Upsets ruled the weekend in the USL playoffs, as the top three seeds in the Western Conference all fell at home in the quarterfinal round, and the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference was eliminated as well.
The No. 1 seed in the West, Sacramento Republic FC, and No. 2 seed Rio Grande Valley FC both lost on Saturday, with Sacramento going down on penalties to No. 8 seed Orange County Blues FC, while Rio Grande Valley fell, 3-2, to No. 7 OKC Energy FC. No. 3 seed Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC lost to No. 6 Vancouver Whitecaps FC 2 on Friday, 2-1. No. 4 seed Swope Park Rangers (pictured above) were the only higher-seeded team to advance out of the West quarterfinals. They beat No. 5 seed LA Galaxy II, 3-0 on Friday.
The East bracket went more conventionally, with No. 1 New York Red Bulls II, No. 2 Louisville City FC, and No. 4 Rochester Rhinos winning in their conference quarterfinal match-ups. No. 3 seed FC Cincinnati fell at home, 2-1, to No. 6 Charleston Battery on Sunday in front of a USL-record crowd of 30,187.
The semifinals will take place this coming weekend, with Red Bulls II hosting Rochester on Friday and Louisville City hosting Charleston on Saturday in the East. In the West, Whitecaps FC 2, the No. 6 seed, will host No. 7 OKC Energy on Saturday, while Swope Park Rangers will host Orange County on Sunday. The conference finals will be held the weekend of Oct. 14-16 and the USL Cup final will be on Oct. 23.
