NCAA Men Down to Elite 8

The NCAA Mens field has been trimmed to 8 after last weekends play. The top two seeds are still alive as both Wake Forest and Duke won homematches. Duke had no problem dispatching a Lehigh squad in 3-0 fashion. Wake Forest had a tougher time with Towson winning 2-1. The biggest surprise of the weekend had to be defending national champions Maryland falling at home to Notre Dame in overtime. It will be the first time since 2001 that Maryland will not be at the Final Four but rest assured the young Maryland squad will bounce back next year. Notre Dame will try to continue their ACC conquest as they travel to Virginia for the next round.

Another pleasant surprise has been Northwestern's run through the tourney. Northwestern played a very difficult regular season schedule that prepared them well for post season play. They were able to win at St Louis on Thursday and then turned around Sunday and beat UNC Greensboro 2-1. Their reward? A trip to Santa Barbara to face a big, physical UCSB side.

In other action, UCLA easily beat a good Clemson side and served notice they are definitely national championship contenders. They get a chance to prove it next weekend as they have to travel across the country to play Duke. Santa Clara continues to slip by. Wednesday they beat Washington in overtime and Sunday they had to go to penalty kicks to defeat a solid Indiana team. Santa Clara now travels to Wake Forest for a chance to advance to the Final Four.

UCLA @ Duke
Santa Clara @ Wake Forest
Notre Dame @ Virginia
Northwestern @ UC Santa Barbara