Wowzer. Day 5 saw the beginning of bracket play at the World U24 Ultimate Championships, and there’s something about elimination ultimate that is especially electric. Hearts were broken, mountains were climbed and semi final tickets were booked. Some tough losses in incredible games for Australian teams on Day 5, more on that later of course. The Stingrays get some extra love in this recap, for the instant-classic they played against the 2 Seed Japan, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t love all of the teams equally.
Due to a scheduling conflict this will be the last day I have time for a recap article, thanks to everyone who has been following on. If someone else wants to write one, I’m happy to post it!
As always, if you want to look at the cold hard data and stats yourself, visit this page on the tournament website. Some live streams are available through Ultiworld’s YouTube, but for the full cartel you’ll need a subscription. Tournament packages start from $16.99, you can see the full schedule here. Quite a few games are being played on their YouTube now, including both Australian quarters last night!
Mixed
There were some big blow out score lines in the mixed division quarters, with Japan notably getting a win back over the British, 15-10. Our friends in New Zealand were unfortunately knocked out of the bracket by a Singaporean team that is really starting to find its groove, and will play off with Chinese Taipei for 7th on Day 6.
USA and Japan are going to be a very interesting match up in the semi. These teams usually meet for barnstorming finals, so expect a tight, energetic back and forth. Canada and Singapore will be a clash of opposing styles, and could go any which way depending on the conditions. I think if the Canadians can find a way to disrupt Singapore’s agile male-matching handlers, they’ll have a good shot of hucking them out of the game.
Bluebottles
The Bottles started their Ninals campaign with a bang, walloping China 15-9. Everyone seemed to be getting in on the action in this game, with Eric Deng top scoring with three goals. After a turbulent week, a good, hearty pummelling of China is exactly what the doctor ordered for the Bluebottles, who broke early and grew their lead steadily throughout the game.
Unfortunately, they met a Swedish side that has been very hard done by. After taking Japan to universe, a shock pre-quarter loss to Switzerland saw them tumbling out of the higher brackets, and they’ve been making a menace of themselves ever since. After beating Colombia 15-4, Sweden started the game against the Bottles with seven consecutive breaks, all on short sharp punishing points for the Australians. Hannah Gregory caught the goal to stop the bleeding for the Aussies, but unfortunately a lot of blood had already been lost. Though the Bottles held all their remaining points and were able to get two breaks back in the second half, as well as a turnover on the final point, it wasn’t enough to make up for the slow start. The Swedes ran away with it 15-9.
The Bluebottles will now have a rematch against Hong Kong for 11th place. Let’s hope it’s as electric as the first one, and that the Bottles finish strong! Let’s go Bluebottles!
Women’s
If there was any doubt remaining that the Stingray’s Pool A was a Pool of Death, just take a look at the results from the quarterfinals. The USA, Canada, and Germany each shellacked their way through to the semi finals, and the Stingrays took the team with the best (by a long way) goal difference in the entire tournament to an agonising 15-13 game. Much more on that later.
In the semi finals, Germany will get a chance to make amends for their 15-9 pool play loss to the USA. Ava Mueller remains the stat leader in the division, and seems to have no shortage of fun throwing to the likes of Emma Falke and Pia Bankwitz - but the USA have plenty of strong, tall, shutout defenders. They’ve evenly shared the goals and assists across their star studded roster, but Callahan winner Abby Hecko has a habit of turning it on in big moments. Look out.
Canada and Japan will be a strange and exciting contest as well. In their quarter final, Japan didn’t have much of an answer to big booming throws to tall receivers, which Canada are more than happy to do. I think the game will hinge on how their trigger-happy style adapts to the intelligent Japanese arrowhead zone - if Canada can successfully huck their way through it, they’re going to be hard to slow down.
Stingrays
We witnessed one of the greatest games in Australian ultimate history last night. To say that Japan was the favourite really does a disservice to their for-and-against record - they were the obvious favourite, after obliterating their pool in a way we have rarely seen at this age group from anyone other than the USA. Six wins in six games, and the most any team scored against them all tournament was 4 goals (a total of 16 goals against, across pool play). Australia, meanwhile, had to battle through some incredibly difficult games just to earn the right to play in the 2v7 quarter.
By the way, if you’d rather watch this game than read my recap (highly recommended), it’s free on YouTube.
The game started with a crisp, clean O hold for the Stingrays. Zoe O’Connor centres to Reyer Carpenter, who hits Lucy Deller on a slashing under, who launches a flick downwind to Angela Pidgeon, who was not really all that free at the time of throw’s release. Ange doesn’t need to be. Part of her charm. 1-0, and a fair few pundits in group chats around Australia were saying, ‘Great, let’s do that 14 more times please.’ In the following points, Australia’s O team hucked with zero fear and absolute success, scoring every single downwinder. Though the D line got a fair few turnovers, they had trouble getting it going upfield. Half was a perfectly civil trading to 8-7, Stingrays.
Australia exploded out of half with an upwind break, thanks to frank and fearless backhand soot from Pania Preston, which Saelea Muduioa ran down right near the corner of the endzone. 9-7. After a few holds either way, Japan switched up their defensive look, and came out in a smart, zippy, oppressive arrowhead zone. Though it was certainly stifling, there were pockets of space that the Stingray handlers could hit in one way or another, albeit with some clutch high pressure grabs from the likes of Shelby Thompson and May Lee Rickards-Tang. The game cruised to a timeout at 12-10.
