The USA Ultimate 2026 D-I College Championships concluded on Memorial Day and both Oregon club teams made it to the respective championship brackets.
Women’s Tournament
The women (“Fugue”) came in seeded #10 overall and third in Pool C behind UC Santa Cruz (“Sol”) and Tufts (“Ewo”) but ahead of UC San-Diego (“D-Co”) and the University of Toronto (“Torontula”). Fugue held their own in their four pool games finishing at 2-2 with wins over D-Co and Torontula but losses to Sol and Ewo. This put them at third place in pool play
which placed them into the initial pre-quarterfinal round of the championship bracket against North Carolina (“Pleiades”) who had finished second in Pool B.
In the first half the pre-quarterfinal matchup Pleiades looked to be in control as Fugue found themselves facing an 8-4 deficit. Playing their third match of the day (Saturday) with their season on the line the women of Oregon refused to go quietly, going on a run to claw back to only a one point deficit at 9-8. From their both teams would trade points nearly evenly with North Carolina retaining the lead but never stretching it to more than two, until match point came tied at 14 with a time limit in effect. Fugue’s defensive lineup was the difference, turning over Pleiades’s final possession and scoring the game winning point 15-14.
The quarterfinal round saw Fugue draw undefeated #1 seed Carleton College (“Syzygy”). Oregon played it close, even taking a brief 4-3 lead and staying within a point at 8-9 to begin the second half of play. Syzygy went on a 5-2 run to back Fugue into a corner at 14-10. Only a truly epic rally could pull off the upset, and Oregon got partway there with three consecutive points before Carleton scored again to end the game 15-13. Carleton finished a perfect season defeating #6 Tufts 15-14 and #2 British Columbia (“Thunderbirds”) 15-13 for the title.
Men’s Tournament
The men’s team (“Ego”) came into the tournament as the #1 overall seed and earned a bye by going 4-0 in pool play against UC Santa-Cruz (“Slugs”), Georgia Tech (“Tribe”), Texas (“Tuff”), and Utah (“Zion Curtain”). They faced off against Penn State (“Spank”) who advanced to the quarter-final round by defeating Oregon State (“Beavers,” way to make it your own guys) 14-13. Ego took an early lead but was only ahead 8-7 at the halftime break. Spank came back to take a 10-9 lead early in the second half but after tying the game 10-10 Oregon would never trail again. Penn State kept the game close, tying it at 12-12 late, but Ego finished the match with a 3-0 run to make it 15-12 and advance to the semi-finals.
I had mentioned in my tournament preview that at national tournaments in Ultimate the outcome is as much about which team gets hot on that particular weekend as how well they have performed over the whole season. This year the team that found their groove at the right time was Massachusetts (“Zoodisc”). UMass came in as the #5 seed but swept their pool and defeated #6 Cal-Poly SLO 15-8 in the quarterfinals. Ego never led in the semi-final match, though in the first half Oregon never trailed by more than two points and had the game tied 8-all early in the second half. From that point on Zoodisc turned on the afterburners and never looked back, finishing the game on a 7-2 run. UMass would go on to take the title with a 15-11 victory over #3 Carleton College (“CUT”). The four point margin of victory was the closest Zoodisc played in the entire tournament.
Though neither Ultimate club captured a title, both represented Oregon well with highly successful seasons and victories in the championship bracket. Both clubs will once again be favorites to make it to nationals again next year, and I’ll have the results for you here at AtQ.
