The division's two most recent champions add another chapter to their historic rivalry
October 26, 2025 by Graham Gerhart in Preview
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.
They’ve done it again. The two best teams in the women’s division have returned to square off against each other once more. The faces may have changed (slightly), and the calendar may be different, but this is the return of the rivalry that’s defined the last twenty years. Everything in the regular season has built to this, and thankfully, it’s a matchup we know delivers. #1 San Francisco Fury have a history of blowing out teams at Nationals, but not #3 Boston Brute Squad.
Let’s start with the plucky underdogs. San Francisco Fury are a… wait, that’s not right. A team that hasn’t lost a game since July 2024 can’t be called an underdog. Fury have been the title favorite since the season started, and they’ve done absolutely nothing to change that opinion. Over the course of Fury’s season, they’ve scored 429 times and allowed only 184 goals against them. That’s a +245, more than doubled the competition’s combined record. Oof.
It doesn’t get better if we hyperfixate on Nationals, either. Fury haven’t conceded double digits at all this tournament. Molly Brown matched up great with them on paper and were lucky to score nine against San Francisco in their semifinal game. Fury are ruthless, largely because they’ve decided to lean into their strengths. They process the game at a faster pace than their opponents and thusly push the tempo every chance they get. Fury don’t just play fast, they think fast, act fast, and score fast. Even when they turn the disc over, it’s still fast.
This year’s Fury don’t seem to mind the turnovers, either. They’re less allergic to turns than any previous iteration of the team. They’ve accepted that the way they play offense holds an inherent risk of mistakes developing, and they have accepted it. Their mentality is a, “so what if we turned it? Do something about it. Just try to score on us.” Most teams cannot take them up on that challenge.
But Brute Squad might just be the one team that can. Despite a roster missing some familiar faces, Boston showed that the 22 players on their line don’t have a weak link. They’ve faced adversity — far more than Fury — and overcame it. Fury don’t have much experience being down at half, but Brute Squad do, and they’ve won anyway.
Winning hasn’t always come easy to Boston. Scandal made them work for every goal in their own semifinal, and Flipside also had them grinding out points in the second half of their pool play matchup. Still, Brute are a team of workers who don’t mind getting their hands dirty. It’s what sets Brute Squad apart from their competition: they’re willing to give everything they have and more to earn the win.
Let’s talk rosters. Fury somehow managed to pull together a core of the best veterans the world has to offer, and paired them with a veritable who’s who of the next generation of All-Stars. Carolyn Finney and Anna Nazarov are living legends who just happen to still be at the top of their game. Kirstin Johnson, Dena Elimelech, and Anna Thompson are collectively trying to put them out of work by being “Fury’s Best Player”1 each time any of them step on the field. They’re also in danger, though. The rising talents of Sarah VonDoepp and Olivia Goss are already poised to be the next generation of the Fury dynasty. Every player on the roster deserves to have poetics waxed about them, but we’ll leave that to the Fury FanFic writers out there2.
Brute find themselves in a very different position. Many of their most heralded players aren’t going to be finding themselves on the field this final. Caitlyn Lee, Caroline Tornquist, and Lia Schwartz are all out due to injury. In their place, Boston has embraced the international takeover of ultimate. Ximena Montaña, Levke Walczak, and Laura Ospina are just a few of the names of the players who now call Boston their USAU home. There are still a few familiar faces from Boston’s more recent finals clashes with Fury, though. Angela Zhu and Tulsa Douglas remain rocks in the backfield for their respective lines, and this season has been a resurgent one for Becky Malinowski, who is playing her best ultimate in years at this tournament. Listing Boston players this year and not mentioning Liv Player and Kelly Hyland would be a mistake, so here they are. Both are playing at an All-Club level and it’s going to be a headache figuring out how to make that list with all the talent in the division.
So how do the two teams compare? Well, it’s tough to say. Fury have never faced this iteration of Brute Squad. While they’ve played already this year, Boston was lacking many of the international players that have been pivotal in their Nationals run. Boston’s offense can switch on a dime from playing small ball with Ospina and Walczak to suddenly becoming a huck-fest with transplants Grace Conerly and Player. Solving Walczak is definitely going to be Fury’s toughest puzzle, so expect the likes of Shayla Harris, Ally Tsuji, and Johnson to deal with that headache. Player will undoubtedly have some reps against Elimelech, Goss, and Kaitlynne Roling. Really, Fury have a full roster of players they could throw at Boston to slow them down, and watching the individual matchups that comprise the larger chess battle is half the fun of them facing off this weekend.
The return of a Fury/Brute Squad final can induce some feelings of familiarity, so it’s important we remind ourselves of the magnitude of this event. This is the national final, played by the two most recent champions and two of the best teams of our lifetime. This is not just for a title, but for a legacy. This isn’t a moment for viewer’s fatigue, this is a moment for celebration. We’re going to get a good game of ultimate no matter what, but if history’s any indicator, it could just be the best game of the year, too.
This mantle changes every game. Sometimes every point, and sometimes on multiple plays in a single point. It’s very hard to parse out ↩
Of which there are no doubt dozens. The internet is a strange place. Editor’s note: googling “San Francisco Fury fanfiction” turns up a plethora of fic about the Avengers’ Nick Fury ↩
