March 1, 2016
Salt Lake City, UT
The University of Utah Skatin’ Utes will participate in their final Division 2 National Championship Tournament when they head to West Chester, PA in a couple weeks and now the rest of the 16-team field has been filled, including who Utah will play at Nationals.
Eight teams secured automatic bids to the National Tournament by finishing either first or second in their regions after the final rankings were released. The other eight teams punched their tickets to the tourney by winning their way through the four Regional tournaments, which took place in Utah, Connecticut, Illinois, and Virginia over the weekend.
The 16 teams are then divided into four pools of four teams each, with the winners of each pool advancing to the semifinals. The winners of the two semifinals will play for the National Championship.
In the West Division, Arizona State Elite and Utah earned the two automatic bids by finishing one and two in the final rankings. Joining them in West Chester will be Utah State – who beat San Jose State in overtime and UNLV – and Arizona State Maroon, who beat Northern Colorado and Weber State at Regionals.
In the Central region, Lindenwood-Belleville and Grand Valley State took the autobids while Lindenwood and Michigan State played their way through Regionals in order to qualify.
In the Southeast, Liberty and Florida Gulf Coast finished first and second to get to Nationals while Miami (OH) and Penn State won their games at Regionals to round out their four bids at Nationals.
And in the Northeast, defending champion NYU and William Paterson claimed the two automatic bids with Keene State and Boston University winning at Regionals to make it to West Chester.
By finishing second in the West Division, Utah (26-3-3) was placed in Pool D and will take on Lindenwood Belleville (28-4), Miami (OH) (23-4-1), and Boston University (11-8) during pool play at Nationals.
In Pool A, NYU (20-8) has the top seed and will play against Grand Valley State (27-5-1), Utah State (22-11-2), and Penn State (23-3).
Liberty (26-2) is the top seed in Pool B with William Paterson (22-7), Lindenwood (17-13-2), and Arizona State Maroon (24-5-1) rounding out their pool.
In Pool C Arizona State Elite (30-4) is the top team and will play against Florida Gulf Coast (25-5), Keene State (12-8-2), and Michigan State (12-10-4) in that pool.
In all, 10 of the 16 teams in this year’s field were at Nationals last season in Salt Lake City with all four of last year’s semifinalists making their way into this year’s tournament.
Utah will kick off their trip to Nationals on Friday, March 18th at 10:15am MST where they’ll take on Miami on Day one of pool play. The Utes will play Boston University at 1pm MST on Saturday and will play top-seeded Lindenwood-Belleville at 1:15pm MST on Sunday.
