A light schedule meant that several smaller-market teams took the spotlight.
February 9, 2026 by Alex Rubin in Preview, Recap
Ultiworld’s coverage of the 2026 college season 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.
Throughout the spring season, we’ll publishing a bite-sized weekly recap of the action across the college division. This will serve as a supplement to our standard tournament reporting and offer a high-level look at the latest happenings and the biggest stories of the week.
Want your tournament listed? Submit a recap of what happened right here.
D-I Women’s
Around the Division
- #23 Southern California Hellions of Troy beat the Oregon State Dinos 9-7 to win the Presidents’ Day Qualifiers and earn their place at next week’s Presidents’ Day Invite.
- Bonanza was sadly cancelled, continuing a trend of east coast tournaments unable to take place as winter weather persists up the East Coast.
Looking Ahead
Golden Triangle Open, Rage 2026 Prez Day, and Hucks n’ Kisses will provide some coast-to-coast regional action, but the main events on the schedule next weekend are packed with teams in title contention. Presidents’ Day Invite will feature the best of the best, including the top six in our power rankings: #1 Carleton Syzygy, #2 UBC Thunderbird, #3 Washington Element, #4 Santa Cruz Sol, #5 Stanford Superfly, #and 6 Colorado Quandary. The three day tournament is always one of the highlights of the season and will be streamed live on Ultiworld! Stay tuned for our tournament preview and how to watch article, coming later this week!
On the East Coast, Queen City Tune Up has #7 North Carolina Pleiades, #8 Vermont Ruckus, #9 Tufts EWO, #13 Michigan Flywheel, #14 Pennsylvania Venus, #17 Georgia Athena, #19 Virginia Hydra, #21 Texas Melee, and #25 Notre Dame Echo on their invite list. Let’s hope for warmer weather in the mid-Atlantic region this week! This tournament will also be streamed live on Ultiworld.
D-I Men’s
Iowa Indoor
The annual indoor tournament hosted by Iowa IHUC brought together five in-state teams: Iowa, Iowa State, Northern Iowa, Grinnell and an Iowa alum team. Iowa IHUC went 3-1 through the one-day tournament, taking down Iowa State 12-11 after being down 8-6 at half but losing to their alum team. Iowa State and the Iowa alum team each went 3-1 as well, with State completing the circle of success by beating the alums on universe.
Despite having large roster turnover the last couple years, Grinnell came out hot and firing. UNI put up good fights just couldn’t quite push over the edge while missing their best player to WindChill tryouts. Rookies Calahan Rourke and Tanner Peavy were excellent for Iowa, while Iowa State was headlined by Gabe Shoepke and another rookie in Logan Castle.
– This recap was submitted by Iowa IHUC’s Thomas Helm
Around the Division
- Southern Illinois-Edwardsville SIEGE took the title at the Golden Triangle Invitational with a 13-9 win over Indiana HoosierMama?s in the final. SIEGE went undefeated on the weekend, including a bagel over Alabama-Birmingham Inferno in their opening game.
- In their season debut, Simon Fraser Red Leafs won the Stanford Open. The Canadian outfit was largely dominant this weekend–their closest game was a 12-10 win over Cal Poly SLO-B SLOB.
- UMN B Duck Dome was dominated by D-III teams, with Carleton CHOP finishing undefeated in the round robin, one-day event. Minnesota-B was the highest finishing D-I team with a 3-2 record.
Looking Ahead
Two major events lead the schedule this week. Presidents’ Day Invite will feature the season debut of #2 Colorado Mamabird alongside #3 Oregon Ego, #6 Oregon State Beavers, #10 Victoria Vikes, #11 UC Santa Cruz Slugs, #16 Utah Zion Curtain Ultimate, #18 Cal Poly SLO SLOCORE, and #20 Stanford Bloodthirsty. The three day tournament is always one of the highlights of the season and will be streamed live on Ultiworld! Stay tuned for our tournament preview and how to watch article, coming later this week.
Over on the East Coast, Queen City Tune Up will feature the season debut for #5 North Carolina Darkside and #13 Penn State Spank. Other ranked teams in attendance include #22 Tufts E-men and #24 Virginia Night Train, as well as the debut of potentially D-I Davenport. This tournament will also be streamed live on Ultiworld!
Regional events includes Florida Warm Up Weekend 2, Vice Presidents’ Day Invite, Monument Melee, and a rescheduled New Jersey Warm-Up.
D-III Women’s
Around the Division
- Occidental WAC made the quarterfinals against D-I competition at Presidents’ Day Qualifiers. They ended up finishing 6th with wins over San Diego State, UCSD-B, and UCLA-B.
Looking Ahead
#12 Lewis & Clark Artemis co-hosts the D3 Grand Prix, which will feature several of the division’s best teams in #5 Whitman Sweets, #11 Carleton Eclipse, #16 Colorado College Zenith, #17 Portland UPRoar, #21 Puget Sound Clearcut, and #24 Claremont Greenshirts. Down the coast, Santa Clara Rage is also hosting Rage 2026 Prez Day, while Berry Valkyries will also be in action across the country at the Golden Triangle Open.
D-III Men’s
Around the Division
- UMN B Duck Dome was dominated by D-III teams, with #2 Carleton CHOP finishing undefeated in the round robin, one-day event. Their 13-12 win over #17 Macalester Flat Earth was one of the highlights of the tournament. Macalester and #9 St. Olaf Bezerkers both went 3-2, with St. Olaf winning their head-to-head matchup. Minnesota-Duluth Northern Lights made their D-III debut now that they fit under the enrollment limit, but did not beat any of the other D-III teams in attendance to set an early regional pecking order.
- #10 Claremont Braineaters made their sanctioned season debut with a 3rd place finish at the Stanford Open. The Brains went undefeated in their pool but lost to D-I British Columbia-B in the tournament semifinals. Portland UPRise finished 10th and broke seed after winning a string of upsets in the consolation brackets.
- Union Jaxx finished 4th at the Golden Triangle Invitational, with losses by a combined three goals to eventual tournament finalists Indiana and Southern Illinois-Edwardsville (both D-I teams).
Looking Ahead
One of the keystone events of the season takes place this week. The D3 Grand Prix brings together #2 Carleton CHOP, defending champion #4 Lewis & Clark Baccus, #7 Whitman Sweets, #10 Claremont Braineaters (playing back-to-back weekends!), #15 Colorado College Wasabi, #17 Macalester Flat Earth (also playing back-to-back weekends and traveling for the first time in recent memory!), #20 Puget Sound Postmen, and #25 Colorado School of Mines Entropy.
