By Ava Zelyony

This fall, the Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) men’s and women’s ultimate frisbee teams wrapped up their outdoor season at the Canadian University Ultimate Championships (CUUC), held from Oct. 17 to 19 in Brampton, Ont. This year saw improvements within each team’s play, performing better than they had in previous years. The women’s team placed third in Division Two and the men’s team placed eleventh. 

For those who may not know much about ultimate frisbee, women’s team captain Ava Pearson compared the sport to football. 

“You have two end zones. You have receivers and people called ‘handlers’, who are like the quarterbacks,” said Pearson. 

Games span for 90 minutes and are played with seven people per team. They either end when the first team reaches 15 points or when the time cap expires. The teams’ training season is short and intense, beginning in late summer, right before they commence their outdoor season. 

One of the most significant aspects of ultimate frisbee is the community that it brings together, which is something that men’s player Sam Loveys wants to emphasize. 

“I think what makes it is the vibes—we’re very good friends. We all get along really well,” said Loveys. 

He also explains that ultimate frisbee has a unique system that requires players to be collaborative. 

“There are no referees, so everything is self-call and obviously, after those calls, you’re going to have a discussion, you’re going to talk with the other team,” Loveys  said. “I think that puts it apart from other sports—just that individualism.”

During the CUUC, both squads had a strong end to their seasons in matches against a variety of schools. 

The women’s team defeated both Trent University and the Université de Montréal by landslides and ended their match against the University of Guelph, who Pearson considers “one of our rivals,” having lost by just a few points. 

In one of their semi-final games against Memorial University, Pearson explains that both teams went “point for point the entire game,” until the time horn blew. This is where the ‘universe’ aspect of ultimate frisbee comes into play. It refers to the last point of the game that grants whichever team scores it, the win, which Pearson compares to an overtime goal in hockey. 

“Everybody was watching our semi-final game and they were all cheering for us, because we were the Ontario school, so everyone wanted us to win,” said Pearson. 

In terms of the men’s team, Loveys said that this year’s CUUC saw better results with closer games.  “A lot of teams that had previously beaten us by quite a bit, we played really close,” he said.

A soon-to-be TMU grad, Loveys felt the weekend of the CUUC was the perfect way to end his team’s outdoor season. “The last three days were the best games I’ve ever played, which felt really good for me,” said Loveys. However, there was one day in particular that left a lasting mark on him. “The last day, I would say the team gelled the best that we’d ever gelled as a team.”

With the outdoor season completed, both teams look ahead to the indoor season which is a little different and runs until March. 

The teams are often smaller during the indoor period of the season and don’t feature any designated training periods, only games that shift from seven-on-seven to four-on-four. Their first indoor game is set to be in late November. 

While the outdoor period is grander in scale, Pearson has a perfect way to describe the next chapter her team will be embarking on. “The outdoor [season] is the biggest thing that we have to look forward to, that’s the biggest part. Four-on-four is kind of like a sweet treat.”