It's the ultimate way to end a summer.

Over the course of a few weeks, Ellie Shaul, a 2010 Mt. Lebanon High School graduate, will participate in a training camp in Amherst, Mass.; represent the United States in an international tournament in Germany; and compete in a national tournament in Minnesota.

The name of the game? Ultimate Frisbee.

"Usually the first response is, what's Ultimate Frisbee?" Ms. Shaul said.

She explains: it's a sport played by two teams of seven, each trying to move a flying disc down the field with throws and catches. Teams earn points when a player catches a disc in the opposing team's end zone, and the first team to reach 15 or another designated score wins. The games typically last around 90 minutes and are held at soccerplexes.

"It's an unpredictable game. You can be on offense and with a single throw, you can be on defense," she said.

Ms. Shaul, 18, started playing the sport as a freshman in high school when she saw it on the list of intramurals at Mt. Lebanon High School.

She turned out to be pretty good at it. She joined a club team, Moxie; has traveled to tournaments as far away as Georgia; and last winter, when she heard members were being sought for the U.S. Junior National Women's Ultimate Team, she applied.

A total of 100 young women applied and 80 tried out, either in Seattle or in Chapel Hill, N.C., said Meredith Tosta, the director of coach and youth development for USA Ultimate in Boulder, Colo.

Twenty-one girls will travel first to Amherst for a few days of training, and then to Heilbronn, Germany, for the World Juniors Ultimate Championships, an international competition organized by the World Flying Disk Federation and held every two years for players 19 and under.

"I'm excited," Ms. Shaul said. "I think that the team we have put together can do really well."

A few other Pittsburgh-area players she has met through competition will be joining her on the U.S. team, she said.

The international tournament will be held Tuesday through Aug. 7, then she and her parents will spend some more time in Europe; a day after she returns to the United States, she will head to Blaine, Minn., to compete in the national ultimate championship with her club team.

At the end of the summer, Ms. Shaul plans to take classes at Community College of Allegheny County, then maybe transfer to University of Pittsburgh and play Ultimate Frisbee for its team.

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