Japan scoring the following upwind O point seemed to trigger a shift in momentum. Japanese ultimate is famous for their fast, agile, skillful brand of offence, and this team is no exception. After the timeout, Japan played arguably their best point of the game, hitting hard low throws as if the marks weren’t there, generating big scything unders downfield. Hikari Hashizume was a standout receiver for the Japanese, with a lethal combo of speed and height. Mayuka Takada’s main job in the game up until this point had been laying out to keep the disc alive on errant swings, but suddenly she was everywhere, getting every second pass, throwing creative, cutting throws.
Japan held, broke downwind, and then quickly punched in a shortfield Stingray execution error to, in the blind of an eye, in the space of less than five minutes, make it 13-12 in their favour. The Australians fought valiantly for the next upwind O point, which took 15 minutes, I’m not kidding, count it yourself. There were obviously turnovers both ways, and fighting for every throw against the Japanese defence was taking its toll. Decision fatigue, as much as physical fatigue, was what the Stingrays were battling against in these final few points. Another quick Japanese upwind hold, and they stacked a line to try to score the downwinder.
The 8 minute final point of the game was not a fun watch, in all honesty. Hearts pounding in eyeballs, hands clammy, breath short - and that’s for those of us watching from Australia. To be there at the field for that final fight must have been incredible. Exhausting and really, really hard, sure, but one of those rare, surreal, out of body points that seems to take Ultimate Frisbee beyond sport into something bigger and more complicated. Back and forth and back and forth. Japan relentless, hucking with abandon every time they got the disc. Stingrays defiant, working it up the entire length of the field more than once. And then, Kasumi Nasu zoomed upline, and does a little pop to Mei Mamiya for the win, 15-13.
But what a game for the Stingrays. Best on ground for me was Julie Chong, who took on a lot of the bravery and hucking load in the first half and nailed every single one. Chong, O’Connor and Carpenter willingly launching the disc took a lot of the burden off of Lucy Deller in the first half, who though obviously outstanding and athletic and everywhere, was able to float downfield and play with freedom. Throw of the game was probably Deller’s 50 (?) metre upwind hammer over the Japanese zone to Pidgeon. Block of the game was from Hannah Sheers, who had to make up ground and then get up big to swat an early upwind break opportunity out of the sky.
Stingrays, if you’re reading this, please know that my phone was buzzing for the entire game, and that it felt like all of Australian Ultimate was watching you. Pride, joy, and wonder was what we felt back home, sharing in those big throws, those little wins, those magic moments of this spectacular game. Congratulations, and I’m sorry. Now go get some big wins in the Fivals.
The Stingrays will play Colombia, and then either Great Britain or Italy, on Day 6 in their pursuit of 5th place. Let’s go Stingrays!
Opens
The standout quarter final in the Opens Division was Italy triumphing over Japan. In an interesting clash of styles and philosophies, this yo-yoing, high tension, back breaking quarter was the tightest of all four - 14-13 to Italy. Germany dumped Canada 15-10, which must have come as a pretty profound shock to the system of the Maple Leafs. Meanwhile Belgium cruised through over Great Britain, and still look the goods for something really, really special in the later stages of the round.
Goannas
The Goannas had their quarter final against the USA, in a rematch of the quarterfinal four years ago. You can watch it here on YouTube.
The USA have been beating people up over in Pool A and are on a rampantly upward trajectory, having just beaten 2nd placed Italy 15-2 before the bracket. There’s no doubt that this is the kind of big, athletic, superstar USA team that you can lose to in your head before ever stepping foot on the field, and the Goeys mental fortitude was under real pressure from point one. Australia stayed positive and energetic, using intelligent switching to mitigate the damage of America’s flow, and yet still were punished for any small execution error. The USA got away to a quick and imposing 4-0 lead, but the Goey’s opened their account courtesy of young Mack Calder’s money flick huck to Luke Bleeser.
In addition to having possibly one of the best names in the world, the USA’s Orion Cable is a physically massive 6’6” and knows how to use it. Shutting him down is not easy. But once the initial shock of the game and its speed had worn off, the Goeys set about tactical defensive adjustments that slowed the USA flow, forced lots of high pressure passes, and mitigated some of their stars. They traded out the first half to 8-4, and were able to get the disc a few times on D.
In fact, the Goeys had 7 break chances throughout the game - a testament to their defensive ticker and tactics. Though tireless and patient on the turn, it seemed really challenging to get free from the USA pressure, cuts were stifled or aborted or just not open enough to hit. The key offensive trio of Jono Keyes, Lucien Noel, and Olly Loughnan stepped up and executed for the most part in this big quarterfinal, with a handful of electric, big moment plays from Coby Ryan and Mack Calder.
Ultimately, the USA did a better job of oppressing Australia’s free flowing play, and had an excellent conversion rate on break chances. They went on a big run in the second half that blew the scoreline out to 15-6, kicking the Goeys out of the upper bracket. They’ll play for 5th now, their first game being a rematch against Canada. Let’s go Goeys!
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Thank you so much to Tom Kinsella, Lucy Deller, and Dennis Tran (Happy, Dennis?) for giving me the inside scoop - and for all the players and fans from home who sent me juicy tidbits.
I’ve loved reading these u24 summaries. I almost feel like I’m there. Well done to all the Australian competitors. You’ve all done so well.