The Western Ultimate League (WUL) is a professional women's

ultimate Ultimate or Ultimates may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music Albums * ''Ultimate'' (Jolin Tsai album) * ''Ultimate'' (Pet Shop Boys album) *''Ultimate!'', an album by The Yardbirds *''The Ultimate (Bryan Adams Album)'', a compilatio ...

league in the western United States founded in 2020. The WUL's stated mission is to "promote visibility, opportunity, and equity within women's ultimate." The WUL was formed to parallel the

Premier Ultimate League The Premier Ultimate League (PUL) is a professional women's ultimate disc league that formed in 2019. The mission of the PUL is "to achieve equity in the sport of ultimate by increasing accessibility to the sport for, and visibility of women, tra ...

(PUL), another women's ultimate league established in 2019, with an eye toward a future merger. The WUL shares resources and communicates closely with the PUL.

History

The WUL started with a 2017 and 2018 series of women's and mixed showcase games affiliated with the American Ultimate Disc League, and a 2019 series of professional women's showcase games along the west coast including games between

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

, and

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

-based teams and between

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

and

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

-based teams. The inaugural 2020 Western Ultimate League season began with tryouts in January and February 2020 with seven teams. Competition, which had been set to begin in March 2020 and continue through May, was postponed and then canceled due to the

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

pandemic A pandemic () is an epidemic of an infectious disease that has spread across a large region, for instance multiple continents or worldwide, affecting a substantial number of individuals. A widespread endemic (epidemiology), endemic disease wi ...

. In January 2021, the Portland Swifts announced they were withdrawing from the WUL. The six remaining WUL teams first competed in December 2021 at the Winter Cup in

. The Utah Wild emerged victorious, and two plays from the Winter Cup were featured by

ESPN SportsCenter ''SportsCenter'' (SC) is a daily sports news television program that serves as the flagship program and brand of American cable and satellite television network ESPN. The show covers various sports teams and athletes from around the world and of ...

. After the Winter Cup, the league announced the addition of a seventh team, the Oregon Onyx. The first regular season was conducted in 2022, with the Seattle Tempest emerging as champions. In October 2022, the league announced the addition an eighth team, the Colorado Alpenglow.

Teams

The WUL currently consists of six teams, as of the 2024 season.

Former teams

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Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, style="text-align:center" , 2021 , style="text-align:center", 2023 , - , style="text-align:center", Oregon Onyx , style="text-align:center",

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

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History

Teams

Former teams

References

External links