The 1st semester of College Roller Hockey has come to a close on the West Coast. This comes off the heels of the December 6-7 event, which was played at the 949 Roller Hockey Center in
Irvine
,
CA
and Coast 2 Coast Hockey in
Huntington Beach
,
CA
.
Division I action this weekend showed the parity that there is this season. In Division I, UC Santa Barbara (8-2-2) still sits in first place, followed closely by UNLV (7-2-2), UC Irvine (7-3-1) and
Long Beach
State
(6-3-2).
Arizona
State
(5-4-1) sits in 5th place, with 1-2 less games played than the other DI teams. Cal Poly SLO (2-8-2),
San Diego
State
(1-7-0) and CSU Northridge (0-11-0) round out the DI pool.
San Diego
State
has played 3-4 games less than the other DI opponents, and they will have those games in hand entering the 2nd semester. Also good news for SDSU, they should have less conflicts with their ice hockey schedule in the 2nd semester. Look for them to make a run for a playoff spot.
The top 4 DI teams each took turns defeating each other this past weekend.
Arizona
State
defeated UC Irvine 4-3 and UCSB 4-0, but lost to
Long Beach
State
6-3.
Long Beach
State
also beat
UNLV by a score of 9-4, but lost to UC Irvine 7-6 in arguably the best game of the season to date. It was a see-saw battle that saw UCI end up on top, but not without a flight from Long Beach. UNLV and UC Santa Barbara also tied 2-2. The parity is unreal, and there will be some tough 2nd semester matchups in order to determine the seeding for the WCRHL Regional Championship Tournament. Six teams out of eight will qualify for the Regional Championship Tournament, but seeding will be especially important and dictate which tough opponents will be in your bracket.
Division II breaks down quite a bit different than Division I this season. There are 2 teams that sit at the top, followed by a pack of 8 teams that are all within 3 wins of each other. UC San Diego (9-0-0) sits once again at the top of the pack, followed by UC Berkeley (
Cal
) (7-3-0). Those two teams did meet at the Kickoff Event, and it was a UCSD win by a score of 12-2.
Cal
has improved since that first tournament, and have won 7 of their last 8 games.
Chico
State
(5-2-1), USC (4-3-1), and
University
of
San Diego
(4-3-1) follow
Cal
just slightly, and are followed closely by newcomer UC Santa Cruz (3-3-2), Cal Poly Pomona (3-5-0),
Sonoma
State
(3-5-0). Chapman (2-6-1) and UC Davis (2-6-0) round out the division. Each team will play in two 2nd semester events, but Cal, UC San Diego and Chapman have played 1-2 more games than the rest of the pack. Look for those teams in the middle of the pack to push and challenge
Cal
for the #2 spot, and for all teams currently ranked 7 through 10 to push and try to make the top six for Regionals.
The Junior College Division in the WCRHL consists of two teams this year,
Saddleback
College
(8-0-0) and El Camino College (3-5-0). Both have played Division I and Division II opponents, and have so far played 2 games out of the 3-game series against each other. This past weekend at
Irvine
, Saddleback defeated El Camino by a score of 9-3. Saddleback also defeated El Camino at the WCRHL Kickoff Event in October. Because Saddleback has won the Junior College 3-game series, they will receive the first WCRHL JC bid to the National Championships. The rest of the season will be played in order to best prepare Saddleback for the strong JC opponents from across the country. El Camino also is pushing hard, and hopes that their difficult schedule carries enough weight to earn them a bid to the National Championships as well. This past weekend, El Camino went 2-2, dominating both CSU Northridge and
Arizona
State
.
UC Santa Barbara B Gold (8-0-0) still sits atop the B Division, but is followed closely by Arizona State B (7-2-0). UCSB B Gold defeated ASU B by a score of 6-0 this past weekend. Saddleback College B (5-3-0), UC Santa Barbara B Blue (5-4-0), Cal Poly SLO B (4-3-1) and UC Davis B (3-4-1) round out the top six. UC San Diego B (2-6-0), newcomer UC Irvine B (1-6-1) and Sonoma State B (0-7-1) look to try and overtake one of those top six teams’ seeds for the Regional Championships.
Best of luck to all players on their exams, and have a great holiday break!
WCRHL League Play resumes on January 24, 2008 at UC Santa Barbara. See the schedule page for remaining event dates: http://www.wcrhl.com/schedule.php?show=allevents
