Buzzer Beater: Round 1 Playoff Preview [UFA Week 13, 2026]

The regular season is over and it’s time for the playoffs!

July 20, 2026 by Alex Rubin in Rankings, Recap

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Playoff Preview

The first round of the playoffs begins on Friday. With little movement in the standings over the last few weeks of the regular season, each team has had some time to begin preparations ahead of what will be to this point the most important games of the season.

East: DC Breeze @ New York Empire (Winner faces Boston)
Saturday, July 25th, 2 PM ET

In 2016, 2018, 2022, 2023, and 2025, the DC Breeze and New York Empire met in the playoffs. Though players come and go, the rivalry between these two teams remains ever-present. The Breeze escaped New York with a win when these two teams played in early May. Wiebe van den Brink’s heroic blocks and quick assist saved the day for DC and propelled the Breeze through the season knowing that they could overcome any obstacles in their path.

Well, now they have a big obstacle. Using Shown Space’s power rankings, the Breeze will have to defeat the top two teams in the league just to make it out of the East Division playoffs. The Empire have been on a tear, winning their last four games and nine of their last ten since that loss to DC. With new additions Alex Atkins and Daan De Marrée leading the offensive charge alongside stalwarts Ben Jagt and Jack Williams, the Breeze will have trouble finding matchups who can slow down the talented O-line who dropped a franchise-record 37 points on Philly this weekend. The Breeze rank 7th, scoring 22.4 goals per game, so New York probably won’t have to score quite that many to win, though they lead the league averaging 25.9 goals of their own.

Central: Indianapolis AlleyCats @ Madison Radicals (Winner faces Minnesota)
Sunday, July 26th, 6 PM ET

What a season it’s been for the AlleyCats. They started 1-4 before rebounding to finish at .500 on the season. After two early season losses to the Radicals, both by a single goal, the AlleyCats crushed Madison 31-18 in Madison earlier this month: they’ve earned a repeat trip with a lot more on the line.

Indy spent this season figuring out how to incorporate a ton of new players playing together. Some clear stars have emerged: Elliot Hawkins leads the league in assists per game (7.22, more than two assists above the next closest finisher) and Cam Brock finished with another top five goal scoring season.

Madison, meanwhile, also figured out a new way to play. Their offense might look a bit more boring, but it has been effective. The Radicals threw the second fewest hucks in the league this season and value possession above all else. They also unearthed a breakout season from Pieran Robert, who leads the league with 48 goals and 314 points played since he takes reps on both the O- and D-lines.

Indy will enter the game with the confidence of their previous blowout, but Madison loves its home field advantage and has significantly more historical success. This might not be the marquee matchup of the weekend, but it might be the most interesting first round game.

South: San Diego Growlers @ Carolina Flyers (Winner faces Austin)
Friday, July 24th, 7:30 PM ET

San Diego once again upset a favorite to sneak into the South Division playoffs, this time making the postseason at the expense of the Atlanta Hustle. The Growlers will face off against the Carolina Flyers this season, a rematch of their Week 1 game that ended in a 22-20 Flyers win.

The teams look a lot different now. That Flyers team did not have Zeke Thoreson, who leads the league in Shown Space’s Total Adjusted Expected Contribution on a per game basis. That statistic measures how much a given player contributes with his on-field actions to his team’s scoring output. The Flyers also were playing without Tobias Brooks, who leads the team in assists despite playing in only six games.

Carolina avoided the slow start of last season and was rewarded with a playoff spot this time around. They’ll have their sights set on another Championship Weekend appearance, but as recently as last year, they found out that this San Diego team is not easy to put away. At home, the Flyers should be favored, but San Diego shouldn’t be quickly overlooked.

West: Salt Lake Shred @ Seattle Cascades (Winner faces Oakland)
Saturday, July 26th, 8 PM ET

Since Salt Lake has been the overall more successful team over the last half decade, my brain naturally tries to focus the storylines of this game around their successful history. But the reality of the situation dictates otherwise. At 5-7, the Shred are limping into the playoffs with a losing record. Seattle swept the season series and has home field advantage. The Cascades won eight games this season, a reversal of their 4-8 record last year. There is a certain consistency and confidence that comes with winning so frequently that could carry over into the playoffs.

