Death, Taxes, and Brute Squad: What Does it Take to Beat Boston at Nationals?

Five strategies for defeating one of the most dominant women’s division teams in recent years

November 10, 2023 by Graham Gerhart in Analysis with comments

Ultiworld’s coverage of the 2023 Club National Championships is presented by Spin Ultimate; all opinions are those of the author(s). Find out how Spin can get you, and your team, looking your best this season.

The US statesman that graces the $100 bill once claimed that nothing is certain except for death and taxes. In the women’s club division, you can now add Boston Brute Squad to that list. There’s nothing else that has been more consistent in our sport over the last decade than the performance of the women from Beantown, even if plenty of the folks from their roster don’t actually hail from the city itself. Since 2014 Brute Squad have: won more national titles than any other team; tied Fury for most semis appearances; only ever lost to teams who made the finals.

Boston’s overall record at Nationals since 2014 is 49-7. They average less than a single loss per tournament. Only Fury, Scandal, and Molly Brown have beaten them in their last ten Nationals. Somehow, despite all of this dominance, the question has never publicly been asked: what does it take to beat Brute Squad at Nationals?¹

If only three teams have done it, and collectively they’ve only done it seven times, what can be learned from the wins over an otherwise untouchable Boston team? Is there enough data that can be gleaned over those seven games in the last decade to provide some options on how teams have made it past Brute in the past and if their success is replicable? Until Brute Squad prove to be anything other than the hardest team in the nation to beat, this question is the only one that matters for the next year, which is why we’re fortunate enough to have almost all seven of their losses on tape.

The good news is, the available game footage has allowed some poor soul to comb through each game trying to find patterns and connections between the losses that could tie together into some semblance of a strategy. Unfortunately, Boston’s record shows there’s clearly no perfect formula to beating this team. However, there might just be enough insight out there to make Brute Squad’s next championship run a little more challenging.