Even though their chances for a National Championship had been spoiled in pool play, the rest of the teams still had plenty to play for. Friday and Saturday were full of great matches outside of the Gold Bracket.

Silver: Top teams left out of the Gold Bracket competed for consolation in the Silver. Wisconsin came back with a bang on Friday, cruising to the final through Georgetown, Elon and Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Illinois had a tougher time getting there edging on Western Washington and Cal-Davis in 1-game victories. In the all-Midwest final, Illinois was able to pull out another 1-game win 28-27. In the consolation, Lehigh also edged out victories over Georgetown (22-20) and Minnesota (23-22).

Bronze: Third place teams took the field in the Bronze Bracket. Villanova stormed to the final, beating St. Louis, TCNJ, and BYU along the way. They lost in the final to Cal-Davis who beat such teams as Miami, Denver, and SMU. St. Louis won the consolation Bronze, beating Oregon State 28-19.

Copper: While the 4th place teams didn’t fair well in pool play, they had a chance to make up for it in the Copper Bracket. South Carolina stormed to the final, as well as Oregon, who had a tough pool on Thursday. South Carolina pulled through with a 26-23 victory. Eastern Michigan won the Consolation, beating Drake 27-26.

Section-wise, Midwest teams performed the best, bringing 10 teams. 2 of those teams finished 1st in their pool, 4 finished 2nd, and 1 finished 3rd. Southern also did well with 10 teams, 2 of them finishing 1st in their pool, 2 of them finishing 2nd in their pool, and 3 finishing 3rd. Texas and Mid-Atlantic each had 6 teams represented, and Middle States and Pacific Northwest each had 5.

The National Campus Championships proved to be successful once again. All of the teams were placed well and everybody seemed to have a good time. We’ll see you next year in 2008!