2D) and Tori Gray (2G/2A/5D) were all over the field for UCSD, but their heroics were just not enough. Superfly left the door open in the second half for UCSD to get two breaks back, but it was too little, too late. It took Quon crossing over to offense to put the game away, and she will be a big difference maker in their quarterfinal against a Carleton team that has yet to face a challenge.
SLO Takes Down Pleiades On Universe, UNC Misses Bracket
Cal Poly SLO 14-13 North Carolina: Game Recap | Stream
SLO Motion overcame their disappointing day one, storming out to a 7-4 lead on Pleiades and punching in the hold on universe. Bella Russell, a universe-line player for UNC, was taken out of the game on a dangerous bid and didn’t return. The win, of course, opened the door for SLO to sneak into the back of the bracket as UBC rested their starters. In a twist of fate, they needed not only that win but something from the North Carolina team they’d just beat in order to move on. UNC delivered, beating Penn so that SLO stood alone at 2-2.
While SLO battled UBC’s reserves, Penn and UNC fought for their seasons in their last game of pool play. At the end of the day, UNC did what it took — playing with confidence and shaking off the universe point demons — to get a cathartic 14-9 win over Penn. Heartbreakingly, that result would have been good for a bracket appearance had the UBC/SLO game gone to seed. It’s the first time the defending champions miss the bracket since 2017.
Odes to the Fallen: Eliminated Teams
- North Carolina: After a demoralizing first three rounds, UNC controlled what they could control to beat Penn by the requisite margin, even though it wasn’t enough to make the bracket. Their final statline — a 1-3 record and +2 point differential — speak to how thin the margins were this weekend.
- Pennsylvania: Penn was the only bottom seed to get a win on Day 1, and their 15-9 takedown of Cal Poly SLO looks far more impressive now. Grace Maroon (7G/23A through two days) is among the best in the division, and she’s only a sophomore.
- UC Santa Cruz: Sol gave most of Pool B a run for their money, even if the score reporter shows 1-3. They have an elite offense and a D line that could be very, very dangerous with a bit of maturing.
- UC Davis: Not many accolades will be given to Rogue for beating Oregon 14-9 in an inconsequential pool play game, but that was in fact a victory where all of Fugue’s top players started the game. Plus, sophomore Lucy Mertz had a great showing in their close game with Michigan.
- Utah: Spiral Jetty claimed their first-ever Nationals win today on universe 15-14 against a sneakily good Georgia team. They came back from 14-12 to win, and did it without one of their stars, Lily Terpstra. Plus, Carly Atwell (10G/12A) had one of the strongest individual performer statlines in the division by the end of the day.
- Georgia: On the wrong side of two universe games to 15, Athena nevertheless left their mark on this Nationals and established themselves as a force to be reckoned with. They’ll never be an afterthought while they have Quincy Booth, who leads the division with 27 assists — plus her four goals, she was involved in 79% of Athena’s scores.
- Victoria: The Canadian team had a short travel down to Nationals this time around and got a solid result over Cornell, 15-9. Mari Nielsen (13A) and Erika Edgell (10G) were bright spots for UVic this weekend.
- Cornell: It’s an accomplishment for the Wild Roses to make it back to Nationals after a 5-year gap. They put up a respectable scoreline against Colorado and were able to break them twice, and their experience playing top teams will be invaluable for the young team.
Meaningless Games Dominate Back End of Pool Play
A slate of what might have been thrilling matchups earlier in the weekend fell flat in the final round of pool play, with the bracket field pretty much set after the 3 p.m. round. The quality of the play in the Cal Poly SLO v. UBC, Oregon v. UC Davis, Carleton v. Michigan, and Tufts v. UCSB all suffered because nothing was on the line for one of the teams — and, making the intelligent decision, they rested their starters. Just a shame to have a whole round pretty much mean nothing. I’m not sure if there are schedule-building ways to mitigate this — since any of these games would have been barnburners if they were played yesterday — or if that’s the nature of strategy at events like this.
Be sure to catch the game recaps as they’re posted on tomorrow’s live blog, and follow along with the action first-hand by watching tomorrow’s streamed games.