Still, Seattle has not beaten a team with a winning record this season. Come playoff time, the right game plan could absolutely beat them, and the Salt Lake coaching staff is widely considered one of the best in the Association. Chad Yorgason and Jordan Kerr are both putting up All Star level numbers and have the versatility and dynamism to carry their team to an unlikely win. The Shred would surely like to extract revenge, too, from the 2024 playoffs when Seattle beat them in Utah. Whether Salt Lake’s star power or Seattle’s home field advantage and season series wins prevails, this game is sure to be meaningful to everyone involved and should produce some standout play.

News and Notes

• Entering the playoffs with a ton of positive momentum, the New York Empire scored more than any other team this season in a 37-20 rout over the Philadelphia Phoenix. Ben Jagt’s eight assists and six goals led both categories.
• Likewise, the Madison Radicals will enter the playoffs coming off a win, having taken down the Chicago Union with a 21-14 football score. Splitting his time between O- and D- lines, Pieran Robert scored four goals and contributed three blocks.
• Behind five assists from Kyle Henke in the first game and four Owen Johnson blocks in the second, the Austin Sol finished their regular season with a pair of wins (21-15 and 23-15) over the Houston Havoc.
• The Oakland Spiders used a 6-2 run to open the second quarter as they outlasted the Salt Lake Shred 22-19 in the Friday Night Frisbee game of the week.
  Oakland finished their regular season atop the division with a convincing 29-20 win over the Colorado Apex. Raekwon Adkins had his breakout game of the season with five assists and four goals including this stunner. The game also marked Jay Froude’s retirement. The UFA legend entered the league in 2015 with the Madison Radicals and made Championship Weekend with both Dallas and Colorado in subsequent seasons. His 2018 season was probably his best, finishing with 41 assists, 46 goals, and 19 blocks.
• For the first time since 2019, the Atlanta Hustle will finish their season with a losing record. The Hustle fell 24-22 to the DC Breeze. Brandon Lamberty had a bit of a breakout game from DC, finishing with three assists and four goals.
• Behind a stellar effort from Justin Podnar (6A/3G/1B), the Toronto Rush blew out the Indianapolis AlleyCats 28-17. The Rush surely wish they played in Podnar’s home region out west, where their 6-6 record would have been enough to make the playoffs.
• The AlleyCats rebounded with a 29-25 victory over the Pittsburgh Thunderbirds. Elliot Hawkins continued his stellar season with 14 assists. Cam Brock extended his career record with 10 goals. Hawkins leads the league in assists despite playing in only nine games.
• At halftime, the Boston Glory were leading the Montreal Royal 17-2. That is not a typo. The defending champions won 25-11 and will enjoy a bye round before their divisional playoff game.
• The Oregon Steel earned their second win of the season, taking down the locked-into-the-second-seed Seattle Cascades 24-22. Seattle still had their star players on the field and got a nine assist game from Spencer Lofink, but Oregon stepped up in their final game of the year behind a six assist effort from Callahan Bosworth.
• The San Diego Growlers made sure that the Vegas Bighorns finished their second season without a win. The Growlers won 34-12 after jumping out to a 14-2 first quarter (yes, you read that right) lead.¹
• Minnesota rebounded afer last week’s FNF loss by beating the Madison Radicals 23-16 in what could be a playoff preview.

UFA Power Rankings

• The East once again looks like the strongest division in the league, with DC’s win over Atlanta and Toronto’s over Indy adding some more evidence to the mix.
• Oregon has climbed out of the basement of the Power Rankings this season.
• The South playoffs should be electric, with three evenly matched teams battling for the Championship Weekend spot.

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1. as far as I can tell, that is the most points scored by any team in a single quarter in UFA history ↩