Conference Championships Roundup: See Who’s Headed To Regionals

Here are the teams that will move on to Regionals!

April 18, 2016 by Charlie Eisenhood in News, Recap with 19 comments

The first weekend of the College Series is now behind us as dozens of teams qualified for Regionals, and some Division III teams qualified for DIII Nationals. Check out the results from the weekend, organized by Region and Division. Feel free to send us a short (<200 words) recap of your tournament — we’ll add it to the article!

* indicates Nationals berth

ATLANTIC COAST

Men’s D-I

Carolina

1. UNC Wilmington
2. North Carolina
3. South Carolina
4. Clemson
5. NC State
6. Wake Forest

UNC Wilmington was dominant at Conferences, with their 14-9 victory over UNC in the final charting as their closest game of the weekend by far. NC State made a splash with a first round upset of UNC — the first win for the program against Darkside in four years — but lost to South Carolina later in the day and missed the semis on point differential.

Colonial

1. Georgetown
2. Maryland
3. George Washington
4. Johns Hopkins
5. American

Two-seed Georgetown was very impressive at Conferences, landing big wins all day on Saturday and getting a 15-10 win over Maryland in semis and a 15-8 win over George Washington in the final.

Virginia

1. JMU
2. Virginia
3. Virginia Tech
4. VCU
5. William & Mary

A disappointing start to the postseason for Virginia Tech, finishing third at Conferences. JMU was strong and got an 11-9 win over Virginia in the final.

Carolina Dev

1. North Carolina-B
2. UNC Wilmington-B

Here is a recap from North Carolina-B player Bill Bourret:

North Carolina-B captured back-to-back sectionals titles this weekend in Greenville, NC. Wind proved to be the X factor with gusts reaching up to 25 MPH. North Carolina-B was able to rely on their depth and fundamentals to counter the wind and clinch the title. South Carolina-B was very impressive on Saturday with only eight players attending, upsetting both North Carolina Wilmington-B and Clemson-B, but fell short on Sunday after exhausting games-to-go to North Carolina-B and North Carolina Wilmington-B. Though Clemson-B went winless, they have a promising future with athletic players. Spirit was high for all games despite the wind and the tournament was ran excellently, though it could have probably been compressed into one day.

Women’s D-I

Carolina

1. North Carolina
2. NC State
3. UNC Wilmington
4. South Carolina
5. Clemson

Colonial

1. Delaware
2. Maryland
3. Georgetown
4. George Washington
5. Towson
6. American

Here is a recap from Georgetown coach Scott Hampton:

Tournament format allowed the Colonial Conference’s top four teams to battle repeatedly on Saturday and Sunday, with 5 of the 7 matchups between them decided by two points or fewer. Though both semifinals matchups were competitive, Delaware came away with a decisive victory in the finals, 15-8. Maryland held onto 2nd over Georgetown, who had narrowly defeated George Washington in a 17-15 overtime thriller. Towson and American were kept out of the championship bracket, but easily claimed the final two bids to Regionals in pool play.

Virginia

1. Virginia
2. JMU
3. VCU
4. Liberty
5. George Mason

Here is a recap from George Mason coach Bryan Dombrowski:

Men’s D-III

Carolina

1. Davidson
2. High Point
3. Elon
4. UNC-Asheville

Davidson fell to High Point in pool play, but rebounded with a strong win in the final to take a very competitive Carolina Conference title. #1 seed UNC Asheville fell all the way to fourth place after losing two games in pool play and then falling 11-10 to Elon in the 2nd place bracket. Atlantic Coast D-III Regionals should be a barnburner.

Northern Atlantic Coast

1. Richmond
2. Mary Washington
3. Navy
4. Catholic

Here is a recap from TD Keys Pattie:

UMW and Richmond faced off in the final on Sunday.  These teams met at Easterns weeks earlier where UMW came out on top.  Richmond led the majority of the game even without lead handler Henry Babcock (injury).  Richmond took half 8-5 and was up 12-9 when UMW rattled off three quick breaks, led by Zach Norrbom and Raj Barua, during soft cap to tie it at 12.  The next point had a lengthy contested call which would make it hard cap and double game point.  There were multiple turns by both teams before Richmond reeled in a macked D in the endzone to take the game 13-12.  This game got very heated at times and teams have a definite rivalry heading into Regionals.

