The Pie Queens are proud to announce our 2019 Callahan nominee, Anna “2bunz” Wysen! https://youtu.be/vdwiUDlXvr0 “2bunz” is a product of the Seattle youth scene and made history when she scored the first-ever goal in an elementary school ultimate game. By the time she came to Cal, she had played for 9 years and quickly integrated herself into college ultimate. As a freshman, 2bunz earned national Freshman of the Year runner-up (2016). As a sophomore, she helped the Pie Queens to a Nationals appearance for the second year in a row, earning 2nd Team All-Region (2017) in the process. As a junior, she earned 1st Team All-Region (2018) and was also voted team captain for each of her two final years at Cal. In 2018, she played mixed club with Rally in Washington, D.C. On the field, 2bunz is an indispensable asset with the disc in her hands. She plays with incredible effort, fire, and poise. With a veteran’s eye, fluid breaks, and dangerous deep shots from both sides, 2bunz is a player who can control an entire offense. Beyond her technical skills, 2bunz is a deep listener and even keeled, in tune with the team’s energy and manages the highs and lows as an emotive leader should. Off the field, 2bunz sets the tone for the Pie Queens team culture by bringing her relentless work ethic, heart, and quirk. She is the first to shout out her peers in huddles and is generous with her time in building relationships and mentoring others. She loves a good meme and is unabashed about leading dance warm ups. 2bunz epitomizes what it means to be a Pie Queen, and the Pie Queens are proud to share her with the ultimate community as our Callahan nominee.
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We know it's almost the end of the season, but it's NEVER TOO LATE TO GET TO KNOW THE PIE QUEENS! Early in the year, Ultiworld said that we were "a little trickier to predict this year" and that our roster was "somewhat of a mystery." I don't think that Ultiworld was quite ready for the roster we unleashed. Coming from near (Alameda, CA) and far (Singapore), the 2019 Pie Queens are a lovable, intelligent, sassy, hot, and athletic group of powerful women. Most importantly, our whole is greater than the sum of its parts. This team is ready to light up the dance floor at regionals this weekend in SLO! CAPTAINS #1 2Bunz #1 on the jersey, #2 in the bunz, #3 in our hearts?? Queen of lounging and making big moves, our fearless leader, Anna Wysen, is fueled by donuts and sponsored by SoulCycle. Her throws are sweeter than the filling and crisper than the apples in the pies we bake, and she loves memes more than she loves hard boiled eggs #yass. 2bunz is majoring in Political Science and heading to D.C. after graduation. Her weapon of choice is her ginormous Patagonia blackhole bag: “she carries our team in it.” On the field, she'll tell you exactly where she wants you to be. Off the field, she'll tell you exactly where she wants you to be. When in doubt, "I'll have what 2bunz is having." #3 Nacho Nacho is the team grandma (and looks like one too). You’ll catch her reading books alone in her book “club” or studying for her Computer Science midterms. She especially loves mugs. According to an inside source, “she gets her hair cut every week.” Don’t be fooled by this senior (citizen); she will burn you on the field and with all the hot tea she drinks. She can catch crazy hucks for dayzzz. Perhaps her love of field hockey and beer comes from her East coast upbringing. Nacho’s weapon of choice is her track suit. #98 Ammo This absolute queen will layout all day every day and is known for her quiet fire (the better to layout D you with). Ammo may only be a sophomore, but she is already captain of the Pie Queens and leading the team to great heights. Majoring in Civil Engineering, Ammo can be found winning competitions with the Cal Construction team in her free time. Fun fact, Ammo and Zee played in the same high school tournament in Singapore. Her weapons of choice are her “sick fade” and her backflips. ROOKIES #18 Beds Bedhead is the queen of rolling out her muscles. This rookie is easy to notice because she always wears the best outfits to practice. Bedhead is majoring in Media Studies with a minor in power grip hucks. She played frisbee in high school before coming to Cal, and we are now blessed with her saucy throws and smart play. With some fresh rolled out muscles, we are so excited to watch her over the next few years! #33 Dash Dashiell is like Lucky Luke because she can throw a flick faster than her shadow. When she's on the field, she will absolutely roast you no matter which direction you're cutting. Her explosive acceleration gives her miles in front of any defender — sometimes, she'll get the disc upline so often that she looks like a handler instead of a cutter. In her free time, Dash