Recapping the storylines you need to know from pool play
October 24, 2025 by Alex Rubin and Edward Stephens in Recap
Ultiworld’s coverage of the 2025 Club National Championships 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.
SAN DIEGO –It was a beautiful day at the Surf Sports Park as 48 teams across three divisions gathered to showcase the best the sport has to offer.
Pool play in the men’s division went more to seed than usual, with only four upsets through 24 games, and just one pool four seed breaking through to the bracket. We’ve got your roundup of all the stories from day one at the Club Championships.
Triple Crown Threat Revolver Handles Business
- Revolver 15-13 Sockeye | Game Recap
- Revolver 15-12 Machine | Game Recap | Stream
#1 San Francisco Revolver finished the day undefeated despite challenges from #2 Chicago Machine and #9 Seattle Sockeye.
Revolver overcame a one-break halftime deficit to take a gritty 15-13 victory over Sockeye. The game tipped in Revolver’s favor late in the second half as veteran Byron Liu laid out around Declan Miller’s outside shoulder for an underneath block.
On the showcase field for their last game of the day, Revolver took advantage of a 3-0 closing run to dispatch Machine. For much of the first half, Revolver looked literally a step ahead of Machine. Mac Hecht, Raekwon Adkins, Walker Frankenberg, Leo Gordon, and Adam Rees danced around the defense. Their movement was precise, their throws were crisp, and the mind-meld to get throws to places only the offense could get it was elite. The Revolver counterattack was similarly precise. Jason Vallee, Dan Ritthaler, Nathan Kwon, and Seamus Robinson carefully kept possession against the brutal combination of tight defense and gusty wind.
Revolver saw their 8-5 lead turn into a 12-12 showdown, but held steady despite the adversity. Just ten minutes after Machine tied the game at 12, the two teams were lining up for high fives. Michael Ing blocked a huck to set up a late break, and once again the Revolver counterattack just would not give up the disc. They poured on two late breaks to close out a stellar day of ultimate.
Revolver will surely take the confidence of their comeback against Sockeye and their comfortable win over Machine with them for later in the weekend as they search for the elusive Triple Crown–something a men’s division team has not won since PoNY’s Triple Crown in 2018.
Rhino Slam! On the Loose
- Rhino Slam! 15-11 Ring of Fire | Game Recap |Stream
- Rhino Slam! 15-13 Sub Zero | Game Recap
- Rhino Slam! 15-9 Raleigh-Durham United
The defending champions finished pool play undefeated, but survived a scare along the way. Sandwiched between comfortable wins over the Triangle Area teams, #5 Portland Rhino Slam! needed to come back from a three-goal deficit late in the second half to beat pool bottom seed #10 Minneapolis Sub Zero. Daniel Lee (4G/1A in that game) leads the team with five blocks so far as he spearheaded a defensive effort that overcame a 12 turnover performance from the Rhino Slam! offense–a far cry from their two-turn game in last year’s final.
When Henry Ing, Raphy Hayes, Jack Hatchett, Mica Glass, and Matt Rehder are hitting their shots, the Rhino Slam! offense is close to impossible to stop. But, all too often those players were bailing each other out of bad throws and failing to generate the easy looks that made Rhino Slam!’s offense so dominant in 2024.
Bravo Are Back
- Johnny Bravo 15-13 DiG
- Johnny Bravo 15-14 Truck Stop | Game Recap | Stream
- Johnny Bravo 15-12 Red Tide
At halftime of their second game against Truck Stop, #8 Denver Johnny Bravo looked like they had given away all the momentum they’d earned earlier by holding on for a 15-13 win against pool top seed #3 Boston DiG. They were down 8-4 against Truck Stop. They looked over-matched and off-kilter on offense; they looked outfoxed on defense. And then, point by point, Johnny Bravo started to put together a run. By the time the run – 10-5 in the second half – ended, Bravo had broken on universe point for a 14-13 win to take firm control of Pool B.
