On Saturday, Oct. 9, the Union University Jillz made history when they won the Southeast Regional Conference for D3 women’s ultimate frisbee at the University of Georgia.
The Jillz are the women’s ultimate frisbee team at Union, and they currently have 18 players. They got their start in 2016 and in the past 5 years have made their way from a new team to repeated tournament members.
“I have been on this team since 2017 and I have watched us grow and develop so much,” said social work graduate student Tori Graves.”We went from struggling to retain players, pay for trips or even score points to now having quality players and support from Union.”
The Jillz typically go to two or three tournaments a semester, the official season normally taking place in the spring. However, the spring 2021 season was canceled due to Covid-19, so a replacement season was added to fall 2021.
This was the first time the Jillz had ever attended a regional conference and many of them were surprised and excited to win such a big tournament their first time competing.
“Winning conference was one of the best feelings ever, and I got really emotional when I realized that we had done it,” said team captain and senior teaching English as a second language major, Emma Cate Hare. “We had worked so hard as a team to realize this dream, and to see it finally become real just really filled me with gratitude and pride in each and every one of my sisters on the field.”
After winning the regional conference, the team qualified to attend the D3 national tournament in Norco, Calif. on December 17-20. The team plans to attend the national tournament, but still requires financial assistance before they can go. They are looking to both Union and fundraisers to help them meet their financial needs.
“No team from Union has ever gone to nationals for ultimate, and it is exciting to be a part of a team making history,” said Graves. “We hope to be able to attend, and we will continue to prepare mentally and physically in order to represent Union and Christ well.”