D-III Women's Rewind: Two Unranked Teams Make the Round of 16

The Sweet 16 is set in the Division III women’s tournament, and there haven’t been any major upsets yet. Five teams that were ranked in the Nike/USA Lacrosse Top 20 to end the regular season are out after two rounds of play, but four of them lost to higher-ranked teams.

Chicago, which finished the regular season at No. 18, lost in the second round to an unranked Denison team coming off an NCAC tournament win. No. 11 Messiah was knocked out by No. 6 TCNJ. Roanoke, ranked No. 15, dropped a narrow 16-14 loss to No. 8 Franklin & Marshall despite being down seven going into the fourth quarter. Geneseo, which was No. 20 in the last Top 20, fell to No. 1 Middlebury, and No. 19 Stevens was defeated by No. 10 York.

Middlebury and William Smith, the top-ranked teams in Division III, remain unbeaten and meet stiffer competition in the Round of 16 on Saturday, with the Panthers facing Trinity (Conn.) and the Herons set to play St. John Fisher.

BIGGEST SURPRISE

Denison advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16 for the fifth season in a row, but it did not appear poised for such a run even a week ago after winning the North Coast Athletic Conference.

Chicago had beaten Denison 20-9 in the second game of the season, and the Maroons ended up with a 16-2 record going into the NCAA tournament, while the Big Red were just 10-9.

Although Chicago wasn’t the strongest team in the field, the Maroons certainly had the better resume going into the second-round meeting with Denison. Chicago took a 3-0 lead but ended up having to come from behind to force overtime, and in the third extra period, Denison got the winner from Merrill Rollhaus in a woman-up situation with eight seconds left.

Denison’s NCAC title run pushed the Big Red above .500 and earned them an automatic bid into the tournament. They beat Hope 18-10 in the first round. Now comes a bigger challenge with Franklin & Marshall up next.

BEST GAME

In a back-and-forth second-round game, Trinity edged MIT 11-10 on Lily Ives’ goal with 2:44 left.

MIT earned a free-position shot about a minute later, but Ali Macdougall made the save. The Engineers then forced a turnover in their offensive end, but the Bantams got the ball back with about 40 seconds left on Molly Broderick’s caused turnover, and Trinity was able to run out the clock.

The game had been close throughout, with the Bantams owning the largest lead on a three-goal streak that put them up 9-6 with 8:57 left in the third period. MIT had been ahead 5-3 to end the first period, but Trinity went on a 6-1 run to briefly swing the game before the Engineers went on a 4-1 run to tie it up at 10 with 4:50 remaining.

Ives goal came two minutes later. It was her 51st of the season.

Ashley Thomas finished with four goals and three assists to lead MIT, while Molly McGuckin led Trinity’s attack with two goals and two assists, including one on the pass to set up Ives’ lone goal for the winner.

BEST INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCES

There were some high-scoring games in the first two rounds, and a few big individual performances stood out, but Katie Clark’s four goals and four assists probably made the biggest impact on her team’s first-round win.

The junior directly contributed to eight of Mount Union’s 13 goals, including scoring or assisting on three of her team’s final four, to lead the Purple Raiders to a 13-11 victory over Aurora. She put four of her five shots on frame and scored on all of those, and she also added a ground ball. Mount Union exited in the next round with a 14-3 loss to St. John Fisher.

At least two other players contributed eight points or more in tournament games this past week. Margie Carden tallied seven goals and three assists in Tuft’s 24-10 win over Cortland in the second round, and Giana Bruno had one goal and eight assists in Colby’s 20-8 victory over Babson in the second round.

Caroline O’Dea had 14 saves in Denison’s second-round win over Chicago while allowing just nine goals.

BY THE NUMBERS

18

The largest margin of victory in games last week came from two first-round games, as SUNY Geneseo topped SUNY Canton 22-4 and Trinity (Conn.) rolled to a 22-4 win over Plymouth State.

5

Games decided by two goals or less. Stevens played in two of those, beating Scranton 7-5 in the first round before falling 8-6 to York in the second round. Mount Union beat Aurora 13-11 in the first round, and two second-round games were decided by one goal, including Denison’s 10-9 win over Chicago and Trinity’s 11-10 victory over MIT.

24

The highest goal total from the first two rounds happened in two games, as Tufts beat Cortland 24-10 and Pomona-Pitzer topped George Fox 24-7.

1

William Smith nearly had a shutout, allowing just one goal in a second-round win over Rhodes. Maura Smeader and Madison Dicks combined for seven saves in the 17-1 victory.

2

The number of unranked teams left. Kenyon, which faces Pomona-Pitzer in the Sweet 16, was ranked earlier this season but dropped out after losing to Denison in the NCAC final. Denison, which was ranked in the preseason but fell out after a 1-4 start and continued struggles, plays Franklin & Marshall.