2022 Roster
Click on a picture to learn more about a player and their ultimate career.
#00 Genny De Jesus (she/her/hers)
Genny has been part of NYGL since 2019 - she is excited for another year with the team, but mostly just another year with Amy.
#05 Emma Frankel (she/her/hers)
Emma started playing ultimate in 2009 at Dartmouth College, and played a few seasons of club on the east coast with BENT and Brute Squad before moving to LA in 2013. There she played with 7 Figures (mixed) and Wildfire (women's), and coached the UCLA women's team. She's excited to be back in NY, where she grew up, to play with Gridlock in 2022! Emma works in consumer insights at Netflix, which mostly involves talking to people all around the world about their favorite TV shows and movies.
#10 Tricia Smit (she/her/hers)
Tricia started playing ultimate in 2006 at Denison University, where she founded the women's program in addition to playing on and captaining the open team. She has played on XIST since 2017 and enjoys traveling, biking, baking, rock climbing, and working at Brooklyn Botanic Garden.
#14 Tulsa Douglas (she/her/hers)
Tulsa started playing ultimate in Amherst, MA and continued at St. Olaf college where she captained her team to a DIII national title. Tulsa played on the 2018 U24 USA women's national team and currently plays for Brute Squad winning a national championship in 2019. Tulsa is a co-host of the podcast Share the Air, enjoys dogs, playing pickleball, and being outside. She is working on her MEd. in sport and exercise psychology.
#20 Karen Chalif (she/her/hers)
Karen Chalif is excited to be back on the field with NYGL for the 2022 season! Karen found her way to Ultimate at New York University when she was introduced to the NYU Violet Femmes at the school's club fair and from the first practice fell in love with the sport. Karen has co-founded, captained, and played with several club teams. Most recently, she has been competing with the New York mixed team, XIST, during the club season. In her non-frisbee life, Karen is a Middle School Assistant Principal and enjoys playing music and cycling.
#28 Angela Zhu (she/her/hers)
Angela started playing ultimate in Amherst, MA and continued at Dartmouth college where she captained her team to a DI national title. Angela played on the 2012 and 2014 U20 USA teams, 2018 and 2019 U24 USA teams, and was part of the 2020 mixed WUGC team. She currently plays for Brute Squad and coaches the Northeastern Huskies.
#48 Lisa Kowalski (she/her/hers)
Lisa fell in love with ultimate in high school at Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Charter Public School in 2009 and went on to play college women's with the Hippos at GW. She played her first club season in 2015 with Baltimore/DC Backhanded and spent four rewarding years with DC Scandal. Lisa was most recently a player/assistant coach for New York BENT in 2021 and is excited to continue to grow women's ultimate in New York.
Lisa aims to play competitive ultimate at the highest level available, but also has a deep love for league play, and has captained in or commissioned various DC and NY leagues with the goal of fostering fun and safe playing environments for all participants.
Lisa loves beach ultimate and wonders often why she has chosen to live in cold places devoid of sand.
#02 Brittany Kaplan (she/her/hers)
Brittany has been playing ultimate since 2000. She learned how to play at Amherst Regional High School, continued at Vassar College, and was a player on NYC's women's team BENT from 2012-2019 and coach 2020-2021. She has been on the DiscNY board since 2021 and has been involved in organizing in NYC frisbee for the past decade. Professionally, Brittany is a documentary video editor. She has been on NYGL since its inaugural season in 2019.
#06 Renata Pepi (she/her/hers)
Renata Pepi started playing ultimate in high school in western Massachusetts. She had her first club season with Boston Siege in 2017. Since then she has played for Slow White and Bent. Renata was selected for the USA U24 National Women's Team, who won gold at the World Championships in Germany in 2019.
#11 Nola Kim-Mayer (she/her/hers)
Nola started playing ultimate in Chapel Hill, NC, where she co-founded and captained the girls team at her high school, in addition to playing 4 seasons of youth club. She currently plays for and captains the DIII women's team at Vassar College, which went to nationals in 2021 for the first time in the team's history. She has also played 2 seasons of mixed club, in Chapel Hill and the Hudson Valley.
#15 Caroline Turner* (she/her/hers)
Caroline goes by Caro because three syllables is too many for the field. She designs software for mainframe computers and listens to the Guardians of the Galaxy II soundtrack before every tournament.
*Supported player
#21 Allie Milligan (she/her/hers)
Allie started her frisbee career in college playing at Penn State. After college she moved to Philly and played her first year of women’s club for Broad City. In 2021, Allie helped found the Women’s Program in Philly. She will be captaining Flight for her second year this club season and has big plans for the women’s division in Philly. Allie works to be an active member in her community, coaching youth teams and now a newly elected PADA Board Member.
