First-year Grand Canyon is a Gold Coast contender. /// Photo: Gabriela Lim •
With the exception of the Capital conference, which qualified for nationals in the fall, all of the leagues building toward the DII college spring championship are in motion this weekend. Below is a review of where each competition stands and what’s on this weekend.
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CASCADES
Forfeits continue to stagger the pace of the conference, and leader Western Washington will have to go another week without a game after Seattle and now Reed fail to play on back-to-back weekends. Attention will focus on the Feb. 25 match between Western Washington and Western Oregon.
CAROLINAS
Coastal Carolina (2-0) turned heads with a 20-17 win over College of Charleston (1-2) to kick off the league season and followed with a 62-point victory over Western Carolina (0-3). Coastal takes on Elon (0-2) this Saturday. The Citadel (1-1) took a forfeit from UNC Greensboro (0-1) last weekend and now plays Univ. South Carolina (1-0) Saturday. The Gamecocks challenged themselves against DII senior club Charlotte last weekend. UNC Wilmington (2-0) has defeated the Citadel and Elon, and lines up against Appalachian State (1-0), which shut out Western Carolina last weekend.
Elon (0-2) v Coastal Carolina (2-0)
Citadel (1-1) v Univ. South Carolina (2-0)
UNC Wilmington (2-0) v App State (1-0)
FLORIDA
The four-team league has seen its share of forfeits this year, too. Eckerd is 3-0 and appears to be in good shape and took a forfeit win from Florida Atlantic last week. The two are supposed to play again on Saturday.
GOLD COAST
This conference looks nothing like last year, making it a fun follow. The game of the weekend and perhaps the season thus far occurred between Claremont (3-0) and Grand Canyon (2-1). The Foxes kept its undefeated record intact with a 17-12 win, but that victory didn’t come until the 77th minute. What’s interesting is that Claremont is an NSCRO school and will follow the small-school post-season provided it wins its game against Occidental (also NSCRO) on Saturday.
UC Irvine (3-0) leads the standings and will travel to first-year program Grand Canyon this weekend. And while we’re hyped up for this weekend’s games, there are still three rounds of play that will end on March 18.
MID-AMERICA
Speaking of a totally new conference, Mid-America has expanded into East and West pools, and has absorbed teams like Kansas State (4-0), which long competed in Mid-America’s DII senior club division. The first half of the season was contested in the fall and now the spring season picks up.
The West’s top-two teams – Kansas State and John Brown (4-1) – play this weekend. In the team’s fall meeting, Kansas State triumphed 54-5, but John Brown is coming off a 97-0 victory over Benedictine (which hosts Arkansas [2-2] Saturday).
In the East, undefeated Missouri and Central Missouri compete. In the teams’ November match, Mizzou triumphed 42-7.
SIRC
(schedule)
Except for the Central pool, this weekend is the final round for league matches. Central’s Georgia Tech (1-0) and North Georgia (0-1) will play its final matrix match on Feb. 25, and then crossover quarterfinals – where the top-two teams from each division – will be held on March 4. The SIRC final four is March 18-19.
Feb 18-19 matches:
Central: UT Chattanooga (1-0) v Arkansas St (0-1)
East: Emory (0-2) v Georgia (1-1)
East: Georgia Southern (1-1) v Clemson (2-0)
Central: Kennesaw St. (2-0) v Georgia Tech (1-0)
Central: North Georgia (0-1) v UT Knoxville (0-2)
West: Tulane (2-0) v Spring Hill College (1-1)
West: Louisiana St. (0-2) v Alabama (1-1)
WEST COAST
The conference’s two pools contested their respective matches in the fall. The top-two teams then moved into a Cup competition for the New Year, while the bottom-two from each pool continued the season in the Plate division.
Santa Clara (2-0)* and Fresno State (2-0) have clinched their spots in the Cup championship (March 11 @ Cal Maritime Academy) and will gauge each other Feb. 25 as a formality. The Plate division is still vulnerable, and this weekend’s St. Mary’s vs. CSU Monterey Bay will be influential.
* Records reflect Cup and Plate matches only, not fall matches