Big thoughts on the state of Pres Day winners Carleton Syzygy and all the teams trying to hang with them.
February 18, 2026 by Edward Stephens in Recap
Ultiworld’s 2026 college coverage 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.
For the second time this spring, #1 Carleton Syzygy are the tournament champs. They ran past #4 UC Santa Cruz Sol by a count of 13-7 in Monday’s final, showcasing a floor of both offensive and defensive execution that is a cut above nearly every other team’s ceilings.
The Pres Day win fully establishes Carleton as the season favorites. (After the SBI win last month, that status was only provisional.) Who’s going to be able to stop them at Rockford? For today’s edition of Tournament Talk, we’ll take a look at what makes Carleton tick, where they might be vulnerable, and deliver our best assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the challengers.1
Carleton: All Syz-zle and No Brake
Sheesh. What a team.
Okay, now that that’s out of the way, let’s look at some of the reasons why Syzygy have the division on lock through the first two months of play.
Complementary Skills on Offense: I’m pretty interested in the composition of the Carleton O-line. On many points, they ran out a group consisting of Chagall Gelfand, Naomi Fina, Chloe Hakimi, Kyliah McRoy, Mia Fischer, Eliza Barton, and Helen Burruss. With that group you have elite versions of the System Handler (Hakimi), Pace-and-Push Handler (Fina), Help Handler (Burruss), Hybrid (Gelfand), Move-the-Chains Cutter (Barton), and a pair of Deep Releasers (McRoy, Fischer). There’s more than enough skill crossover that they can break out of those pigeon holes whenever necessary — it’s easy to imagine McRoy catching an under and firing deep to Burruss, for example — but even if they were completely strict about it, it would work. There isn’t a single key offensive role that isn’t being amply filled by two-or-three players, and it makes defending against them a dilemma in the true philosophical sense: opposing defenses will use resources to mute one threat at the expense of letting Syzygy amplify another.
Pres Day challengers only — #9 Tufts EWO can get the treatment after they play some of the top teams from west of the Mississippi. ↩
Presidents’ Day Invite 2026: Tournament Talk (Women’s Div.) is only available to Ultiworld Subscribers
Already have a subscription? Log in
Whether you visit Ultiworld for our reporting, our podcasts, or our video coverage, you can help us continue to provide high quality content with a subscription. By becoming a subscriber, not only do you receive benefits like exclusive articles and full article RSS feeds, you also help fund all of Ultiworld's coverage in general. We appreciate your support!
