Four club teams advance to respective national tournaments

Call it one of the last hurrahs of the 2016-17 academic year.

The Saint John’s University Ultimate Frisbee club team will participate in the USA Ultimate Division III College Championship May 20-21 in Lexington, Kentucky.

The Ultimate Frisbee club is the fourth club team from SJU or the College of Saint Benedict to qualify for their respective national championships this spring. Both the CSB and SJU lacrosse teams participated in national tournaments, and the SJU club volleyball team also competed on the national stage.

Back in January, the CSB Dance Team placed 14th in the Open Jazz Division at the Universal Dance Association’s national meet in Orlando, Florida.

Men’s Ultimate Frisbee

SJU takes a 21-4 record into the national tournament. It qualified for the national tournament by beating Carleton College 12-11 in the North Central Region final.

The Johnnies are seeded No. 13 in the national tournament, and will play three matches in pool play May 20 against No. 8 Davidson College (North Carolina), No. 1 Bryant University (Rhode Island) and No. 12 Portland (Oregon) State University.

Depending on the results of those matches, the Johnnies will be playing in the championship or consolation bracket May 21.

“We think it is within our grasp to break seed and make the top 10,” said SJU junior Tyler Meyer, one of four captains on the team.

SJU finished fifth in the 2013 national tournament and 14th in 2014.

Women’s lacrosse

The CSB lacrosse team has been to two Women’s Collegiate Lacrosse Association Division II national tournaments in the last three years. This year’s 10th-place finish follows a ninth-place finish in 2015.

This year’s tournament was held in Salt Lake City, Utah. CSB, which was seeded No. 10 in the 12-team tournament, dropped pool games to No. 3-seed Loyola University of Maryland (17-10) and No. 6-seed the University of Utah (12-8).

Those results sent CSB to the consolation round, where it beat Providence College, 11-9 on May 12. Then, in the ninth-place match, CSB fell to the University of Vermont, 17-14 on May 14.

CSB finished the season 10-6 overall. Junior Abby Ward was named to the all-tournament team.

Men’s lacrosse

The SJU club lacrosse team advanced to the quarterfinals before falling to the eventual national champion in the Men’s Collegiate Lacrosse Association Division II national tournament May 8-13 at Irvine, California.

The Johnnies, who were seeded No. 7 in the tournament, rallied to defeat No. 10 Cal State University, Fullerton 10-9 in the first round May 8. Fullerton led 7-5 going into the fourth quarter, but SJU rallied with a five-goal outburst to win.

SJU first-year Tommy Kraus had two goals in the game, and Brooks Armitage ’17 and Tom Powers ’17 each had a goal and an assist.

The Johnnies tried to repeat the formula in the quarterfinals May 9 against Concordia University of Irvine. They trailed 9-6 entering the fourth quarter, but came up a goal short 10-9 despite outshooting Concordia, 38-35.

Armitage had three goals and an assist in the game, and sophomore Carter Scrimshaw and first-year Joey Goudreau each had three-point games.

Concordia went on to win the national title, beating the University of St. Thomas 13-10 May 13.

Men’s volleyball

The SJU club volleyball team competed in the National Collegiate Volleyball Association’s Division II men’s tournament April 12-15 in Kansas City, Mo.

The Johnnies finished 41st in their division, losing pool matches to the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, Stockton University (New Jersey) and Yale University. In the consolation bracket, the Johnnies lost to St. Olaf College, Siena College and Yale.

“Volleyball nationals is different than other sports whereas we just have to pay a registration fee to enter,” said Dominic Carlisano ’17, who is a setter on the team and the president of the club. “We finally felt like we had a good enough team, and we were solid enough financially to go.”

Four starting players were unable to make the trip due to it being Easter weekend, Carlisano said.