The final four teams in the Florida DIAA league are set after three teams won their quarterfinals and joined Florida State, who had a bye, in the semis.

None of the games were easy-going, and even the heavily favored teams had to work for it. 

Florida International made it past South Florida 34-26, a matchup that was FIU's by 18 points in February. Meanwhile, North Florida, which beat Florida 29-17 earlier in the season, just eked past 18-12 on Saturday. 

UNF ran out to a 15-0 lead started by an early try from wing Matthew Eells. Eells then added a penalty goal, and when lock Rexford Setzer went over a few minutes before halftime, the Eells conversions made it 15-0.

But Florida made some adjustments at halftime, and punished a yellow card against UNF with a try from lock Pedro Fernandez. But when North Florida got a second yellow and were down to 13 players, they managed to hold Florida out. At 67 minutes Eells hit a penalty for a lead of 18-5. Just a few minutes later Florida scrumhalf Ryan Duffy was over, with center Carson Hamel converting. But the Gators couldn't finish off the comeback and North Florida held on.

the final quarterfinal was definitely a weird one. Word of a bad thunderstorm coming into Orlando circulated and while the UCF women's team was able to get their game in, lightning hit the men's game against Florida Atlantic 20 minutes in. They waited and waited, and just as it seemed like it was time to return to the field, the lightning returned.

A mad scramble ensued as UCF Head Coach Evan Haigh worked to find a licensed athletic trainer at short notice for the Sunday rematch. FAU, meanwhile, agreed to stay overnight in the area and play the game the next day. It was a sportsmanlike gesture for FAU and almost paid off with a win.

UCF No. 8 Michael McNeil, who has had an excellent season, opened the scoring with a try, converted by flyhalf Caleb Goertzen. But FAU gave as good as they got and a try from DeAndre Jackson, converted by Alexander de Montes, tied it up 7-7. That's how the game continued. Joshwon Bush scored for UCF (Goertzen converted) and just a few minutes later flanker Peter Sinoyiannis was over for FAU. With de Montes hitting the kick it was tied up once more at 14-14.

UCF prop Derrick Washington scored at 31 minutes, and right after FAU was over. With de Montes slotting the conversion, FAU led 21-19 at halftime.

And that's how it stayed until about 50 minutes when FAU were penalized and Goertzen's penalty made it 22-21 UCF. The teams battled on with the game on a knife edge. But as time frittered away Central Florida started to see that they could run the phases, be patient, and put FAU under pressure. They passed up kickable penalties to keep the pressure and it paid off. FAU was hit with a couple of repeat-infringement yellow cards, and tries from wing Jonathan Colecraft-Peters and Goertzen, both converted by the flyhalf, who ended up with 16 points, put the game away 36-21.

But it was much, much closer than that.

"FAU is much improved from when we played them before and they were well-prepared," said Haigh. "And you think about what they had to deal with playing on the road and waiting a day to play, it was impressive. But out guys have improved as well and it took every bit of our grit to win. Forcing them to defend at the end of the game and gutting it out was what won it."

McNeil was crucial in making big yards and keeping the pressure on late.

So after all that the top four teams from the standings face off in the semis. But from top to bottom this has proved to be a competitive conference.

Next week FIU will take on Florida State at FSU, and North Florida will visit Central Florida.