U of Indiana, Purdue, and U of Illinois Punch Their Tickets
When one of the best teams in the country shows up in numbers - Indiana University and their five teams - you would think the field would be intimidated, but that was not the case at all.
During pool play, Indiana University showed their depth with four of their five teams finishing the day about .500 heading into the single elimination bracket on Sunday. The thing was, there were many other team lurking waiting to get their shot. Teams like University of Illinois (12-4), Purdue Boilers (11-5), University of Pittsburgh 2 (10-6), and University of Michigan (10-6).
When the bracket started on Sunday it was Purdue Gold (16-0) who ended up with the #1 seed over Indiana University 1 (16-0) and Indiana University 2 (16-0) with the tiebreaker being point differential. Rounding out the top 4 was University of Illinois (12-4). One of the best stories of the day though was the Purdue White team who were the #10 seed. In the Round of 16 they took out #7 University of Pittsburgh 2 in a Tiebreaker (3-2 / 21-14). Then in the quarterfinals, Purdue White took #2 Indiana University 1 to a tiebreaker as well, but losing it 21-15 in the end.
Headed into the Semifinals, it was the top 4 seeds advancing (#1 Purdue Gold vs. #4 University of Illinois / #2 Indiana University 2 vs. #3 Indiana University 3). In the first semifinal, University of Illinois battled in the final mixed doubles match but came up just short, 17-15, to go down to Purdue Gold 3-1. In the second semifinal it was all Indiana University 1 taking it 3-0 against their teammates, Indiana University 2. This set up an all-Indiana final with the 1 and 2 seeds taking center stage. In the end, it was just Indiana University 1's day taking it by a score of 3-1 and taking home the championship!