UMW then defeats Navy in the 2nd place game, 15-8. Despite the bye heading into the game-to-go, CNU didn’t have the legs to keep up with Catholic who fought in through the back door bracket.  15-10, Bad Habit moves on to Regionals.

Women’s D-III

1. Elon*

Top-seeded Elon dominated the field to claim a D-III Nationals berth.

GREAT LAKES

Men’s D-I

East Plains

1. Purdue
2. Notre Dame
3. Indiana
4. Ball State
5. Kentucky
6. Louisville

Purdue stays hot after a nice finish to the regular season with an easy 1st place finish in the East Plains.

Illinois

1. Northwestern
2. Chicago
3. Illinois
4. Illinois State
5. Eastern Illinois
6. Loyola-Chicago

A surprising third place finish for Illinois, a team with aspirations to get back to Nationals out of the Great Lakes.

Michigan

1. Michigan
2. Michigan State
3. Grand Valley State

Here is a short recap of the Michigan Conferences from GVSU’s John Akers.

Saturday was a perfect sunny day for ultimate after a typical Michigan season of indecisiveness. An already small field was reduced to just one day of bracket play after Central Michigan and Eastern Michigan were unable to fill rosters this season, leaving University of Michigan, Western Michigan, Michigan State, and Grand Valley State to compete for three bids to regionals.

For University of Michigan Magnum, sectionals always seems a mere stipulation, as their day ended a bit earlier than the rest of the teams, and they left undefeated at 3-0. Magnum mostly rested their star players and still easily ended games long before soft cap.

The real action laid in the games for second and third place, between the Grand Valley Lakers and Michigan State Arc. Though Grand Valley led for majority of the first half, Michigan State cinched half with a lead by one. After another intense half of quick huck points and hard-earned break points, including multiple foul calls, injuries, and even a trip to the hospital for an Arc player, MSU closed the game with a two point win, 14-12.

After a quick Arc loss to Magnum, the Lakers and Arc met again to decide seeding for Regionals. Though both teams had already earned a spot in the next qualifier, memories of the first game were still too fresh. Many longwinded hard-fought points later, MSU Arc walked away with another victory by two points, 11-9.

Though the Great Lakes D1 region has decreased in size, the teams which remain are still as competitive as ever. With Eastern Michigan’s talent pool graduated and gone, there is now a large gap between the levels of play in the section, with Magnum reigning well above every team. MSU Arc seems to be stepping up to close this gap but it’s hard to predict how well they will do at the next level of competition. GVSU and MSU will most likely see each other again at Regionals for another great match up.

Great Lakes Dev

1. Michigan (B)

Women’s D-I

Eastern Great Lakes

1. Michigan
2. Notre Dame
3. Indiana
4. Michigan State
5. Purdue

Illinois

1. Northwestern
2. Illinois
3. Chicago

Men’s D-III

East Plains

1. Valparaiso
2. Indiana Wesleyan
3. Kalamazoo
4. Rose Hulman

A one point, upset win for Valparaiso over Indiana Wesleyan in the East Plains final adds intrigue for Great Lakes D-III Regionals.

Illinois

1. Knox
2. Wheaton
3. Olivet Nazarene
4. North Park

Michigan

UNREPORTED

Women’s D-III

1. Valparaiso*

Knox made it close, but Valparaiso held them off for a two point win in the Great Lakes final and earned a berth at Nationals.

