Virginia’s Andrew Braff (left) won a critical early victory over Ricardo Machado of Franklin & Marshall at the No. 8 position in a tense 5-4 victory for the Cavaliers (photo credit: Michael T. Bello)
The CSA Men’s Team National Championships kicked off at three locations on Friday with action across seven divisions. Follow full results and play throughout the weekend at the Tournament Page, including live streaming and live scores through Club Locker.
Potter Division
The opening wave of Potter Division matches featured the 3-vs-6 and 2-vs-7 matches of Trinity against Columbia and Rochester against Princeton, respectively. For the second time this season, Trinity squeezed out a 5-4 victory over Columbia. Trinity’s commanding wins at positions 4, 5, 7, and 9 were backed by a testy 5-game victory for the Bantams’ No. 3, Tom De Mulder. Princeton grabbed a win in each of the first two waves of matches, but Rochester shut the door with three wins in the final wave to win 7-2.
Top seed Harvard met Dartmouth in the first round while Penn and Yale were set for another battle between conference foes in the 4-vs-5 match-up. The higher seeds held their position in resounding fashion with 7-2 victory for Harvard and an 8-1 win for Penn.
Hoehn Division
As advertised, there was no shortage of drama across all four Hoehn Division quarterfinals. Each of the four matches ended in a 5-4 scoreline, with three of the four only decided by the last match. The first wave had both sides of Yale’s Brady Center rocking with 4-4 scores between George Washington and Western Ontario and also St. Lawrence and Cornell. GW scored the biggest upset of the day when they pulled out the victory, while St. Lawrence held on for the semifinal berth.
The energy stayed up for two Mid-Atlantic rivalries in the second wave. Drexel repeated their victory over Navy from a week ago, clinching the vital fifth win early only to see Navy close the gap at the No. 1 position. Top seed in the division, Virginia, met Franklin & Marshall for the third time this season after playing to two hard fought 5-4 victories earlier in the year. This match was no different, this time with Virginia’s No. 4 Toby Hansford pulling out the fifth victory for the Cavaliers.
Summers Division
The Summers Division played out according to the seeding during the day’s first wave of matches. The top two seeds – Williams and Middlebury – looked strong in clear 9-0 victories over Tufts and Bowdoin, respectively. Brown and MIT clinched semifinal berths with identical 6-3 scorelines. Amherst and Bates pushed both of those teams early in the matches, but the seeds held true as the top four in the division will challenge for the trophy on the weekend.
Conroy Division
The match of the night in the Conroy Division involved two local rivals who know each other very well, Connecticut College and Wesleyan. Conn won the early season match-up but Wesleyan scored an upset victory earlier this month during the NESCAC Championships. In the rubber match on Friday evening, the back-and-forth affair came down to the last two matches on court. Wesleyan’s No. 7 Peter Delalio won handily in 3 games to keep Wesleyan’s chances alive, but Conn’s No. 4 James Andrew clinched the team victory soon thereafter with a 3-1 triumph.
The top two seeds in the division, Dickinson and Colby, handled tests from the top ranked club teams in the Championships, Stanford and Bucknell. In the Hobart-Haverford match, Haverford scored its lone point during the first wave thanks to No. 6 Alex Liu, but it was all Hobart the rest of the way in an 8-1 victory.
Chaffee Division
Moving over to the action at Wesleyan University, top seed Cal-Berkeley dispatch Bard 8-1, while Hamilton handled an upstart Georgetown squad by a 7-2 score in the 3-vs-6 match with three 5-game victories. Speaking of upstarts, the 7-seed NYU team put a scare in 2-seed Fordham, taking four of the top five positions on the ladder. Unfortunately, a retirement by NYU’s No. 2 player ultimately gave Fordham the points it needed to secure the victory.
In another close tie that came down to the final match on court, the 5-seed Northeastern Huskies clinched the upset win over University of Chicago. Northeastern’s No. 4 Ben Rush got the match-winning point in three games over Chicago’s William Yee.
Serues Division
The seeds held true to form during the second half of the day at Wesleyan, with the four top teams cruising to victories by scores no closer that 6-3. That 6-3 contest was a rematch of Boston College and Northwestern from a few weeks ago, and BC affirmed the earlier result with another win with a semifinal berth on the line. Top seed Washington University in St. Louis, Denison, and Richmond will be the other teams vying for the Serues Championship.
Hawthorn Division
With eleven teams in the Hawthorn Division, only the lower six seeds had a match on Friday evening. The sixth and seventh seeds, Vassar and William & Mary, performed to expectations with relatively smooth victories. Swarthmore, the 9-seed, however, showed that they have something to prove with a resounding 9-0 win over 8-seed Indiana. Losing teams Indiana, Johns Hopkins, and Siena will enter a three-way round robin played out tomorrow at Chelsea Piers CT, while winners will fill in the traditional eight-team bracket, which starts first thing tomorrow.
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