August 19, 2025
By Evan Lepler
Last year in Salt Lake City, I really expected either DC or Carolina to take the title.
Obviously, we all know how that worked out, as Minnesota proudly put those predictions on wind chilled ice.
Consequently, I am very comfortable starting this preview by emphasizing how uncertain I feel heading into this season’s semifinals. With Atlanta, Boston, Minnesota, and Salt Lake, we’ve got four tremendously talented and deserving division champs, any of whom could hoist the trophy on Saturday night.
But it’s also fair to have legitimate questions about all four teams too. In that way, it feels like a microcosm of the entire 2025 UFA season, with more contenders than ever but perhaps without a clear, decisive favorite.
One quirk in the quartet is that three of the four teams have already played each other this season. The Hustle, Shred, and Wind Chill participated in a season-long competitive triangle, with the home team winning each matchup.
Back in Week 1, Atlanta snuck past Salt Lake 23-21 in a thrilling, low-turnover tussle. Five weeks later, Minnesota handed the Hustle their first loss, holding the league’s top-rated offense to their poorest performance of the year in a 17-15 Wind Chill victory. And in the final week of the regular season, the Shred capped their 11-1 campaign with a 22-18 victory over Minnesota, an exhilarating game of runs where both teams alternated looking dicey and dominant. Clearly, these three teams were all pretty competitive with one another, and the familiarity only adds to their collective confidence heading into Championship Weekend.
At the very least, they believe that they know what to expect.
And then there’s Boston, who has not played anyone outside the East Division all season. The Glory certainly looked like a juggernaut in their otherworldly playoff performance against DC, but how will Boston handle the different styles and personnel that they’ll be seeing for the first time this weekend in Madison? Can they stay as poised and patient in unfamiliar surroundings, playing at Breese rather than against the Breeze?
We’re just a few days away from getting the answers to these questions and so many more.
The Full Field Layout
Friday’s semifinal doubleheader begins with the first ever meeting between Salt Lake and Boston, and I am absolutely fascinated by this matchup. Both these teams have embarked on wild journeys to this particular moment, and they each have unique ways of both creating and handling pressure.
The Shred will arrive at Championship Weekend with 12 straight wins, which speaks to the culture, leadership, and mentality of this entire organization. In four UFA seasons since joining the league in 2022, Salt Lake has won 46 games and only lost nine. Head Coach Bryce Merrill has built a team that can find ways to win pretty or win ugly, but at the end of the night, they usually win. They embrace challenges, empower young stars, and enjoy the nuances of situational ultimate. They’ve also won every fourth quarter during their winning streak, which speaks to both the team’s conditioning and their collective belief.
The Boston Glory have not been nearly as consistent throughout their entire existence—they joined the UFA in 2021, one year prior to the Shred—but after falling short of the postseason in their first two seasons, they have adapted, improved, and admirably raised their level in each of the past three years. In 2025, the Glory are faster, deeper, and more cohesive than they’ve ever been before. They are also coming off perhaps their best performance ever, as they utterly dismantled the DC Breese in the East Division final. Offensively, they are a frightening mix of playmakers and patience. Defensively, their combination of speed, depth, and disc skills are downright scary.
So when these teams actually collide on the field, what’s it gonna look like?
I think that defensively, the teams will have somewhat similar game plans. The Shred may utilize a few more wrinkles from point-to-point—sideline roller pulls, double teams, etc.—but generally both teams will look to use their speed to generate pressure, attempting to deny under looks, funnel the disc toward the sideline, and hunt for blocks on anything over the top that hangs for a split-second too long.
The biggest difference—and where this game could ultimately be decided—will be how the O-lines approach the defensive pressure that’s thrown at them. Generally, Salt Lake’s style is to attack that pressure. The Shred are willing to huck and have receivers that have a knack for out-reading their opponents. But they will need to be very careful and choosy with their shots, as Boston will be ready to capitalize on any missed opportunity.
