July 14, 2026
By Evan Lepler

For the third straight season, the Ultimate Frisbee Association will have an imperfect champion next month in Madison. This isn’t meant to minimize the magnitude of the accomplishment for whoever earns the distinction of being the last team standing, but after Austin’s Friday loss at Carolina and Minnesota’s Saturday setback against Boston, every single contender now has at least one loss. 

This is the ninth time in 14 years that the eventual champion will be at least slightly blemished. 

Whereas the 2013 Toronto Rush, 2016 Dallas Roughnecks, and 2019, 2022, and 2023 New York Empire capped perfect campaigns with titles, the 2026 Sol and Wind Chill saw their undefeated seasons go by the wayside via the same exact 21-20 score this past weekend, a pair of results that each team will inevitably use as education and fuel heading into the future. Of course, it took Austin less than 24 hours before the South leaders responded with a monster bounce-back victory in Atlanta. 

We still have one week and 14 matchups remaining before the playoffs officially launch in 10 days' time, but we already know the 12 teams that’ll be competing in our single-elimination, winner-take-all tournament starting on Friday, July 24. (As the Toss explained last week, we knew the makeup of the dozen teams in the dance then too, but now the participants—rather than just being presumed—are indeed set in stone.) 

But there still are a few loose ends to clear up this coming weekend. 

In the East, Boston needs to beat Montreal on Saturday to earn the top seed. If the Glory are stunned at home, then New York can swoop in and pass Boston with a win over Philadelphia on Friday. DC is firm as the three-seed and will need to win two road games to advance to Championship Weekend.

Elsewhere, Austin needs to beat Houston for the 14th and 15th consecutive times to stay on top of the South. The Sol, who’ve never lost to the Havoc in 13 previous meetings, play in Houston on Friday before hosting the Havoc on Saturday. Any Sol slip-up and Carolina would surge into first place, though as it stands, the Flyers are fully expecting to host the three-seed San Diego in the opening round of the playoffs.

In the Central, Minnesota, despite being unbeaten no more, remains a heavy favorite. The Wind Chill will host the survivor of the fifth meeting of the season between Indianapolis and Madison. The Radicals—hosting Chicago on Friday and traveling to Minnesota on Sunday—need a single victory in Week 13 to ensure that their opening round playoff game will be at Breese Stevens Field. But if Madison disastrously goes 0-2 this coming weekend, then the AlleyCats would get to host the opening round in Indy if they win their last two games, Friday in Pittsburgh and Saturday in Toronto.

And out West, everything is already set from a seedings standpoint. Oakland’s the top seed, while Seattle will host Salt Lake in the opening round. But all three of these teams have interesting Week 13 contests, as the Spiders—whose lone loss came against Minnesota—seek to remain undefeated against their West Division opponents. Meanwhile, the Cascades aim for their second 9-3 regular season in the past three years, and the Shred—who currently, at 5-6, are the only playoff-bound team that’s below-.500—strive to avoid their first losing record in franchise history. 

I’ll go on the record and state that I’d be stunned silly if either Boston or Austin lost this weekend to give up their number-one seeds. Similarly, I think Madison will handle Chicago on Friday to secure a home playoff game in the Capital City of Ultimate, though that 13-year-old midwest rivalry is unpredictable enough to give me just a tiny smidge of pause. 

Meanwhile, on "Friday Night Frisbee", I’ll be curious to see how the Shred look against the Spiders. Oakland obviously will be a huge favorite heading into the West Division final, no matter who the Spiders face in that game. But consider that after losing to Oakland by 10 back in May, Salt Lake only lost by one against the Spiders when they last met in June. We shall see whether or not the Shred can continue to build some momentum in front of their devoted fans, who’d love to send the team off into the playoffs with a memorable home win. 

Heading into the final weekend of the regular season, the biggest takeaway is that we know everybody is beatable. Boston’s probably the slight favorite, but the Glory are likely going to have to beat a peaking New York Empire squad, something Boston failed to do at home in early June, just to get back to Championship Weekend. Austin and Carolina—especially in Texas—feels genuinely like a 50/50 toss-up in the South. And while Minnesota and Oakland both look like locks to win their respective divisions, we rarely see the UFA postseason come and go without at least one shocker, suggesting that the Wind Chill and Spiders are both on upset alert already, even before they know who they’ll be facing on Saturday, August 8. 