METRO EAST

Men’s D-I

Hudson Valley

1. Connecticut
2. Yale
3. SUNY-Albany

Metro NY

1. NYU
2. Rutgers
3. Princeton
4. SUNY Stony Brook
5. Columbia
6. Rowan

Western NY

1. Cornell
2. RIT
3. SUNY Binghamton
4. Waterloo
5. Rochester
6. SUNY Buffalo

Here is a recap from Queens-Kingston alumnus Cameron Nugent:

A warm Sunday saw RIT and SUNY Binghamton pulling out the 1 and 2 seeds in their pool. Binghamton had a tight win over Waterloo to secure their second spot. In the other pool, tournament favorites Cornell had a relatively easy start to the day with wins over Syracuse, Buffalo and Queen’s (Canada) before a surprising upset loss to Guelph in their last game. Guelph (Canada), a relative unknown in the tournament, pulled off a double game point win over Cornell despite having only nine players (their roster was led by AUDL veteran Jaret Meron of the Toronto Rush, who actually had to sit out the Cornell game due to injury). Brackets progressed on Sunday with Cornell locking up the one seed. Waterloo and Rochester squeaked bids through the lower brackets.

Guelph was disqualified for forfeiting a 2nd place semis game. SUNY Buffalo took their spot.

Metro East Dev

1. Connecticut (B)

Women’s D-I

Eastern Metro East

1. Connecticut
2. Rutgers
3. Columbia
4. SUNY Stony Brook
5. Princeton
6. Yale
7. NYU

Here is a recap from Rutgers coach Tim Naumovitz:

It was a dominant performance by Connecticut, who won the tournament without giving up more than four points to any opponent.  They’ve certainly made a good case for being the team to beat in the Metro East this year.

Rutgers managed to avenge their loss to Columbia in the semifinals with a win against them in the 2nd place game, though it should be noted that Columbia was resting Sophie Hulbert for most of the game.

Stony Brook, who came in seeded last due to lack of sufficient regular season games, made a statement, notching wins over Yale, NYU, and last year’s nationals qualifier, Princeton, to finish in the top four. Stony Brook continues to show remarkable poise and experience, especially for a 2nd year team.

Princeton, after being bounced from the championship bracket by Columbia and Stony Brook in pool play, rolled through the 5th place bracket, capped with a 15-2 win over Yale. It will be interesting to see how they perform at Regionals.

NYU took the last bid, beating Hofstra on double game point along the way, in a great game that I unfortunately did not see.

Western NY

1. Ottawa
2. Rochester
3. Cornell

Here is a recap from Cornell’s Hannah Rudin:

Though seeded third at the tournament, Cornell had a strong start in pool play going 3-0 with solid finishes over Ottawa and Rochester. SUNY Binghamton, the #1 seed, also went undefeated in pool play.

Bracket play the following day was dramatically different, with Cornell losing 15-2 to a seemingly brand new Ottawa team. Ottawa proceeded to beat Rochester 15-10 in the finals, and Cornell beat SUNY Binghamton 15-8 to clinch the final bid to Regionals. Ottawa will clearly be a team to watch for a repeat performance in the Metro East.

Men’s D-III

Hudson Valley

1. Connecticut College
2. Rensselaer Polytech
3. Army
4. Vassar
5. Skidmore

Metro NY

1. Stevens Tech
2. TCNJ

Western NY

1. Hamilton
2. Colgate
3. SUNY Cortland
4. Ithaca
5. SUNY Geneseo

Women’s D-III

Eastern Metro East

1. Wesleyan
2. TCNJ
3. RPI
4. Connecticut College
5. Skidmore

Western NY

1. SUNY Oneonta
2. Hamilton
3. UNREPORTED

NEW ENGLAND

Men’s D-I

Metro Boston

1. Harvard
2. Tufts
3. Northeastern
4. Boston University
5. Boston College
6. UMass-Darmouth
7. MIT

Northern New England

1. New Hampshire
2. Vermont
3. Dartmouth
4. Maine

New Hampshire’s Gabriel Essex-Linehan sent in this recap:

Conference Championships for Northern New England was a three-way race for first place all day long. The home team, UNH, was poised for a first place finish with the highest overall seed of the four teams and a 17-1 regular season record. New Hampshire started off the day playing Vermont in a very competitive game that ended UNH 15 – Vermont 12. Dartmouth rolled through their first game against Maine 15-10.

