College action continues to excite and impress as the first two months of competition wrap up
February 26, 2024 by Alex Rubin in News, Preview, Recap with 0 comments
Ultiworld’s coverage of the 2024 college season is presented by Spin Ultimate; all opinions are those of the author(s). Find out how Spin can get you, and your team, looking your best this season.
Throughout the spring season, we’ll publishing a bite-sized weekly recap of the action across the college division. This will serve as a supplement to our standard tournament reporting and offer a high-level look at the latest happenings and the biggest stories of the week.
Want your tournament listed? Submit a recap of what happened right here.
D-I Women’s Division
Tufts Win Commonwealth Cup
Through a roller coaster of an undefeated weekend, #7 Tufts Ewo emerged as Commonwealth Cup Weekend 2 champs. Close games against #21 Georgia (in pool play) and Pennsylvania (in semis) sprinkled in around dominant results like a bagel of Massachusetts in prequarters. Coming in as the ninth seed, #22 Michigan Flywheel swept their way to the final before succumbing to Tufts. For more insight you can read our Day One and Day Two coverage, as well as the finals recap below.
Commonwealth Cup II Women’s Final Recap
Elsewhere in the Division
- Central Florida came away the undefeated victors at Mardi Gras. Despite a roster of just ten players, the Sirens allowed only 13 points across seven games–nearly half of them coming in the 8-6 final win over Trinity.
- Top seeded Tennessee won their home tournament, The Only Tenn I See Memorial Tournament, but faced a surprise opponent in the final. Alabama-Huntsville upset Tennessee during pool play and rolled through the other side of the bracket to make the final where Tennessee reversed that result.
- Oregon State defended their three seed at PLU Womens BBQ, romping D-III’s Pacific Lutheran 12-1 in pool play before securing a nice 9-6 win over Throbots in the third place game in a tighter rematch of their pool play face off.
- West Chester was the wrong end of a 1-1 split with D-III’s Rochester away from making the final at Bring the Huckus. Their undefeated run with wins over Syracuse and Boston University was cut short by the EZ Women in semis, 10-8.
Looking Ahead
Stanford Invite will draw most of the division’s attention next weekend with several top teams expected to be in action out in Stevinson. Ultiworld will have streamed coverage of the event. It is also quite a busy weekend for regional action as well as No Sleep Till Brooklyn, Midwest Throwdown, Philly Special, Snow Melt, Grand Northeast Kickoff, Florida Spring Showcase, SouthHill Slam, Huckleberry Flick, and the Cherry Blossom Classic all take place during March’s opening weekend.
D-I Men’s Division
Easterns Field Set After Wilmington Wins EQ
UNC Wilmington emerged victorious at Easterns Qualifier after going undefeated in pool play and storming through a bracket of contenders by taking down UNC Charlotte, Penn State, and South Carolina on Sunday. Notably, the Seamen accomplished all of this without center handler Diego Collazo thanks to an off-the-charts weekend from fellow sophomore Christian Belus. As tournament hosts, Wilmington already had a bid to Easterns secured, so the remaining bids went to second place finisher South Carolina and third place #18 Penn State. Wilmington’s semifinal victory over Penn State comes with a hint of revenge, as Spank won their previous meetings at Carolina Kickoff and QCTU earlier this season. Check out the Easterns Qualifier Men’s Final Recap below.
Easterns Qualifier Men’s Final Recap
Elsewhere in the Division
- Tulane won Mardi Gras and the King Cake that come with it, taking down Tennessee-Chattanooga in the final.
- Miami made the final at Florida Warm Up Weekend 2, but fell to D-III Ave Maria by identical 13-7 scores in pool play and the final.
- Vermont B beat a D-III heavy field at Bring the Huckus. Score one for the developmental division!
- Clemson beat South Florida to win Joint Summit. Clemson lost to Alabama-Birmingham in Saturday’s opening round before running the table the rest of the weekend.
- Washington State avenged a pool play loss to Gonzaga in the final to win the Palouse Open.1
- Villanova beat Virginia Commonwealth to win Monument Melee. Their 15-4 quarterfinal win over Drexel is an important sectional data point as well. Nobody went undefeated on the weekend as both finalists took losses during pool play. Georgetown B won the developmental end of the tournament, taking down George Washington B in the final.
