University of Limerick will face UCD in the last four of the Sigerson Cup after both teams came through their respective quarter-finals this afternoon.

A brave UL side upset the odds by defeating Aidan O'Rourke's Queen's University outfit by 0-12 to 1-8 on their home turf after the Belfast students had mounted a splendid second-half comeback, which made for a tense finish in Limerick.

The underdogs caught their opponents cold from the throw-in, racing into a 0-8 to nothing lead after 13 minutes thanks to the deadly accuracy of Bryan O'Shea, who finished with 0-8, and they'd go in at the break with a seven-point advantage to work with in the second-half.

Minus the services of Armagh's Ciaran O'Hanlon, Queen's trimmed their deficit down to six before former AFL star Marty Clarke fired in the game's only goal on 46 minutes.

The Down man wouldn't see out the game as he was black-carded with five minutes to go and despite the Belfast students drawing level thanks to Brendan Bradley and Ruairi Corrigan, UL were able to take the last lead through O'Shea's late free and hold on for their first semi-final berth in the competition in 19 years.

In Mardyke, goals made the difference for favourites UCD against a plucky UCC outfit which went down by 3-11 to 1-9.

John Divilly's side goaled early on in this one after UCC let the ball slip through their rear-guard from a '45' but the Cork side were right back in contention once Luke Connolly dispatched a 13th minute penalty.

UCD turned the screw from there, taking in a 1-8 to 1-3 half-time lead with John Heslin and Niall Kelly on song throughout the hour for the would-be winners.

The southsiders cut into the lead thanks to points from Kerry player Conor Cox early on in the restart but the Dublin outfit rediscovered their goal-touch at just the right time, as Monaghan's Conor McCarthy killed off the game with their third after Paul Mannion's initial effort had been saved by Micheál Martin.

It means UL will play UCD in Friday week's semi-final at Jordanstown, with the winners playing the competition's final against either UUJ or the winners from DCU's meeting with IT Carlow tonight at the latter's home venue (throw-in 7pm).

University of Limerick - C O'Driscoll; E Kiely, C Long, P O'Connor; A Rowan (0-1), D Daly, F Boland; G Hegarty, R Deane (0-1); D Neville, S Killoran, C Sheehan; I Burke, K Moore (0-2, 1f), B O'Shea (0-8, 6f). Subs: C O'Dea for C Sheehan, J Naughton for S Killoran, P White for A Rowan.

Queen's University - J Deeney; G McCabe, C Cullen, B Burns (0-1); N Delargy, S Heffron, M Monan; B Rogers, H Brown; A Morgan, M Clarke (1-2, 0-2f), R Corrigan (0-1); R Murray, G McGovern, D McAleese. Subs: B Bradley (0-4, 3f) for M Monan, C Martin for D McAleese, A Doherty for M Clarke (BC).

Referee - S Hehir.

**

UCD - E Keogh; M Fitzsimons, S O'Dea, R Wylie; D Hyland, D Byrne, J McCaffrey (0-1); B O'Sullivan, D Murphy (0-1); C McCarthy (1-1), J Heslin (0-3, 2f), J McEntee (0-1); E Lowry (1-0), P Mannion (0-2, 1f), N Kelly (0-2). Subs: J Barry for B O'Sullivan, C Mullally for D Murphy, T Hayes for E Lowry, T Moolick for C McCarthy, P Kingston for P Mannion. UCC (1-0og).

UCC - M Martin; J Davis, J McGuire, K Fulignati; K Crowley, B O'Driscoll, J Walsh; G O'Sullivan, I Maguire; S Kiely, L Connolly (1-1, 1-0pen), K Davis (0-1); J Kiely, C Cox (0-6, 4f), D Harrington (0-1). Subs: C Hyde for G O'Sullivan, C Horgan for J Kiely, S Cronin for C Hyde, S White for K Crowley, J Horgan for K Davis.

Referee - B Kelly.

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