2024 USAU Club Nationals Preview Part Two

Clash of the titans

Oct 16, 2024

Announcements:

There is lots of exciting new content coming your way! If you missed the men’s preivew click here! Mixed division preview coming out tomorrow (hopefully, possibly Friday/Saturday).

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Women’s Division Preview

Screw that parity crap in the men’s division. Welcome to the arena with the big dogs. Yes, there’s a discussion to be had about how a national landscape with more parity would indicate the game being in a healthier place as far as numbers go for women playing ultimate, but that’s a problem for Mr. Kevin Erlenbach to solve (it does seem like that'll be a priority though which is nice). But my goodness, is it fun to watch a handful of stacked teams throw haymakers at each other once we get to the business end of the tournament.

Only five teams have won nationals in the women’s division since 2003, and they’re all here this year: #1 San Francisco Fury1 (2003, 2006-2012, 2017, 2018, 2021), #2 Washington DC Scandal (2013, 2014), #3 Boston Brute Squad (2015, 2016, 2019, 2023), #6 Denver Molly Brown (2022), and #7 Seattle Riot (2004, 2005). Adding to the dominance, just four times in that run were the runners-up, a team not named Fury, Riot, or Brute Squad. In fact, outside of that brief Molly Brown blip in 2022, the USAU Women’s Division Club National Championship has not left the cities of San Francisco, Boston, Seattle, or Washington DC since 1989.

There are other challengers, though. Nearest to upending the historical balance of power is #4 Raleigh Phoenix, riding behind the power of four years of UNC-Chapel Hill domination in the college scene. Molly Brown is also looking to pull the balance of power towards Denver more permanently, and #5 San Diego Flipside is looking to return that area to the mountaintop for the first time since that 1989 season, too. And there is always a chance this year will be the year a true dark horse emerges.

As a reminder, pools were not determined exclusively based on seeding this year. Instead, like in large soccer tournaments, they were based on a draw. You can watch the whole thing here, but all it means is that some pools may be a bit easier and some a little harder based on seeding and that a small element of randomness was added.

Pool A

#1 San Francisco Fury (Southwest)

The 12-time national champions and division’s final boss again enter nationals as the number one overall seed. Every year at nationals, Fury is the team to beat. This year is no different. They are 15-1 this year, with their lone loss coming in the finals of Pro-Elite Challenge West in July to #6 Molly Brown by a final score of 14-12. They have beaten Southwest rivals #5 San Diego Flipside (“little sister” in the region as things stand right now, sorry Flipside fans) three times this year. Let’s spend one more moment on that. They have beaten a fellow national championship-contending caliber roster three times in sanctioned play this season. They beat both #2 Washington DC Scandal and #3 Boston Brute Squad twice in the same weekend at the U.S. Open, too. There is no doubt that Fury has the best resume in the division. My only source of concern is that they’ll have played just one competitive game in two and a half months by the time nationals roll around. Will that have any impact on their sharpness for nationals? Are their practices probably more intense than some games they’ll play? Well, the answer to that question is almost certainly yes. I’m nitpicking here. Fury is the favorite until proven otherwise.

#5 San Diego Flipside (Southwest)

The new pool drawing system placed Flipside in local rival Fury’s pool in a cruel twist of fate. Flipside seeded #5 would typically be in the #4 seed’s pool. So not only did they draw the strongest possible top seed, but they also drew their local rival, who has already beaten them three times this year. However, their most recent matchup was in the finals of Southwest Regionals, and this one went all the way to universe point. So I have a sneaking suspicion Flipside is relishing their chance to beat their nemesis (pun intended!) when it matters most. As far as the rest of their season goes, they played a lot of games against that top tier of contenders and went 5-3 against top-eight seeds at nationals this year not named Fury. Flipside could cause some chaos early with a win over Fury and ride the emotional high and confidence boost of that game through to the semis and beyond. It’s not about the talent for Flipside. They have more than enough. It’s about executing when it matters most and exorcising some demons, which they absolutely can do.