#33 Emily Barrett (she/her/hers)
Emily found ultimate her sophomore year at Ohio State where she eventually went on to captain Fever for 3 seasons. She played in the mixed club division for Columbus Cocktails from 2018-2021 and played for Columbus Pride from 2019-2021. Emily also helped start and coach a mixed team at a local high school in Columbus, OH.
#64 Tracey Lum (she/her/hers)
Tracey Lum started playing ultimate in 2010 at Stuyvesant High School in NYC. Since then she's played for the Northeastern Valkyries in college, and Last Call and Mixed Nuts in the mixed club division. Most recently she captained Boston Siege in the women's club division. Outside of the frisbee world she is a software engineer with too many hobbies like drawing, pottery, and crocheting. She has a long way to go before she's actually good at any of them though. Follow her new puppy on instagram! @its_tiny_tina
#03 Abby Cheng (she/her/hers)
Abby started playing ultimate in NYC and went on to play with and captain the Oberlin College Preying Manti, who won the 2019 D-III National title (the first athletic national title in Oberlin's history). In the club division, Abby has played with NY BENT and XIST. Abby played on the USA U24 National Women's Team in 2019, and she received the 2020 Donovan Award. She currently plays for the Bard College Big Bird. Abby is looking forward to her second season with NY Gridlock!
#07 Luisa Neves (she/her/hers)
Luisa started playing ultimate with the University of Rochester EZs, and since then has played with club teams such as Brooklyn Book Club, New York BENT, and most recently, New York XIST. In 2022, she was named to the USA's WBUC Mixed National Team. Luisa has played with New York Gridlock since its inaugural season, and is excited to return for the 2022 season!
#12 Amy Zhou (she/her/hers)
Amy started playing ultimate at Rutgers University and continues to play with that Metro East chip on her shoulder. Her least favorite part about playing in the PUL is getting subbed off in the middle of a point for the O-line. Her favorite part is everything else.
#17 Braanah Craig* (she/her/hers)
HB started playing ultimate at USF Tampa in 2014 where she played for 5 years and then coached for a year after graduation. She has played on NJ Pine Baroness, FL Tabby Rosa and Tampa Bay Mutiny. Most recently, she participated in the inaugural Con10ent tour. When she's not playing ultimate, HB is a software engineer at a startup in NYC.
*Practice player
#25 Kyla Dayer* (she/her/hers)
Kyla began playing ultimate in 2011 with the University of Rochester EZ’s and has played on several NYC club teams since 2014 in both the women’s and mixed divisions. Her current club team is NY BENT. In her professional life, she works in the field of public health as a strategic projects specialist.
*Supported player
#42 Madison Cannon (she/her/hers)
Madi started playing ultimate her freshman year at Lehigh university. Her team ended up going to nationals 3 out of the 4 years she was on the team. Her senior year 2018, Madi got defensive player of the year. She played with FLI in 2018 and joined XIST in 2019.
#88 Nicole Hair (she/her/hers)
Nikki Hair grew up in a family that revolved around sports. Having 11 siblings made it so that there was always at least a few people down for a game of soccer. She started her ultimate career at Drew University, her love for beach ultimate helped grow her passion for the sport, and she is excited to play another year with NY Gridlock
#04 Stazi Tangherlini (she/her/hers)
Stazi started playing in 2011 for the University of Chicago. She has since played for Chicago Dish, Nemesis, NY BENT and Boston Brute Squad. She is a retired college coach but still enjoys working with players new to the sport.
#08 Kelly Hyland (she/her/hers)
Kelly was first introduced to ultimate while studying abroad at University College Cork, Ireland. Since that time she has had the privilege to play on a handful of Irish National Teams, including the European Championship winning women's team in 2019. Kelly was selected for the 2022 WBUC USA Mixed National Team (RIP). Kelly spends her non-frisbee time with her dog, Rascal, and human, Luke.
#13 Maureen Dougherty (she/her/hers)
Mo first started playing ultimate at a summer camp and almost immediately fell in love with the sport. After that she joined the women's team at Elon University. Mo went with Elon to DIII nationals a few times and captained the team her junior and senior year. After graduating from Elon, Mo took a short break from ultimate to work as a wilderness trip leader in a wide variety of places all over the US, but always took a disc with her along the way. When she moved back to CT for graduate school she played for Nautilus in 2019 and was a practice player for XIST in 2021. When she's not playing frisbee, Mo works as a school counselor at a high school in CT.
#18 Sumi Onoe (she/her/hers)
Sumi began her ultimate career in 2017 when she joined the Warmothers at Swarthmore College. While two of her college seasons were canceled due to the pandemic, her passion for ultimate kept growing. After graduation, she moved to Philadelphia and played with Philadelphia AMP in the 2021 season. Sumi was raised in Tokyo, Japan and enjoys playing with Japanese teams when she visits home.
