BEARS LAX TRAX FAX 05202023

BY JOHN NICHOLS

NCAA Men’s Division I Tournament

The last of our surviving Bears teams in D-1 met their demise in the quarterfinals.

Quarterfinals

Michigan (Graham Hertzberg, Hunter Taylor) 8

#1 Duke 15

Just a month ago Michigan appeared to be heading towards an early end to their 2023 season.  With five wins and six losses on their 2023 record heading into their final regular season game against Ohio State, the Wolverines had to win to have hopes of extending their season.  They met that challenge and then beat the Buckeyes again a week later to start their sweep of the Big Ten Tournament, a run that saw them beat two top-ten teams.  Winning the Big Ten Tournament guaranteed them a slot in the NCAA tournament where they were able to continue their postseason run.  Another upset of a top-ten team and now the Wolverines were one of just eight teams still playing.  Throughout this run Hunter’s play in goals has been a catalyst for the resurgence of the Wolverines.

Unfortunately, Duke put an end to that thrilling run.  After the Blue Devils posted two quick scores to start the game, Michigan pulled even late in the first quarter.  Duke scored quickly again to start the second quarter with three straight scores, but this time Big Blue did not have the answer.  Over the balance of regulation, each Michigan goal was met with one or two for Duke, a process which saw Duke’s lead grow to four goals early in the fourth quarter.  There was more than enough time showing for a Michigan comeback, but Duke ran off four straight scores to double their lead and effectively end the Wolverine’s hopes.

Hunter, whose play in goal has been a key part of Michigan’s late-season rally, started in goal again.  He made eight saves in the game and picked up two ground balls.

THIS COMING WEEK

Championship Weekend

Duke, Virginia, Notre Dame, and Penn State advanced to Memorial Day Weekend

NCAA Men’s Division III Tournament

A weekend of D-III tournament play trimmed the field of Bears teams from three to one with our championship hopes riding with the Tufts Jumbos (Garrett Kurtz) who will take on Salisbury for the D-III title this coming Sunday.

Quarterfinals

Dickinson (Will Single) 11 OT

Christopher Newport 12

Dickinson took an early lead with a four-goal run in the first quarter and then kept the Captains at bay for the rest of the first half.  After Dickinson extended their lead to five goals early in the third quarter, Christopher Newport started their comeback scoring three times in a minute and a half.  Dickinson stemmed that uprising then traded single scores, Dickinson maintaining a three-goal lead in the middle of the fourth quarter.  The Captains netted two quick goals to pull with one then the teams traded scoring chances until Christopher Newport put one home to time the game up with just twenty-two seconds showing on the clock.  After winning the faceoff, Dickinson put a shot on goal, but it was saved and so on to overtime.

The Captains won the overtime faceoff and their first shot at ending the game was saved by the Dickinson goalie.  Likewise, Dickinson had a good scoring chance in their first possession of overtime, but CNU’s goalie met the challenge.  Play moved up and down the field until Christopher Newport scored with less than a minute left in overtime.

Will saw playing time in this game.

Tufts (Garrett Kurtz) 17

Lynchburg 9

Lynchburg opened the scoring, but Tufts tied the game up right off of the faceoff that followed.  That goal was the first of a string of nine goals the Jumbos would register over the next fourteen minutes of the game.  Lynchburg responded with a three-goal run, but the Jumbos largely negated that with a pair of scores.  Two more goals for Lynchburg early in the third quarter again trimmed the Jumbos’ lead to five then Tufts launched another big run—six straight—which sealed the win for Tufts.

Tufts’ win keeps their 2023 season record perfect at 23-0 and sets them up for a semifinal match against perennial D-III power Rochester Institute of Technology.

Washington and Lee (Will Bou) 9

Salisbury 12

Salisbury limited the Generals to one goal at a time while building a lead with a three-goal run and a four-goal run.  Washington and Lee finally broke through with a three straight scores in the third quarter to cut the Gulls lead to three.  The Salisbury goal that broke that string was the last of the third quarter.  W&L started off the fourth quarter with a pair of goals to cut Salisbury’s lead to two, but the Gulls matched that and were back up by four late in the fourth quarter.  One last goal to the Generals then the horn sounded on their season.

The W&L fogos all had a tough day with Will winning two of his nine draws.  For the year, Will was the team’s top faceoff guy, winning sixty-one percent of his team-high four hundred thirteen draws.

Semifinals

Tufts (Garrett Kurtz) 15

RIT 11

Revenge is sweet.  RIT defeated Tufts in the NCAA DIII semifinals each of the last two years- in 2021 and 2022 the Tigers were the Div. III champions .  The Jumbos broke that streak and punched their ticket to championship weekend with the win.

After a very even first quarter—4-4 at the break, tied at each interval, Tufts took a six-goal lead with a 4-0 shutout in the second quarter and a pair of goals to start the third.  The Tigers stopped the Tufts run but were unable to do better than scoring in pairs for the rest of the game.  As is their way, Tufts blitzed the Tigers with sixty-one shots in the game, just under a half of them on-goal with those shots on goal split evenly between RIT saves and Tufts goals.  Tufts high volume shooting was facilitated by their advantages in faceoffs and ground balls.

The win sends the Jumbos to the NCAA D-III title game against Salisbury.  This will be the fifth time that Tufts and Salisbury have played for the D-III championship and each team has won twice.

THIS COMING WEEK

Championship—Sunday May 28

Tufts (Garrett Kurtz) versus Salisbury