July 28, 2026
By Evan Lepler
“Seven On The Line” is part two of The Tuesday Toss, highlighting seven more important storylines around the UFA. Read part one here.
1. Salt Lake Puts the Pieces Together in Seattle
While no one would dispute that Salt Lake’s 2026 regular season was somewhere between uneven and mediocre, the Shred still entered the playoffs with a confident determination, fueled by their belief that top playmakers could meet the moment in a do-or-die predicament. And in retrospect, that conviction looks quite clairvoyant after Saturday night’s 22-20 victory in Seattle, where the Shred only trailed for 56 seconds all game.
“We’re feeling really good about this one,” said Jordan Kerr, who led Salt Lake with six scores and 652 total yards. “It feels like we’re starting to peak at a really good time.”
Shred Coach Bryce Merrill was also delighted to see his team prevail, but acknowledged that, at 6-7, there’s still work to be done.
“The quest for .500 continues,” declared Merrill.
There were several key moments in the game, which was truly tight the whole way. It wasn’t until early in the fourth that Luke Yorgason’s second block of the night led to the Shred taking their first three-goal lead.
And then, with a couple minutes left, with the Cascades seeking a desperately-needed break to inch back within one, Simon Dastrup denied a Seattle deep shot and then delivered the dramatic bookend score shortly thereafter, set up by Oscar Brown’s full-field huck to Chad Yorgason. With 1:38 left and a 22-19 lead, the Shred knew they had it.
“Dastrup’s block and subsequent score was the play of the season for us,” said Merrill. “It’s great to see guys like Simon learn to thrive in high-pressure, late-game scenarios—we’ll need everyone we can get embracing that if we’re going to stay competitive against Oakland.”
Merrill also was pleased with how Luke Yorgason, Reed Browning, and Kimball Pew matched up against Seattle’s Spencer Lofink, Derek Mourad, and Zeppelin Raunig.
“I thought we took their stars off their game plan, which limited their impact,” said Merrill. “In the locker room [postgame], we were somewhere between ‘Oakland has led for 144-of-144 minutes [against us] this season while we’re still battling to try and get to .500’ and ‘This is the fifth straight year that our players have the opportunity to play for the West Division Championship!’”
The Shred know they are underdogs heading into the West Division final, but despite going 0-3 against the Spiders in the regular season, they will fully embrace the upcoming challenge of toppling 11-1 Oakland.
“The main message after the Seattle game was the hunger we had throughout the game, and the importance to bring that back to practices for the next two weeks,” said Kerr. “We also know the level of execution it’s going to take to challenge Oakland, so making sure we’re locked in there will be a focus with these next four practices we’ve earned. I fully expect to beat Oakland in two weeks.”
2. Missing Key Trio, Cascades Comeback Comes Up Short
While big games are always way more about who’s healthy and ready to compete rather than who’s missing, three big absences loomed large on Saturday for the Cascades. Seattle was missing the league’s leader in blocks, Ricky McLeod, along with veteran playmakers Conor Belfield and Asher Lantz, all of whom were unavailable for the opening round playoff game due to personal reasons. There’s no doubt that the Cascades missed them dearly.
“Absolutely brutal,” acknowledged Garrett Martin. “I mean, [McLeod] is likely a First-Team All Defense guy, Conor is potentially our best all-around player, and [Lantz] is an incredibly important defender for specific matchups.”
Still, the ‘Scades remained within striking distance all game long, yet never could quite shift the momentum from ‘hanging tough’ to ‘seizing control.’
“It felt like we were due for a big run, but it just never came,” said Martin. “I think that’s a big credit to the Shred. I mean, they were just a little bit better than us on Saturday. Their defense took away a lot of our huck opportunities and made us grind a lot more than we were used to. Every time it looked like we were able to finally break to take the lead, they would get the disc back somehow and finish the hold. It’s really hard to put into words other than that. Like it felt like it was right in front of us, but we just couldn’t grab it.”
The Cascades were also plagued by some late-quarter mismanagement, mistakes that are always magnified in a close elimination game. Trailing 17-15 late in the third quarter, Seattle forced a turnover following a Salt Lake timeout, and had a transition opportunity to inch within one. But the Cascades’ short completion into the end zone came one second after the clock had expired, keeping things a multi-score game heading into the fourth.
Seattle also finished the game with just four blocks, the fewest of any team across the UFA this past weekend.
“Obviously, Lantz and McLeod’s absence was felt,” said Merrill.
Overall, it was a disappointing conclusion to a promising 2026 season in Seattle, in which the Cascades doubled their win total from the year before.