The Full Field Layout

If you watched Austin on Friday and Minnesota on Saturday, you can probably understand why both teams feel they could very easily still be undefeated. But after a season of close calls going their way, the pursuit of perfection slipped through their fingers this past weekend, prompting both teams to reflect on the missed opportunity while also recognizing that they remain in quite enviable positions heading toward the playoffs. 

“We got what we needed out of that game,” said Minnesota Coach Ben Feldman, following his team’s 21-20 loss to Boston on Saturday night. “I think it pressure-tested our group and gave much needed reps for some of our younger players to get a taste of what the UFA postseason feels like against the best teams.” 

Similarly, Austin Co-Head Coach Casey Hogg was far from heartbroken to see the Sol’s winning streak get snapped by a single score at Carolina on Friday.

“I’d like to win every game, but I think the lessons we can take from this loss are far more valuable than our undefeated streak,” said Hogg. 

The pair of thrilling games actually unfolded in somewhat similar fashion, with Austin and Boston each starting hot to create early four-goal leads. But neither Carolina nor Minnesota were prepared to go quietly. 

“We came out a bit flat,” said Flyers standout Allan Laviolette, “but definitely want to give credit where it’s due to Austin’s defense. They had a game plan that forced us—and Atlanta the following night—to play into spaces they wanted us to operate in.” 

Of course, Carolina countered pretty quickly.

“Even when we were down four at the end of the first quarter, there was never really any doubt that we’d come back,” said Flyers Coach Michael Avila.

By halftime, Carolina clawed back to within one score of the Sol, while Minnesota—after dropping the opening quarter 7-3—won the second and third periods by two goals apiece, tying the game on an exhilarating Zach Morton buzzer-beater leading into the fourth.

Calling the game from the toasty press box at Sea Foam Stadium, I can attest to the fact that the jam-packed Wind Chill crowd was going crazy, and it felt like Minnesota’s comeback victory over the shorthanded Glory—who were missing a bevy of the team’s top players—was inevitable.

Yet Boston remained steady and confident, undeterred by another dose of Minnesota magic.

“I don’t think we ever really panicked,” said Glory Captain Oscar Graff. “Minnesota’s obviously one of the best teams in the league, so we knew we’d get punched back at some point. The start of the second half was tough, but that wasn’t unexpected, and it never felt like we were on the ropes.” 

Unsurprisingly, both fourth quarters contained a slew of stunning sequences. 

The Sol trailed 17-14 as the fourth quarter began, but rampaged on a 5-1 run to retake the lead at 19-18 with just 3:30 left. A few minutes later, Austin again led by one, at 20-19, with just 42 seconds left. 

But Carolina countered with a quick six-throw score—culminating in Tobias Brooks finding Grayson Sanner—for the 20-all equalizer with 19 seconds left. In the moment, it was reasonable to wonder if the Flyers had scored too soon, as the Sol still had plenty of time to walk-off with another one-goal win. Or perhaps Austin would be right at home in overtime, considering that the Sol had maintained their perfect record despite four overtime games on the season. 

For the first time this year, however, the Sol stunningly made a monster, game-deciding mistake. 

Kyle Henke, who had led Austin’s attack valiantly all night long, surprised teammate Evan Swiatek with a hot reset that he wasn’t expecting. The disc crashed to the turf, and Suraj Madiraju immediately capitalized, pouncing on possession and tossing the game-winning goal to Matt Tucker with eight seconds left. 

“We were supposed to start in a three-man dominator,” explained Henke. “Both active cutters were behind me, so I had to initiate with them, and we ultimately weren’t on the same page in the handler space. Evan was looking downfield, and I threw the ball to him too soon.”

Austin’s final possession, with eight seconds remaining, went just as badly, as the Sol again gave away the disc on their own side of the field as time expired, failing to even launch a potential game-tying Hail Mary. 

“I felt the weight of the mistakes I made at the end,” said Henke. “But during our postgame locker-room conversation, in front of everyone, Matt Armour reminded Evan and me that the team has placed a lot of trust in us and wouldn’t turn their back on us now because of that one sequence. The next time the game is on the line, they still want the disc in our hands. That was extremely encouraging and helped me have much healthier self-talk that night and on the six-hour drive on Saturday.” 