Second round action featured UNH vs. Maine and Vermont vs. Dartmouth. UNH won handily against Maine 15-4, while Vermont pulled off an upset against Dartmouth, winning on double game point 16-15.

In the final round of play we saw UNH vs. Dartmouth and Vermont vs. Maine. Vermont finished strong against Maine and ended the day with two wins and one loss. UNH played their best game of the day in the annual “state championship” versus Dartmouth. Both teams played hard but UNH came up with key break points near the end of the game to win 15-13.

Vermont, Dartmouth, and UNH all look very dangerous heading towards Regionals. They all should put up some competitive games against highly ranked teams at Regionals in two weeks. Harvard and UMass need to keep their eye on those three, especially UNH, who are now 20-1 on the season and looking to steal a bid for their first ever Nationals appearance.

North New England Dev

1. Vermont (B)

South New England and Metro Boston Dev compete next weekend for the final four bids.

Women’s D-I

Greater New England

1. Vermont
2. Dartmouth
3. Middlebury
4. Massachusetts
5. UNREPORTED

Big win for Vermont over Dartmouth as they continue to look like a team that will challenge for the region’s spot at Nationals.

Metro Boston

1. Northeastern
2. Tufts
3. Harvard
4. Boston College
5. MIT

Men’s D-III

Metro Boston

1. Brandeis
2. Wentworth
3. Merrimack
4. Bentley
5. Stonehill

North New England

1. Bates
2. Bowdoin
3. Middlebury
4. Colby

A recap from the Bates captains:

Seven teams met at Bowdoin for Northern New England DIII Sectionals. Four bids were available and fourth through first place were taken by Colby, Middlebury, Bowdoin, and Bates respectively. Bates went undefeated, beating Middlebury in the first place game 13-9. Bates’ game against Middlebury during pool play was one of the closest of the tournament as they won 12-10 on hard cap. Middlebury went 5-1 in pool play, but with some injuries in the last few games was upset by Bowdoin in the game for second 13-5. Colby took home fourth beating UMF 13-10. Bates looks like the deserving number one seed going into Regionals.

South New England

1. Bryant
2. Williams
3. Amherst

Women’s D-III

Metro Boston

1. Stonehill
2. Wellesley
3. Brandeis

North New England

1. Bates

South New England

1. Williams
2. Mount Holyoke
3. Amherst
4. Smith

NORTH CENTRAL

Men’s D-I

Lake Superior

1. Wisconsin
2. Marquette
3. Wisconsin-Milwaukee
4. Wisconsin Whitewater
5. Wisconsin (B)

Marquette’s Madison Olesen sent in this recap: 

At the end of the unusually beautiful Wisconsin weather, the top five teams in the conference held their regional bids

In Saturday pool play, Pool A held seed, propelling Wisconsin (1), Stevens Point (6), and Eau Claire (7) to a shot at Regional Qualification. In Pool B, teams held seed except for a Marquette (5) win over Milwaukee (2) in the battle of Cream City. Pool C featured a Whitewater (4) win over Wisconsin-B (3), and Northern Michigan (10) over Milwaukee-B (9) to shake up the rankings. Lacrosse (8) and Northern Michigan came down to universe point on the crossover, with Northern Michigan moving on to Sunday bracket play.

Sunday started beautiful once again, with Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Whitewater, and Marquette winning their quarters. In a close first half, Milwaukee and Wisconsin fought hard before Wisconsin pulled away 15-7. Whitewater and Marquette came down to double game point after a Whitewater 6-1 start, with Marquette pulling through 15-14 clinching their Regional bid. Milwaukee and Whitewater won their next games over Northern Michigan and Wisconsin-B, pushing them into Regionals. Northern Michigan and Wisconsin-B battled for the final spot, and after an early Northern Michigan lead Wisconsin-B turned it around to advance to Regionals.

