Daly to compete at U.S. nationals

Erin Daly has earned a spot at the USA Ultimate (USAU) National Club Championships this week.

Competing with Iris, a women’s team from Quebec, the squad earned the fourth bid at the northeast regional tournament in Devens, MA on Sept. 21-22.

“Regionals was tough,” says Daly of St. John’s. “We went in seeded fourth but we knew that to hold seed and get the nationals bid was going to be a battle.”

Iris faced fifth-seeded BENT in pool play, losing on universe point. After defeating teams from Massachusetts and Connecticut in the pool, Iris went on to earn three wins and a loss in the playoff bracket before again facing New York’s BENT for the fourth and final spot at nationals.

Iris won 14-9.

“We started off really strong, going up several breaks, and ended up winning by a good few points,” Daly says.

The other national qualifiers from the northeast regional are Brute Squad and Siege from Boston, MA, as well as 6ixers from Toronto.

Daly picked up with Iris after responding to an open call on Facebook for applications.

“I know their captain pretty well — I played with her at beach worlds in 2017 — and she put in a good word for me.”

“Playing with a French-speaking team has been great,” she adds. “I know a good bit of French, and everyone can also speak English. So I can understand when they call plays in French.”

Iris will open nationals on Thursday with games against Scandal (Washington, D.C.), Riot (Seattle, WA) and Nightlock (San Francisco, CA).

The USAU national club championship will be held in San Diego, CA.