UCSD Dragon Coalition took on Stanford Invite this weekend. After making the 9-hour drive up the night before, D-Co’s first game was against BYU. After a pretty breezy 12-8 win, UCSD played Wisconsin Bella Donna. Wisconsin came out with fire, but it wasn’t enough to beat UCSD. D-Co had a bye the following round and used it to fuel up for the biggest game in the pool: the University of Washington. The game started out pretty even, but unfortunately, UW was able to eke out the win 11-9. Since D-Co got second in the pool, they had to play the pre-quarters game right after against Northeastern. Having not played any east coast teams yet this season, this was unseen territory for UCSD. They showed off very athletic talents and took the game to double game point (next score wins). To make matters more stressful, UCSD was starting on defense. D-Co was able to get the turn and scored on the following possession, winning the game and going to quarterfinals. 

After a long night of rest – minus an hour for daylight savings – D-Co was ready to conquer the day. Quarterfinals were against none other than Cal Poly SLO-motion. In the past two years, UCSD played against SLO in every tournament where both teams were in attendance, including the post-season. UCSD was very well-versed in how SLO played and was able to gain an early lead. D-Co’s strong offensive line never got scored on, and the defensive line kept generating turns. Big defensive stat leaders were freshman Sara Uhland and captain Dylan Mullaney. On the final point of the game, UCSD pulled out an all-rookie point. Angela Zhang got a huge block off a huck, generating a scoring opportunity to win the game. A few moments later, Zhang unleashed a huge huck to Claire Prairie in the endzone who roofed everyone around her, making the final score 11-7.

Now UCSD was into the semi-finals for the first time at a regular season tournament in two or three years. They were matched up against UC Santa Cruz Sol who was ranked number three in the country. They were very talented, athletic, and overall had very good chemistry. UCSD held their own, with a very respectable 12-9 loss. For the last game of the tournament, UCSD was playing against the University of Washington again for third place. UCSD went up by three points from the start, but a few injuries on UW ended their good mojo. Washington was able to score back five in a row and went up at half. UCSD was unable to claw back at the end, losing 11-9 again, making it the third two-point loss against Washington this season. Overall, this was a very good showing by UCSD and they are going to be back better than ever for the post-season.