Brute Squad go back-to-back, once again knocking off the undefeated overall no.1 seed to claim the USAU title
October 25, 2026 by Graham Gerhart in News
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SAN DIEGO – It’s hard to win back-to-back Nationals. It’s also hard to win when you have a giant target on your back after going unblemished in the regular season. Those were the macro forces at work in this game between Boston Brute Squad and Washington DC Scandal. Along with the pressure of the game itself, both teams had plenty of external factors working against them. In a situation like that, it’s always wise to bet on the team that has been there before, and Brute Squad proved that to be true when they ran away with the game in the opening moments of the first half and never looked back.
You’d think that winning Nationals in 2025 would mean everyone spent the season preparing to beat Boston. Watching WUCC, that thought would have proven true. Scandal mounted a comeback of the ages in Ireland, sending Brute Squad back to lick their wounds. The thing about games like that is the losing team has much more to learn than the winning team. No one is better at making adjustments than Boston, and they clearly used that game as motivation for this one.
Scandal didn’t make it easy on themselves. Unlike their run at Worlds, the team looked nervous in the first points of their final. Where Boston was aggressive and self-assured, Scandal were tepid and flustered. Scandal were shorting throws and out of sync while Boston was making upwind hucks from Levke Walczak to Liv Player look commonplace.
It didn’t help that Boston’s zone never gave Scandal’s offense a chance to get on the same page. Scandal’s throwers, normally so resilient to pressure, felt the need to force shots through the cup and risk downwind swings that allowed Brute Squad to pin them on the sideline. Easy zone offense builds confidence, but grindy zone offense builds fatigue. Scandal couldn’t even focus on setting up their defense after the turn, as Boston would often aggressively attack with upline cuts and deep shots.
At 5-1, Scandal finally got an offensive possession that looked like the team we knew from the regular season. They swung the disc quickly, never held the disc for more than three seconds, and used isolation cuts to let their downfield receivers get massive gains. It resulted in a leading flick pass from Allie Wallace to Claire Trop that no defender had a chance at blocking. Just like that, a little bit of hope flickered into focus for Scandal.
Boston quickly shut that down. The Walczak-Player connection has already been mentioned, but the MVP of Boston’s offense might be Lia Schwartz. The young handler was perfect on her hucks despite the wind threatening to displace all of them, and her final stat line of 3A/1D does not fully illustrate the impact she had on the field. In a game where the wind was the eighth defender, Schwartz, Walczak, and Angela Zhu seemed to largely ignore its resistance. It was Schwartz with clean hucks over Scandal’s defense to Emily Kemp that set Boston up for one clean hold after another.
On the other hand, Scandal’s handlers clearly felt the wind’s effects. Jessica Oh and Kira Flores ended the game with three turns apiece, and even Claire Trop had two turns of her own. DC clearly missed the steadying presence of hub handler Tyler Smith, who did not play in the championship match.
By the time the second half rolled around, both teams were navigating through the wind much better, but Scandal were in a deep hole down 8-4. They would find some success, including two breaks in the second half, but it was too little too late. Boston’s offense remained persistent and adaptable.
No point was more symbolic of Brute Squad’s ability to net scrappy goals than their second-to-last offensive point of the game. At 13-10, a huck to Walczak was clearly too short to reach the star player, and two Scandal defenders swarmed the space. Reaching up, Wallace swatted the disc, only for the wind to carry it forward towards Walczak. Mary Rippe was there to bid for the block, but Walczak felt her on her periphery and laid out for the disc, just ahead of Rippe’s own bid. That goal put them up 14-10, and swept Scandal’s pathway to a comeback right out from underneath them.
Even though Scandal would hold for the next point, a four point comeback is a difficult proposition for any team. They would mount a beautiful last stand, but Boston would not be denied. After racing downfield from the handler space, Anouchka Beaudry got steps on Marika Korpinen, who was clearly fatigued from the footrace. Kelly Hyland noticed the separation and rifled off a backhand around her defender, making the final throw a play that the defense never had a chance against.
That’s just how Boston plays. They’re happy to wear you down and pick you apart. Nowhere on the field is safe, both on offense and defense. Especially if given time to prep, no team is better at making life hard for their opponents, and it’s why they’re the first back-to-back champion in seven years.
Congratulations to Boston, and stay tuned for a full recap coming later this week!
