Illinois ahead 1-0 at half. Illinois is the upset factor in this tournament. They have the ability to go the whole distance in the B10 Tournament.
Illinois leads Penn State 1-0 at the half. The goal came off a flip throw from Megan Pawloski. Nicole Breece with the goal.
Michigan also scored first against Penn State in league play. I think any of the 4 teams have the ability to go all the way. Penn State won't go down without a fight. Time will tell.
The Illini were the first team to shut out Penn State all season. PSU had scored 62 goals in 20 games entering play today.
It looked like Hayes and Weykamp of Illinois bumped heads on a 50/50 ball with about 6 minutes left. Both players slow to get up, but Weykamp stayed in the game while Hayes went to the sideline for the duration. Hope it's not serious, but you never know with head injuries.
OSU vs. Mich 2-1, so Illinois vs. OSU in finals. Looked like full court press from OSU with high foul count.
Mallory Weber for Penn State also went out after what looked like both leg (she walked off) injury and taking a ball to the face maybe. This was in second half.
Latest NCAA breakdown from AWK's Chris Henderson. Illinois moved ahead of Wisconsin in the pecking order. Minnesota out. Penn State and Ohio State in the top 16. Michigan out of seeded territory, but comfortably in the field. http://www.allwhitekit.com/?p=10848#more-10848
And here's the Adjusted RPI from nc-soccer.com on which Chris is basing his predictions: http://nc-soccer.com/wsoccer/2012/index_arpi
On the road most of yesterday to and from Bloomington. First half of yesterday's championship was pretty even, Ohio State with more shots, Illinois with more on goal. Second half looked like Illini started to wear down, then Cameron showed why she is one of the best goal scorers in the conference. Nice finish off a corner kick, then a turn and shoot from the top of the box less than five minutes later. Illini tried to mount a comeback, but came up short. OSU gets the automatic bid, and deservedly so. They were playing the best soccer in the league the last five weeks of the season. Final adjusted RPI's of Big Ten teams from nc-soccer.com: 3. Penn State 12. Ohio State 20. Michigan 43. Wisconsin 44. Illinois 55. Minnesota 64. Iowa 74. Northwestern 96. Indiana 97. Purdue 108. Nebraska 117. Michigan State Chris Henderson from All White Kit has the Big Ten getting five (Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois). I'm inclined to agree. We'll see what the committee decides tonight. http://www.allwhitekit.com/?p=10856#more-10856
Bracket is out: http://www.ncaa.com/sites/default/files/external/gametool/brackets/soccer-women_d1_2012.pdf Big Ten gets five. Penn State a #1 seed, hosting LIU Brooklyn. Ohio State is a #4 seed, hosting Oakland. Michigan unseeded, hosting Central Michigan. Illinois unseeded, playing at Missouri. Wisconsin unseeded, playing at #3 seed UCLA.
Wisconsin got in? Minnesota beat them head to head AND finished ahead of them in the conference. Why is common sense trumped by the RPI? I guess it's on the strength of beating a Notre Dame team missing Roccaro and Laddish.
We do know that the NCAA cares more about RPI than conference finish and head to head. FYI, I don't think the Gophers deserve to be in the field, but I definitely believe they deserve it over Wisconsin.
No Bob, common sense says that Minnesota lost the bid because they couldn't beat that lowly IU team which wasn't trying to finish in the top 8. Remember: And two days later Wisconsin beats IU, despite their cry-baby coach. But you know Bob, it really didn't matter who got one of those last at large bids, Wisconsin or Minnesota, neither is going to beat the higher seed UCLA. As was the case in the big ten tournament, neither IU nor Iowa, Nebraska, Purdue, Northwestern or Michigan St was going to beat the 1 seed Penn St. So why not let the host team play a game. With the exception of Ohio State, Penn St and Michigan, the other nine team were all average at best. So it really doesn't matter who represents the big ten in those lower seeded positions.
Wow, who are you? If you knew how to read you'd understand that when I said "try to finish in the top 8" I didn't mean that IU wasn't putting forth any effort. I was simply stating if they wanted to make the tournament they needed to finish top 8. Thanks for stalking me for half the season on this message board over your inability to comprehend my point.
Bob, your point was to belittle mine about letting the host team play. Read your post. "Should try", "This is Big Ten athletics" were both nice digs. If you would have said "they have to finish" or something similar, it would be fine. Choose your words wisely. You never know when they come back to bite you. Have fun watching Gophers, and remember, "this is NCAA Division I athletics".
Since I perfectly predicted Penn State's record of putting on one tie , I'll put my tournament predictions out there. (OK...so I totally missed OSU resurgence and way overestimated Nebraska in the beginning...). Penn State, OSU and Michigan will all make the final 16. Penn State will get knocked out as will Michigan but OSU will be in the final 8. Illinois should make it to round of 32, but not beyond. Bernardo's supporting cast has gotten better, but not quite all together, IMHO. Wisconsin is going to have one tough time against UCLA.
Penn State v. Michigan in the round of 16. Illinois one and done. OSU two and done. I can dream, right? Good luck to all the teams. Safe travels and injury free!
Illinois-Missouri should be an interesting clash of footballing cultures. If Illinois can weather Missouri's high pressure rugged style in the early going I imagine their precision will provide difficulties for Missouri. Missouri tends to get stretched out as they look to attack and are vulnerable to the counter-attack. I think they'll have a hard time picking up the elusive Vanessa D.