“We had a pretty awesome year regardless of one tough loss to close it out,” said Martin. “The team’s culture is always such a joy to be a part of. The guys genuinely love each other. We swept both Colorado and Salt Lake in the regular season—which we had never been close to happening before—got back to the playoffs, played some fun out-of-division games, and were competitive in every game…It sucks to get upset at home, but that’s sports…The goal remains a championship. We might not be there yet, but with the talent in Seattle, it doesn’t feel unrealistic to start looking towards winning.”
3. AlleyCats Claw Their Way to Central Division Final
All season long, even when Indianapolis was multiple games below .500, first-year AlleyCats Head Coach Nathan Bussberg stuck to his plan.
“I truly had a whiteboard with our projected record of 2-5,” said Bussberg. “I consistently reminded the team of this. I know that seems odd, but it really just gave us a sense of calm and peace as to where we were at on the season. We were 2-5 with two losses that felt like should-have-won games.”
Fast forward one month, and Indianapolis is now headed to the Central Division title tilt, having won five of the last six games, including Sunday evening’s 17-15 postseason opener in Madison.
“I’m still very joyous with the team we have,” said Bussberg. “I wouldn’t undo any decision we’ve made in the offseason…I wanted the guys to feel that sense of relief and elation that comes with a must-win game. In win-or-go-home moments, there are heartbreakers and the heartbroken. We just happened to land on the right side of that coin this time.”
The ‘Cats were quickly down 2-0 against the Radicals, but unlike the Growlers, Breeze, and Cascades, Indy was able to quickly respond in the face of an early deficit. The game was tied 3-3 after a low-scoring first, and the AlleyCats took their first lead with 1:31 left in the second, going ahead 8-7 on a short throw from Carter Hawkins to Elliot Hawkins.
Indy’s go-ahead goal did come after a stunning phantom foul was called on Madison’s Mac Weber, when it looked like he clearly beat Indy’s Jake Felton to the disc in the end zone, but the AlleyCats backed up their good fortune by registering the only two breaks in the third quarter, stretching the lead to three after Nate Little soared for his second block of the night.
Bussberg wasn’t thrilled with the team’s poor D-line conversion rate—Indy had five breaks on 12 chances—but he was proud to see someone like Connor Concannon step up and deliver three clutch blocks.
“Earlier in the year, [Connor] was working hard, laying out, but missing blocks by inches,” explained Bussberg. “We made the call to sit him for a few games so he could slow down, process, and develop the mental side of the game before working his way back into the lineup. Growth isn’t always visible in the moment. Sometimes, it just looks like patience. He stepped up in a big way, as did others, and watching a season-long adjustment like that pay off is one of the best parts of coaching.”
Another key adjustment was switching James Pollard onto the O-line for the first time all season, and the veteran big man came through with three goals, two assists, and almost 400 total yards as an impact cutter.
“Ultimately, O-line did enough not to lose the game, and D-line took the disc away in the most important moments to win us the game,” said Pollard.
Elliot Hawkins led the AlleyCats with four goals, four assists, and one block, while his older brother Carter went 45-for-45 with three assists, three more hockey assists and one goal.
In the fourth quarter, Madison broke twice to tie it, but Indy converted two clutch holds before punching in the game-sealing break. After Jack Galle’s big block, Cameron Brock connected with Jason Kempe with 2:05 left, giving the AlleyCats their finishing touch on the two-goal win.
Like Salt Lake, Indianapolis is fully aware of the general narrative heading into the Central final.
“I think the story is that we’re written off as losers in this game,” said Bussberg. “The feeling surrounding the divisional round was that it was a race to see who would lose to Minnesota. The good news is that someone can’t kill you if you’re already dead. We’re going in there with an unfathomable amount of confidence, and we’ll see what happens.”
4. Lacking Firepower, Gritty Radicals Falter in the Fourth Quarter
Historically, the Radicals had always come through at home in the playoffs against their divisional opponents. Entering Sunday, Madison was 7-for-7 in surviving and advancing in postseason contests against the Central at Breese Stevens Field.
But instead of earning a chance to travel to Minnesota, the Radicals could not quite complete their comeback against the AlleyCats. Costly red-zone miscues and a general lack of explosiveness doomed Madison’s mojo, as the Radicals’ quest came to a close in the opening round of the playoffs for the second straight season.
“This game will live with me for a long time to come,” said Pieran Robert, the league’s leading goal scorer during the regular season, who finished with two on Sunday, tied with three others for the team lead. “Watching it back, I could still find myself searching for some answers.”
As the narrow margin would indicate, Madison Head Coach Jacob Spiro felt pretty good about the way his team defended, but he also acknowledged that certain execution in big moments was lacking.
