When the women's ultimate frisbee team began the season in January, it was a three-time national champion in the midst of the longest winning streak in the sport's 32-year history. The team's last loss had come in a national title game against the University of North Carolina-Wilmington in June 1996. Back then, Bill Clinton was running for his second term, and most people were getting their first hint of how the Internet would change the world.
But Stanford's streak quickly ended in March when the squad -- hobbled by inexperience and injuries -- lost, again to UNC-Wilmington, at a tournament held on the Farm. The team had won 106 consecutive games.
Ultimate frisbee, a fast-paced sport developed in 1968 by New Jersey high school kids, is a favorite on many college campuses in part because it requires little equipment. Seven players on each team hurl the spinning disk to one another and -- as in football -- try to score by completing a pass into the opponent's end zone.
At Stanford, the competition is serious. The women's club program involves about 40 players on two squads. A $30,000 budget from the athletic department helps pay coach Jennifer Donnelly's stipend and subsidizes the squad's travel to tournaments around the country. (The men also are perennial national contenders. Last year, they finished sixth in the country.) "We have a huge talent pool," says Donnelly, MS '93, who played during graduate school. "There are a lot of great athletes here who can't make it on Tara VanDerveer's basketball team or whatever, but they still want an athletic outlet."
Part of ultimate's attraction is its quirky rules. For example, rather than having referees, competitors call their own fouls and debate the outcome in the middle of the game. The sport's national board is considering changes, such as expanding the role of "observers" in enforcing the rules, which might help ultimate gain NCAA recognition. In any case, Stanford's women still expect to be leaders. "It's really innovative," says Karen Hyun, '00, the team's co-captain. Ultimate frisbee "is still getting its feet on the ground as a sport, and we're part of it."
