Seattle Seven Hills’ program depth bolsters the team to their third YCC U20 Mixed championship title.
August 11, 2026 by Laura Osterlund in Preview
In a thrilling final matchup, Seattle Seven Hills demonstrated why Seattle’s youth scene is so strong, as they comfortably beat Lexington KOI with a final score of 14-9.
Right out of the gate, Seattle’s offense came out hot as their quick movement resulted in an Owen Mertz goal, one of his 12 that he obtained over the course of the weekend. Attempting to match the pace of play, KOI moved fast in their flow, but it turned out to be too fast, with throws bouncing off of receivers’ hands. Despite two blocks from Colin Breen, Seattle secured an early two-point lead with a 2-0 score.
An immediate break against them did not rattle KOI too much, as they just kept playing their own game, getting rid of the disc in a flow offense before getting to stall five. Finally, Carter Malott got the first hold for the Kentucky conglomerate team. Malott was one of the top players for KOI, making heroic plays whenever his team needed it. His impact could be felt throughout the game.
The pointed that followed could not be described as clean, but were holds nonetheless. As with any strong Seattle team, Seven Hills knew how to value the disc and identify the right time to attack. Between standard vert stack offenses and holstering some shots until their perfect looks came around, they moved efficiently for their holds.
KOI had other ideas of how to reach the end zone. While at times their brisk offensive movement worked well against the Seattle defense, at other times it was too zippy for their own players, and they either had miscommunications, drops, or overshots. Their O-line defense almost always found a way to get it back, thanks to the efforts of Larkin Dietrich and Jade Jonas, allowing them to retain their holds.
To KOI’s dismay, a simple swatted block was not enough on a marathon back-and-forth point, their biggest break chance they’d have in the first half, and possibly all game. Despite an athletic sky-high layout block attempt by KOI, the disc hung in the Colorado air long enough for Suriya Sethi to chase it down in the back of the end zone to grant a 6-4 lead.
Throughout the game, Sethi made many a big play. He scored the next Hills hold as well. After his team looked deep without an apparent receiver in the area, he earned the disc back with a late snag on a KOI missed swing. Sethi’s efforts made sure his opponents did not get the disc out of the Seattle red zone, and with his sixth assist of the half, Brijesh Barrington found Helen Golden to take the game to half at 8-6.
Before this tournament started, not many1 expected Lexington KOI to make it to the final, let alone have this close of a half with a program as deeply established as Seven Hills. Like any first-year program, it’s hard to speculate where their talents would match up with others in the division. Chemistry also becomes a roadblock. However, with talent from last year’s Kentucky KHALM team, as well as several Ohioans from HSNI-qualifier Holy Family Catholic, KOI was no stranger to a big stage. They had relatively convincing wins over the weekend, and their only losses for the tournament were both against Seven Hills, as they played each other in crossovers prior to the bracket.
“[We were] taking advantage of our chemistry where we had it; we’ve had kids that have been playing together for like eight years, which helped a lot. The other big thing was mentality, just focusing on having grit,” said KOI coach Laurel Shepherd. “I think our defense was very big for us this weekend. We really earned a lot of D’s and got a lot of breaks. I felt like we put a lot of pressure on teams with our D-line.”
“I’m just proud of this team in general,” continued coach Lynette Malott. “We put this team together in the middle of May, and a lot of our kids live in Cincinnati, and so we did not have a lot of practices where we were practicing together, and so they would come down for one a week if they could. So the fact that we did as well as we did with such a short amount of time is just a testament to how great these kids are and how hard they work and how much they want this.”
While KOI played close with Seven Hills in the first half, the second turned out to be a different story, as the Seattleites put their foot on the gas. Seven Hills began their D-point right out of the half with a zone that, although it allowed space for KOI to work down the field, produced a block from Luciano Falzone. While the team from Kentucky answered with a block of their own in the form of a handblock, after multiple turns from both sides, Seven Hills’ Jenny Giang ended the point with a soft, rolling layout score. Suddenly, a score that was once 7-6 became 9-6.
Putting the defensive clamps on, Seven Hills didn’t allow anything downfield and forced a turn the following point, as the lethal duo of Sethi and Golden put in the work to knock in another easy break for a 4-0 run. Finally, Josiah Cutts decided he had had enough of his team getting broken, as he hucked to the end zone, leaving enough time for Malott to run onto the disc and lay out to stop the bleeding.
“The adjustments that we had were just trusting in our team. It was like a team effort on just cutting and clearing and trusting our teammates to make these plays,” said Seven Hills coach Marc Muñoz. “Keep buying into our systems; I don’t think we focused on anyone else besides us; we were our biggest enemy.”
After another Seven Hills hold, once again dominated by Sethi, KOI lost track of the disc, and Golden unleashed a beauty of a throw into a pile, where Andres Garcia came down with it for yet another break, increasing their lead to 12-7.
From there on, it was holds until the end of the game. Each team had their break chances but could not convert. At 13-9, with a game to 14, Sethi and Barrington called game. They worked it down the field, where Barrington found Sadie Jessup for a perfect offensive point to finish it off.
With the win, Seattle Seven Hills took their third program U-20 Mixed Championship title2. They capped off a dominant, undefeated weekend. While a fair share of their star power will be graduating, heading to the likes of Carleton and the University of Washington, among other schools, their youth programs are strong enough to keep them in championship contention for years to come.
“It’s really special. [Winning the final] with my little sister is amazing; doing it with this group of kids is really amazing, and it just brings a lot of joy,” said Muñoz. “It was really cool to see how we started from the start of the season to the very end. We did everything we wanted and came out with the result we wanted. The takeaway is that Seattle has the best youth and I think they really showcased that. It was really cool to see them believe it.”
“We have the best youth in the U-20 Mixed Division, we have the best coaching staff, we have the best family support, we have the best program heads,” he continued. “It was just like a collective. It’s really special when a lot of pieces are chipping in, and it’s not just on coaches or the players. I think it was everything contributing to our success, and I’m just really happy that we did it as a program. This is a program win.”
