SIRC has two reps at the Spring Final Four
Four teams remain in the hunt for the Womens’ DII College Spring Championship now that the Round of 16 and quarterfinals have been contested. The spring semifinals and final will be played on April 22-23 at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif. The spring champion will then face fall champion Davenport University on May 6 in Marietta, Ga., for the national title.
READ MORE: Spring Championship Bracket • Women’s Rugby Results: April 8-9 • Spring Championship Starts With Asterisk
The best way to revisit the action is to update the rankings, which now only include the post-season teams. While squads like Long Beach State and Clemson have a place among the ranked teams, they’re just not involved in these double-header crossover matches, which lend a lot of insight into a team’s depth and talent. The lone exception is Eastern Washington, which wasn’t present on the rankings prior to the spring playoffs, lost two big games, and thus wasn’t added.
Saturday’s Spring Round of 16 saw six games occur and all but one produced a lopsided result. First-year program Grand Canyon University and Cascade champion Western Washington played the tightest match of the day, entering halftime tied at 5 apiece. The Lopes then made better use of their scoring opportunities to pull out a 29-5 win, setting up a quarterfinal match-up with West Coast champion Fresno State. The Bulldogs defeated Eastern Washington 62-10, with flyhalf Jenna Balestra scoring three of her five tries on the weekend, and scrumhalf Moriah Halteman dotting down three of her four tries over two games.
On Sunday, Fresno State took a 14-10 lead at the half, but once again, Grand Canyon ramped it up in the second half. With 10 minutes remaining, the score sat at 22-21 to the Lopes, and three tries followed – two to Grand Canyon, one to Fresno State: 36-28 to the Arizona squad.
That same drama was replicated in Spartanburg, S.C. First up was Tulane vs. South Carolina in Sunday’s quarterfinal. Both teams produced big wins on Saturday: The Green Wave bettered Capital champion Towson 55-27, while the Gamecocks beat Florida’s Eckerd 62-10. On Sunday, the reigning spring champion took a 10-point lead before the local side rallied with two tries of their own, 12-10 to USC. One more try and a gritty defense saw Tulane hold on for a 15-12. The Louisiana school is the only returner from the 2016 Spring Final Four, and Tulane will play Grand Canyon in Palo Alto, Calif.
Kansas State vs. Kennesaw State followed with an equal amount of suspense. The Mid-America champion, which had defeated Capital runner-up Mary Washington 66-17 on Saturday, led Kennesaw State for much of the match, at times by double digits. The South Independent Rugby Conference (SIRC) champion, which had topped UNC Charlotte 101-24 in the Spring Round of 16, then surged and overturned the lead, 33-30 to Kennesaw State. Remember that the Lady Owls had won the SIRC title with a game-ending try against Tulane. The conference now has two representatives in California on April 22-23.
Kennesaw State will play Gold Coast champion UC Irvine, which defeated West Coast runner-up Santa Clara 30-17 on Saturday. The two California schools received byes through the Round of 16 and contested their quarterfinal on Saturday. Fullback Elona Williams scored five tries in the win.
The Rugby Breakdown will be reporting live from the DII College Spring Championship at Stanford, which will also be hosting one pool from the Women’s DI College Spring Playoffs that weekend.
