Zoodisc led wire-to-wire against the tournament no.1 seed to advance to their fourth title game in program history
May 25, 2026 by Aidan Thomas in Recap
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ROCKFORD, IL — The postseason emergence of the #7 UMass Zoodisc squad continued on the semifinal stage, a spot where UMass has frequently struggled. But on Sunday, against the top-seeded #3 Oregon Ego, UMass didn’t blink. Instead, Oregon met a similar fate to ZooDisc’s prior five opponents: a 15-10 loss featuring a second-half runaway by the boys from Amherst. Oregon never led in the contest.
Oregon won the disc and with some wind, they elected to choose their end zone, and UMass started on offense. It was an interesting decision, as UMass’ offense has been very difficult to guard, and they turned the disc just four times in their quarterfinal win over SLOCORE. UMass may have made Ego question the decision with an early huck from Caelan McSweeney (his first of five assists) to Roan Dunkerley, followed by a quick break.
Gavin Abrahamsson, a game after marking Alex Nelson, drew the Raekwon Adkins matchup. While Adkins got his, scoring twice and dishing four assists in the game, on this possession Abrahamsson got the inside lane on an upline and smacked the disc to the sideline for one of his two blocks. UMass advanced the disc by way of an upheld foul call on a deep huck, and then Jonah Stang-Osborne toasted his matchup to the cone for the Zoodisc break.
Ego continued to struggle, turning it twice on the next possession. But Ego got it back both times, and Owen Sprague hit Adkins on a deep inside-out flick for the messy hold. The teams traded holds for quite a while, as Oregon got their first couple break chances but couldn’t do much with the opportunities. At 3-2, UMass turned it but Roan Dunkerley, who Stang-Osborne called the best defender on the team after their quarterfinal win, absolutely locked up Oregon’s top D-Line handler, Max Massey. That set up Mason Stone for a block, and McSweeney rewarded Stone with the goal on a scoober a few moments later.
That was the last turnover until the game was 6-5 as two elite offenses found their flow. UMass did it both ways. At 4-3, they got a little bit of everything, as Griffin Gee was grinding and going every-other for a few throws after collecting a big under. Then rookie cutter Cam Levine got in on the fun, working with Wyatt Kellman, who later dropped arguably Oregon’s best defender in Ben Horrisberger to get free going upfield from the handler space, before Gee finished it in the end zone.
CLIP OF THIS O-LINE POSSESSION
One point later, Mason Stone hit Ethan Lieman on a lasered deep shot. After another small ball hold, UMass went back to the deep game to hold for half; this time Lieman ripped the deep huck, hitting Dunkerley in stride. All game long, UMass showcased versatility with the way they lined up, and Lieman was one of the ultimate examples, winning in the deep space, in tight spaces, and with his hucks. Lieman led the way for Zoo with four goals and two assists.
“It’s super cool,” Lieman said of Zoodisc’s hybrid-style offense. “Scouting-wise, you can’t scout this. We can put all seven guys anywhere on the field. We trust everyone in every role.”
For Oregon, UMass’ hybrid offense was the ultimate stressor. “They are very fast, and they want to get you on your heels,” Oregon head coach Trevor Smith said.
Ultimately, UMass turned it just twice in the first half and maintained an 8-6 halftime advantage. But Ego bounced back. They went 80 yards for the hold after needing to start from the back of their end zone. Mica Glass won in the deep space and fed Julian Saunt for the hold. On the ensuing point, with Glass, Adkins, Saunt and Aaron Kaplan crossing over, it was Alex Hall-Witt who pressured Lieman into a drop. Adkins did a lot of work on the counter, finding Saunt underneath, continuing upline, and reeling in the scoober for the break to put the game on serve. It was the second-straight game that Zoodisc got broken out of half.
For Hall-Witt, the junior’s role increased from D-line role player as a freshman to a universe-line player for Ego this year who frequently took the top opposing offensive matchups. “From [his freshman year], it’s been a constant rate of improvement,” Smith said. “This year, he’s really stepped into that, taken on so much of a role, and we’ve fed him so much responsibility…he’s been fantastic.”
Hall-Witt earned his only credited block of the semifinal on the game’s final point but finished Nationals with six goals, 10 assists and six blocks, all to just a singular turnover.
Unfortunately for Hall-Witt and Ego, from there, it was all Zoodisc. After a messy hold to go up 9-8 (Oregon turfed their break chance), UMass ripped off two straight breaks. The first came after Ego popped up a swing under heavy duress from the mark, and Charlie Norris came down with it. Oregon put forth an impressive end zone defensive effort, but Norris later found Levine and UMass had their break back.
On the next point, it was stalwart defender Nima Lhamo that got the layout block on Oregon’s end zone. Gavin Abrahamsson got free on the cut and then delivered a fantastic layout grab on Kellman’s flick to put Zoodisc up 11-8. Kellman ripped off three assists and three blocks, and was nearly matched by Charlie Norris’ three goal, two block effort.
“We just trusted our deep roster so much. Every D point, we have at least a few sets of fresh legs that can just go and run the other team,” Lieman said. “It was mostly just the trust in our system, that fundamental defense that got us to this game, and just the waves of defenders that put a huge amount of pressure on them.”
Oregon slightly righted the ship on the next point, turning the disc once, but they converted the hold. Mica Glass, a primary offensive threat with three goals and three assists in the game, proceeded to cross over, but UMass worked it well. Glass was on handler defense, but McSweeney got out of the backfield on a different matchup, won into the open space, and Ethan Lieman put his heel in the ground on an upline cut and seven-cut back into the break space, digging a low McSweeney backhand up off the turf.
Then UMass broke two more times, with Tomo Lou bringing in one and assisting the other. “There was a little bit of self-inflicted stuff,” Oregon coach Smith commented. “We missed some throws we normally hit, and all credit to UMass, they applied a lot of pressure, forced us to make difficult throws, and we missed some of them.”
Oregon held one more time, but Ethan Lieman’s dish to McSweeney punched Zoo’s ticket to the final.
For UMass, it’s been all about the postseason after a wildly inconsistent regular season saw Zoodisc go 7-7 at Smoky Mountain Invite and Easterns. Smith noted that when doing prep, they didn’t even look at Zoodisc regular season film. “The rest of the season wasn’t very representative,” he said.
Lieman kept it simple: “We are clicking at the right time…all that matters is the performance we put on in the postseason.”
Zoodisc face the winner of Colorado-Carleton, the primetime semifinal matchup which is a rematch of the Smoky Mountain Invite and Easterns championship games.