Whereas the Shred offense often prefers to score quickly, the Glory’s attack—at least against DC in the East final—might best be described as lulling their opponent asleep. After mostly playing D-line while dealing with a shoulder injury during the second half of the season, two-time reigning MVP Jeff Babbitt flipped back onto the offense in the playoffs and served as an unstoppable reset. With Babbitt in the backfield, it creates a conundrum for a defense. Do you put a premier athlete on the reset? Do you leave Babbitt alone and either poach a throwing lane or double-team the primary handler? And how do you adjust after the offense has matriculated downfield and Babbitt shifts back into the goal-scoring monster he’s typically been?
Obviously, Boston’s offense is not just Babbitt. Indeed, the Glory O-line remained quite hard to contain when Babbitt moved over to D midseason. Tobe Decraene is a legit MVP candidate. Orion Cable has a size advantage over everyone. Simon Carapella is smart and shifty. Ben Sadok and Ned Dick are pretty careful handlers who won’t take too many risky chances. And Albert Yuan has also found a valuable role making funny faces after beating his man to the pylon.
Undoubtedly, the Shred will have their hands full defensively. If the Glory can stay as calm as they were with the disc 10 days ago, Salt Lake will need to play defense for two or three minutes straight, an exhausting proposition. Their excellent conditioning will be tested, and they will need to perform better than the Breeze—who went just 1-for-5—on break opportunities.
But let’s also remember that this Boston team, for all its talent, still will be experiencing Championship Weekend for the first time. Among the anticipated 20-man squad that the Glory will field on Friday, only Babbitt and Ethan Fortin have previously appeared in a UFA semifinal. Meanwhile, the Shred have a dozen dudes who had those pressure reps two years ago, when Salt Lake stunned Minnesota to advance to the 2023 final.
If the Shred can advance, they know they’ll have a rematch in this year’s final, facing either Atlanta or Minnesota. The Glory are clearly a hard team to match up against, but as Bryce Merrill told his team at halftime earlier this season, the Shred are here to do hard things.
“I’m glad we get this opportunity [against Boston],” said Salt Lake’s Chad Yorgason. “They’ve got some dogs and we’re gonna have to play our hearts out, but I have no doubt we can win this game.”
*****
Regardless of what happens in the opener, the Hustle-Wind Chill showdown under the lights should be sweet and spicy. These are two teams full of talkers, confident in their abilities and seemingly ready for this moment.
I absolutely loved this exchange that occurred in the Ultiworld Discord on August 11, in the aftermath of division championship weekend, when Minnesota’s James Pollard took to the forum to defend his squad against the naysayers.
“All I’m gonna say is y’all forget that Atlanta was the best offense in the league when we played them this season,” wrote Pollard. “We also wanted the tough strength of schedule to challenge us so we’d be ready for the playoffs. Chicago had the easiest schedule.”
About an hour after Pollard’s post, Hustle Captain Michael Fairley chose to publicly reply.
“All I’m gonna say is it’s still the best offense, and you haven’t seen it at full strength,” said Fairley. “Can’t wait to see you on a few buzzer beaters.”
Six minutes later, Pollard added one more response, clarifying that he wasn’t looking to instigate a war of words, but was juiced up for the semifinal battle.
“I got nothing but respect for y’all,” Pollard said. “I was commenting about people calling us frauds. Can’t wait for the rematch. Gonna be a show.”
Like I said, sweet and spicy.
It’s been 81 days since their May 30 meeting in Minnesota, when the Wind Chill forced 19 turnovers and held the Hustle to 15 goals, their fewest of the season in a full four-quarter game. Atlanta actually led 12-10 with 4:50 remaining in the third quarter, but only scored three times in the game’s final 16 minutes and 50 seconds, as the Wind Chill defense took over the game late.
“I feel that both of our teams have improved notably since we last met in May,” said Minnesota Head Coach Ben Feldman. “Our defensive conversion is going to have to be exceptional on Friday, as Atlanta turns the ball over the least of anyone in the UFA by a wide margin. The good news for us is that they are facing off against a defense who happens to allow the lowest offensive conversion percentage in the UFA.”
Indeed, the most basic summation of this matchup can be simply described as Atlanta’s top-rated offense vs. Minnesota’s top-rated defense. In the South Division final, the Hustle offense did not start the game super crisp, but the team still only had 11 turnovers in their four-goal win over the Growlers. Meanwhile, the Wind Chill—and the wonky wind in Chicago—helped force 23 turnovers in the Central final. That’s on par with Minnesota’s season-long success, creating nearly 25 turnovers from their opponent per game.