Looking Ahead
The top end of the men’s division descends on Knoxville, Tennessee this weekend for the Smoky Mountain Invite. Many of the top East Coast teams (10 of Ultiworld’s top 12!) will be in attendance including #5 Colorado as well as #22 UCLA making the trip from the west coast. Stanford Invite will play host to the remaining top West Coast teams. It is quite a busy weekend for regional action as well as No Sleep Till Brooklyn, Midwest Throwdown, Philly Special, Snow Melt, Grand Northeast Kickoff, Oak Creek Challenge, The Dayton Ultimate Disc Experience (The DUDE), PLU Mens BBQ, and the Black Warrior Classic are all on the schedule this weekend.
D-III Women’s Division
Around the Division
- Trinity made the final at Mardi Gras, losing to UCF twice on the weekend, but taking down D-I opponents like Boston College, Tulane, and LSU along the way.
- #3 Portland won all of their games to take first place PLU Womens BBQ. Their closest matchups were against Puget Sound; no other team scored more than four against them. Puget Sound won all of their other games.
- Haverford/Bryn Mawr took home a tournament title at Bring the Huckus with a 15-5 win over Rochester in the final capping off an undefeated weekend. Lehigh lost to H/BM in pool play 10-3 to set an early Ohio Valley pecking order.
- Union lost by one point to hosts Tennessee at The Only Tenn I See Memorial Tournament, but were otherwise undefeated on the weekend including a 15-3 romp over Tennessee-Chattanooga in the 3rd place game.
Looking Ahead
Though there are no D-III specific events this weekend, we can expect a smattering of divisional representation at D-I regional events like Midwest Throwdown (#4 St. Olaf, Truman State, and Knox) and Snow Melt (#7 Colorado College). It’s finally warmed up enough that we’ll get a look at New England teams in #5 Williams, #8 Wellesley, #10 Mount Holyoke, #16 Bates and #21 Wesleyan at No Sleep Till Brooklyn.
Keep an eye on Philly Special, Grand Northeast Kickoff, Florida Spring Showcase, SouthHill Slam, Huckleberry Flick, and the Cherry Blossom Classic as those team lists have not yet been publicly announced.
D-III Men’s Division
Around the Division
- Ave Maria won Florida Warm Up Weekend 2 while allowing just 22 points across six games. They beat D-I Miami in the final.
- None of the D-III teams went undefeated at Bring the Huckus, but Colby made it to the final. Haverford and Stevens Tech also fell to eventual tournament champions Vermont B along the way.
- Whitworth made a respectable showing against D-I competition at the Palouse Open. They went 2-2 in pool play and lost to eventual champions Washington State in the semifinal.
- Spring Hill made the bracket at Mardi Gras with an upset win over Mississippi State before losing out – including a one-point loss to Sam Houston – to finish 12th. Trinity notched a win on Texas Tech but couldn’t replicate the success against Mississippi State, falling to 16th.
Looking Ahead
It is one of the best weekends of the year in the D-III men’s division. FCS D-III Tune Up hosts #3 Richmond, #9 Berry, #11 Lewis & Clark, #12 Whitman, #13 Oberlin, #15 Elon, #17 Missouri S&T, #18 Navy, #19 Kenyon, #21 Xavier, #22 Davidson, #23 Cedarville, and others like recently ranked Michigan Tech. Tournament Director and Ultiworld D-III Editor Emeritus Michael Ball set up match play so that no team will play an opponent from their region and every team is playing against at least three different regions, which will help build connectivity into the rankings.
Out west, PLU Mens BBQ will host Portland, Whitworth, Reed, Puget Sound, and Pacific Lutheran. Colby is playing back to back weekends and will be at Grand Northeast Kickoff. We’ll get some Central connectivity at Midwest Throwdown with #6 St. Olaf, #8 Carleton CHOP, #14 Truman State, #16 Grinnell, Knox, and Macalester. #2 Colorado College and #10 Colorado School of Mines will look to heat things up at Snow Melt. And we’ll finally get to see #1 Middlebury in action at No Sleep Till Brooklyn alongside #5 Williams.
If you’re as curious as I was when I read the tournament name, Palouse is the region along the Snake River in Western Idaho/Eastern Washington ↩
