Often overlooked as a result the vast variety of sporting events that go on here in State College, the Penn State Ultimate Frisbee teams tend to keep relatively low profiles. The sport, however, remains alive and well. Both the men's and women's teams made the Collegiate Top 25 Rankings of the 2005 spring season, released Wednesday by The Ultimate Players Association (UPA).

With a record of 5-3 the men, who go by "Spank," are ranked 23rd in the Open Division and third in the Metro East Region. Leading the division is Queens-Kingston (8-0), Virginia (7-1), and Wisconsin (14-2).

The women's club, named "Isis" after the Egyptian goddess of fertility, is currently 6-5 and ranked 16th of the 115 college women teams, while Iowa (6-0), Texas (5-2) and Stanford (12-1) claimed the top three spots, respectively. The only requirement for inclusion in the women's top 25 is that a team has played at least four games.

Karen Schulte, a senior and team tri-captain, said that appearing in the top 25 is helping Isis focus on the stiff competition that stands between the team and the playoffs that begin in just under a month.

"Now we can see how our opponents are ranked, especially our regional rivals, and this really motivates us to put out bigger efforts in both conditioning and practice," she said.

Isis is also in third place in the East Metro Region, and as junior president of the club Melanie Holton focuses in on leading teams Cornell and Delaware, she said that being ranked is a good indication for the team leaders of the hard work that lies ahead.

"I think that there are a lot of girls on the team that may not be too aware of the rankings, but the captains and I certainly are," said Holton.

"Knowing that two teams in our region are ranked above us certainly motivates us to work harder and to get everyone else to work harder. We have won games against the teams ranked higher than us in the past that certainly weren't easy games and we want to make sure that come May we have an edge on them so we can get to nationals."

She also said that the women try to schedule tournaments with challenging teams who are from other regions, always keeping in the back of their minds the ultimate goal of once again making the nationals.

Isis is returning from competing in the Stanford Invite over spring break where it had the opportunity to play some teams from the Northwest Region, including Washington and Oregon, who are ranked eighth and 13th, respectively. Excelling against these teams is ultimately what the women have to do to prepare themselves to be successful at the national level.

"It's a great experience to play against these highly ranked teams to show us what we need to work on," Holton said.

Following regional play, which kicks off in Princeton, N.J., on May 7, the women are confident that they will be among the 16 teams who qualify for the UPA College Championship Games which will be held May 27-29 in Corvallis, Ore.

"We have made it to the championship three years in a row, and we are hoping to make it four," said junior tri-captain Erin Crider.

Until then, Isis is gearing up for its next home tournament, which will be held April 2-3 here in State College.