Cal (Roner) hosts Santa Clara (too many to mention) Friday at 1:30 pm in Berkeley http://calbears.collegesports.com/sports/m-soccer/spec-rel/111504aab.html USF (Doyle's alma mater) hosts Wisconsin-Milwaukee (Dombrowski) Saturday at 1 pm http://usfdons.collegesports.com/sports/m-soccer/spec-rel/111504aaa.html Tony
I'm thinking about making the run up to Cal. It's a travesty that these teams meet in the first round while ranked east coast teams play the likes of Dartmouth (7-3-6) and George Washington (9-8-4). This is the equivalent of at least a quarterfinal if not semifinal match. And to top it off, the winner plays SMU (15-3-1) in the second round. In soccer, the NCAA schedules very geographically, royally screwing the west coast teams. Every year the strong west coast teams end up eliminating each other in the early rounds while the seeded east coast teams face lightweights. In the end, though, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, and west coast teams are often in the final.
Not a surprise. Remember a few years ago when SJSU was like 20-0-1 going into the tourny and got matched up with defending champ Indiana.
...and this year's Santa Clara Women get to play North Carolina this Saturday after the regional where they had to knock off Stanford and Cal.
I went to Berkeley today. Nice OT win by Cal. On the last shot, it looked to be deflected. Did anyone have a decent angle? I couldn't tell if an SC defender deflected away from the keeper or if the keeper just couldn't get to the shot.