By PATRICK RARDIN

Despite a miserably cold and rainy day on Long Island, 14 teams from across the East Coast battled on with numb fingers and chattering teeth in the First Stony Brook Classic.  At long-last it was Boston University (Boston, MA) that emerged victorious, capping the tournament with a thrilling championship rout of the University of Maryland (College Park, MD.)

Throughout the day, young and old teams alike met on the pitch in friendly but intense matches. Newer teams like the Marauders of Macaulay Honors College (New York, NY,) CAMPS (Bridgewater, MA) and Skidmore College (Saratoga Springs, NY) performed very well despite facing a number of top teams. After a round of pool play, the tournament entered double-elimination bracket play with BU and Villanova University (Villanova, PA) seeded first and second respectively. Throughout this bracket teams like Emerson College (Boston, MA,) Pittsburgh University (Pittsburgh, PA,) Villanova, and UMD fought in close and intense matches.

Highlights included an intense prelim match between Vassar College (Poughkeepsie, NY) and Pittsburgh in which the score went back in forth with bodies hitting the ground hard and often. In the end, Vassar snatched the snitch to claim victory. Another hard fought match between UMD and Emerson left more than a few players with some bruises. Just as the weather began to clear UMD met BU  in the championship match. Boston had gotten off to a slow start early in the day, but came out with a fast-paced and physical game. Their pinpoint passing and solid defense held UMD to 30 points, giving them time to break through the UMD defense and to score 90 quaffle points, before wrapping up the match with a Boston snitch catch (Final score: UMD 30, BU 120).

In the consolation match, Villanova asserted its dominance to take home third.

For full results of the day’s matches, check out the standings page.

Pittsburgh poses with Patrick Rardin of UMD | Photo by Deanna Edmunds