42.6% of students voted ultimate frisbee as the best on-campus recreational sport
By EMME DUNNING — features@theaggie.org
Ultimate frisbee is in many ways the quintessential college club sport. Offering students opportunities to get active in a welcoming and low-pressure environment, many have found a tight-knit community through the sport. The UC Davis community has taken note, with ultimate frisbee receiving 42.6% of votes to earn them the title of best club or intramural sport for 2025.
Cynthia Ju, a fourth-year biomedical engineering major, plays for the UC Davis women’s ultimate team — Rogue. Ju was introduced to ultimate frisbee in high school by her brother and fell in love with the unique culture it offered.
“What really kept me going is that the sport is just so welcoming to all different experiences and all different backgrounds,” Ju said. “You get to meet everyone from all walks of life through the sport.”
Ultimate frisbee is self-officiated, meaning there are no referees. Instead, players on both teams work together to uphold a shared set of rules and norms that keep the game running smoothly.
“It’s different from a lot of other traditional team sports where you might have referees on the field making sure that people keep their sportsmanship up,” Ju said. “In frisbee, you make sure that you follow the rules, and everyone keeps the spirit of the game very high.”
Through what proponents of the sport call the “spirit of the game,” athletes themselves create a unique environment of mutual respect that their players have grown to love.
For Charlotte Noroian, a third-year plant sciences major, this has been a welcome change. Noroian grew up playing soccer and was used to the hyper-competitive environment it can often bring. When she came to Davis, she joined ultimate without ever having played before and immediately noticed a shift in the way teammates and opponents treated each other.
“You can tell a difference in how people interact with each other,” Noroian said. “It’s a little bit more respectful, and it’s a little less cutthroat.”
Noroian also commented on the way this inclusive culture creates opportunities outside of just athletics.
“My favorite part is the community it fosters,” Noroian said. “I think doing sports and socializing go well together. It makes it easier to exercise, and the sport is obviously really fun, but I would say that the people are what make it amazing.”
Sofia Massingill, a third-year environmental policy analysis and planning major and the current co-president for Rogue, asserted that this culture is something that the team works hard to maintain and teach the next generation of players.
“We try to be very cognizant of [being] an open community where everyone feels welcome to get a little bit active, learn something new and meet some new people,” Massingill said.
By continuing to foster this unique culture, the team is confident that ultimate frisbee will thrive at UC Davis for years to come.
Written by: Emme Dunning — features@theaggie.org
