MEN
The Men’s NCAA College Cup brackets were turned upside down in Round Two of the tournament this weekend. #4 seed BC lost to Rutgers in a shootout after an 86th minute goal tied it in regulation, #6 SMU, #8 UC Irvine, #9 St. John’s, and #11 UAB were also losers.

The close call of the weekend came in North Carolina, though. The Tar Heels had to overcome a one-goal deficit twice in the second half to squeak by Coastal Carolina, 3-2. Enzo Martinez scored the game winner unassisted in the 69th minute. They will now face #16 Indiana in 3rd round action. The Hoosiers got two goals and an assist from Nikita Kotlov in a 3-0 drubbing of Old Dominion.

Maryland’s Casey Townsend scored three goals in his team’s 4-0 win over West Virginia, and Mamadou Diouf’s two goals led UConn in a 2-1 win over Monmouth. Other top scorers included JMU’s Jimmy Simpson, who had a goal and an assist in a 2-0 blanking of Wake Forest, and Ethan Finlay, who tallied two goals in Creighton’s win over Northern Illinois.

WOMEN
Staying true to form, the ACC has dominated play in the NCAA Women’s College Cup Tournament sending four teams into the Elite Eight (Wake Forest, Florida State, Duke, and Virginia). Stanford, Oklahoma State, Central Florida, and Long Beach State, making their first ever appearance, round out the quarterfinal teams.

Clearly, the obvious omission from that list is North Carolina. The Tar Heels fell in a shootout against Central Florida, marking the second consecutive year Carolina has failed to make the Elite Eight. It is also only the second time in program history that the team has played to a shootout in the NCAA tournament. They are now 0-2 in those games. Crystal Dunn scored her 3rd goal of the season off an assist from Courtney Jones in the 85th minute to tie the game in regulation, but lost 5-4 in the shootout after two scoreless golden goal overtime periods. The Heels end the season having lost four of their last six games.

In the quarterfinals, look for Long Island’s Rachel Nuzzolese (Old Brookville, Rockville Centre) and her Demon Deacon teammates as they take on Central Florida next weekend. Nuzzolese had an assist in Wake’s 4-2 win over Penn State in the 3rd round.