With the San Diego rain out of the way, and ultimate frisbee’s college series underway, UCSD hosted their second home tournament of the year this past weekend, Feb 16-18, 2019: President’s Day Invite. 17 teams traveled to San Diego to play in one of the important and difficult tournaments of the year, but the UCSD Psychos were un-phased all weekend and came out on top as the 2019 Prez Day Champions. Facing old competition like Cal Poly SLO Motion and Oregon Fugue, as well as new competitors like Vermont Ruckus, every opponent gave it their all and gave the audience some good ultimate to watch.

When people say “Defense wins Championships”, it definitely rang true for the Psychos this past weekend. All weekend long it was run-through D’s, layout D’s, and skying D’s.

Day 1, a well-rested, eager to play UCSD team sized up their opponents Northwestern Gunho and Western Washington Chaos. All three teams battled it out but the Psychos took the win 13-5 against Gungho, and 9-5 against Chaos. Special shoutouts to Leanne “Muse” Go with an honorable callahan mention along with her fluid handler movement and shutting down defense, and Dena “Chrome” Elimelech with a superWOMAN flying layout D (and the other 50 thousand layouts she had the rest of the weekend).

Day 2 was no different than the first day for the Psychos. With more games to play, the psychos stayed warmed, hydrated, and energized on the sidelines, ready to play Northeastern Valkyries, Vermont Ruckus, and Oregon Fugue. The shutting down defense and aggressive offense showcased by the Psychos gave them a 3 game winning streak on the second day of competition. Scores of 11-6 against Northeastern, 10-3 against Vermont, and 12-7 against Oregon Fugue, the Psychos were on their way to semis for day 3 of the Prez Day Invite. Special shout out to Quinn “Pigu” Fujii with an aggressive defensive presence on the field that helped the Psychos take the wins.

Day 3 started with a loud, pumped up, and excited Psycho sideline with a win over Cal Poly SLO, 12-7. UCSD were riding on a high heading into the finals, first time ever in UCSD women’s ultimate history, against UCSB, a Santa Barbara Invite dejavu. Like previous matches, UCSB Burning Skirts don't give up without a fight. Skirts took the lead early on but Psychos answered back quickly and fiercely to come away with the win, 11-4, and the title of “President’s Day Invite Champions”. Throughout the game, both teams had huge offensive and defensive plays that kept the game interesting and will be a hell of a footage to watch later.

With an ultimate program that first started with a goal of only hoping they would make quarterfinals of the tournament to winning the whole thing and being Prez Day Champs, the UCSD Psychos have definitely come a long way and will continue to learn and grow together for the game we all love: ultimate.