Cambridge, MA — Most higher seeds prevailed in this afternoon’s matches, with some shake-ups in the E Division.
A Division (Howe Cup): Both 2:15 matches featured Howe Cup newcomers: George Washington and Columbia. The Colonials, last season’s Kurtz Cup winners, made their Howe Cup debut against Harvard. The Crimson won, 9-0. Penn, the 2015 Ivy League champions, defeated Columbia, the 2014 Kurtz Cup finalists, 9-0. Tomorrow’s match-ups for the semifinals will be top-seeded Harvard versus Princeton and Penn versus defending national champions Trinity. The Bantams edged out the Quakers, 5-4, when the two teams met in January, so expect another competitive match tomorrow. George Washington will play Yale in one consolation semifinal, and Columbia will play Cornell in the other.
B Division (Kurtz Cup): In the 2:15 matches, Dartmouth, the 9th-ranked squad, defeated 16th-ranked Bates, 6-3. In their first-ever meeting, Stanford defeated Drexel, 7-2. The Big Green will take on Williams in tomorrow morning’s semifinal, while the Cardinal will face Brown. The consolation semifinals will feature Bates versus Middlebury, a match-up of two northern New England schools, and Drexel versus F&M, two Pennsylvania-based squads.
C Division (Walker Cup): Tomorrow’s Walker Cup semifinal matches will feature Amherst versus Colby and Bowdoin versus Hamilton. The matches will be played at 11:15 AM and 1:30 PM. The consolation semifinals will begin at 9:00 AM. Wellesley will face St. Lawrence, and Wesleyan will play Virginia.
D Division (Epps Cup): William Smith last won the Epps Cup in 2013, and after the quarterfinals, the Herons kept their hopes of reclaiming the D Division title alive by sweeping Boston College. The Herons will face Mount Holyoke tomorrow; the Lyons recorded a decisive 8-1 victory over Boston College. Tufts and Conn College each advanced to the semis with a 7-2 win. The Jumbos took down Haverford, and the Camels beat Johns Hopkins. Tufts and Conn have already played each other three times this season — twice in the last two weeks — and Tufts leads the season series 2-1. The pairings in the consolation semifinals are Georgetown-Boston College and Haverford-Johns Hopkins.
E Division: Bucknell’s withdrawal from the tournament ensured that Wash U would advance to the E Division semifinals, where they will play CSA newcomers Dickinson. The Red Devils made the most of their national team championships debut by sweeping Colgate. Vassar also advanced to the semifinals with a win over Rochester. The Brewers, who are returning to the tournament after not fielding a team last season, will play Northwestern in the semifinals. The Wildcats sent Smith into the consolations with a 7-2 win.
F Division: F Division play was scheduled to begin at 7:30 pm. Boston University was slated to play Northeastern, and NYU was scheduled to play Minnesota.
