Seattle returned to the final after a year away and again emerged as victors
August 27, 2025 by Laura Osterlund and Emmet Holton in Recap
It was another year of the two Northwest teams proving to be dominant forces in the U20 Girls division. As has been the story so often in recent years, one of Seattle Seven Hills or Oregon Downpour were going to emerge as winners of the 2025 Youth Club Championships after each won their semifinal comfortably.
We won’t spill much ink on Seven Hill’s 15-6 domination over Valley Ultimate, as Seattle only allowed the Amherst squad to score once in the second half. But at the other end of the complex, Oregon Downpour took down Minnesota Superior with a closer final score of 14-10. In true Downpour fashion, the returning finalists stayed in control throughout the entire course of the match. With their textbook, systematic offense, they started the game with an early 3-1 lead, despite some jitters from both sides.
However, the deficit did not get the Minnesotans down. After their following clean hold, Kumari Okamura rose above the pack and then hit Riley Gage to tie things up at three goals apiece. Unfortunately for Superior, this was the last and only time the score was tied. Asa Kimball, Kyla Hurt, and Dana Herman, led the Oregonians on a 6-0 run (Downpour took a 9-3 lead), including a break to start the second half.
While the throws of both teams were affected by the elevation, Downpour were able to go on such a run partly due to their ability to clean up after the Minnesota turns with smoother offense.
In their following offensive point, Superior scored a clean hold with the big plays of Haley Chau helping them out. Now with the momentum, the Midwesterners, with a lot of heroic efforts from Kumari Okamura and perhaps the assistance of the Superior boys team on their sidelines, capitalized on Oregon errors and scored three breaks in a row to lessen their deficit to 9-7.
After that, the teams’ offenses tightened up, and despite different defensive looks, such as a Downpour zone, they traded holds for quite a few points. Even when Downpour lost Kimball, a big playmaker, they held on and the rest of their roster stepped up to fill in the hole.
“We have some highly-skilled individuals,” said Oregon coach Jared Weybright. “[But] this is a team sport and the core people can’t do everything. If we’re going to have success as a team, it’s got to be contributions from everybody.”
However, the end of the game looked a bit more like the first part. Near the Downpour attacking end zone, Hurt smacked the disc away and found Amelia Rae to get the downwind break to get one step closer to the final. While Superior could hold on through the soft cap horn, with a Sonja Dorsch track down, Downpour’s offense proved to be too efficient, and they clinched their spot in the final, with a score of 14-10.
“We’re really proud,” said Weybright. “This is kind of a brand new team for us. We have some core returners, but we’re incorporating a lot of new players, and it’s been really fun to watch the team just grow and evolve and get better and understand each other. That feeds into good play on the field, and we’re really happy for them to have that opportunity.”
“The right approach [going into the final against Seven Hills] is ourselves. When we play tight, when we don’t make mistakes, we’re pretty damn good,” Weybright continued, talking about his approach to the final. “When we give the disc over, any team can be competitive with us. So we’ve got to bring that game. We’re going to focus on ourselves and try to be the best version of the team that we can be.”
Seattle Reclaims Place Atop the Heap
Seattle entered the final totally unchallenged, having allowed just 17 points in five games and winning 15-6 in the preceding semifinal. Though much has been made of the two Riot players on this roster, Chloe Hakimi and Nora Luloff, the true strength of this year’s team was unmatched depth. Every player recorded at least two combined goals and assists at the tournament, and 14 recorded six or more. Throughout the tournament they ran line after line of strong two-way players, with disciplined spacing and a diligent adherence to offensive systems.
Downpour, for their part, were more than their stars, but for them, the stars were the story, as Asa Kimball and Sonja Dorsch combined for 38 goals, and Dana Hermann and Kyla Hurt together poured in 48 assists. Amelia Rae did a good bit of both, dropping 14 assists to go with nine goals.
Each team opened the game with a hold, each in the manner you might expect. On the game’s first point, Seven Hills worked the disc patiently through nearly every pair of hands, with Luloff zipping an inside flick to Lily DiGioia for the hold. For Oregon, an ace cut delivered the disc to Hermann, who promptly ripped a 70 yard backhand to Kimball. 1-1.
