Seattle Tempest Finish in Third Place at 2025 WUL Championship Weekend, Jezierski Takes Home DPOY Honors
By Becca Weinberg, edited by Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA - Another memorable Western Ultimate League (WUL) Championship Weekend concluded today, with the Seattle Tempest taking home the third place trophy. An exciting, late-game comeback in the semi-finals against San Diego Super Bloom was not enough to secure the win, so the Tempest found themselves fighting for third place. The league’s only unbeaten team thus far, Colorado Alpenglow, lost in their semi-final matchup to the Bay Area Falcons in a shocking turn of events. Seattle was faced with a formidable opponent in the Alpenglow, but held their ground and shut down Colorado’s attack. At the conclusion of the 3rd Place Game, Tempest handler Sadie Jezierski was named the WUL Defensive Player of the Year.
Our Seattle Tempest fell in a narrow battle in the semi-final game against the San Diego Super Bloom, as a late push wasn’t enough for the victory. Photo by Jammie Phea provided by the Seattle Tempest
Semi-finals: Seattle Tempest 16, San Diego Super Bloom 17
San Diego largely dominated possession of the semi-final matchup, and was able to force turnovers from the Tempest using their zone defense. The Tempest, in turn, were not able to generate turnovers on defense and allowed many clean offensive points for the Super Bloom. With a slim 10-8 lead at half, San Diego continued putting pressure on the Tempest in the second half to force throwing errors: Seattle had to put large strings of passes together to break through the Super Bloom zone. An intriguing, late-game comeback commenced in the fourth quarter, as Seattle secured blocks and created scoring opportunities as the time wound down. However, the team didn’t leave themselves enough to tie the game as the clock hit zero, and Super Bloom walked away with a shot at the WUL Championship title.
Sights and scenes from the third place game between our Seattle Tempest and the Colorado Alpenglow. Photo by Jammie Phea provided by the Seattle Tempest
3rd Place Game: Seattle Tempest 18, Colorado Alpenglow 13
A very evenly-matched contest showed an early Alpenglow lead, with the Tempest clawing their way back to a 10-9 lead at halftime. Quick points with limited turnovers dominated the first quarter, with many more turnovers forced by both teams in the second quarter. Seattle came out firing in the second half, scoring a total of eight points compared to Alpenglow’s four. Both the Tempest handlers and cutters worked seamlessly together to find the open spaces and beat the Alpenglow offense. On defense, continuous blocks from the Tempest D-line stopped Colorado from advancing up the field. Highlight-reel plays continued to lift Seattle up in big moments, and their late-game run secured a third place trophy.
Defensive Player of the Year: Sadie Jezierski
Throughout the season, it seemed that Jezierski’s name came up in almost every play. She is known to be a consistent force in all parts of the game, and the team is lucky to have her dominant playmaking. As the league’s blocks leader this season with 16, Jezierski’s field-vision and defensive intensity set her apart from the pack. At the end of the season, her blocks total tied her for fourth-most ever recorded in a single season. As noted by the WUL, she is known for turning defensive stops into scoring opportunities, and has consistently been a key contributor to both the Tempest defense and offense.
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Check out our previous Seattle Tempest articles here.
Check out our previous articles with writing for CSS by Becca Weinberg here, and her work with Lookout Landing here.
Cover photo and photos in this article by Jammie Phea, provided by the Seattle Tempest.
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