2025 WUL Season: Week 2 Preview

Written by Noam Gumerman
WUL Lead Writer

Four WUL teams are in action once again as we look ahead to Week 2, including the three teams that had a bye Week 1 (Bay Area, Seattle, and Oregon), Here’s what to look for ahead of the games this weekend:

Game 1: Oregon Soar @ Seattle Tempest
Saturday, March 29 | 5pm PT
Seattle Memorial Stadium| Seattle, WA

The WUL’s newest franchise Oregon Soar make their debut against the WUL’s most accomplished team, 2x WUL Champions Seattle Tempest. The Cascadia rivalry reignites! Both teams face a lot of questions about their 2025 seasons. As a new expansion franchise, Oregon is largely made up of professional ultimate rookies. So much is up in the air. How will the Soar perform? Who will they rely on? And how will they stack up against teams with more experience in the pro circuit? Similar questions swirl around the Tempest. Since Seattle’s second WUL title, they’ve undergone a fair bit of roster turnover, and sputtered and struggled to find consistency in 2024. Will they return to their three-line rolling subs? Who will step up and fill the big roles on this squad? Despite the questions surrounding Seattle, they are the more experienced  squad and the favorites to start Oregon’s league introduction with a loss.

Staff pick: Seattle 22 - 16 Oregon

Game 2: Bay Area Falcons @ Arizona Sidewinders
Sunday, March 29 | 7pm PT
Mountain View HS | Mesa, AZ

Last year’s best team of the regular season, Bay Area Falcons, kick off their 2025 campaign against an Arizona Sidewinders team coming off  a Week 1 loss to San Diego. Last week, Arizona struggled to get any offensive momentum in the red zone, and will need stat-worthy performances from everyone on the roster if they want to pull off the upset.p. On Bay Area’s side, Robyn Fennig is the big-name offseason addition to a team that is bringing back a lot of continuity. High caliber offensive performances were the name of the game in Week 1, and Bay Area’s own offensive force Han Chen will look to continue that trend in Week 2. Bay Area’s depth and consistency will likely be the difference maker against Arizona this weekend. 

Staff pick: Bay Area 20 - 17 Arizona

2025 WUL Season: Week 1 Preview

Written by Noam Gumerman
WUL Lead Writer

Week 1 of the 2025 WUL season is finally here! Two games kick off the season this weekend, featuring a championship game rematch, and the renewal of one of the most tightly contested matchups from last season. 

Game 1: Colorado Alpenglow @ Utah Wild
Saturday, March 22 | 4pm PT
Judge Memorial HS | Salt Lake City, UT

The 2025 season begins how 2024 ended, with a showdown between Colorado Alpenglow and Utah Wild. Despite both teams coming off rollercoaster 3-3 regular seasons, Colorado and Utah found their strides when it counted to meet in the 2024 WUL Championship Game. In 2024, both of these teams featured aggressive, big-play-oriented offenses – Colorado, led by 2024 WUL MVP Abby Thorpe and 2024 WUL Offensive Player of the Year Ari Nelson, and Wild driven by 2024 Breakout Player of the Year Abbie Davis paired with 2023 Offensive Player of the Year Paige Kercher. Both teams split their regular season series last year, playing two tightly contested games that went down to the wire. Colorado will be looking to start their title defense off right and pick up right where they left off with their big win over Utah. Meanwhile Utah will look to show their rivals that last year’s blowout in the Championship does not reflect how close these rivals have played each other in the past, and that they are ready for another shot at the champs. 

Game 2: Arizona Sidewinders @ San Diego Super Bloom
Sunday, March 23 | 2pm PT
Mission Bay HS | San Diego, CA

Had just three points gone a different way in the two matchups between these teams last year, Arizona Sidewinders would have found themselves at Championship Weekend in place of San Diego Super Bloom. Near misses and heartbreak were the themes of 2024 for Arizona, as they very nearly won so many games last year that just got away from them at the end. This year they get an early chance to flip the script and show that they are a new team in 2025 with their Week 1 matchup against Super Bloom, a team that has had their number over the last several years. Making the Sidewinders’ job even harder is the return of the most decorated core in the league to San Diego – Kaela Helton, Dena Elimelech, Kelli Iwamoto, and Kristen Pojunis – combined with the return of Avery Jones after a year off, and the addition of former MVP finalist Kaitlyn Weaver as well. This San Diego crew will have to prove they can still get it done against Arizona’s offensive backbone of Chip Chang, Paige Applegate, and LP Aragon, who will be looking to guide Arizona to a 1-0 start and their first-ever win over San Diego.

WUL Championship Weekend 2023 Location Announced

The Western Ultimate League is pleased to announce the host city for our 2023 Championship Weekend: Seattle, Washington.

Taking place June 3-4, 2023, WUL Championship Weekend will see the top two teams from each conference (4 total) compete for the cup at Memorial Stadium, under the iconic Space Needle.

Championship Weekend will be hosted by 2022 WUL champions, the undefeated Seattle Tempest. Full event details are available through the host team here.

All four games will be broadcast live on the WUL’s YouTube channel in partnership with Ultiworld.

Opening weekend of our 2023 season is just a few weeks away, and will feature rematches of 2022’s third place game (OR @ AZ) and first place game (SEA vs SD) right out of the gates.

With the addition of an 8th team for 2023, the Colorado Alpenglow, the WUL has divided teams into two conferences: Northwest and Southwest. The Northwest Conference includes Colorado, Oregon, Seattle, and Utah. The Southwest Conference is comprised of Arizona, Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Francisco.

During the 2023 season, conference play is emphasized with each team playing 6 in-conference games, facing each in-conference opponent twice with two cross-conference games, for a total of 8 games per team.

We’re gearing up for another exciting season of ultimate and are looking forward to closing the 2023 season in style in Seattle.

Stay up to date with our 2023 schedule & standings here. Make sure you never miss a game, subscribe to our YouTube channel here.