Ironically, the game’s first turn came on a connection between the two Riot players, as Chloe Hakimi’s flick huck held its edge hard in the thin air, tailing out of bounds and away from a streaking Luloff. Another towering Downpour backhand, this time from Hurt, found Kimball deep, and two throws later they were in the end zone for the game’s first break.
Unshaken by the miss, Seattle would respond with a smooth pull play, as the disc bounced from C. Hakimi, to Joyce Hui, to Luloff, into the end zone in the hands of Sonia Snyder. Two points later Downpour would get another break chance as a pair of drops from Seven Hills gifted Oregon two short field looks at the end zone. But a drop of Oregon’s own stymied their attempt, and a fastbreak through the Oregon zone ended with a dirty but successful Seattle hold.
Both teams would continue playing zone, to varying success. Vivian and Chloe Hakimi carefully picked apart Oregon’s front wall, patiently and cleanly working through every set of hands, ultimately pairing up for the goal and assist. For Oregon, zone offense meant more big throws and big catches, but stout deep defense from Julia Coco would dash their hopes of a hold. After multiple turns for each team, the aforementioned Coco unleashed a gorgeous upwind backhand to an uncovered Snyder, then ran a 70 yard give-and-go to hop into the end zone for the Seattle lead, 5-4.
Seattle would pair that upwind break with a downwinder, as a Hermann huck for Kimball sailed long, and Veronica Voeung sealed out her defender to collect a Luloff flick. Downpour would stop the bleeding on the next time of asking, as Fia Odell fired a strike to Hermann who found themself on the receiving end of a score for the first time in the game.
After another tidy Seven Hills hold, a judicious line call from the Seattle coaches saw Chloe Hakimi fly in to break up an under, before quarterbacking the end zone set with Amelia Welsh, securing Welsh’s flick to take half, 8-5.
That buffer proved enough, as each team secured one more break in the second half, with Seven Hills taking the game 14-11.
The story for Seattle was one of precise offense and dogged defensive effort. While the Hakimis, Hui, Sydney Belfiore, and their O-line compatriots racked up quick holds, Luloff (who played both ways, along with Chloe Hakimi, for much of the game), Coco, Maeve McArdle, and a fleet of other hungry defenders made life difficult for Oregon on every possession, coming within a stray throw or drop of half a dozen more breaks.
Downpour were not without their own highlights, as Hurt’s upwind throws, Kimball’s ability to give an ever-present deep release, and Hermann’s all-around control of the game all factored into the evenly matched second-half score line.
Since the inception of the girls divisions at YCCs, Seattle has paced the field in developing youth Gx athletes. Coach Kaitlynne Roling attributes this in large part to the way the community fosters itself. “Many of these players have come up through… AGEUP, [and many] work there, and they’re building leadership skills and fostering this community together from such an early age,” Roling said.
On top of that, youth ultimate in Seattle seems to just mean more. “Almost every highschool [in Seattle] has a team,” Roling added. “We had four teams at the High School National Invite, all four finished in the top eight.” With such a vast talent pool to draw from, it’s unsurprising (though inspiring of some jealousy) that building a 23 person roster where everyone is a contributor is possible.
In large part because of this holistic approach to fostering community and buy-in at the youth level, the decision by the team’s Nationals-level club players to participate in YCCs over a potential US Open finals run was more of a foregone conclusion.
“Being able to play with the people that you’ve grown up playing frisbee with is finite, you know. Club is for as long as you can,” coach Stanley Birdsong added. “It’s one of the most unique opportunities in Seattle, to play with people from different schools, from opposite ends of the city. [Youth is able] to really honor equity in a way that with club is unfortunately not as accessible.”
In a city where many kids start playing before middle school, it makes sense that the zenith of youth ultimate would carry an added weight.
All-Tournament
Nora Luloff (Seattle Seven Hills Gx)
Chloe Hakimi (Seattle Seven Hills Gx)
Dana Hermann (Oregon Downpour)
Asa Kimball (Oregon Downpour)
Isla Cusick (Amherst Valley Ultimate)
Violet Yap (California Current)
Chloe Feldman (Minnesota Superior)
