A legacy game from transplant Sadie Jezierski helped send New York to their first-ever final appearance
October 26, 2025 by Josh Katz 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 – Under the lights at Canyon Crest Academy, #6 New York XIST systematically dismantled #3 Minneapolis Drag’n Thrust, earning a 15-10 win to secure their first final appearance in program history. The stars shined bright for XIST: Oliver Chartock had three goals, Axel Agami Contreras added a goal and two assists, and Emily Barrett put up a 4G/1A/1D/0T statline.
But I’ve buried the lede long enough. Sadie Jezierski played the single greatest game of her career tonight, putting up an unfathomable 1G/6A/2D statline that somehow understates just how dominant she was. It was a fitting capstone to what has been a dream debut season for her in New York, reuniting with her former Ohio State Fever teammates Barrett and Cara Sieber. And she’s still got one more game tomorrow to add to the story.
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“It’s like we never stopped playing together. There were some regrowing pains because it had been a couple years,” noted Barrett after the game. “It took a second and we realized ‘Oh yeah, we remember how to do this.’ And it’s the easiest thing in the world.”
Jezierski put it simply: “There’s no two other people I’d rather play with. A big impetus for me moving back [to the East Coast] was to play with them. And reuniting on this big stage is just a cherry on top.”
The Sadie and Emily show made its first appearance on the game’s first point, but in reversed roles. Barrett laced a backhand around her mark and into Jezierski at the front of the end zone to open the scoring. On the ensuing defensive point, Ben Simmons poached off of Caleb Denecour to sneak in front of a Chagall Gelfand pass for a clean catch block. Henry Phan would soon find Matthias Ling with a hammer in the back of the end zone to give XIST a quick two goal lead.
Drag’n Thrust responded with their own hold and break combination to level the score at two, the break coming on a James Pollard swing to Becker Mathie. But that break was the only one that Minneapolis would convert on the night, largely because XIST’s offense refused to give the disc away for long stretches of the game. Drag’n had just five break chances all night.
Jezierski picked up her first two assists of the evening on the next two offensive points, the second a stall two hammer to Chartock in the back of the end zone. New York regained their one break advantage three points later on a Phan deep look for Ryan Drost that Bryan Vohnoutka could have blocked with a better read on the disc, which brought the score to 6-4.
The next New York offensive point was when it became apparent that the Jezierski-Barrett connection was going to be unstoppable tonight. Barrett, around midfield, hit Jezierski on an under cut and immediately took off deep. Sadie rewarded the cut by firing a same eighth huck down the line that was weighted perfectly. Barrett never broke stride as she reeled in her second goal of the half to put XIST on the brink of a halftime advantage.
New York broke to take half with a Jeff Zhao goal after a Drag’n drop, and the second half began with a long series of holds. Jezierski added two more assists during that run that brought the score to 12-9, including another highlight-reel inside backhand to Chartock. She also collected her second block of the evening during the sequence with an emphatic rejection of a Pollard deep look for Jane Koch. That point finished with Jezierski’s fifth (and easiest) assist of the night, a three yard dish to Agami Contreras at the goal line.
XIST’s defense made sure Drag’n’s comeback hopes were dashed before they could ever properly develop. They posted back-to-back breaks on goals from Mari Malin and Oscar Kohut and a block from Abby Cheng that got New York on the brink of their first finals appearance. You might think one of these breaks was the moment where XIST started to believe this was happening. Maybe instead you had that confidence back at Zhao’s break to take a three goal halftime lead.
A break to take half, @XIST_Ultimate leads by THREE with one more half to play! Who’s grabbing the last spot in the finals!#USAUNats | #USAUltimate pic.twitter.com/8H2vXyjQlc
— USA Ultimate (@USAUltimate) October 26, 2025
For Barrett, however, that moment came well before the first pull even went up. “We got a really good warm up… and that fueled us going forward. It gave us enough energy to start strong and we carried that energy all the way to the end. We came out our loose and goofy selves, we were chirping at each other, and we usually translate that into a really good start.”1
XIST were unable to close the game out with one more break, and the final offensive point for Drag’n was possibly their best of the night. Ian McCosky found Gelfand down the field to get into the red zone, and she floated a pass for Caleb Denecour to run under for one last hold.
But New York needed just three throws to seal their final appearance, scoring the winner on the heat check of all heat checks. Jezierski caught an under around the attacking brick, near the sidelines, and barely looked downfield before firing a blading flick to a standstill Barrett. The throw led Barrett perfectly away from her defender, towards the front cone, and hit her square in the chest, sending XIST to the final and the sideline rushing onto the field for a euphoric celebration.
THE LAST TICKET IS PUNCHED. 🎟️🏆@XIST_Ultimate is on to the championship tomorrow as Sadie Jezierski connects with Emily Barrett for the final score!#USAUNats | #USAUltimate pic.twitter.com/AGhScmyqpn
— USA Ultimate (@USAUltimate) October 26, 2025
The immediate postgame feeling for New York was a mix of ecstasy and disbelief. Many longtime XISTers were lost for words and/or in tears. Sieber could only add that this feeling, this moment, was a long time coming, something she and Barrett had been trying to achieve for four years with New York. Doing so while reunited with Jezierski was the cherry on top.
While one sideline was speechless with joy, the other was struck with despair. Denecour was succinct postgame: “I feel like absolute [crap]. Fourth time in this game with Drag’n and fourth time falling short. It sucks.” It wasn’t all hopeless for him, however. “We’ve got a WUCC opportunity tomorrow. That’s what I’m trying to focus on,” Denecour said. “Gotta smooth things out offensively, but I think we played a great game defensively.”
Certainly, one player excelled defensively for Minneapolis. Jolie Krebs’ name is conspicuously absent from the game notes, and that’s almost entirely due to Danielle Byers’ efforts defensively. Krebs finished with three turns and zeroes in all positive stat categories, a rather stunning lack of production from the 2024 Callahan Award winner.
XIST will take on the pre-tournament favorites, #1 Ann Arbor Hybrid, in the last of the three finals on Sunday. Hybrid are the favorites for a reason, but XIST are one of just two teams to defeat the Michigan squad all season. We’ll have a more detailed preview of that matchup posted, but Barrett did share one key to that matchup post-semis: “A big theme for us this season has been fearlessness and playing without fear. When we played [Hybrid] for the first time, we played fearlessly and really wanted to win our last game2. When we saw them at Pro Champs, it was a bit fearful. But everyone’s really feeling themselves right now. So fearlessness is tomorrow’s theme.”
Taking down Hybrid will be a humongous task for XIST, but after getting past their biggest mental roadblock already this weekend, XIST will be confident and hungry to finish their journey with a first title in program history.
She, Sieber, and Jezierski made sure to note that this happened in spite of a disjointed warm up, due to the practice field at Canyon Crest not having any lights. Both teams had to start their warm up on the track and transition to the field after the first semifinal finished. ↩
XIST played Hybrid in the last round at PEC East ↩
