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Women DI Fall Playoffs Start Up

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Women DI Fall Playoffs Start Up

UConn won the entire fall last year. Colleen McCloskey photo.

The Women's DI Playoffs kick off this weekend with six teams playing to get into the national quarterfinals.

Indiana takes on Rutgers in the Big Ten playoff, with the winner getting to face top Midwest Conference team, Minnesota, in a week. A small, young team, IU can only get better, but they have a difficult task against a big, very physical Rutgers team. (Addendum. Indiana withdrew from this playoff and Michigan State will play Rutgers instead.)

Connecticut won this playoff last year, and return this year to the knockout stages. However, UConn needs to beat Princeton, which finished Ivy League action with a 2-2 record. They finished behind Dartmouth and Harvard, two teams that play in the NIRA Varsity competition, so for these playoffs it's the Tigers up to the plate. Head Coach Chris Ryan certainnly can get his players ready for an upset.

UConn has been busy, logging 11 A-side games this fall. The Huskies were 9-0 going into the Northeast Conference playoffs, and beat UMass 34-19 to make the final, only to lose to Boston College 17-10 - they had beaten BC earlier in the season. It was a bit of a blow to UConn, but they should rebound with alacrity against Princeton. The winner gets a date with University of Notre Dame in a week.

And finally, Mid-American Conference team Bowling Green takes on Northern Iowa. Bowling Green beat Western Michigan 73-5 to win the MAC conference. They've been thumping pretty much everyone in the conference, and the big surprise in the final was that WMU managed to score against BGSU.  UNI has logged some impressive results this fall, with a two-point loss to Minnesota perhaps their best. They've beaten Northern Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, and UW-Milwaukee. For more on them go here.

Waiting for UNI or BGSU is Boston College, which has been very impressive this year.