Princeton, NJ and Philadelphia, PA — The atmosphere is electric at the 2012 Men’s National Team Championships.
Potter Cup (A Division): It took almost three and a half hours, but Princeton clinched a spot in the 2012 Potter Cup finals with a win over a game Cornell squad. The stands were packed with fans, families, and alumni, and the two teams put on a great show, with most matches going to four and five games. UPDATE: The final match score was 7-2, Princeton.
Princeton will face the winner of the Trinity-Harvard match in the finals, while Cornell will play the loser for the 3-4 spot.
Hoehn Cup (B Division): Columbia upset Navy to advance to the semifinals, and the Lions are on a roll: they upset second-seeded Williams 5-4, thanks in part to a clutch win 11-9 from #2 Tony Zou in the fifth game. Other Columbia wins came from Ramit Tandon at #1, Graham Miao at #3, Kyul Rhee at #5, and Theo Buchsbaum at #9.
The action in the other half of the bracket was even more suspenseful. St. Lawrence made it into the semifinals on the back of a five-game win from Chris Fernandez at #4, and the match today against Penn again came down to the wire, with the team match tied 4-4 and the #4 match tied 2-2. Fernandez nearly pulled off the upset, but Penn senior co-captain Trevor McGuinness came through for the top-ranked Quakers with an 11-9 win in the fifth. Penn also earned wins from co-captain Thomas Mattsson at #1, Dan Greenberg at #2, John Dudzik at #5, and Jack Maine at #3.
Summers Cup (C Division): The C Division semifinals saw a top seed advance and a seventh seed pull off a significant upset — and both in 5-4 matches.
In a rematch of the 2011 Summers Cup final, George Washington and Bowdoin met in the semifinals. Last season, Bowdoin pulled out a 5-4 win to take the division crown; today GW came out on top and will advance to the final. Posting wins for the Colonials were Islam El-Fiky at #1, Omar Sobhy at #2, Jose Calderon at #4, Sam Ehrlich at #5, and Player Haynes at #7.
Colby is peaking at exactly the right time. Seeded seventh in the division coming into the weekend, the Mules upset Amherst to advance to the semifinals, and they defeated Hamilton today 5-4. (Hamilton had upset Wesleyan yesterday to advance to the semis.) Colby’s wins came from Harry Smith at #1, Will Hochman at #5 (with a 20-18 win in the fifth game), Stephen Carroll at #7, John Eder at #8, and Ben York at #9.
Conroy Cup (D Division): Johns Hopkins advanced to the consolation finals with a 6-3 win over Colgate. Hopkins will play Drexel tomorrow. The D Division main draw matches were scheduled to begin at 3:00 pm.
Chaffee Cup (E Division): The finals for the E Division are now set between Boston College, who won this morning, and Bucknell University. The Bison, who are seeded second, have powered through their half of the bracket. They swept Washington in St. Louis yesterday and had a 7-2 victory over Denison. The 7-2 score is deceptive, though: Denison put up a fight, and three matches went to five games and three others went to four games.
In the consolation bracket, St. Louis won the battle of the Washingtons, defeating UDub 6-3, and Kenyon pulled out a 5-4 win over Vassar. Kenyon and Washington in St. Louis will play in the consolation finals tomorrow.
Serues Cup (F Division): The University of Virginia rolled to the finals with an 8-1 win over Swarthmore, who had upset top-seeded Vanderbilt to make it to the semis. Swarthmore pushed several of the matches to four games. Virginia will face the winner of the Illinois (Champaign)-Haverford match in the finals; that match was scheduled for 3:30 pm. UPDATE: Vanderbilt defeated Lehigh 5-4 to move into the consolation finals.
Hawthorn Cup (G Division): The College of Charleston will play for the Hawthorn Cup thanks to a 7-2 win over Sewanee, who are making their tournament debut this year. The match was incredibly close: all but one match went to four or five games, and the one three-game match went to extra points. Tomorrow Charleston will play the winner of the NYU-BU match, which was scheduled for 3:30 pm this afternoon. UPDATE: USC has defeated Illinois Springfield and Siena in round robin play.
Emerging Teams: Bard College defeated Duke 4-1 in round robin play. Bard will play Maryland next, and Duke will face Minnesota.
