After last week’s games, one team falls off the DII Spring College Ranking, while another team joins it.
Rankings leader Salisbury is idle and won’t play another game until March 28 against DI UVA. The Maryland side will then tune up against Vassar College on April 12 and then its spring regionals. Capital conference mate William & Mary was removed from the rankings after voting to abstain from spring regionals this year. The team had just been informed that it would need to contest a play-in match instead of receiving a direct berth like previous years (insinuating a different, perhaps smaller, bracket this year), and the team opted out of that pathway. Stay tuned for more from William & Mary president Carter Helmandollar.
Joining the rankings is Georgia Tech, which is now 3-0 in the South Independent Rugby Conference. The team had won its opener 30-12 on the road (and with fewer than 15 players) against UT Chattanooga, and then its double-header last weekend agianst Kennesaw State and UGA. The Bulldogs also played a double-header, posting a big win against UTC and then dropping a narrow five-point decision on Sunday. The 1-2 records sees UGA slide a bit, and Alabama moved down to make room for the more active Georgia Tech and Pittsburg State.
The Mid-America leader shut out Truman State in a non-league match and will roll that momentum into this weekend’s matrix match against Mizzou. Senior center Sara Dressler scored three tries, freshman wing Abbi Evans scored two, while sophomore no. 8 Mauresa Caire, sophomore wing Aaliyah Kerr and freshman fullback Hannah Reynolds added one apiece in Saturday’s win.
Claremont closed out league play with a 47-5 win against second-place Long Beach State, and head coach Roger Light confirmed that the 49ers were the Foxes’ toughest in-season competition. Stay tuned for an interview with Light. There was really no place to move Long Beach, as the rankings aren’t fond of moving teams during their idle weeks (unless the inactivity has added up), and the 49ers have actually played five games this years – unless other teams whose records are pumped up with forfeit wins.
Inarguably, the most interesting match was the Eckerd vs. UCF DII game. Both teams scored two tries, and a conversion was the difference in the decision. UCF is a DI program, and these games in the DII Florida league will only aid depth, while the Sirens will be happy for the competition given Florida Gulf Coast’s removal. Stay tuned for more details on both squads.