#11 Vancouver Traffic (Northwest)

It’s hard to look past the titanic Southwest clash looming between the top two in Pool A. But…if there were a team to play spoiler…Traffic is lined up to do just that. What makes this team so dangerous? Well, mainly that they should have the confidence in themselves that they can beat one of, if not both Fury and Flipside. They made nationals out of one of the strongest regions in women’s ultimate, the Northwest. They beat #7 Seattle Riot twice early in the year (did lose at regionals, though) and played Fury closer than any team not named Flipside, Molly Brown, or Scandal did this year. It’s not an eye-popping resume, but it’s pretty solid for the #11 seed. And it shows plenty to convince me that Traffic can spring a nasty surprise or two on teams that chose to overlook them in favor of “bigger fish.” Being an underdog in the women’s division remains incredibly hard, but Traffic has the pedigree to make some noise in the bracket if they catch a few breaks.

#15 Chicago Nemesis (Great Lakes)

My two experiences at D3 college nationals involved being in this exact position. Fourth seed in the number one overall seed’s pool. So, believe me when I say I can empathize with the daunting task ahead of the sole bid earners from the Great Lakes Chicago Nemesis. Nemesis got the short end of the stick on the new pool drawing format, as usually, the top two seeds in the #15 seed’s pool would be #2 and #7 or #3 and #6, depending on how you seed. Instead, it’s #1 and #5. But if you want to win the tournament, you have to beat everyone, right? So you might as well get started early. In all likelihood, this is not the year Nemesis wins nationals. They’ve yet to beat another team that qualified for nationals this year. However, a prequarters spot is not fully out of the question, and once you’re in a single elimination format, who knows what may happen? They’ve played Traffic’s northwest rivals Riot and #9 Portland Schwa comparably close and turned an early season 12-3 drubbing at the hands of #12 Québec Iris into a 10-9 universe point loss a month later. Things are trending positively for Nemesis, but boy, they have a tall task ahead of them in this pool.

Pool B

#2 Washington DC Scandal (Mid-Atlantic)

For all the talk about the historical powers of the division, 2024 will mark ten years since the last Washington DC Scandal national championship in 2014, should they fail to win this year. They didn’t even return to the semifinals until last year, falling to Brute Squad in the finals. In a rematch of a pool play game they’d won earlier in the tournament. Certainly one of the more painful ways to lose any tournament, let alone nationals, but Scandal is back and ready for revenge. Scandal has the second most impressive resume in the division this year, which has landed them the #2 seed. They have wins over full-strength and World Ultimate Championships-reduced2 Molly Brown and #4 Raleigh Phoenix. Their only losses on the year were to Fury (twice at the U.S. Open) and #8 BENT at Pro Champs, who they also beat earlier in the tournament. An ongoing theme for pretty much any team not named Fury or Brute Squad that has title-winning aspirations is that you have to overcome not just the talent on the other of the field but also the monumental mental task of taking down dynastic programs and the recent history that does not favor you. If any team is in the best position to do that this year, it probably is Scandal. They have to like their chances for revenge if they get another crack at Fury later in the bracket, but they have a couple of potentially challenging pool play games to get through first.

#8 New York BENT (Northeast)

BENT has to be licking their chops, getting another shot at Scandal to win their pool at nationals. Sure, going 1-2 against them in the season isn’t wildly impressive, and again, I’m not putting too much stock into Pro Champs results (which is where their win was), but the belief in their ability to beat the top seed in their pool is important. BENT is getting closer as a program to that top tier as well. They’ve played a lot of very good and higher-seeded teams close this year, and they’re consolidating a solid mix of new-to-the-area, recently graduated college talent and elite FMP mainstays into a good-looking roster. Having one of the best players in the world fresh off a WUCs performance for the ages in Yina Cartagena is nice, too. BENT making a run to the semis or even finals might seem like a long shot or ahead of schedule for this core they’re assembling. But sometimes, when you know you have the talent and nobody believes in you, that lack of pressure helps you cause some real problems for “favorites.” Besides, the #8 seed just won nationals last year too. It feels wrong to call a team as talented as BENT a true dark horse, but if a team outside the top tier of favorites were to break through this year, BENT would be my pick.