#26 Cara Sieber (she/her/hers)
Cara Sieber started playing ultimate in Cincinnati on her dad’s summer league team in 2014, along with her two older brothers. Cara quickly loved the sport, playing on her high school team and YCC team, Cincinnati Belle, before playing with Ohio State Fever from 2016-2021. Other notable teams Cara played for are: 2016 USA u20 Girls National Team, 2019 USA u24 Women's National Team, Cincinnati Steamboat, Columbus Cocktails, and Columbus Pride. Cara also helped start and coach a local Columbus high school team.
Cara moved to NYC in September 2022 and is looking forward to representing New York Gridlock in the PUL.
#47 Cheryl Seow (she/her/hers)
Cheryl started playing Ultimate in high school in Singapore back in 2016 and she's been hooked ever since. She's currently finishing out her junior year in college at the National University of Singapore, where she captains the Varsity team. She played WUCC in 2018 with Freakshow and is part of the Singapore national team. She's super excited to play her first PUL season with Gridlock!
#96 Nina Finley (she/her/hers)
Nina has been playing way too much frisbee since she joined the Seattle Academy Cardinals at the age of 12. She co-founded and captained Seattle Fryz for six years with her best friends and competed on Team USA at the World Junior Ultimate Championships in 2010 and 2012. She spent her rookie year with Ohio State Fever and captained the Whitman Sweets to a second-place Division 1 finish at college nationals. Nina worked abroad as a disease ecologist for years, picking up with every frisbee team she encountered, and joined the London mixed club Deep Space for COVID times. For work, Nina conducts research alongside rainforest communities with the non-profit Health In Harmony.
2022 Staff
BERNADETTE NORMAN (SHE/HER/HERS), TEAM ADMINISTRATOR & HOME GAME OPERATIONS MANAGER
Bernadette grew up north of Boston and started playing ultimate frisbee in the fifth grade. She continued playing in high school at Phillips Academy Andover and in college at Mount Holyoke on the DIII club team Daisy Chain (yeah yoke!), where the team made DIII nationals for the first time her sophomore year. Since moving to New York City in 2018, she's gotten more involved with helping to organize and grow the sport. In 2019 she became the Metro New York Women's Sectionals Coordinator and is entering her third season in that role. (She even became a certified Observer, but realized that's not for her.) In 2019/2020 she joined the New York Gridlock Ultimate staff as the Assistant General Manager, which has evolved into the Team Administrator. For the 2022 Season with NYGL, she is also taking on the duties of the Home Game Operations Manager. Outside of ultimate frisbee, Bernadette is currently the Development Fellow at New York Theatre Workshop. She is very grateful and happy that she gets to be a part of two things she loves, and she can't wait to get back out onto the field with NYGL this season!
MAY PATINO (SHE/HER/HERS), SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER
I’m from Colombia, I’ve been living in the USA for 5 years and love exploring NYC. I have a background in Industrial Design, and currently, I work as an interior designer at a major home improvement chain. I enjoy fashion, photography, attending art exhibits, and playing ultimate. I’ve been working with NYGL leadership since the inaugural season, and I love how it allows me to help progress women and non-binary representation in ultimate and how NYGL gives back to the community. I’m excited to expand NYGL’s online!
LUISA NEVES (SHE/HER/HERS), WEBSITE MANAGER
Luisa Neves is visual designer and developer who particularly enjoys working on websites and web apps. She loves board games, video games, lawn games, and yes, frisbee games. She's been playing ultimate for eight years, with teams like the University of Rochester EZs, NY BENT, and New York Gridlock Ultimate. She’s excited to return to Gridlock for its 2021 season!
Luisa currently co-hosts the ultimate frisbee podcast, Share the Air, with NYGL teammate, Tulsa Douglas. She's excited about using the podcast platform to share the stories and experiences of more marginalized folks within the ultimate community.
2022 Coaches
EILEEN MURRAY (SHE/HER/HERS), COACH
Eileen Murray started playing ultimate in Tucson, AZ in 1993. After moving to Atlanta, GA in 1996, Eileen first made the Ozone roster in 1998 and played her first nationals in Sarasota, FL that year. Eileen played with Ozone until 2006 and competed in 9 national and 3 world championship tournaments. After retiring from the women's division, she continued to play in the mixed, masters and grandmasters divisions. Her most recent playing accomplishment was winning bronze with the Atlantiques in PAUC 2015. Eileen started coaching in 2001 for a high school boys team and has coached in the college, club and professional divisions (MLU, AUDL, and PUL) and was the head coach of two national teams (U19 women 2008 and WBUC Mixed 2017).
RYAN THOMPSON (HE/HIM/HIS), COACH
MARTHA GREGORY (SHE/HER/HERS), ASSISTANT COACH