By Rebecca Tucker

What Roger Federer is to tennis, Seattle Riot is to women’s Ultimate.  Federer, the Swiss 24-year-old who has taken six Grand Slam titles in the last three years, is the top tennis player in the world and widely considered untouchable when he’s on his game.  Riot, a five-year-old women’s team that rose from the ashes of Seattle’s Women on the Verge to become the Women's Club Division champions in 2004, and is undefeated in 37 games of club play this season, proved on Sunday that they, too, are head and shoulders above their competition.

Sunday, which began with two all-Northwest finals in the men’s and mixed division, had proven to be a battle of upwind points, so Riot’s win of the flip to start off heading downwind against North Carolina’s Backhoe could have proven crucial.   

It quickly became clear, however, that not even the combination of disc-flipping wind, Backhoe’s defense, and Riot’s own turnovers was going to stop Riot from scoring both ways. 

After five turnovers from both sides in the first point, Riot finally managed to move the disc upfield against Backhoe’s man defense.  Riot runs an offense that pushes the disc up one sideline until flow stops, then dumps it to a handler, who either works it back up the same sideline or swings it to another handler on the opposite sideline to work it up the line again – until a long option opens up.  The long option, in the first point as in most, was Miranda Roth (#25), who slid on her knees to make sure of a safe pancake of a forehand huck, then finished with a careful backhand to Joanne Harman (#29) to get Riot on the scoreboard. 

Then Riot worked their offense the other way, finishing an upwind point up the backhand sideline to Shannon O’Malley (#13), who had died her hair red and shaved “RIOT” into the back for this very occasion. 

The next point looked more like a dogfight than elite Ultimate, with a combined seventeen turnovers before Riot scored the downwind.  In the first four points alone, there were 48 turnovers, which meant that taking a chance on a low percentage throw was no big deal.  Riot’s Kati Halmos (#6) did just that, putting up a big forehand which the wind carried upward to the back of the end zone, where it was ripped down by a Riot receiver to make the score 4-0.   

Backhoe, whose primary defense is man-to-man, decided to throw something different at Riot in an attempt to stop their run.  Coach Brian Dobyns called in some of Backhoe’s defensive players to give the offensive line, which had been in for four straight points, a rest.  After their inevitable turnover, Backhoe threw a zone, but Riot’s handlers, going downwind, had no trouble breaking it to Roth for the score.

With a half-defensive line in, Backhoe finally answered.  Jessi Witt (#9, but wearing #8 because a friend wandered off with her white jersey), put a high release over the first line of defenders in Riot’s 1-3-3 defense to Beth Oppenheimer (#33).  Oppenheimer continued to Liz Willets (#7), who laid out for the fast-sinking downwind backhand and caught it two-handed for Backhoe’s first point and the first turnover-free point of the game.

The turnover rate for both teams dropped as they figured out how to adjust to the wind, and Riot finally had its own perfect possession just before half.  Working a zone offense, handlers Vivian Zayas (#5) and Deb Cussen (#27) handed it back and forth within the cup until one of them threw through the cup to Roth.  Roth and Harman, popping in the zone, passed it back and forth, with Harman overthrowing Roth, who laid out for the save.  Roth gave it back to Harman, who threw a hard, high throw that may or may not have been intended for Roth, a few feet away, and Roth executed a ballerina-esque twist to turn around and grab it, and, in the same continuous motion, dip to throw a low backhand to a receiver in the end zone.  It was called a travel and went back to Roth, who hit Cussen with a dump.  Cussen passed to Kari Deleeuw (#20), who found Roth in the end zone to make it 7-1.

“They made a lot of mistakes in the beginning,” said Dobyns of Riot’s offense.  “But once they got on a role, they did not make mistakes.” 

Backhoe’s offense, led by Witt, snuck a point by Riot every now and again.  To make it 8-2, Witt chucked one of her trademark high-release forehands to Katy Harris (#4), who finished to Frannie Goodrich (#34).  The disc was called back, and they did the same thing all over again.

But Riot continued to steamroll Backhoe’s zone, taking it to 12-3 before Backhoe decided, in a last-ditch effort, to go back to man defense.  It made not the slightest difference to Riot, who broke it up the sideline, swung it back, and put it long.

Clouds covered the sun, and it got chilly.  Backhoe’s fan club, which had begun the game rowdy, was yawning, and the crowd, which had been three deep around the field earlier in the day, had thinned to a single, irregular row of spectators. 

Riot, however, never lost interest in a game that had clearly been won.  When O’Malley turfed a forehand meant for Cussen at 12-3, she clenched her fists, grimaced and stomped the ground before turning around to play defense. 

And the starting line didn’t come out to let fresher legs do the grunt work.  “When we get up by a lot, that’s when we can really open up our roster,” Roth said, and at the end of the game, Riot’s rotation did incorporate different faces, but at least two of the “regulars,” an all-star cast that includes Roth, Cussen, Zayas, Liz Duffy (#37), Halmos, Harman and O’Malley, were always in.  The winning score, to make it 15-5, was a pass from Roth to Duffy, both of whom had probably played half the game.     

Backhoe was disappointed with the way they had played, but there was smiling and even laughter on their sideline at game point.  There’s no shame in being beaten by the best.  “No one’s beaten them this year,” Dobyns said.  “It gives us something to shoot for.”  Riot and the rest of the Northwest have raised the bar and given the rest of us a reason to work harder.