#9 Portland Schwa (Northwest)

Portland Schwa remains in a place they’ve been for a while now: towards the middle of the pack. It is really hard to tell what to make of this team. Mostly, they’ve beaten the teams they were supposed to and lost to the teams you’d expect them to. Two notable exceptions, though, include a win over Flipside at Pro-Elite Challenge West (1-2 overall though) and a loss to Bay Area Nightlock (the team Flipside handled in the SW game to go) in the quarterfinals of Elite-Select Challenge. A lot feels on the table as far as results go for Schwa, at the same time it feels like they’re kind of locked into this spot around their seed. A lot of that is thanks to the consistency in their results this year. That loss in the quarters of ESC was their only loss of the weekend. Their win against Flipside was in the third-place game after losing to them earlier in the tournament. Even in the region, they’ve taken care of business against Traffic twice but lost to Riot in the regional final. What would be truly surprising from Schwa would be an over or under-performance across all of nationals. Either way, it’ll take them finding a level of play they haven’t hit yet this season, for better or worse.

#13 Pittsburgh Parcha (Mid-Atlantic)

This year will be Pittsburgh Parcha’s fourth straight at nationals, which is quite an impressive accomplishment. However, like Schwa, they feel locked into the spaces around their seed. Getting matched up with the Mid-Atlantic Regional Champions they’ve seen twice this year is also a bit of a bad break, as is drawing a BENT team they’ve already lost to handily earlier in the year. It’s a tough pool draw, but they’ve struggled against the title contenders this year, and there is no easy path in any tournament as the #13 seed in a 16-team tournament. However, it is foolish to measure success at nationals for every team in the division based on whether or not they win it all. Only one team can do that and in a division as top-heavy as this one has been historically, probably only five to seven-ish even have a chance each year. For Parcha, a big win would be making it into the bracket for the first time as a program, which they absolutely have a chance to do if they can steal a game or two against Schwa or even BENT. Building a title-winning program in women’s ultimate, especially in a non-traditional power area, does not happen in just a few years. Still, now is an excellent opportunity to take the program somewhere it hasn’t been before.

Pool C

#3 Boston Brute Squad (Northeast)

The defending champs and Northeast juggernauts are ready for another one. On paper, is their regular season impressive by their high standards? Nothing incredibly out of the ordinary. Two losses in the same tournament to forever rivals Fury don’t inspire a great deal of confidence. Still, we only have to look back to…let’s see…oh, that’s right, last year’s national championship to see that they are more than capable of overcoming that exact situation. A worse situation and regular season in 2023 stuck them at the #8 seed instead of the #3 seed, and it didn’t matter. No matter the situation, Brute Squad is always a threat to win nationals. This program builds for October every year and has had as much success doing so as nearly everyone else. They boast an incredibly deep roster that has won at every level possible in the sport. Not to mention that this is year three of the incredibly successful tenure of German superstar Levke Walczak on the team, which so far includes one Club OPOTY3 award and one first runner-up. The target on their back as defending champions will make things a little more challenging. But they don’t care. All things are possible for Brute Squad at nationals, as they always are.

