Video: Women’s Ultimate club heads to​ national championships

The Bates women’s Ultimate team is in uncharted — and unexpected —waters this weekend as the club competes in the Division III College Championships.

Earning a tournament bid was “never something I expected playing Ultimate at Bates,” says co-captain Ruthie Baker ’16 of Minneapolis. “For us, it’s been a really cool thing to watch the team transform in such a way.”

Known as Cold Front, the club is seeded third in the 16-team tourney and faces Luther College of Decorah, Iowa, at 9 a.m. Saturday.

Per usual when it comes to national competition, NESCAC has a big presence, with Bates, Wesleyan, Amherst, and Williams in the tourney.

Co-captain Josie Gillett ’19 of Seattle is a member of the U19 national team heading to Poland this summer for the World Junior Ultimate Championships.

“I’ve been playing on competitive teams nonstop since sixth grade,” she says. “But I don’t think I’ve seen a group of teammates progress as much in a single season as this team has. That has been incredibly, incredibly rewarding.”

“I’m not their professor. I’m their superfan.”

Cold Front’s adviser is Elmer Campbell Professor of Economics Lynne Lewis, who’s seen the sport go from casual to competitive at Bates, as it has nationally, since she arrived in 2000.

For her, “it’s wonderful to get to know these young people in a different way” than being their teacher in a classroom.

“I’m not their professor. I’m their mentor, their coach. I’m their superfan.”

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