Northwoods

1. Minnesota
2. Carleton
3. Manitoba
4. Minnesota-Duluth

Minnesota thumped Carleton 13-8 in the Northwoods final, further establishing Grey Duck and Wisconsin as the likely NC finalists.

West Plains

1. Iowa
2. Luther
3. Iowa State

A strong weekend for Iowa, who came into Conferences as the three seed. They defeated Luther 15-8 in the final.

Women’s D-I

Lake Superior

1. Wisconsin
2. Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Western North Central

1. Minnesota
2. Iowa State
3. Carleton
4. Iowa
5. Northern Iowa
6. Nebraska

Men’s D-III

Lake Superior

1. Wisconsin-Platteville
2. Michigan Tech

Here is a writeup from Brendan McCann.

Lake Superior Conference has some of the least predictable weather in the country. Last year the tournament was moved due to a blizzard and foot of snow in mid-April. This year, however, the weather was 70 and sunny. The teams battled “the heat” and sunburn (the weather was actually beautiful). UW Platteville Udderburn cruised to a Conference victory, demolishing teams in its path. The second bid to regionals was up for grabs, with four teams all fighting for it. In the end, Michigan Tech DiscoTech claimed the bid for the first time in its 20+ year history. Eight of their thirteen players were rookies.

West Plains

1. UNREPORTED
2. UNREPORTED
3. UNREPORTED
4. UNREPORTED

Northwoods will compete next weekend.

Women’s D-III

1. St. Olaf*
2. Carleton*
3. Luther*

NORTHWEST

Men’s D-I

Big Sky

1. Montana State
2. Utah
3. Montana

Cascadia

1. Oregon
2. Washington
3. Western Washington
4. UBC
5. Oregon State
6. Victoria

Oregon was totally dominant, finishing an undefeated weekend with a 15-9 win over Washington in the final.

The Northwest DIII Conference, held next weekend, will send the second place finisher to D-I Regionals.

Women’s D-I

Big Sky

1. Whitman

Cascadia Conferences will be held next weekend.

Men’s D-III

Next weekend.

Women’s D-III

Next weekend.

OHIO VALLEY

Men’s D-I

East Penn

1. Pennsylvania
2. West Chester
3. Temple
4. Villanova

Ohio

1. Case Western Reserve
2. Ohio State
3. Ohio
4. Cincinnati
5. Dayton
6. Akron

This Conference tells you everything you need to know about why Ohio Valley Regionals will be a blast. Case Western lost to Ohio in pool play, only to avenge their loss with a one point win in the final. Strength bid earner Ohio State finished third after losing 14-10 to Case in the semis.

West Penn

1. Pittsburgh
2. Penn State
3. Carnegie Mellon
4. Shippensburg

Here is a recap from West Virginia’s Glen Smithberger (also the TD):

As indicated in the Conference preview, all the fireworks were at the bottom of the pool. They started early with a first round upset by Edinboro over WVU and a mid-day battle with WVU squeaking past Indiana (Pennsylvania) thanks to hard cap. Saturday’s closest matchup at the top was Penn State beating Shippensburg 13-10.

Sunday started with a must win for Indiana (Pennsylvania) against Edinboro but they lost an early lead losing on DGP, 11-12. Pittsburgh took 1st 15-12 over Penn State, Carnegie Mellon upset Shippensburg 15-11 to secure a bid to regionals, all while WVU and Edinboro were playing in the most exciting game of the weekend with WVU winning 16-14. Penn State took 2nd after agreeing with CMU to not play the game. Shippensburg and WVU squared off for the fourth year in a row in the game to go. Just like the previous two years, the visiting team won with Shippensburg advancing 15-4.

It’s important to note: on field one, all weekend we saw Pittsburgh tossing around the pigskin with no Nick Kaczmarek and the team’s top athletes doing pushups as middle school AAU girls (conveniently playing in a tournament at the WVU rec center) counted from the sidelines.

East Penn DIII

1. Lehigh

Next weekend’s Ohio Valley Dev Conference will send one team to D-I Regionals.

