In the last week of the regular season, bid hopefuls and regional contenders jostled for position on the fields of Frederica, DE
March 30, 2026 by Aidan Thomas in Recap
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A windy East Coast Invite saw top seeds #9 Pennsylvania Venus and Georgetown Justice take home the title in the women’s and men’s divisions. In the last games of the regular season, #16 Northeastern Valkyries’ run to the final has New England sitting on all three strength bids outside the Northwest and Southwest. But a strong showing from #23 Wisconsin Bella Donna, who only lost to Penn and played Venus closest on the weekend, fell just short of a second bid for the North Central — and a path to Nationals that doesn’t involve going through #1 Carleton.
D-I Women’s
14 minutes, 10 minutes, 12 minutes. That was the length of each of Northeastern’s first three offensive possessions in the East Coast Invite final against Penn, as the championship match was overtaken by winds that, at best, were around 15-25 mph, with gusts up to 35 mph. Penn head coach Jackson Dolan called it the “worst wind I’ve ever seen here,” noting it was his third time coaching this tournament along with four Mid-Atlantic Club Regionals at Delaware Turf Complex.
That being said, his Penn squad seemed more equipped to handle the blustery conditions, continuously building pressure over Northeastern’s first three offensive points while working the disc for a pair of relatively quick holds of their own.
Then, on that third point, the Penn pressure finally broke through: over 40 minutes into the game, Venus earned their first break after Grace Maroon cut through the Northeastern cup with a low-release flick to center the disc, before getting it back moments later and continuing on with a quick backhand to Poppy Wagner.
Maroon and Wagner were two of the stars all tournament for Venus, something that is no surprise to anyone who has seen Penn play this season. Additional contributions came from Duke transfer Sydney Neal and cutter Abigail Smith, a core four that will have Venus likely competing for bracket-play victories at Nationals.
While the wind was largely a crosswind that made throwing in both directions extremely difficult, there was a definitive downwind direction as well, and Penn’s break came upwind, which meant Venus followed it with a fairly straightforward downwind break to open up a 4-2 advantage.
The game went to half at 5-3, and then Penn ripped off five straight points in the second half, polishing off a 6-0 weekend and 18-2 regular season that will see Venus end in the top 10 of the projected college rankings. “We just came out flat marks, forcing sideline, and tried to make it as miserable as possible,” Dolan said. “As a team, we try to adapt to the conditions pretty early instead of trying to play real ultimate.”
Indeed, much of Sunday’s play could hardly be categorized as real ultimate. Teams all around Delaware Turf Complex battled through lengthy, wind-riddled points and low-scoring games. The fifth-place game between Haverford & Bryn-Mawr and Ohio State ended with a 4-2 scoreline, while other games ended with scores like 6-4, 7-3 and 3-2.
Northeastern Gets the Job Done for New England (and for Vermont)
For Northeastern, despite the dismal final game, they did what they came to Frederica to do and then some — their 5-1 record on the weekend was more than enough to secure a second bid for New England. Not only that, but as a byproduct of Northeastern’s strong weekend, Vermont rose six spots into bid-earning range as well. The New England thus claims the only two strength bids outside the Southwest and Northwest, and sets up the Valkyries extremely well for their first Nationals bid since 2019.
“All season we’ve been focused on improving on our team and achieving our potential, focusing on ourselves,” coach Amber Sinicrope said after the final. “Sure, the rankings, Nationals and all that are an elephant in the room. So acknowledge it, and then put it aside and understand we need to have an underdog mentality at all times, and we did.”
Northeastern notched wins over #20 Notre Dame (9-8) and #22 Georgetown (9-5) en route to the final. It was quite the turnaround from last year’s East Coast Invite, where the Valkyries entered in bid-earning position, only to go 0-4 and lose their bid and Nationals hopes. 2026 was a redemption story in a major way, with contributions up and down the roster and steady play in the backfield by Sonja Lee, grad student and Michigan transfer Emma Remien, and Taylor Kenneth. Lucy Perkins and Alice Crawford-Muscat were among the major contributors in the cutting space for the Valkyries.
