Notable upsets put a bow on the second week of conferences; regionals await!
April 22, 2024 by Bridget Mizener in Preview, Recap with 0 comments
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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.
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The second weekend of the college postseason played out with Sectionals Conferences1 across the country.
For major Nationals-bound programs it’s a time to avoid turbulence (which some did more successfully than others), but for many teams this weekend was the main event. Games-to-go to Regionals in the 5th place bracket, budding programs taking their first baby steps towards competitiveness, an ambitious college captain scrapping 12 players together, dragging a program to their first ever Series appearance.
Dive into scorereporter today and you can sense the scale of the largely anonymous human enterprise that goes into college frisbee. Teams you’ve never heard of living and dying over backdoor semis against a school you’ve only heard of because you saw an ad for it on a bus stop bench. Many college frisbee careers around the country ended over the weekend. We won’t ever know their names. Let’s pour one out regardless.
For all of the Regionals qualifiers, check out our thread of Conferences results. For a little flavor on some of the notable happens over the weekend, see below.
D-I Women’s Division
Tea Spilled in Boston
#18 Northeastern took down #7 Tufts to win the Metro Boston Conference crown on universe, 11-10. It’s redemption and a bit of a shock for Northeastern, for whom Tufts has been a bit of a bogeyman recently. The Valks were buried by Tufts 15-7 just three weeks ago at ECI, and hadn’t notched a win over Ewo as a program since 2016.2 It’s surely a memorable moment for the Valks upperclassmen, but the real treat comes later. We’re all but guaranteed to get a rematch at Regionals for all the marbles — the two programs are on a collision course where the winner will claim the second and final bid out of New England.
Ohio’s Valley
The Ohio University Stacked Cats prevailed at a very breezy Ohio Conferences to notch their fourth title in as many years. #25 Ohio State will fall out of our power rankings after they placed third in the four-team round robin. If you haven’t already, it’s time to start thinking of Ohio as the Stacked Cats’ territory; the dynamic duo of Aaliyah Edwards and Cora Turney powers the team, and they’re just sophomores. Gulp. A hot UPenn team awaits them at Regionals.
Around the Division
- American beat Georgetown 12-9 in the Colonial Conference final. The Dirty Ladies will look to repeat last year’s impressive run at Atlantic Coast Regionals, where they made it to second-place semis.
- William & Mary upset Virginia handily, 10-5 — in their namesake conference, no less — en route to going undefeated in the five-team round robin and taking the Virginia Conference crown.
- Vermont’s B and C teams finished first and second in the New England Dev Conferences. The fact that Vermont can field three teams is impressive; the fact they’re all going to D-I regionals is impressive-er.
- SUNY-Binghamton dominated at Western NY Conferences, giving up nine points over three games. With results like that, they’re well-positioned to get out of the Metro East as regional favorites.
D-I Men’s Division
Pitt, Penn State Prepared for Regionals
#3 Pittsburgh En Sabah Nur took care of business at West Penn Conferences, capping their weekend with a 15-12 win over #18 Penn State Spank for the latest in their decade-plus streak of conference titles. Pitt broke twice in the first four points of the game and never looked back, though given the score line was the same as their win over UNC at Easterns three weeks ago, it’s likely Pitt’s focus is on bigger things. Spank, meanwhile, have to be feeling good about their Easterns performance too — that strength bid will come in handy at Regionals.
JMU Jumps Over the Field
Four-seed James Madison Hellfish leapfrogged the competition to win Virginia Conferences for the first time in eight years, sealing the deal with a 14-10 final win over Virginia. The Hellfish got it done in their three games, edging one-seed William & Mary 11-10 and Liberty 11-9. The win is revenge for last year, when Virginia knocked JMU out in the conference semifinal on universe point.
Around the Division
- One-seed Maryland got it done at Colonial Conferences, beating Georgetown 14-10 in the final. They got it going after a slow start, surviving UMBC 12-11 in their first Saturday game.
