The UCF women\u2019s flag football team left no doubt last weekend about which team reigns supreme at the NIRSA Championship Series National Flag Football Tournament hosted at the University of West Florida in Pensacola.<\/p>\n
UCF\u2019s team \u201cCheck On It\u201d used a fourth-quarter comeback to defeat Florida A&M University 7-6 to successfully defend last year\u2019s national championship.<\/p>\n
UCF\u2019s suffocating defense was the story of the tournament. The team started with back-to-back shutouts, combining for 80 points, in preliminary action with wins over Campbell University and Ferris State. In the tournament round, UCF continued the tough defense with shutout wins over North Carolina A&T in the quarterfinals and Howard University in the semifinals.\u00a0<\/p>\n
UCF outscored opponents 119-6 during the three-day event, giving up its first and only score in the championship game when FAMU took a 6-0 lead late in the first half.<\/p>\n
Senior center and corner, Dannica Mosher, said UCF\u2019s defense set the tone for this year\u2019s title.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiving up only 6 points is quite the accomplishment and I thank our incredible defense for that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Late in the fourth quarter, tournament MVP Tatianne Dearaujo, reached\u00a0the end zone to tie the game at 6-6. UCF quarterback\u00a0Keimy Milanes then completed a pass to Amanda Hall for a successful point after touchdown and the lead.<\/p>\n
FAMU did get the ball back with time on the clock, but Hall intercepted a pass to stop the Rattlers\u2019 threat with less than 2 minutes to go.
\nCheck On It was led by Milanes, who suffered a serious knee injury on the first day of last year\u2019s tournament, Dearaujo and Charlene Thome. NIRSA honored all three women as part of the All-Tournament team. The team is coached by UCF graduate Brandon Baroody, a NIRSA Championship Series Flag Football Hall of Famer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
UCF now has 42 All-Americans in the tournament\u2019s history and Dearaujo is the 17th UCF student to be named tournament MVP. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s so special about this team is we\u2019re much more than that, these girls and Brandon are family,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Shane Land, assistant director of Intramural Sports at the UCF Recreation and Wellness Center, credits the team\u2019s hard work ethic for the sustained success.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey practice and play in tournaments year round in preparation for the national tournament and that work ethic is what has led to their success,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
UCF men\u2019s, women\u2019s and co-rec flag football teams have now won 12 national titles since the first tournament in 1979, the most flag football titles of any school in North America.<\/p>\n
Baroody has been a part of nine of UCF\u2019s 12 titles as a player or coach.<\/p>\n
UCF\u2019s Co-Rec Team also made the final four of the tournament which also features student officials, including three from UCF: Kelsey Jones, Randy Korn and Sammie Fitzell.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The UCF women\u2019s flag football team left no doubt last weekend about which team reigns supreme at the NIRSA Championship Series National Flag Football Tournament hosted at the University of West Florida in Pensacola. UCF\u2019s team \u201cCheck On It\u201d used a fourth-quarter comeback to defeat Florida A&M University 7-6 to successfully defend last year\u2019s national championship. UCF\u2019s suffocating defense was…","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":63722,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-twocol.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"lazy_load_responsive_images_disabled":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[11262,9222,13130,13132,13131],"tu_author":[],"class_list":["post-63720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-amanda-hall","tag-brandon-baroody","tag-dannica-mosher","tag-keimy-milanes","tag-tatianne-dearaujo"],"yoast_head":"\n