Wisconsin Comes Up Just Short Of Bid In Impressive Weekend
#23 Wisconsin Bella Donna needed a miraculous Sunday to climb into bid-earning range. Their semifinal against Penn provided them the opportunity to shock the world, and Bella Donna almost did just that, racing out to an 8-3 lead against Penn in the semifinals, poised for a win that might flip the tournament and bubble on its head.
Dolan noted that his Penn squad “tried to turn the game into a huck and defense gameplay too early.” He credited Wisconsin for having composure and confidence in working the disc in the wind, as Bella Donna opened up a sizable lead.
Wisconsin notably featured a large number of players comfortable with the disc in the gusting winds, perhaps a nod to their North Central roots. Among others, Sydney French, Hannah Nygard, Abigail O’Callaghan and Ally Adair made key throws for Bella Donna.
However, Penn did manage to right the ship. Wisconsin made a few mistakes while Penn played with the confidence of a top-ten team, engineering a massive comeback that culminated in five straight Venus points for an 11-10 win.
Had Wisconsin hung on, and especially if they maintained the large lead they established early, they might have just completed a stunning climb into bid-earning territory. As it was, their ensuing 8-4 victory over Georgetown, while a strong result, was enough only to boost Bella Donna to 23rd in the Projected Rankings.
Outside the top bracket, Division III’s Haverford & Bryn Mawr took fifth over Ohio State. Fever had a strong weekend, going 4-2 as the 15-seed and upsetting the no.4 seed Middlebury and in-state regional rival Ohio in the fifth-place semifinals.
D-I Men’s
Top-seeded Georgetown Justice handled business, albeit with a bumpy finish, going 6-0 on the weekend and culminating with a 14-11 win over SUNY-Buffalo in the men’s division final. But that close scoreline hides Justice’s 11-3 lead. Handlers Simon Mulrooney and Bilal Nizamani worked well in tandem to find their favorite targets, Thomas Schmitt and Charlie Panarella, with great frequency, while an athletic Georgetown D-line swarmed Buffalo’s offense to rip off breaks in bunches.
However, Buffalo found great success with a zone defense and a patient offense spearheaded by Sean O’Malley, Thomas Graham and Devin Hendricks. That trio was at the center of a furious rally by Green Eggs & Ham, which saw the New York squad close within 12-9 and then 13-11. However, Mulrooney ripped a flick into a ripping crosswind that was caught and flipped forward to Nizamani for the tournament-clinching score.
Elsewhere in the men’s division, Temple Alert completed a strong 5-1 weekend with a third-place finish, toppling Yale in the third-place matchup. Cutter Miguel Romero-Stevenson stood out for Alert, finding open space against zone defenses and frequently working back into the handler space to go every-other and unlock the Temple offense. Handler Jacob Prunes was a calm backfield presence for the 11th-seed, also delivering a massive layout catch-block in the game versus Yale.
Another standout performance came from no.12 seed Carnegie Mellon, who upset Drexel to win their pool on Saturday before falling to Yale in the quarterfinals. CMU rebounded to beat Syracuse and Cornell in the fifth-place bracket, comfortably breaking seed. Cornell took sixth, and Johns Hopkins defeated ‘Cuse to claim seventh, rounding out the top quadrant of the field.
All Tournament Teams
D-I Women’s
Grace Maroon (UPenn)
Sydney Neal (UPenn)
Poppy Wagner (UPenn)
Taylor Kenneth (Northeastern)
Sonja Lee (Northeastern)
Emma Remien (Northeastern)
Ally Adair (Wisconsin)
D-I Men’s
Charlie Panarella (Georgetown)
Bilal Nizamani (Georgetown)
Thomas Venarde (Yale)
Thomas Graham (SUNY-Buffalo)
Sean O’Malley (SUNY-Buffalo)
Devin Hendricks (SUNY-Buffalo)
Miguel Romero-Stevenson (Temple)