likes to do ceramics. Dash is majoring in Environmental Science, and we can't wait to see what this rookie will do to save the world! #97 Baller Baller loves tea eggs, but she hates fried eggs. (Don't ask her why.) This little Canadian can juke anyone with her shoulder shimmies that she practices by doing the whip during dance warmup. Her skill can be attributed to her tongue, which she sticks out for added focus and concentration. Baller has an absolutely gorgeous flick huck that's so beautiful it'll make you forget how wobbly her short-range flicks are. Outside of Pie Queens, Baller spends her time in the studio working on her Architecture projects. Catch her making big plays during the next few years, especially when she is up against her fellow Canadians. #4 Moose Hailing from Canada, Moose is a lover of puppies, cross country skiing, and all things gluten-free. Her inside throws are more precise than floss. Moose's favorite throw is the hammer, which she will whip over a cup at stall two while Andrew Berry is screaming "value the disc!" from the sideline. Moose plays her very best when a) the opposing team is Canadian or b) she is hyped after warming up to the Canadian national anthem. Majoring in Biology, Moose can tell you fun facts about any animal you can dream of, and she hopes to become a doctor. #10 Yanc Did you know that it’s not Champenois unless it comes from a specific area of France? Luckily, our bottle of stars is 100% authentically fabulous. She’s one impish grinning pigtail wearing layout dumping QUEEN and we wouldn’t have half our team spirit (or fun) without her. Rumor has it that she picked up all of her Ultimate knowledge in Mexico. This Mechanical Engineer calculated the moment of inertia of the Frisbee to better understand the mechanics of the disc flip. On another note, we heard that Yanc has been taking D line offense out on dates all semester just so that she might show up to one of our regionals games!! Stay posted...she’s a finicky one. #37 Spot Spot is most likely to build her own house. And sail around the world. And become a yoga teacher. She leads the team in mindfulness and leaves a trail of glitter wherever she goes. This former Tarts captain is extremely consistent in the air and will always step on the field with a smile. Above all, Spot is a RISING STAR and we love her very much. Majoring in Microbial Biology with two minors in Public Health and English, Spot is truly a master of all trades. #40 Winnie Every joke on Pie Queens can somehow be traced back to Winnie. Off the field, she is making up names for our plays and busting out some new dance moves. On the field, she has the best smack down defense in the entire Southwest. Even though she is from Seattle, she didn't start playing Frisbee until she came to college. However, her high school cross country athleticism is still visible when she is outrunning every opponent. Outside of California Memorial Stadium, you can find this Bio-Chemistry major concentrating proteins to understand the structure of RNA, cooking dinner for her house of 150 people, or writing a philosophy paper about Kill Bill. #72 Zee Zee studied abroad at UC Berkeley this year just so she could play with the Pie Queens and infiltrate American Ultimate even though she claims to also be taking computer science classes on the side. The only thing better than her beautiful handler swings is her contagious smile. Don’t let Zi’s calm, collected handling fool you, she’s secretly a die hard punk: “Just don’t fight with me." She never remembers to wear her seat belt and always has a ridiculous amount of M&M's on her. We will miss her so much next year when she goes home :'( RETURNERS #2 Tupps Be warned, you should always stand at least two feet away from Tupps when she is explaining a play with her limbs — she has [accidentally?] slapped at least seven Pie Queens this season with her gesticulations. Her active hand gestures make her an aggressive mark, and her flailing arms prove surprisingly effective when she guards the deep space. You might want to give yourself a buffer to avoid getting hit, but make sure you stay tight on her when she's on O, or she will roast you deep. Off the field, Tupps studies Conservation and Resource Studies with a focus on Marine Science. She will be in Australia next semester, doing research in the Great Barrier Reef and learning some new frisbee tricks from our neighbors down South. #5 Croc This Queen used to be a newspaper editor and it certainly shows (read: Instagram captions). She is our current team grammar police, and in more than one language! She is a passionate German speaker looking to move to Europe to do the Physics research she dreams about at night. Before joining Queens, she almost joined a cappella and is an incredible singer. (She even serenaded Baller on