Men's D2 rugby is closing in on its championship run, with some teams clinching conferences, and others getting set for conference finals to come.
Grand Valley State has already secured the Great Lakes Conference. IUP is secure atop the Allegheny, and UNC Wilmington is secure atop the Southern, although they do have one more game to play. Also with a game to play but too far ahead of anyone else is RIT in the Liberty.
This past weekend, Minnesota Duluth beat St. Thomas in emphatic fashion 54-14.
Fourteen more spots are up for grabs, but the number of teams vying for those spots has dropped precipitously.
Great Midwest
The top two get into the NCR Round of 16 after Northern Iowa beat Loyola and Chicago hammered Marquette to make the conference final.
"We're very happy with our intensity for the full 80 minutes," said club president Mateo Rampoldi. "We had some great defensive sets and taking advantage of opportunities on attack. That being said we saw a lot that we want to work on and we're excited to improve in the coming weeks."
UNI and Chicago face off next week, but both could have a good path to the title game.
The GMW also holds a 3rd-place team and the #3 seed, now either Loyola or Marquette, will garner one of the four play-in spots.
High Peaks
Weber State comes into this final weekend 4-0 and Montana State is 3-1. The first time these two met it was 31-29 for Weber State. Now the final will once again bring these two together and it promises to be close once more.
Does that mean that the losing team might get an at-large spot? It's highly likely, especially if the game is tight.
Liberty
While RIT has the top spot pretty much sewn up, Cornell is 5-1 and SUNY Oswego is 4-2-1, and a win this week for Oswego over Big Red could see the SUNY school move past for 2nd. That won't guarantee anything, but if anyone else is going to make the NCR playoffs aside from RIT, it would have to be the runners-up.
Lonestar
Sam Houston State plays Baylor this coming weekend in the D2 conference final. The two teams are in different tiers during the result season, which is why SHSU is 3-2 and Baylor 5-0. Baylor has had the less difficult schedule, and one could argue that Sam Houston State is the better team (GRR certainly thinks so in the rankings).
But Baylor has been winning.
MARFU
Scranton defeated Loyola and Villanova beat Georgetown to set up Scranton-vs-Villanova for the final. Both teams will make the playoffs.
“The entire side played well together," said Villanova Head Coach Stephen Greeb. "They complemented each other well. We have five starters out with bone fractures. But this season we have good depth, and the next guys up were certainly up to the task. Each week we focus on improving our overall game just a little bit more than the previous week. And our season long priority has been our commitment to playing solid and consistent team defense."
Georgetown was aggressive and disruptive defensively, but flyhalf Callahan Smith's well-weighted kicks beat Georgetown's rush defense. And when Georgetown kicked, fullback Pete Ernest and outside center Rob Maclehose punished them.
As the match wore on the Villanova forwards continued to run hard at the heart of the Georgetown defense, thus creating space out wide. No. 8 Bobby Fookas, hooker Dan Feiner, and props Alex Klee and Jakub Pockron continued to pressure the Georgetown line in the second half. "
Loyola-vs-Georgetown could well be a decider for an at-large spot.
NACR
Boston University is 6-0 and Vermont 5-1. These two will play for the conference title, with the winner being in the Sourn of 16 and the loser having to hope for an at-larger spot which we think they will get).
BU Finishes Conference Season 6-0, Face UVM for Liberty D2 Title
SCRC
Memphis plays an upstart Georgia Tech side for the playoff spot this coming weekend.
Gateway
The Benedictine Black Monks won their semifinal, while UMS&T won in what was perhaps a bit of a surprise, with a #2 seed beating a #1 seed. However, S&T is solid but lost 36-10 to Benedictine earlier. A win would see them into the playoffs in a play-in spot, and a close loss? Maybe that would be enough.
As for Benedictine, they play strong fundamentals with with scrumhalf Martin Irwin moving the ball well and John Paul Van de Ryt controlling field position.
They play smart positional rugby and hit really hard.
And ... That Game
With IUP clear atop the Allegheny, the fight was for second and, potentially, the conference title or, at least, an at-large spot. Dayton and Ohio University had only lost to IUP and a week ago, had tied 36-36. So if anyone was going to get an at-large bid, someone needed to win this weekend.
Dayton took the game 41-20.
Said Dayton club president Kevin Krebs, "we had some big injuries In this past weekend's clash this weekend very difficult. But it was overall a big team win."
Hooker Luke O'Brien, center Jake Kavanaugh, No. 8 Peter Reischl (who was later hurt) and flanker Peter Garney al performed will for Dayton.
But the final will be another challenge entirely.
The Seeds
This is what the playoff spots look like:
Allegheny #1 IUP or Dayton
Great Lakes #1 GVSU
Great Midwest #1 UNI or Chicago
Great Midwest #2 UNI or Chicago
High Peaks #1 Weber State or Montana State
Liberty #1 RIT
Lonestar #1 SHSU or Baylor
Mid-Atlantic #1 Villanova or Scranton
Mid-Atlantic #2 Villanova or Scranton
North Atlantic #1 BU or UVM
Southern #1 UNC-Wilmington
Southeastern #1 Memphis or GA Tech
At-Large (x2) Weber State or Montana State
Dayton or IUP
Play-In Bids
Gateway #1 Benedictine or MS&T
Great Midwest #3 Loyola or Marquette
Northern Lights #1 Duluth
At-Large Loyola MD
SHSU or Baylor
Boston U. or Vermont