#6 Denver Molly Brown (South Central)

All things are also possible when the twins of destiny are on your side. If you’re not already marking down this Molly Brown vs. Brute Squad clash, that will likely be for the pool and bye to the quarterfinals as a must-watch, there is something wrong with you. I don’t pretend to have a good grasp of the USA Ultimate ranking algorithm, but I think if I were on Molly Brown, I’d feel a little hard done by the algorithm and the scheduling of WUCs and Pro Champs on the same weekend. They lost one time all year outside of Pro Champs, to Scandal, but a Pro Champs weekend that still ended 4-2 with losses to Phoenix and Scandal, coupled with some less-than-convincing wins, dunked them down to sixth. Molly Brown was arguably more impacted by WUCs than anyone else, losing heavy hitters to Team USA and Team Colombia, the two best national teams in the world. The five members of Team USA who were gone at Pro Champs and the Cárdenas twins are finally back on the same side again. Pair that elite high-end talent with a ton of recent and current elite college talent on the rise4 and you’ve got a great opportunity to win two titles in three years.

#10 Toronto 6ixers (Northeast)

Take the last two defending champions and throw in a program that made the semifinals two years ago, and you’ve got what some have coined the “group of death.” For 6ixers, though, this is a chance to avenge the best finishes in program history, which ended in losses to both of the top two seeds in their pool. In 2019, they lost in the finals to Brute Squad, and in 2022, Molly Brown eliminated them on their way to winning a championship in the semifinals. Do they have an upset in them? Well…maybe? Working in their favor: being motivated after a disappointing ninth at nationals last year, and a history of pulling off some upsets at nationals before. Working against them: they have slipped in the arms race in the Northeast, remaining behind Brute Squad but falling behind BENT to third. It’ll take a lot, but winning over Phoenix early in the season proves they can beat very good teams when they play their best. They should be a tough matchup at the very least for both of the top two seeds in their pool and if Brute Squad or Molly Brown have an off day, one of those two teams could be staring at a brutal spot in the bracket.

#16 Minneapolis Pop (North Central)

You can get very few “good” draws as the #16 seed in a 16-team tournament, even now that we’ve introduced a little luck into things. But this is an unbelievably tough pool. An upset over one of Molly Brown or Brute Squad feels nearly mythically difficult for a squad that, despite having made nationals every year since 2017, hasn’t made any noise in the bracket yet. The North Central Regional Champions have actually played both Molly Brown and 6ixers already and lost both games by a lot. But as the #16 seed, it’s a given that you will need to make some magic happen regardless. Toronto is the most likely of the three teams in their group to slip up, despite a ten-point gap between Pop and 6ixers when they played back in August. It’ll take the entire team playing the best possible ultimate they can to make prequarters. But that’s the magic of nationals. It is possible that when the lights are brightest and the pressure is at its highest, that one team will falter and play below their expectations, while another puts it all together in a way they haven’t yet across an entire season.

Pool D

#4 Raleigh Phoenix (Southeast)

Is this the year? Is this finally the year? You could’ve asked that about Raleigh Phoenix for the past four or five years, but the answer hasn’t been yes—yet. They’ve come close, particularly in 2021, falling 13-12 to eventual champions Fury in the semifinals in the game of the tournament. You would think that with the success of North Carolina Pleiades, there’d be a strong foundation of elite talent in the pipeline for years to come. There is. But you can’t count on the rest of the country’s best players to all leave after four or five years and help clear the path. And despite the talent on this roster the last several years, the only time a women’s team from the Triangle made the finals at club nationals was in 2005. No team is fighting as strongly against history in this division as Phoenix is. I’m a little skeptical of the resume this year, if only because they had a rough U.S. Open, and their best tournament was at Pro Champs (they were missing a lot of players, too, to be fair). But the talent isn’t the issue. They’re stacked and a top-tier contender in the division—time to put it all together. I’m incredibly confident this generation will eventually win nationals for Phoenix. Less so it’s this year, but that speaks less to Phoenix and more to how hard it gets to win games late in this tournament.