The Bravo D-line, led by block artists Mathieu Agee and Noah Coolman and counterattack quarterbacks Cody Spicer and Chance Cochran, started to apply more pressure and make more plays. And when the offense had to keep control of the disc? They turned to exquisite lane cutting by young Colorado Mamabird star Elliot Hawkins, flashes of brilliance from Grant Lindsley, and steady-as-she-goes throws from longtime handler Jon Nethercutt.
One of the highlights of the day was Coolman’s attack of a deep shot to Christian Boxley, easily the division’s most explosive block of the day. (The sidelines were falling all over themselves in awe, spectators, Bravo teammates, and Truck Stop players alike.)
Despite their up-and-down season, Bravo find themselves a pool winner with a bye to the quarterfinal round and a plausible trip to the semifinals for the third time in four seasons.
Upset Alerts Fade
Sometimes we get the pleasure of writing about a monumental upset. A Cinderella story that upends the natural order (or at least the pre-tournament seeding) of the division. Sometimes though, we just get a good game when we did not expect on even if the upset bids do not come to fruition.
- Red Tide 13-14 Truck Stop | Game Recap
Truck Stop began with a 6-2 lead and ended the game receiving on double game point. In between, bottom seeded #19 Portland Red Tide played good, fundamental ultimate against a Truck Stop offense that was sometimes just too loose with the disc.
With Stewart Kelley playing both ways and making several contested catches under heavy pressure, and the calm of Noah Backer, Henry Babcock, Boden Iris, and Rocco Essex-Linehan around the disc often, Red Tide were able to withstand Truck Stop’s pressure on offense and really press their advantage on the counterattack. Though they ultimately were not able to generate enough defensive pressure of their own to dispossess Truck, Red Tide proved they belong on the Nationals level.
- Sub Zero 13-15 Rhino Slam! | Game Recap
Rhino Slam!’s bid to repeat as national champions nearly came to a crashing halt as Sub Zero jumped to an early lead and kept them on the ropes for most of the game. Trailing 13-10, Rhino went on a 5-0 run to keep their weekend on track with a 15-13 win.
Career-defining defensive performances from the likes of Sub’s Noah Hanson, Ryan duSaire, and Levi Dohman to make Rhino fight for every scrap of turf added up to a 4-1 Rhino hole to start the game. Will Brandt was operating at his highest possible level to steady the offense, and downfield battery mates Paul Krenik (5G/1A) and Gordon Larson (4A) kept them in scoring position. Toss in some fine work from former and current Middlbury Pranksters Leo Sovell-Fernandez and Peter Mans and you have the formula for an upset.
But Rhino would not give in. Stacking D-line after D-line with their stars — Daniel Lee, Henry Ing, Vinh Bui, David Sealand, Dylan Freechild, Lukas Ambrose — and keying in on stopping Sub’s resets, which were a little too free most of the game, finally caused an irreparable break in Sub’s rhythm. All of a sudden, the offense that had carried Sub to a 13-10 lead looked like it couldn’t carry a water bottle across the field.
Quick Hits
- Pacmen won their first game at Nationals – an important milestone for a first-year program. Pacmen advance to tomorrow’s prequarterfinal and will look to use the experience gained this year to launch an even more competitive future.
- Sockeye looked largely competitive, but it was always going to be a tall task to beat the top two teams in our Power Rankings. The Fish played like a team ready to make their own run deep into the bracket. Their skill, line-calling, focus, and confidence all give the impression of a club to be reckoned with.
- Truck Stop looked a step slower than a title contender might, but the last time they went 1-2 in Pool Play with a loss to Johnny Bravo, they won the whole thing.
- DiG dug themselves a hole against Bravo that they just couldn’t claw out of despite a late game comeback. They did manage to beat Truck Stop (Game Recap) to finish second in Pool B.
- PoNY are somewhat untested, finishing first in Pool C with a 3-0 record and a +24 point differential. They haven’t lost a pool play game since 2018, and have made three finals in that time.
That’s all for today’s pool play games, but there’s more on deck. 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!
