California-Santa Cruz Sol and Cal Poly SLO SLOCORE won the major tournaments this weekend.
March 8, 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
From Open to Invite, Sol Wins Stanford
#3 California-Santa Cruz Sol cruised to a tournament win at Stanford Invite, with all seven of their wins on the weekend coming by multiple goals. Despite their obvious strength as a team, a scheduling misadventure left Sol needing to qualify for this tournament a month ago at the Stanford Open; they won that to earn their place, and then proved to be a worthy participant by winning the main event. Sol took down hosts #2 Stanford Superfly 13-8 in the final.
Until the final, Stanford looked dominant themselves, beating their five opponents by an average of five goals. Elsewhere around the tournament, results were closer as #11 California-San Diego needed universe to escape #21 Northeastern Valkyries in prequarters on their way to a semifinal appearance. #5 Washington Element was the fourth and only non-Southwest semifinalist.
Upsets were the story of Day One, as #17 Cal Poly SLO SLOmotion took down #10 Victoria Vikes and #12 Vermont Ruckus, and unranked Virginia Hydra took down #20 Texas Melee.
Reporter Kiana Hu was on the ground reporting live from the tournament. You can read her Day One Recap here, and stay tuned for full tournament coverage later this week. Subscribers can watch the seven streamed games in Ultiworld’s video library.
Around the Division
- Montana Pillow Fight went undefeated to win Big Sky Brawl.
- D-III Middlebury Pranksters won The Grand Northeast Kickoff. The highest placing D-I team was Rhode Island Disky Business, who finished fifth with a 3-3 record.
- #18 Southern California Hellions of Troy went undefeated to win Gnomageddon, taking down California-Irvine Grass Ninjas in the final.
Looking Ahead
It’s a quiet week in the division as most of the top teams are recovering from Stanford Invite. Regional events include PACCon, Richmond is for Lovers, Tally Classic, and Huckleberry Flick.
D-I Men’s
SLO Ascent Back to the Top
#8 Cal Poly SLO won Northwest Challenge, taking down #7 Western Washington DIRT 13-9 in the final to claim their first tournament win of the season. DIRT performed admirably without All-American candidate Elijah Diamond, who suffered an arm injury. Likewise, #6 Oregon State Beavers managed a fifth place finish without Felix Moren.
The story of the tournament was the rise of UCLA Smaug, who pushed their way into the semifinals after upsets of #17 British Columbia Thunderbirds, #23 Utah Zion Curtain, and #25 Washington Sundodgers. Cal Ursa Major contributed to a great tournament for Southwest teams with a pool win of their own and upset wins over #9 Victoria Vikes and #18 Brigham Young CHI.
You can read my Day One Recap here, and Day Two Recap here. Ultiworld filmed eight games from the tournament which can be found in the video library.
Around the Division
- San Jose State Spartans went undefeated to win Silicon Valley Rally, taking down California-Santa Cruz B Ooze 11-8 in the final.
- Washington State Air Raid upset Montata Smokejump 13-11 in the final to win Big Sky Brawl. Brigham Young B went undefeated in pool play, but per school policy did not compete in Sunday’s bracket.
- Johns Hopkins Dangerzone went undefeated to win First State Invite. Their closest game was a 9-8 win over SUNY Cortland Team Rocket in pool play.
- Ohio State Leadbelly crushed their opponents to win Spring Spook. Their closest game was a 15-6 win over Miami (Ohio) Boogiemen in the final.
- California-San Diego Air Squids won Southwest Showdown, capping an undefeated weekend with a 12-11 win over D-III Claremont Braineaters in the final.
- Georgia State Underground went undefeated to win their home tournament, the Underground Invite. GSU took down Clemson Joint Chiefs of Waft 11-9 in the final.
- D-III Williams took the tournament title at The Grand Northeast Kickoff. The highest finishing D-I team was Rhode Island RIUT, who matched their women’s division team at the same tournament with a fifth place finish.
- Connecticut Huskies went 2-1 at Amherst Emergency Open, upsetting New Hampshire to break seed but falling by one to D-III Amherst Army of Darkness.
Looking Ahead
There are two “mid-major” events on the schedule this week: Stanford Invite and Centex. #5 California-Santa Cruz Slugs will be the heavy favorite to win Stanford Invite; #20 Wisconsin is the other ranked team in attendance there. A full team list has not yet been released for Centex, but there are typically several teams on the bid bubble in attendance, meaning these games could affect the Nationals field. Regional Events include Grand Rapids Invite, Richmond is for Lovers, and Tally Classic.
D-III Women’s
Not a Prank – Middlebury Win Again
#2 Middlebury Pranksters went undefeated to win The Grand Northeast Kickoff, clinching the tournament with a 10-5 win in the final over #6 Mount Holyoke Daisy Chain. Mount Holyoke only went 1-2 in pool play, including a loss to #22 Wellesley Whiptails, but rebounded to beat Wellesley in the semifinals. Wellesley went on to crush Bates Cold Front 9-2 to finish third.
Around the Division
- Claremont Greenshirts went 3-3 to break seed and finish fifth at Gnomageddon.
Looking Ahead
#12 Lewis & Clark Artemis, #19 Portland UProar, Cal Poly-Humboldt Hags, and Pacific Lutheran Reign Women are in the field at PACCon. Huckleberry Flick should provide a bit of Ohio Valley intrigue.
D-III Men’s
Around the Division
- #16 Williams WUFO crushed all competition at The Grand Northeast Kickoff, going undefeated with a +45 point differential across six games. Brandeis TRON played Williams close in pool play, but got blown out in the final. Colby Dazzlin’ Asses and Bates Orange Whip were the other semifinalists.
- #18 Claremont Braineaters nearly won Southwest Showdown, falling to D-I UC San Diego on universe in the final after tearing through the rest of the competition.
- Asbury went 2-2 in pool play, lost in the quarterfinal round, then went 2-0 in consolation to finish with a positive record at Underground Invite.
- Hillsdale Chargers went 4-2 against D-I competition at Spring Spook. They only lost to tournament finalists Ohio State and Miami (Ohio) while notching 13-0 bagels over two B teams and identical 15-7 wins over Dayton and Akron.
- SUNY-Cortland Team Rocket made the semifinal at First State Invite, but fell to tournament winner Johns Hopkins 13-3 once there. They finished fourth after losing to Drexel 13-4 in the third place game.
- PLU Reign went 2-3 at Big Sky Brawl.
Looking Ahead
There are several top teams in action at D-I events next week. #3 Lewis & Clark Bacchus, #6 Whitman Sweets, and #25 Santa Clara SCAB will all be at Stanford Invite. #4 Oklahoma Christian Eagles will play at Centex. #5 Ave Maria Gyrenes are the top seed at Tally Classic. Hillsdale is scheduled to be back in action for the second straight week at Grand Rapids Invite.
