Hybrid keep plugging away as they advance to their third consecutive championship game
October 26, 2025 by Alex Rubin 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 – #1 Ann Arbor Hybrid advanced to their fourth final in five seasons, winning a defensive showdown 15-12 against an energetic and fearless #4 Fort Collins shame. side.
Both teams enjoyed success in recent seasons and were no stranger to the big stage that a national semifinal offers. “Coming into a game like this, you never know how people are going to play with the nerves,” Hybrid’s Rachel Mast said. “We came in knowing we had the confidence and the preparation – we all put that in – so we didn’t have a reason to worry. We’re trying to just focus on the confidence, on each other, on our teammates, on ourselves, focusing on making the next play. I think that goes a long way – keeping your head focusing on the right things.”
Hybrid won the flip and chose to start on defense. While perhaps unconventional at the elite level, Hybrid clearly wanted to apply pressure to shame. from the very beginning and set the tone for a hard-fought contest. “It goes back to the belief we have in our defense and every single one of our teammates,” Hybrid’s Ben Lewis said. “[Coach Michael Dagher-Margosian] has a great game plan. He believes in all of us, and he instilled that confidence. For him to choose defense, it just means that he has the faith in our defense to go up one break – that’s pretty demoralizing for the other team…we tried it all year and it’s been pretty successful.”
As if they manifested it, the first point put shame. on their collective heels. Hybrid’s intense defense rattled shame.’s polished O-line and forced a rare drop from Sarah Pesch. In his return to active play after sitting out during pool play and the early bracket games, Dalton Smith directed Hybrid’s counterattack for the opening break. A relentless onslaught from Hybrid pushed shame. out of their comfort zone and gave Hybrid multiple opportunities to extend their lead.
“That defense was definitely the best we’ve played this year to be honest,” shame.’s Simon Montague said after the game. “They were very smart in terms of off-stage positioning, helping each other, poaching at the right times, squeezing the space downfield. I don’t think we did a good job accepting that sometimes against junkier defenses we just need to move the ball more quickly, move it horizontally, and wait to find the next looks. We were staring downfield trying to dissect, which is what they wanted because they got us into those higher stall situations. And that’s us forcing decisions that were tighter than needed to be forced.”
Kat McGuire, Smith, and Nathan Champoux all had first-half blocks that sparked Hybrid breaks. McGuire and Maddy Simko limited shame.’s typical strengths: the cutting of Jade McLaughlin and Rory Veldman, and forced Montague and Matty Russell to play a lot of catch in the backfield. “Our gameplan was to make shame. throw as many throws as possible,” Lewis said. “They got the easy resets, and that was fine. We were going to make them grind. We have a ton of athletes on this team. Everyone can play, everyone can defend.”
Champoux’s block was a baited away shot that gave Hybrid the opportunity to take half up 8-6. Lewis dove into the end zone to take half, one of two goals he had as a key member of Hybrid’s counterattack. “This year it’s a little different – I’m finding myself in the handler position more often which is not my strong suit at all, but I’m looking to just continually grind and make big open cuts, because I know that Chase [Cunningham], Dalton [Smith], [Champoux], whoever has the disc, I know they can make the throws.”
Halftime layout for Ben Lewis as @HybridUltimate takes half in the mixed semifinals! 🔥#USAUNats | #USAUltimate pic.twitter.com/mtjTfzfJWx
— USA Ultimate (@USAUltimate) October 26, 2025
The lead could have been wider had Hybrid not struggled on offense themselves. The shame. defense also unsettled Hybrid’s O-line. Shayna Brock and Blaise Sevier put in a shift downfield, doing their best to limit Rachel Mast and Maketa Mattimore. With those two blanketed and Abe Coffin unable to play with a leg injury suffered on the first point of the game, Hybrid’s offense appeared disjointed at times and missing, well, a hybrid. Chase Cunningham and Jon Mast churned out tight resets in the backfield to keep possession, but shame. did a fantastic job limiting upfield options.
Likewise, Montague, Russell, and Veldman did everything they could to hold on to the disc, but shame. largely struggled to generate uncontested upfield throws. The upshot: both teams had plenty of break chances and the helter-skelter nature of the contest offered the two teams the extra challenge of maintaining their energy among the swings in momentum.
