The Iowa State’s women’s ultimate Frisbee club “Woman Scorned” finished the 2010-2011 season ranked 10th in the country after making a surprise run in the USA Ultimate College Championships in Boulder, Colo.

Of the 20 teams that entered the tournament, Woman Scorned was seeded No. 17.

Initially, the 20 teams were split into four different pools of five teams, with the top three teams from each pool advancing to bracket play.

“We kind of had nothing to lose because we weren’t expected to do well,” said Kevin Seiler, one of the teams’ three coaches. “We did get a favorable draw because in our pool, we had three teams that we had already played earlier in the year so we were at least familiar with them. It’s not always easy to see a team for the first time and develop strategies on the fly.”

The team from Iowa State was projected to finish last in its five-team pool, but started off the tournament with a 15-10 upset of the Tufts, a team from Medford, Mass.

Woman Scorned then faced the University of California-Santa Barbara, the pool’s top-ranked team. After a hard-fought defensive battle, UCSB came out with a 13-11 victory.

“After seeing them play Santa Barbara so close, I started to realize that we could make a run pretty deep into the tournament,” Seiler said. “Coming in, I didn’t know if they’d be able to do as well as they did. They exceeded my expectations.”

After the tough loss to UCSB on Friday, Woman Scorned came back Saturday and reeled off two wins in a row against teams from the University of Michigan and Northwestern.

The 14-11 victory over Northwestern put the team at 3-1 after pool play and insured it a spot in the 12-team bracket.

The team’s first opponent in bracket play was a familiar one: a team from the University of Iowa.

“They’re kind of a rival of ours because they’re in the same section. They’re in the same region and we go to a lot of the same tournaments all throughout the year,” Seiler said. “I guess it’s safe to say that we’re friendly rivals, because there’s not a lot of bad blood like there is between the men’s teams.”

Woman Scorned would go on to lose to Iowa in the pre-quarters, 15-11.

The team finished the tournament by splitting their final two games, finishing 10th.

Seiler identified two seniors, defensive specialist Jasmine Draper and the team’s best offensive threat, Jessy Erickson, as being key to the team’s success. Freshman Cami Nelson also played a big role in her first year on the team, garnering Freshman of the Year honors for the Central Region.