March 18, 2013 by Charlie Eisenhood in News with 10 comments
Stay in touch with the weekend’s top tournament results in our Weekend Update. Here’s what happend this week:
Centex — Austin, TX [Open – S]
Upsets were the story of the weekend in Austin, but the top teams still showed their strength as a Will Driscoll-less #8 Texas took down #15 Harvard in the finals 13-10.
We’ll have a full tournament recap later today, but some early story lines:
– A shorthanded, 15 man Arizona (#7) squad lost to Wisconsin-Milwaukee in quarterfinals, but went on to beat Kansas and #19 Texas A&M, who played without Dalton Smith. That last win over A&M may have been critical for Sunburn, who are looking to hang on to a strength bid for the Southwest. Their close games against low-ranked teams all weekend, however, may ship them out of the top 20.
– Wisconsin-Milwaukee showed they can hang with top teams with the win over Arizona and a 12-11 win against Illinois in the third place game. Great weekend for them — they’ve been improving all season.
– Illinois rebounded nicely after a poor showing at Huck Finn with a 1-1 split against Harvard and a semifinals appearance.
– Two straight strong weekend for the Northeast. Tufts played well at the Stanford Invite and Harvard followed it up with a finals loss to Texas. Will Dartmouth show up at Easterns this weekend to earn the region a third bid?
– Texas A&M probably didn’t do enough to get a third bid for the South Central. Now, like last year, they’ll be forced to go through either Texas or Colorado to get to Madison.
Chicago Invite — Chicago, IL [High School – S]
Open
Seattle Fryz, the Seattle high school club team, dominated the competition this weekend in Chicago. Their closest game came against South Eugene HS in the finals; they still won by six points.
Chicago’s own Neuqua Valley got their first win ever as a program against Minnesota’s powerhouse Hopkins, who finished 6th.
Bexley High (Ohio) was one of the weekend’s big surprises. They came in seeded 23rd, but won out their pool to face Fryz in the quarters. They got crushed 13-3, but then played a tight game to universe against Hopkins before finishing seventh.
Bexley reported that Hopkins had called them a “garbage” team before the game and that some of the Hopkins players didn’t line up to shake hands after the game.
Vermont’s Black Ice placed third.
Women’s
Seattle Fryz thoroughly dominated the women’s side of the bracket as well, recording four straight shutouts in pool play (!) before allowing a single point in the finals to Cincinnati’s Holy Family Catholic.
Hopkins finished third in a universe point win over Neuqua Valley.
Dream Cup — Fuji, Japan
The USA All-Star Team flew out to Japan as a big favorite to win the Dream Cup, Japan’s largest annual tournament. But they would fall in the finals to the Buzz Bullets, Japan’s top club team, 15-12. The Buzz Bullets have now won 13 of 14 Dream Cups.
Brodie Smith was the All-Star team’s top point-earner, with 21 assists and 11 goals.