“I’ve never played on a team that is so accepting of that fact that that kind of thing is going to happen,” Montague said. “Over the history of this team there have been a lot of comebacks and a lot of blown leads, and because of that we’re really able to accept and almost make light of it. That allows us to stay confident in moments where it goes either direction for us.”
In the second half, the game was marred by frequent stoppages. While minor travels and off-disc picks definitely affect play, and nobody is arguing anything was called maliciously, the frequent disruptions – many of them travel calls from Smith on Russell – hindered shame.’s flow and may have tilted their energy.
“I don’t think anyone likes to play in those call-heavy games,” Montague said. “I think as a team we had to adjust early on. We did get in our head a little bit. Sometimes other teams try to do that intentionally to mess with you and other times that’s just the nature of the game that they thought the calls were going that way.
“Props to [Coach Marvin Vuong] and our leadership, basically trying to move past those moments and not let that affect how you’re thinking about the game,” Montague continued. “That’s the reality of ultimate and I don’t think either side made a ton of particularly horrible calls – there’s maybe a bit of ticky tack on both sides – but it is hard to maintain that mental focus and that is part of what rattled us early. We tried to adjust to that early but maybe not quick enough.”
Once they got the disc moving, it was clear shame. could compete and challenge the team widely considered to be the best in the division. By the end of the game, shame. figured out how to take advantage of Hybrid’s defensive aggression. Hybrid’s handler defenders were biting hard on backwards resets, and shame. took advantage with some double moves that netted wide open resets late in the game. While that adjustment was too little too late for shame. to come back in this game, it may offer a blueprint for #6 New York XIST’s offensive strategy in tomorrow’s final.
A highlight reel of this game will be edited to show Hybrid marching confidently towards their ultimate victory, but there were a few bright spots for shame. along the way. Nick Snuszka made a few highlight grabs: one a leaping snag on a line drive huck that looked like it might speed too far, and the other a focused rebound of a Bartlett swat to save a second half break opportunity.
Nevertheless, a tally of Hybrid highlights would outweigh shame.’s. Maketa Mattimore’s skying goal, Lewis’s block on a crossfield hammer, and Laura Gerencser’s heads-up tipped catch midway through the first half all stand out. Mattimore in particular continues to impress as she enjoys a breakout season on Hybrid’s O-line. “I love her so much,” Rachel Mast said. “She’s a baller, a grinder. She always impresses me. I love playing with her.”
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With Hybrid’s hybrids taking more of a secondary role, their offense centered around handler driven resets and hucks. Jon Mast spent much of the second half speeding upline to move the line of scrimmage forward, and deking his defender to get open enough for viable around throws. His tireless work helped to set up his teammates for five assists. The hucks often came from other sources. Smith fired a few for the D-line as part of his three assists, and Chase Cunningham was not afraid to let it fly also, but Mast’s towering backhand on the final point of the game flew sixty-odd yards on the fly to a leaping Aaron Bartlett. Bartlett’s crafty inside flick to Mattimore closed out the game and sent Hybrid back to the final.
Hybrid will attempt to complete their triple crown season on Sunday afternoon. Winners every step of the way this season, the pressure on Hybrid will rise as the finality of the season sets in. But, if any team has the talent to rise to the occasion and the dedication to meet the moment, it’s this Ann Arbor squad. “Our team is so deep and it’s just really fun,” Mast said. “I get chills when we have really great space and we’re able to make things easier for our teammates, when we work hard even if we don’t touch the disc–it’s a beautiful thing.”
THE WINNER. 🔥@HybridUltimate wins the 2023 Finals rematch and will chase a Triple Crown tomorrow!!#TripleCrownWatch | #USAUNats pic.twitter.com/2rFY8NrZUO
— USA Ultimate (@USAUltimate) October 26, 2025
While this season ended a round earlier than shame. might have preferred, they can hold their heads high after another competitive late-bracket finish. “The defensive pressure was there,” Montague said. “It was mostly the offensive decision making. We had our chances and we didn’t convert. O-line didn’t convert well enough and D-line probably missed some chances as well. Those are going to stick out, but it’s going to be fuel for the fire next year.”
shame. still have a chance to make sure that they’ll play in the World Ultimate Club Championships in Sunday’s third place game against #3 Minneapolis Drag’n Thrust, a rematch of their double-game-point pool play classic.