Valentine’s Day.) On the field, you never know if she will throw with her left or her right. Croc's weapons of choice are her swoon-worthy voice and love for pickles #electrolytes. #7 Buttah Buttah is the president of the UGMO fan club and our hype goddess. She’s hot AND athletic AND a Mathematics major. You’ll find this queen at the RSF every day of the week, according to her abs. (Though according to her twin, she doesn’t know how to do bicycles for abs.) You’d be hard pressed to out-run or out-work her. “She skips class to workout." In fact, she’s taking 3 PE classes this semester, but she is still on her way to becoming the best high school math teacher we've ever met. Outside of frisbee, she works at three different schools and does theater for charity. Her weapons of choice are her sass and her rainbow socks. #12 Katy Don't mess with Katy or she might bake you cookies. You can catch this History/Poli-Sci double major trying to get rid of her farmer's tan or in a library trying to decipher cursive from the 1900s written on onion paper. She holds the record for most run-through Ds on the team, and she is always looking to send a flick huck deep whether or not there's a receiver on the other side. Most importantly, Katy is the hydration officer (aka water girl), and she is the reason we aren't parched. We may be thirsty for her throws, but we are never thirsty for water. #16 Cakes Cakes got her nickname because her offensive system of choice is the vert stack.....at IHOP. Her most expensive meal of all time consisted of just desserts, and her Instagram story is always tagged in a new country in the world. This computer science major is the queen of design, which is why she is in charge of all of our beautiful jerseys and swag. If you watch some of our highlight videos, you might be able to see some of her wildest and stickiest grabs. #17 Lego Everyone loves Legolas because she makes the best brownies. And because she is such a cool and composed handler (and Civil Engineer). Lego lost us with her sick fakes and handler dump sets. This girl is UNSTOPPABLE — she works with fellow senior handlers 2bunz and Moose to engineer the disc through every team’s defense #WomenInSTEM. While smiling the whole time, of course. All in all, this last LEG of her Pie Queens journey couldn’t finish stronger. #20 Claire "Red hair and a hand-me-down Fury jersey? you must be beastly" (10 points to Gryffindor if you can get that Harry Potter reference). Claire doesn't have a nickname because she runs deep before anyone can even try to talk to her. If you listen close enough, you might be able to hear some of her savage roasts, usually directed towards Katy. Claire is incapable of properly doing foot drives, but, according to Andrew Berry, she can come down with any disc that is thrown at least 50 yards in her general direction, and she will never touch another opponent while doing so. You can find this Biology major in the lab this summer probably working with small animals. #28 Bobe Bobe is known for sometimes taking more than 24 hours to finish the same iced latte. Although she may be slow at drinking coffee, she is never slow on the field. She makes hand blocks look easy, she confuses her mark with impressive high release backhands, and she will roast you under. Don't know whether Bobe wants the disc? Don't worry, she'll point to the exact space she's going to when she wants you to throw it. Bobe studies EECS and she can debug any teams defense to find the holes. Don't go against her for a spicy ramen challenge because she will beat you. And did you know that she played on BENT last summer?! #78 Pika Pika is the team green bean: tall, lanky, and always getting hand blocks. Although her trusty green Patagonia zip-up also makes her look like a pickle, don't count on Pika to eat one anytime soon: she is one of the few Queens to detest the deliciously briny, electrolyte-filled crunch of a vinegar-soaked cucumber. When Pika isn't making the best waffles AND the most dough as the team fundraiser, she's busy destroying her opponents' cups with her chilly swings and long-reaching around throws. You can also find her in the MakerSpace where she uses her skills in Mechanical Engineering to design cool contraptions. There is only one question left to answer: where does Pika go after Tuesday practice?
HUGE congratulations to our very own Jackelyne "Kobe" Nguyen for winning the Callahan Award this year!! She has been a truly amazing teammate, friend, captain, and peer, and the Queens already miss her. Thank you for everything Kobe, you are a very special person :) Also make sure you all watch her play on the Flamethrowers Mixed Team because she's a #professional now!
It's been a while since our last recap, but our past few days in Franklin and Mason, Ohio have been too memorable to not cover.