Women’s D-I

Ohio

1. Ohio State
2. Case Western Reserve
3. Cincinnati
4. Akron

Pennsylvania

1. Pittsburgh
2. West Chester
3. Penn State
4. Temple

Men’s D-III

East Penn

1. Haverford
2. Swarthmore
3. Muhlenberg

Ohio

1. Franciscan
2. Oberlin
3. Xavier
4. Ohio Wesleyan
5. Wooster
6. Kenyon
7. Cedarville
8. Ohio Northern

Here is a recap from Wooster’s Michael Herman:

1. Franciscan (Rolled through except close games against Wooster and OWU. Both teams caught them by surprise but they took care of business)
2. Oberlin (Rolled through pool play for the most part. Franciscan beat them down. Hard to imagine them fighting for that Nationals Bid.)
3. Xavier (Played grind it out games. Their game against Wooster had an insane sideline and won by a sky on a long double game point. Solid squad that will throw breaks all day with their long handlers.)
4. Ohio Wesleyan (The mystery team in Ohio breaks seed yet gets smacked by Oberlin, Xavier but only beat a bad Denison team by 2? Look out for Sam Schurer who will throw full field hucks at will.)
5. Wooster (Took Franciscan to half in pool play and played hard all Saturday but went 0-3. Did not get broken against Kenyon and went on 5-1 run against Cedarville to win on universe. Hungry young team with only one impact senior. First regionals since 2012)
6. Cedarville (Disappointing weekend for the squad. Had difficulties finding rhythm and made some mental mistakes. Could get 4th at regionals or lose out.)
7. Kenyon (Great O line yet lacked depth on their D line which had a hard time getting breaks. Down year for the Serfs.)
8. Ohio Northern (Ran junk D and stole a win against Wooster on Saturday. Disciplined team but lack the talent to make noise at regionals.)

West Penn

1. Messiah

Women’s D-III

Ohio

1. Oberlin
2. Ohio Wesleyan
3. Xavier

Pennsylvania

1. Swarthmore
2. Haverford
3. Lehigh
4. Messiah
5. Dickinson

SOUTH CENTRAL

Men’s D-I

North Texas

1. Baylor
2. TCU
3. UT-Dallas

Here is a short recap from UT Dallas captain Steven Borik:

#4 UT Dallas broke seed to take North Texas’ third spot to regionals in a heated game versus #3 Texas Tech. The heavy rain made for an exciting game that ended 8-4 after thunderstorms were reported in the area.

Ozarks

1. Kansas
2. Missouri
3. Washington University
4. Arkansas
5. Oklahoma
6. Kansas State

Kansas’ Jack Colicchio sent in this recap:

The three-seed Kansas Horrorzontals beat two-seed Missouri Mutants, and four seed Washington University Contra upset one seed Arkansas (22 USAU) on double game point in pool play to pave the way for their matchup in the finals. Against Missouri, Kansas was trailing 6-8 before scoring three straight, including a double game point in which Jason Finkelstein rocketed an upwind backhand to a diving Trent Kuhl for the 9-8 win.

In the finals, Kansas broke twice early to go up 2-0, but WashU was able to get both breaks back and go into half on serve up 7-6.  Kansas held, and then broke out of half, eventually leading to softcap at 10-9 Kansas, game to 12. The rest of the game was on serve, leading to a 12-10 Kansas victory with a Kuhl huck to Chris Schreiber in the back of the endzone. Missouri beat Arkansas 12-9 and WashU 13-7 to finish the day in second. Eight seed Kansas State beat six seed St. Louis 13-4 to steal the sixth bid to regionals. Kansas had not won the Ozark Conference or beaten Missouri since 2012.

Kansas veteran workhorses Jason Finkelstein (#4) and Trent Kuhl (#11) both put themselves into the All-Region conversation with gritty performances in their two biggest games of the year to this point. The matchup between Kuhl and Jay Froude (Missouri) highlighted the weekend; it was a back and forth battle between two of the best players and competitors in the region.