“I thought we played their offense well,” said Spiro. “We got turns and really controlled the pace of the game. If we took better care of the disc, I think we take that game [...] There were only a couple points all game that we didn’t have a good shot at a block, and we were funneling them pretty effectively [...] Indy has a history of some epic chokes over the years, but no dice this time.”
5. Road Warriors
With Salt Lake and Indianapolis both winning on the road, that makes it 10 of the last 11 years that at least one UFA road team has been victorious in the playoffs.
Here’s a list of the road winners in the postseason since 2015.
- 2015: Seattle over San Francisco
- 2016: Seattle over Los Angeles; Atlanta over Carolina
- 2017: Dallas over Carolina
- 2018: New York over Toronto; Carolina over Austin, New York over DC
- 2019: Dallas over Carolina
- 2021: Carolina over DC
- 2023: Austin over Atlanta; Los Angeles over Colorado
- 2024: Seattle over Salt Lake; Carolina over Atlanta
- 2025: San Diego over Austin; Minnesota over Chicago
- 2026: Salt Lake over Seattle; Indianapolis over Madison
Something to keep an eye on heading into the Divisional Championship Weekend: We’ve witnessed at least one road team win a game in the quarterfinals in seven of the past eight years. In just the past two seasons, we saw the top seeds in the South and West fall in 2024, while the top seed in the Central stumbled in 2025.
Does that mean the top seed in the East is due for a letdown?
6. Noteworthy Integrity
I watched every single point across four playoff games this past weekend, and there’s truly one moment in my mind that stands out above all the others.
Late in the third quarter in Seattle, Simon Dastrup was going deep for the Shred, chased from behind by Cascades defender Gavin Leahy. Salt Lake was only up one, and the intensity was incredibly high.
But after the disc eluded Dastrup in the end zone, Leahy immediately called a foul on himself. Using the Integrity Rule, he gave possession to Salt Lake on the goal-line, and the Shred quickly punched in the short score to double their lead.
Leahy made the call on himself so quickly that it beat the refs to the punch, and who knows if the zebras might have blown the whistle a little bit late after processing the play? But watching from afar, it certainly appeared that there would not have been a foul called, and Seattle could have taken over possession with a chance to tie.
But rather than prioritizing winning, Leahy chose integrity.
Ultimately, the Cascades fell short, but the 21-year-old Leahy, who recorded a career-best 25 goals this year in his third season in the UFA, earned a ton of respect through the split-second decision he made in that instant.
I truly hope we see more moments like this over the final seven games of the season. In every sport, refs can miss calls. But in ultimate frisbee, players have the power to set the standard of fairness and not aim to dupe, deceive, and otherwise compete dishonorably.
Shout-out to Leahy for setting this example and showing that integrity can still prevail when a team’s season is on the line.
7. WUL-PUL All-Star Rosters Announced
For the second year in a row, Championship Weekend in Madison consists of two doubleheaders. On Thursday, August 27, we’ll see the pair of UFA semifinals. And one day later, our league’s 14th title tilt will be preceded by the second edition of the WUL vs. PUL All-Star Game.
On Monday, All-Star rosters were announced.
An elite group of seven players—Eileen Bequette, Dena Elimelech, Robyn Fennig, Kaela Helton, Rachel Mast, Abby Thorpe, and Chip Yen—will be competing in the All-Star game for the second year in a row. In terms of UFA connections, Fennig played three games for the Radicals in 2018, while Helton has been on the Growlers coaching staff since 2021.
While most prognosticators expected the Western Ultimate League to win comfortably in 2025, the Premier Ultimate League’s All-Stars actually dominated the game, rolling to a 16-9 victory after leading 10-2 at halftime.
One month from today, the Westerners will get their shot at revenge.
The Hammer
While the UFA goes dark this coming weekend, the eight remaining teams in the hunt will inevitably be devoting hours and hours to game-planning, film-study, and dedicated training ahead of their biggest games of the season. And all of this extra effort can absolutely make a difference in determining the results when the teams retake the field on August 7 and 8.
After all, the Division Championship games are traditionally super close.
Since 2021, about 57 percent of all regular season UFA games have been decided by five goals or fewer. In that same time frame, 90 percent of the Division Championship games have had final margins of five or fewer.
Digging even deeper, while regular season contests have been settled by three goals or less around 39 percent of the time this decade, 65 percent of the league’s quarterfinal contests—13 of the 20—have been decided by one, two, or three.
In the realm of one-goal games, while 18 percent of regular season games since 2021 have been decided by the smallest of margins, 30 percent of the Championship Weekend qualifiers have come down to a single score, including last year’s 18-17 Salt Lake victory over Oakland.
True story: There’s been at least one game decided by one goal in this upcoming round of the playoffs in every season this decade.
Will this trend continue in 2026?
