By Becca Weinberg, edited by Charles Hamaker

Seattle, WA - In a commanding start to their 2025 season, our Seattle Tempest defeated the Oregon Soar by a final score of 24-10 at home within the friendly confines of Memorial Stadium. Tempest took the lead early and never gave it back, with a calm and consistent offensive flow that capitalized on Oregon’s turnovers through efficient fast-break goals. Impact players in this game included handler Sadie Jezierski, with back to back goals in the third period following big defensive stops, hybrid player Linnea Soo with two early goals and quick deep cuts, and cutter Alexa Kirkland with five assists and a 90% completion rate across 32 throws. Overall, Seattle looked like the more complete team, with a great result to build off to begin the 2025 season.

Scenes from the Seattle Tempest home win over the Oregon Soar on Saturday, March 29th, 2025 at Memorial Stadium. (Photos by Sam Hotaling)

First Period: 7-3

Seattle came out quickly with great connections between their handlers and cutters, utilizing both the handler space and the deep option. Hybrid player Linnea Soo was the first example of this, with quick movement that worked through the handlers, and was able to take advantage of the slightly lackadaisical Soar defense. Although Soar’s offense was able to use their quick movement to counter, their hesitancy on offense led to multiple turnovers that Tempest capitalized on. Former University of Washington star hybrid player Anna Cauchy showed up big in these moments, commanding the handler space with veteran handlers Cheryl Hsu and Sadie Jezierski, and pushing the disc quickly up the field to create scoring opportunities. The last Tempest points of the period included Soo’s second goal of the game, with an efficient endzone set and offensive movement through the speed of their downfield options.

Scenes from the Seattle Tempest home win over the Oregon Soar on Saturday, March 29th, 2025 at Memorial Stadium. (Photos by Sam Hotaling)

Second period: 13-7

The Tempest continued to build on a successful offense and tight defense to generate turnovers, which created more of a disconnect between Soar’s handlers and cutters. Seattle’s offense looked comfortable, with connections still being found in their deep cutters. Although this period was less clean than the first, with significantly more turnovers from both teams, Tempest relied on the veteran leadership of handler Cheryl Hsu, hybrid player Drea Barroma, and handler Lani Nguyen in the backfield to generate goals. Hsu and Nguyen each had both a goal and an assist in the second period.

Scenes from the Seattle Tempest home win over the Oregon Soar on Saturday, March 29th, 2025 at Memorial Stadium. (Photos by Sam Hotaling)

Third period: 18-10

The third period was the period of Sadie Jezierski. With two goals, three assists, and multiple defensive grabs, she was all over the field and led the charge on both sides of the game. The period started with two Soar goals in a row, due to some Tempest miscommunications, but a huge goal from Jezierski got the momentum back after halftime. Seattle utilized a zone defense to force Soar to use more of their offensive depth. This led to a quick turnover towards the middle of the period, with Jezierski scoring her second goal in a row to end the next point with another impressive catch. The transition defense from Nguyen continued to help the Tempest after turnovers, as did the unguardable speed of Baroma when they got the disc back. Jezierski assisted the last two goals of the period with one highlight-reel-catch after another.

Fourth period: 24-10

The Tempest defense stepped up last period, and continued forcing turnovers this period, as Soar would not score another goal the rest of the game. Tempest once again utilized their fast-break offense to generate scores off turnovers and throwing mistakes from Soar’s offense. A couple new faces got involved in the action this period, with cutter Yeh-Sun Lee scoring the first goal of the period, and Ikran Elmi making an insane layout catch to assist cutter Ciona Antolin. Elmi’s grab was voted the Discraft Play of the Game. Handler Julia Hasbrook also recorded her second goal of the game after an assist the point prior, and veteran Jamie Eriksson continued to be a strong presence both in the backfield and in the handler space. Hybrid player Alexa Kirkland also deserves a spotlight, as she was involved consistently in Tempet scoring chances with five assists across four periods.

Stat of the Game:

In their opening game of the season, the Tempest recorded an 88.8% completion percentage, with 214 out of their 241 passes completed. For a roster with both returners and many newcomers, Seattle showed that its offense is able to connect consistently and mesh together in the first game back on the field together.

Next up: Seattle Tempest at Bay Area Falcons on April 5th

Following today’s season opening victory, our Seattle Tempest will head to the Bay Area to take on the Falcons on April 5th at 4PM PDT. The Falcons are coming off a dominant win of their own after defeating the Arizona Sidewinders 23-17, with an exciting matchup to come against Seattle. The game will be streamed on the WUL Youtube Channel for Seattle fans looking to catch the action live.

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Instagram: @CirclingSeattleSports Twitter: @CirclingSports Threads: @CirclingSeattleSports Tiktok: @CirclingSeattleSports Facebook: Circling Seattle Sports BlueSky: @circlingseasports.bsky.social 〰️

Check out our previous Seattle Tempest articles here.
Check out our previous articles with writing for CSS by Becca Weinberg here, and her work with Lookout Landing here.
Check out our previous articles with photography by Sam Hotaling here, and his portfolio here.

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