South Texas

1. Texas
2. Texas A&M
3. Texas State
4. Houston
5. Texas A&M (B)

A&M B/C team coach Alex Kalin sent in this recap:

Texas took first with a 12-11 win on double game point over Texas A&M, with Texas State and Houston finishing 3rd and 4th, respectively. Texas A&M B took the 5th and earned a bid to Regionals for the first time ever by beating Texas A&M C, who broke seed by upsetting UTSA and playing in the game to go to regionals in their inaugural season. Texas B and UTSA finished T-7, with Lamar, SHSU, and TX State B taking 9th-11th in that order.

The Rocky Mountain Conference will qualify two teams for Regionals next weekend.

Women’s D-I

Ozarks

1. Kansas
2. Washington University
3. St. Louis
4. Missouri State

Texas

1. Texas
2. Texas State
3. Texas A&M
4. TCU

The Rocky Mountain Conference will qualify four teams next weekend.

Men’s D-III

Northern South Central

1. Colorado College
2. John Brown
3. Air Force
4. Colorado Mines
5. Truman State
6. Missouri S&T
7. Tulsa

Here is a recap from Air Force captain Jake Johnson:

Mostly everything went to seed, except USAU #11 and the 3-seed at the tourney, Colorado College, jumped USAU #1 JBU and USAU #9 Air Force to take 1st with two convincing wins over John Brown. Air Force won out on Saturday, but couldn’t get through JBU on Sunday en route to 3rd place. CC went undefeated (5-0) on the weekend and looked really strong! They had a stellar huck game and played super physically on both offense and defense. JBU (3-2 record) struggled a lot on Saturday, with a major 7-13 loss to CC (first D-III loss of the year?), as well as a narrow double game point win over Missouri S&T. However, these struggles were short-lived as they came out super hot vs. AF on Sunday morning and, despite getting broken twice off the bat, rattled off a few breaks of their own en route to a solid 12-8 win. JBU got a second chance at CC in the finals, but CC’s speed and elite handling corps appeared too much for JBU, and they lost 8-10. JBU hadn’t played in a month and a half and that inactivity likely hurt them on Saturday. I’m sure we can expect to see the fine-tuned, experienced squad we all know them to be at Regionals though!

AF has appeared to come 180 degrees since last year’s Conference Championships, where the strength bid-earning team failed to even qualify for Regionals. This year, though, they came out strong and locked up four convincing wins on Saturday. They brought the heat against JBU the next morning in the semifinals by breaking them twice off the bat, but a few costly, unforced drops and endzone turnovers saw AF’s lead quickly evaporate as JBU capitalized on the mistakes.

JBU, despite their questionable Saturday play, showed their #1 D-III dominance again and cruised to a 12-8 win. AF then agreed with CS Mines to forego the unnecessary 3rd/4th place game and took 3rd. JBU has beaten AF twice this season, so it will be exciting to see if AF can best JBU next time if/when they play again at Regionals, which AF is hosting in two weeks. And will CC maintain their dominance and go undefeated again at Regionals? Much remains to be seen!

Overall, this Conference Championships was exciting and hard-fought. We saw a few key upsets and some super close games. Many of the teams brought big lines and got a lot of reps in for all their players. However, we can expect, come Regionals, that many of the teams will shrink their lines to their reliable, top corps of players in the hopes of qualifying for Nationals. Regionals will be exciting as three Nationals bids are up for grabs for a multitude of high-caliber, strong teams. Will the bids go to those who earned them or will Rice, Mines, or TSU nab one of the 3?

Texas

1. Rice

Women’s D-III

Next weekend.

SOUTHEAST

Men’s D-I

Florida

1. Florida
2. Florida State
3. Central Florida
4. South Florida

Looks like chalk, but UCF went undefeated in round robin pool play before losing 12-10 to Florida in the final and 11-8 to FSU in the 2nd place game. Southeast Regionals is going to be good.