- North Carolina B split games with Virginia Tech B, but won the one that mattered to claim the Southern Atlantic Coast Dev title. BatCH bounced back from a 10-9 loss in pool play to outpace VT 15-11 in the first place game. Both teams, along with Virginia B, JMU B, and NC State B, advance to AC Regionals.
- Ottawa followed up regular-season wins over conference opponents with three more, winning Western NY Conferences 14-8 over Cornell. They’d beaten SUNY Binghamton twice and Syracuse once at Carousel City Classic in March; the Gee-Gees beat both teams again en route to the final.
- Ohio State rebounded after a 0-7 Easterns just three weeks ago and had a much better start to their postseason, going 6-0 and winning Ohio Conferences with a 15-11 finals victory over Cincinnati.
- Penn State B and Pittsburgh B punched their tickets to Regionals at Ohio Valley Dev, distancing themselves from the field by running up a combined score of 67-8 in games not against each other. They played a nailbiter of a final — Penn State came out on top, 15-14, but Pittsburgh easily punched their ticket to OV Regionals with a 15-3 game-to-go win over Case Western Reserve B.
D-III Women’s Division
- Rochester dominated Western NY to win their first conference title since 2021.3 They swept the four-team round robin with a combined score line of 31-9.
- The #19 Wellesley Whiptails took care of business in the Metro Boston Conference, going 3-0 and repeating their regular season win over Brandeis.
- It was a great weekend for Cedarville ultimate across divisions. Queen Bee took down Kenyon with a commanding 15-6 victory en route to claiming the top spot at Ohio Conferences.
D-III Men’s Division
Richmond Survives in Atlantic Coast
This recap was contributed by Calvin Ciorba, who attended AC ConfRegionals.
Things got messy at Atlantic Coast ConfRegionals, where five ranked teams slugged it out for a single bid to Nationals. At the end of the day, however, top-seeded Richmond got it done on universe point.
The #7 Richmond Spidermonkeys defeated #16 Davidson DUFF 13-12 on universe point in the game-to-go. Despite the tight score line, the teams’ paths to the final couldn’t have been more different. Up to that point Richmond had rolled every team, while Davidson almost didn’t make it out of quarterfinals when #23 UNC Asheville forced universe point before dropping a disc in the end zone, opening the door for a Davidson miracle. DUFF went on to upset two-seed Elon in the semifinal by playing much more disciplined ultimate, before falling to Richmond in the final, a team they lost to 11-4 the previous day. This is Richmond’s eighth regional title since 2014.
Top-to-Bottom Madness in Ohio
Talk about a shakeup. #13 Cedarville Swarm upset #6 Franciscan Fatal 13-8 en route to winning the Ohio Conferences round robin. Meanwhile, #15 Oberlin Flying Horsecows finished last, going 0-4 on the weekend. The chaos of the weekend sets up an absolutely hellish (read: exciting!) Ohio Valley Regionals this coming weekend, where all these teams plus the East Penn contingent will vie for just two bids.
Around the Division
- Claremont and Occidental met again this year in their usual battle at a one-day Southwest ConfRegionals. Claremont overcame last year’s loss and dominated in their 11-5 win, capped by a handblock that floated into a Callahan.
- Rochester rolled SUNY-Cortland 15-6 in the Western NY Conference final — the Piggies cruised through bracket play while Team Rocket had to survive a 11-10 semis nailbiter against Ithaca.
- Brandeis won a five-team Metro Boston tournament that morphed into a last-team-standing affair after Berklee DNFd the game-to-go to the game-to-go and Bentley was disqualified. TRON beat Wentworth in the final 14-8, and Wentworth could not rally in the game-to-go to punch their Regionals ticket, falling 12-8 to Stonehill.
Looking Ahead
It’s regionals time! Bids will be earned and seasons ended over the next two weekends. Be on the lookout for previews of the upcoming tournaments this week as well as a how-to-watch article with details on livestreamed regionals games around the country.
