7 Dayton (9-9-3) 0 Saint Joe's (18-2-2) How does a #1 seed get thoroughly thrashed at a neutral site (by the 7-seed) with a conference championship on the line??? "KINGSTON, R.I. – The University of Dayton women's soccer team earned its league-record 10th Atlantic 10 Championship with a 7-0 win over the No. 1 seed Saint Joseph's Sunday at URI Soccer Complex. The Flyers improve to 9-9-3 overall and dealt the Hawks just their second loss of the season, 18-2-2. "In my 25 years this is the single-best performance I've ever seen by a Dayton team," said Head Coach Mike Tucker, who is retiring after the conclusion of the 2016 season. "The girls played gutsy. They're doing everything right now and it's so neat to see them have success now." http://www.daytonflyers.com/news/20...ins-league-record-10th-a-10-championship.aspx
Perhaps playing in the possible last game for a long time coach was the initial motivation. Then things snowballed from there. Sometimes passion goes a long way!
So does St. Joe's now get stiffed in favor of, say, Va. Tech or NC State or another lower-middle big-conference team?
They don't deserve to get in. They were like a high school team getting torched by a college team 7-0. It was worse than Germany over Brazil at the 2014 World Cup. If you don't show up for tournament ball, and get POUNDED 7-0, then you are not a tournament team.
Apart from the disaster in the conference championship game, St. Joe's was not going to get an at large selection if they didn't win their conference tournament. Their RPI was going to drop too low with a loss in the championship game, and they had nothing else in their profile to generate an at large selection. Just look at Princeton, ending with a #31 ARPI rank and with no at large selection. The simply didn't have the profile to get into the Tournament.