Gulf Coast

1. Auburn
2. LSU
3. Tulane
4. UAB
5. Alabama

LSU upset Tulane 13-11 in pool play to set up a final against top-seeded Auburn. There, LSU blew a five point second half lead (14-9) to lose 15-17 (which included an LSU dropped pull at 15-16). Again, Southeast Regionals is going to be good.

A note from Bama Secs on Twitter: “Vandy was upset by Ole Miss in the last round on Sunday to knock them out of the last spot giving it to Bama. Bama v. MSU was a game to go and the teams didn’t know it until after the game was over – [it] finished before [the] Vandy game was over.”

Southern Appalachian

1. Georgia
2. Georgia Tech
3. Georgia Southern
4. Kennesaw State
5. UT-Chattanooga
6. Emory

Georgia was strong at Conferences, finishing up an undefeated tournament with a 14-10 win over Tech in the final. Tennessee failed to qualify for Regionals for the first time in at least a decade.

Southeast Dev

1. Florida (B)

Women’s D-I

Florida

1. Central Florida
2. Florida State
3. Florida
4. South Florida

Gulf Coast

1. Auburn
2. Vanderbilt
3. Alabama
4. Tulane

Southern Appalachian

1. Georgia Tech
2. Georgia
3. Kennesaw State
4. Emory

This is the first time that a team other than Georgia has won the Southern Appalachian Conference.

Men’s D-III

Eastern Southeast

1. Georgia College
2. Ave Maria
3. Florida Tech
4. North Georgia

Western Southeast

1. Union
2. UAH
3. Samford
4. Johnson

Women’s D-III

No tournament scheduled.

SOUTHWEST

Men’s D-I

Desert

1. Arizona State
2. Arizona
3. Northern Arizona

NAU coach Mike Lommer sent in this recap:

For the first time in a couple years, New Mexico actually came to Conferences. The format went straight into bracket play. The underdogs provided two near-upsets in the semifinals. First NAU lead ASU at half only to lose on double game point in a capped game, 10-9. NAU had the disc on the goal line to go up 9-8 but turned a blade to the back corner, leading to an ASU break. The teams traded the last two points. New Mexico broke Arizona three straight times to start their semifinal, only to lose on double game point in a capped game. Sunburn eventually settled down and used their excellent handler movement to walk the disc in. ASU beat Arizona 10-8 in the final, cutting short a late comeback attempt, while NAU ran off 11 straight breaks, running zone the whole way, to coast past UNM in the game to go. Arizona then beat a frustrated NAU team for second by a count of 13-8, as NAU suffered from an avalanche of drops and lethargic downfield defense.

NorCal

1. Stanford
2. Chico State
3. UC Santa Cruz
4. Santa Clara
5. California
6. UC Davis
7. Reno

Chico State made one of the splashiest upsets of the weekend over Stanford, 11-10, in pool play. Stanford was clearly not too happy about that and stomped the life out of Chico in the final, 15-2.

The SoCal Conference will qualify six teams to Regionals next weekend.

Women’s D-I

Desert

1. Arizona State

Here is a recap from Arizona State’s Andie Spence:

The setting for this year’s Desert Conference is nearly identical to the previous year’s. Only two of the four teams in the section in attendance, Arizona State and Arizona, once again had to battle it out in a single championship game for a spot at Southwest regionals.  After losing to Scorch on double game point during a building year at last year’s Conferences, this year Arizona State was planning to come out hot. Taking half with the score 7-0, Caliente did just that. Scorch had to adapt to various defensive looks from Caliente, throwing man defense with different zones mixed in.  Few points were short, though, as turns were generated by both teams. Arizona was able to punch in goals with several deep shots, and won the second half.  However the regionals bid ultimately went to Arizona State with the final score 10-5.

NorCal

1. Stanford
2. California
3. UC Davis
4. Chico State
5. UC Santa Cruz
6. Sonoma
7. Santa Clara

The SoCal Conference will qualify seven teams to Regionals next weekend.

Men’s D-III

1. Claremont*

As expected, Claremont breezed past the three other Southwest teams to claim a bid to the D-III College Championships.

Women’s D-III

No tournament scheduled.