Only twelve teams can advance to Sunday’s bracket, leaving the teams who missed out to ponder what might have been.
May 26, 2024 by Alex Rubin and Bridget Mizener in Recap with 0 comments
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A long, wonderful day of ultimate concluded the pool play portion of the D-I College Championships. With upsets affecting seven of the eight pools, nearly every team at the field complex found a taste of success. However, only the top three finishers from each pool can advance, which leaves out a few teams who won at least the love and affection of adoring fans, if not maybe a game or two.
Oregon State Beavers
One does not just simply beat Brown at Nationals. Though UNC is thought of as the dominant team of the last half-decade, Brown has been right up there at the top in the men’s division since their 2019 title. Yet, in their fourth game of the day, in a game Brown legitimately wanted to win, Oregon State was unfazed by their opponents and pulled out their seventh straight double game point victory of the weekend. The Beavers also beat Alabama-Huntsville and carried a second half lead against UNC. Nobody is mistaking them for a title contender — yet — but they had a legitimate chance at earning a bracket win and it’s sad we’ll have to wait until next season to see that possibility play out.
“We know we can compete with anyone,” Forrest Vargyas said. “The first couple points of the UNC game when we scored first then we broke,” Ben Thoennes said, “that was the moment that it clicked that we can hang with the best.” Oregon State brings back most of their team next season and will surely bring lessons learned from this iteration of the team’s first taste of Nationals into that experience.
Georgia Athena
D-I College Championships 2024: Heartbreak Hotel – Six Teams Who Deserved to Make the Bracket is only available to Ultiworld Subscribers
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