#7 Seattle Riot (Northwest)

Believe it or not, 2018 was the last time Seattle Riot made the semifinals at nationals, and 2016 was the last time they made the finals. If you told someone from either of those years that’s how the future would go for Seattle’s premier women’s team, they’d probably have looked at you funny. Indeed, it’s hard to believe that a team that made the semifinals of nationals every year from 2001 to 2016 would make just one in the six since then, but here we are. Having multiple national championship-winning mixed teams in the years since based out of Seattle certainly pulls away some elite-level FMPs and makes recruitment a little harder, but it’s still confusing. Teams ebb and flow, though, and Riot will undoubtedly be back eventually. Maybe it’ll be their year this year. They’ve found themselves in an easier pool and can set themselves up nicely for a chance to go straight to quarters if they can upset Phoenix. Riot’s resume isn’t half bad either. They’ve only lost five games all year, three of them on universe point to some good Flipside, Molly Brown, and BENT teams5, and avenged two inexplicable (in hindsight) big losses to local rivals Traffic at regionals, winning the Northwest. It’s all there for Riot: take care of business twice, pull off the kind of upset they’ve been threatening to all year, and they’ll be back in the quarterfinals for the first time since 2021.

#12 Québec Iris (Northeast)

This is just about the best possible pool draw for Québec Iris. As the lowest-seeded third seed in a pool, they pulled the lowest top seed in #4 Phoenix, the third-lowest second seed in #7 Seattle Riot, and #14 Washington DC Grit. Now, examining further doesn’t exactly yield promising information. Iris split their season series 1-1 with Grit and lost by ten to Riot in the regular season. However, the fact remains that Iris has a golden opportunity to set a new standard for their program with their best nationals result ever. This is only the fourth time the program has made nationals and the first time back since 2019. It’s a crowded field in the Northeast women’s scene, so it’s no small feat to earn a fourth bid for the region and hold off everyone not named Brute Squad, BENT, and 6ixers for the final bid. And while they were pushed to universe in the game to go, that’s precisely what Iris did. They are battle and pressure-tested in a way that few teams are. They’re probably not going to make serious noise in the bracket, but they can absolutely set a new high-water mark and standard for women’s ultimate in Québec, and it’ll be a storyline worth keeping an eye on.

#14 Washington DC Grit (Mid-Atlantic)

Like Ring of Fire and RDU on the men’s side, Mixtape and BFG in mixed, along with Scandal, Grit is one half of the sole tandem in the women’s division where the same exact city/area sent two teams to nationals in the same division. It’s beyond impressive and says a ton about the depth and quality of women’s ultimate being played in Washington, DC. Once again, though, because of the drawn pools, Grit is yet another team that will feel even more empowered than usual to aim higher and look to cause more chaos. Grit has made nationals three years in a row now and will also look at this pool and see the opportunity to set a new bar for their program that is well within reach. As mentioned, they’ve split their season series with Iris. They’ve had solid showings against Schwa, Parcha, Molly Brown, Phoenix, and more6. A trip to prequarters as the #14 seed is no easy task. But it’s definitely within reason and the level of play Grit has shown this season.

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About the Author

My name is Noam Gumerman (he/him). I am from Chapel Hill, NC, and studied Journalism and American Studies at Brandeis University. I am a journalist by trade and have been playing ultimate for over half my life. I love nothing more than combining those two interests. Contact me for discussions, feedback, story suggestions, and more on Twitter (@noamgum/@breaksideulti now too!) or email (noamgumerman@gmail.com).

They won in 1999 too, but it’s outside of this stat. Just wanted to make sure I wasn’t short-changing the program

WUCs and Pro Champs were the same weekend so everyone at Pro Champs was pretty much missing at least a couple of their top pieces

Offensive Player of the Year

Some of it actually from Chapel Hill High School originally actually just saying just thought you all should know because that’s also where I went and it’s just really cool that’s all

Full disclosure Molly Brown and BENT both beat riot on universe at Pro Champs, which again, I’m not really sure what to do with that given how much top end talent was gone

Yes, a couple (but not all) of these referenced close games were at pro champs