By including that parenthetical phrase about the wind, it naturally suggests some skepticism about the Wind Chill, a sentiment that is shared by many across the nation-wide peanut gallery. Personally, I think it’s reasonable to both salute Minnesota’s achievements and remain curious how they will fare against a team like Atlanta if conditions are calm.
At the same time, style points are way overrated compared to postseason victories, and the Wind Chill arrive having outdueled each of their last five postseason opponents. In the history of the UFA, only two teams—the mid 2010s Spiders and the early 2020s Empire, both of whom went back-to-back—have put together longer playoff winning streaks.
At some point, we need to throw some respect and trust at Minnesota’s success. The Wind Chill have made crucial tactical adjustments, evolved in important ways, and shown an uncanny ability to not let mistakes or early adversity take them away from their game plan. They are absolutely relentless, their defense is legit, and their offense has made significant strides since their serious late-season struggles.
On the flip-side, Atlanta’s defense is interesting. In the regular season, the Hustle were fourth-best in the league in D-line conversion rate, but just 14th in the UFA in overall break rate. Basically, that means that Atlanta’s pretty reliable in transforming turnovers into scores, but the Hustle did not create nearly as many chances as other elite teams. Statistically, the Hustle generated the fourth-fewest blocks per game in the league, and their opponents only turned the disc over 15.6 times per game, the second-fewest in the Association.
Consequently, Friday’s second semifinal could ultimately come down to which team’s ‘weaker unit’ can perform better under pressure. Can Minnesota’s offense maintain possession, make tough plays in the air against Atlanta’s athletes, and hold enough to get the Wind Chill D-line back onto the field? Can Atlanta’s D-line—perhaps buoyed by some O-line crossovers—generate a bunch of blocks against the Wind Chill’s inconsistent offense?
Inevitably, it will come down to the combination of execution and mental toughness. These are two proud teams, both fully expecting that they will prevail.
“We’re pumped to play Minnesota,” said Atlanta’s Christian Olsen. “They haven’t seen us at full strength or in the head space we’re in now, so I’m excited to show them what we got.”
The Hammer
In case you missed it, the UFA announced the annual “BE The Change” Award winner earlier today, honoring Malachi Raymond of the Boston Glory. Though he’s not a household name on the Glory’s East Division title team—a preseason injury unfortunately cost him the entire 2025 season—Raymond has been a force in the realm of promoting ultimate and spirit of the game to hundreds of kids across dozens of clinics, coaching roles, and other ventures.
“The list of frisbee players that gave countless hours of their time as I was getting into the sport—and note, I sucked all throughout middle and high school—is a very long and impressive list,” explained Raymond, who was named Ultiworld’s D-III Defensive Player of the Year two years ago while at Middlebury. “I feel like there is no other sport where you have world level talent giving back to the youth community at the same level that ultimate does. If I could even do a fraction of that, I’d be honored too. I also recognize that there is very little diversity in the sport still, and so it means even more to be doing this work as a player of color.”
After tearing his meniscus, he remained determined to help the Glory organization in any way that he could, even transitioning to taking stats during games, which enabled him to travel with the squad on the road. At every home game, he’d help lead pregame clinics and would consistently volunteer whenever ownership would ask about who might be available for a community endeavor.
“If you were to ask Malachi what his role on Glory was, it’s entirely possible that he’d talk about his responsibilities as a promoter of fun vibes and good energy before saying that he was a D-line cutter,” said Boston Owner Peter Collery, who nominated Raymond for the award. “Before the start of the 2025 season, Malachi blew out his knee and he has been unable to play since. Many players, faced with a setback of this type, would turn inward or become embittered. Malachi, in contrast, has redoubled his efforts to help the team…It has also included an apparent inability to say ‘no’ when asked to conduct a clinic.”
Through it all, Raymond has also strived to help ultimate grow among underrepresented populations, perhaps planting the seeds for the future frisbee stars of tomorrow.
“The most rewarding aspect has to be just seeing the direct impact that I have on youth in the sport,” he said.
