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This year’s College Terminus ended with some disappointment after Sunday games were canceled due to poor field conditions. Saturday showed a few upsets and some great play before the last of the pool play games were postponed due to thunderstorms. Teams that walk away from Terminus happy are Tufts and Stanford, both who won their pools. Unfortunately, both Ohio University and Ohio State lost games to drop from the top of their pools, hurting the Ohio Valley’s chances of securing an extra bid for the College Championships.
Pool A
On Saturday, Pool A had plenty of action as top-seeded Tufts struggled with slow starts. Though they beat Kennesaw State handily in their first game, Tufts fell behind early as Middlebury took half against them 7-3. After this, Tufts captain Alex Cooper explained that it was great playing and tough defense that helped them come back to win the game 15-13. Lloyd Olsen made big athletic plays in the last two points of the game and Kyle Nichols-Schmolze successfully shut down Middlebury’s main handler late in the game. Middlebury would lose another close game later that day. On universe point, Washington University would beat them on a stall-nine huck to win 15-14. Tufts would go on to beat Alabama 13-8, pulling away after a slow first half, and led Washington University 7-5 before the game was called off.
Pool B
Stanford continued to improve this season by beating Ohio University and claiming the pool. Stanford’s second game against Ohio saw Ohio receive the pull to start but fall behind a break with Stanford taking half 7-6. Stanford would take a few more breaks in the second half with Ohio getting none. Stanford’s Nick Greenfield said that both teams played with great athleticism, but Stanford’s ability to make great defensive plays on deep hucks was the difference. Stanford went on to beat Williams 13-5 and UNC-Wilmington 11-9. Kellen Asercion from Stanford had a fantastic day, according to teammate Nick Greenfield. Kellen, at 5’5” and 120 lbs, is the one short guy on a tall offensive line. Yet Kellen dominated on offense, continuously beating his defender deep for scores.
Ohio’s last game of the day against UNC-Wilmington was postponed at 9-9, due to lightning. Ohio captain Andrew Ball said, “The tie versus Wilmington left a bad tast in our mouth and not being able to finish that game is a letdown.” Ohio can take solace in some great play by a few new players. “Freshman Logan Kruger started his first tournament on our O-line and made an impact early and helped solidify the unit after a rough outing at Easterns,” says Andrew. “Also, Sophomore Connor Haley had some impressive plays and started to blossom a bit with the disc on the D line this weekend.”
Pool C
Ohio State did not fare much better than their rival OU. Georgia Tech would beat them 13-9 in their second game of the day. Central Florida claimed the pool, going 3-0 and finishing the day tied with OSU 7-7 before the weather stopped the game.
Pool D
The last pool ended with each team taking a loss and no clear winner. Top-seeded Illinois lost 11-13 to Georgia. Second-seed Dartmouth would fall to North Carolina 10-13 in their first game. Yet Dartmouth would hand Georgia a loss, 13-10. Dartmouth and Illinois never played each other due to weather, so each of the top-3 teams had a loss and the pool was a mess.
After the thunderstorms rolled in on Saturday, the final pool-play games were postponed until Sunday morning at 8 am. Yet at 4:00 am Sunday morning, the tournament director sent out an e-mail letting teams know the fields were no longer usable. While some teams like Tufts woke up at 6 am and simply drove home, others weren’t so lucky.
Heart Warming Story of the Weekend
Earlier this year at the Stanford Invite, Stanford showed some host-team hospitality on Sunday to a Tufts team looking for an extra game. Tufts was supposed to play Whitman, who had forfeited due to too many injuries and total exhaustion. Tufts had come all the way from New England and just wished they could play another game. Though Stanford had beaten them, they graciously allowed Tufts to move on and play San Diego State in the 9th place game.
It appears their hospitality has been paid back. After finding out that Sunday’s games had been cancelled, Stanford had nothing to look forward to until their 7 pm flights home that night. Luckily, Georgia Tech was willing to help find another venue and hosted a game on their practice field. Stanford was very grateful and got in some good unofficial play on Sunday.
Women’s
The Women’s division showed all 4 top-seeds (Middlebury, Georgia, Williams, and North Carolina State) winning their respective pools. Georgia kicked some major butt, beating Tennessee 15-3 and South Carolina 15-2. North Carolina State also had a successful day, outscoring their opponents 30-10.
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