Seattle Tempest Close Out Regular Season with 17-10 Win Over Oregon Soar
By Becca Weinberg, edited by Charles Hamaker
Portland, OR - In an important game to determine seeding for Western Ultimate League (WUL) Championship Weekend, our Seattle Tempest dominated Cascadia rival Oregon Soar in a 17-10 win. The Tempest will head into the postseason with a 5-1 overall record and finish as one of the league’s top teams. Impact players in this game included handler Sadie Jezierski with four assists and two goals, handler Ikran Elmi with two blocks, and hybrid player Anna Cauchy with three goals.
Photo by Rowdy Webb Photography provided by the Seattle Tempest
First period: 5-1
The Tempest started the game with a fiery defense as Elmi recorded a block on the very first Soar pass of the game to set up four goals in a row. Three assists from Jezierski, and one from cutter Linnea Soo found handler Lani Nguyen, hybrid player MJ Mahan, cutter Emily Decker, and cutter Anna Pettee for one goal each. A big defensive stop from Pettee and layout catch from handler Cat Chung continued the Tempest momentum. While Soar got on the board towards the end of the period, Seattle responded with a slotted throw from cutter Drea Baroma to Cauchy on the endzone line to bring the lead back to four.
Photo by Rowdy Webb Photography provided by the Seattle Tempest
Second period: 7-3
With a long point featuring multiple turnovers from each team to begin the second period, Oregon began the scoring. Another long point followed, with many Tempest turnovers coming off of forced throws into tight windows. Handler Jessica Crowly kept the point alive with two blocks in the Soar endzone to retain Tempest possession, and eventually set up a goal for cutter Lexi Garrity off an assist by handler Hana Kawai. Seattle scored another point quickly with an easy Jezierski to Pettee connection, while Soar got one back to end the half and keep the Tempest lead at four.
Third period: 12-4
The Seattle momentum continued through the second half with three goals in a row. The first being a floating throw from Jezierski to Decker for the goal, which was followed by a massive layout block by Chung in the following point to regain Seattle possession. Cutter Ciona Antolin found Soo for the goal with a well-placed throw into space. The third Tempest goal in a row came through a connection from cutter Yeh-Sun Lee to Cauchy. Another long point with multiple turnovers took significant minutes off the clock, with a huge block in the endzone by Antolin leading to a goal of her own through an assist by handler Sami Dellapenta. Oregon scored their only point of the period as the clock expired to extend the Tempest lead to eight.
Photo by Rowdy Webb Photography provided by the Seattle Tempest
Fourth period: 17-10
A back-and-forth period would end the game with two goals from Jezierski, and one each from Cauchy, Chung, and handler Cheryl Hsu. With three assists from Kawai, and one each from Decker and Dellapenta, Oregon responded with six goals of their own in a late scoring run, but wasn’t able to cut down the early deficit. The Tempest finished the game with a 5-1 regular season record and will secure the third seed at WUL Championship Weekend.
Stat of the game:
In their final regular season game, the Tempest recorded 1,756 total yards, their most of the season since playing Oregon in Week one, when they recorded 1,839 yards. Seattle finishes the regular season with significant momentum and consistent playmaking to carry them into the postseason.
What’s next?
Following this road victory to close out the regular season, our Seattle Tempest will have two weeks off before traveling to Oakland, California for WUL Championship Weekend. The Tempest will face two-seed San Diego Super Bloom on June 7th at 4PM PDT in one of two semifinal matchups. The other game, one-seed Colorado Alpenglow versus four-seed Bay Area Falcons will take place on June 7th at 7PM PDT. The winner of each game will face off in the WUL Championship on June 8th at 3PM PDT, with the losers of each semifinal competing for third place on June 8th at 12PM PDT. Fans looking to catch the action will be able to stream all WUL Championship Weekend Games on the WUL YouTube page.
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Instagram: @CirclingSeattleSports Twitter: @CirclingSports Threads: @CirclingSeattleSports Tiktok: @CirclingSeattleSports Facebook: Circling Seattle Sports BlueSky: @circlingseasports.bsky.social 〰️
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 Rowdy Webb Photography
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