The Flyers were obviously delighted to prevail and finish their regular season 10-2, but Avila acknowledged that seeing an awesome game conclude with such a bizarre sequence was a little weird. 

“Strangely, it felt a little bittersweet,” said Avila. “You want to take the breaks you’re given, and with us being on the wrong side of some of those moments earlier this year, it was nice to be on the other side. That said, it’s also tough to see such a great game end on such an unfortunate miscue, particularly when it comes from two players in Kyle and Evan that had been executing at such a high level all night.” 

Meanwhile, Minnesota’s comeback quest was also undermined by a bunch of baffling errors in the fourth quarter. Gordon Larson, who’s blossomed into a star center-handler this season, dropped a routine short swing pass. Later, Owen Suelflow, in just his fifth UFA game, had the disc centered on the attacking goal-line with a chance to take a two-goal lead and scoobered it straight into the turf. Another standout rookie, Nate De Morgan, launched an uncatchable huck when the game was tied.

There’s no doubt that Tobe Decraene (nine assists and one goal) and Thomas Edmonds (six goals and one assist) were both incredible for Boston—and the Glory defense, who delivered the only two breaks in the fourth quarter, was also clutch when it counted—yet the Wind Chill still felt like they just gave the game away.

“They got an incredible performance out of several of their top players, and we know the best version of that team is likely yet to come,” said Feldman. “That said, the outcome feels self-inflicted in many ways, and we are going to work on resolving that before August.”

Eventually, the Glory punished the Wind Chill for one too many mistakes, as Edmonds boldly launched a perfect game-sealing throw up the line for Ben Sadok, who made the catch in stride to give Boston a 21-19 lead with 65 seconds left.

“When it left my hand and I saw the edge was right, I knew we were golden,” said Edmonds. “Of course we were pumped! That was a huge win for the team and for where we want to end the season. Minnesota is very good, and they play differently than a lot of teams in the East, so it’s a super valuable win in that regard as well.”

The Wind Chill’s closing goal came with just three seconds left, creating the 21-20 final margin. And fittingly for a game played on July 11, Boston converted seven of its 11 break opportunities on the night. 

“Our defense is so impressive,” remarked Edmonds. “They’ll fight like hell for three quarters and then somehow ratchet the pressure and intensity up another notch in the fourth. We knew we needed a break to win. They gave us two.”

We’ve reached the stage of the season where teams are always counting on their top stars to shine bright, and great playmakers can absolutely take games over. Decraene added to his growing back-to-back MVP case as Boston improved to 6-0 on the road this season, while the Flyers, who finished their season 6-0 at home, are also oozing with belief because of their marquee assortment of athletes.

“My biggest takeaway from the game for us is we just need to go out and compete,” said Laviolette. “We have players like Tobi [Brooks], [Jacob Fair]Fax, and Zeke [Thoreson] who can take over a game, and we just need to create opportunities for each to do so.” 

Ultimately, both Austin and Minnesota are hopeful they’ll get another shot against Carolina and Boston, respectively. 

“If we see Carolina again—and I prefer we do—I like our chances at home,” said Henke. “Obviously, I would have preferred to sweep the weekend, and beating Carolina would have provided an even bigger confidence boost. But you either win or you learn. And I’m not sure I would feel as good about the playoffs if we had three final regular season games that didn’t mean anything. So there is something valuable about the rest of the regular season still mattering. We need to win these final two games, and we have a chance to clinch the number one seed at home in the final game of the season. That is pretty special.” 

As the season marches toward August, late mistakes are only a singular issue, rather than an alarming trend, if lessons are truly learned and things change in the future. One of the fun dynamics about sports is that the story is ongoing, and every team is confident that they can play their best frisbee when it all counts the most.

“We will be ready to peak at the right time,” declared Feldman. 

Coming up later today, “Seven On The Line” will explain how exactly Henke and the Sol bounced back one night later against Atlanta, how New York has put its pieces together to look like a terrifying out in the playoffs, how Pittsburgh’s playoff hopes unraveled in less than 24 hours, and how the Championship Weekend bracket might evolve based upon results from the final weekend of the season.