The regular season ended with the Pie Queens seeded ninth in the nation (!!!) Coming into the series, we were feeling excited and prepared, thanks to our wonderful coaches and the amazing club players who came out to scrimmage with us. We advanced through both NorCal Sectionals and Southwest Regionals, taking one of the four bids from our region to go to Nationals this weekend. On Friday of pool play, we went 2-0 against UConn and UNC, coming back from a deficit to win the latter by a margin of two points in an adrenaline-fueled game. We played two more games of pool play on Saturday, losing to Texas Melee and UBC Thunderbirds (both amazing teams that ended up advancing to the semifinals!) and took third in our pool. Our final game of the weekend came on Saturday afternoon, as we played in the prequarters against Colorado Kali. Although the game was hard fought, the Queens didn't manage to come up with a victory, and we finished our season, tied for ninth in the nation. We are beyond thrilled and honored to have had the opportunity to continue our season this far. It has truly been an amazing experience to learn, grow, and always rise together with such a strong group of women who will support each other, bid for each other, and trust each other until the end of time. #22Strong The Pie Queens have had an amazing season, and we can't thank all of our fans enough for their support, whether by donating to our fundraising campaign, cheering us on from the sideline, or simply following along with our journey. We wouldn't have made it this far without you. #PQ4L #AlwaysRising What a fantastic weekend we had in Santa Barbara for the 2017 Santa Barbara Invite! Not only did we have the opportunity to play in some beautiful weather, but we also finished second overall! We are beyond excited for the rest of this season and look forward to continue learning and keep rising. Infinite thanks to the lovely Barretts for hosting us in Santa Barbara and to everyone who came out to watch us play (plus a special shoutout to Papa and Mama Kobe for the egg tarts). See y'all at Pres Day!
.Ended our fall season by going to Sean Ryan in beautiful Santa Cruz this past weekend! Took a huge roster of 38 Queens for one final tourney as a program. SO excited for the rest of this season and into our transition to spring. Shout out to our Fall captains AliG, Rex, and Lego, and another HUGE shoutout to our coaches Slap, maddog, and Boots for teaching us all the things.
Tryouts for Queens start during our spring training week 1/9/16-1/13/16 We love our rooks and here's a picture of us in Santa Cruz with the epic supermoon behind us! What a weekend for our program. None of us having gone to Nationals we had no expectations for what it would be like. We faced lots of tough competition and at the same time had fun with it. Starting Pie Quest for all the teams at Nationals was sooo much fun, and the official winner is Ohio State Fever! We loved the excitement and energy from all the teams out there. Also...CONGRATS TO OUR OWN MARISA RAFTER for receiving the Callahan Award! We couldn't have been more proud of her. She leads our team with such poise, focus, and energy and we are so glad she is now recognized for all that she does. And last thing for the 2016 college season...congrats to Marisa Rafter for also receving Player of the Year and Jackelyne Nguyen receiving 2nd team All-Region for the Southwest! That wraps up the college ultimate season. We wish the best of luck to all our players competing in the Triple Crown Tour this summer. All of us are hungry to come back to Nationals. Thank you to all who supported us this entire season! Can't wait for all our rookies this Fall <3 We have just announced our Fall 2016 Captains. Congrats to AliG, Rex, and Lego! Can't for another exciting Fall full for frisbee, fun, and friends (FFF).
All of us currently studying for finals like crazy, but this is our last week of school and then...we can finally just think about frisbee (nothing new here). We had our team meeting about our goals for Nationals and we want to have the mentality to just play our hearts out and enjoy every moment of this experience. Nationals Training Camp starts in a little over a week. LFG In short...PIE QUEENS ARE GOING TO NATIONALS!!!
Four year later, our program is headed back to College Nationals, this year being in Raleigh, NC. So many great and hard-fought games this weekend. Going 3-1 on Saturday and 2-1 on Sunday to take the 4th bid for the Southwest. Ending school in a couple of weeks, and none of us ever going to Nationals, we can't wait for this great experience. So grateful for our awesome coaches Slap and Aman who have put in so much work ito our team~ As Nationals aren't calculated in our dues, any donation to our team would be so so so much appreciated. Email us at [email protected] for more information to help some playas out. After all our tournaments in the strangest conditions, we finally got to play in some nice weather in NorCal Sectionals in Livermore this past weekend! After winning our pool on Saturday we first faced our region rivals UC Davis. Losing to them in the past fueled us to learn from them and we were able to pull a win 12-5, and later beat them in the 2nd place bracket 8-10. For the finals game, we played a great game against Stanford, and even took half! However, we lost against our other Southwesters 8-12.
Overall such a fun and great weekend with our annual pie eating contests that we ask all the teams we play against to do. Challenge: Your team has to eat a homemade apple pie as fast as possible. This year's winner is Chico State's Chica's with a time of 54 seconds! But also props to Davis Rogue for mama birding to their other teammates to try and win. Regionals is only 2 weeks away, and can't wait to get back on the field with each other! |