Whether layout blocks or shutdown defense, these players made life miserable for opposing offenses
November 19, 2025 by Alex Rubin, Felicia Zheng and Edward Stephens in Awards
Ultiworld is pleased to announce our annual Club Awards, starting with the First Team All-Club in each division. While we consider both regular season and postseason performance, because of the nature of the Club division, we weight success in the Series and at Nationals above all else. The Club Awards are voted on by Ultiworld reporters, contributors, and editors.
Our awards continue with the Defensive Player of the Year, recognizing the individual, and two runners-up, who we felt were the top defensive performers this club season. Whether through generating blocks, shutting down options, helping out teammates, or all of the above, these defenders stood out doing the tough work that too often go unrecognized.
Player of the Year Award
All-Club First Team
All-Club Second Team
Offensive Player of the Year Award
Defensive Player of the Year Award
Breakout Player of the Year Award
Coach(es) of the Year Award
Club Awards Voting Breakdown
Snubs and Superlatives
2025 Women’s Division Defensive Player of the Year
Manuela Cárdenas (Molly Brown)
If Ultiworld goes the way of the NBA and starts naming awards after players, there’s a good chance this will soon be called the Manuela Cárdenas Defensive Player of the Year award. Surely by now you’ve seen the highlight clips. Cárdenas flies in for layout blocks that other defenders would give up on rather than attempt (let alone actually making the play).
Officially, Cárdenas is credited with eight blocks, but that does not count the certainly many more flying bids that affected a catch and probably even more times when she just straight-up shut down a cut to the point where any throw wouldn’t be viable. Ultimate is a team sport and it takes more than one person to shut down an opposing team, but it really only takes one to make a difference. Every time she took the field, Cárdenas made an impact. In addition to all of the other things they need to keep track of, opposing throwers need to know where Cárdenas is on the field at all times. Anything in her area is simply and inherently riskier throw.
The confidence with which Molly Brown plays with Cárdenas on the field is palpable. In addition to her stellar individual play, her intelligence allows her to alter the shape of the field by contesting throws that weren’t necessarily to her mark. Her advanced understanding of the game comes from playing at the elite level for so long, and should continue to make her a defensive force on the field for years to come.
– Alex Rubin
First Runner-up
Shayla Harris (Fury)
Shayla Harris is undoubtedly one of the division’s premier defenders, and her Runner-Up Defensive Player of the Year nod is well-deserved. She plays a physical and strategic brand of defense, using positioning to disrupt and force opponents to rethink their options. When it comes to contested catches, few can jump with her; her ability to come down with 50/50 balls makes her the go-to for guarding multifaceted threats. In the final, she was given the Liv Player matchup, harrying her opponent enough to force a change in strategy on multiple points. Frequently tasked with shutting down the other team’s top finishers, Harris consistently rose to the occasion this season.
– Felicia Zheng
Second Runner-up
Kelly Hyland (Brute Squad)
Spectacle can be just as persuasive of statistics when it comes to end of season awards. And that makes sense: some images are indelible marks on our memory of the year. Hyland joins both of the other players on this podium in terms of producing memorable highlight moments. Unlike Manu’s layouts or Harris’s skies, though, the stamp of Hyland is more in the vein of superhuman determination. Who can forget her all-out sprints from completely out of the picture to chase down and prevent big plays? The speed and effort were equally remarkable. And beyond the highlight reel quality, she piled up quantity, pacing Brute Squad with six blocks at Nationals1 to lead them to another defense-first championship.
– Edward Stephens
Tied with Levke Walczak, whose four-block heater in the final drew her even with Hyland ↩
