Nevada-Reno will play Cal State Long Beach in the D1AA spring semifinals after both won quarterfinal games this weekend.

Both teams pulled off upsets in their Saturday games, held at CSULB's fields in Long Beach. Nevada defeated NCRC champion Western Washington in a comeback, while Long Beach State held off Pac West champion Chico State 36-28.

"We fell behind and we knew we had to step up our defense, and cut out the mistakes," said Nevada head coach Nelo Lui. "We learned a lot from last week's loss [in the Pac West final] to Chico State. We had to be better in our scrums and our lineouts, and cut out the mistakes. The guys did a good job."

The Wolf Pack got a big performance from Mario Diaz, who moved from prop to No. 8, while Logan Delwiche shifted over to flanker. And freshman wing Jacob Bourgault made his first A-side start, and produced some huge runs.

WWU led 19-0 at one point but tries from Roman Neri, Diaz, and Gino Gandolfo got Nevada back in the game. Then WWU went ahead 34-20, only to see tries from Christopher Stephens and Bourgault, plus some clutch goalkicking from Aodhan Downey, win the game for Nevada 40-34.

"Now we need to get the recovery right," said Lui. "We only have 20 players, and we've got to rest up for a very tough Long Beach State team."

CSULB fell behind 22-7 only to come back to pass Chico State with two tries from Dione Woodley-Jones, and 12 points from Steven Bodley.

These two teams will play for a chance to face the winner of Dartmouth and Central Florida in the spring D1AA final April 21.

The winner of that final plays Mary Washington in the D1AA championship match May 5.