Division 3 2022

JHU, MIT, Chicago are in an academic class all by themselves in D3.

They are consistently ranked in the Top10 alongside the Ivy’s and Stanford.

And like the Ivy’s they have to hunt unicorns. In the case of the Ivy’s, they have to find highly intelligent women that either don’t need an athletic scholarship or are needy enough to qualify for an academic scholarship. Oh yeah and they have to be D1 level players but not so amazing that a Stanford or UNC will drop a ton of $$$ their way.

The JHU/MIT/Chicago unicorn hunt is very similar. They need to find women smart enough to get into an IVY, but that have been passed over by the Princetons on the pitch. They can’t just go out and get the best D3 talent available only to see them fail in a scalding classroom environment with no place to hide.

So Swarthmore/McDaniel/et al have the advantage of burying some classroom lunks in a “Survey of American Literature” class (See D1 football class lists) because they are soccer proficient, MIT/JHU/Chic have the advantage that D1 grad transfers want their acronyms on their CV’s.

Good for everyone.

 

I agree with alot of that with one major caveat - it depend on what you want to study!

There actually are very smart kids who want to be teachers, nurses, ATs, and some very smart parents who realize they don't need to spend 40K+ a year for that kind of degree. There are also very smart kids who are the 3rd or 4th kid in college who don't get the 40/50K+ annual college budget since that money is gone now! Mom and Dad want their retirement savings or beach condo. Saving that money for the name brand Graduate or Professional degree is also pretty smart.

So, I would kinda reject the idea that 2nd tier privates or even the regional state schools are all getting "classroom lunks". The p5 flagships are all doing just fine. In women's soccer, there are plenty of smart kids to go around in that big middle of the bell curve.

What is very true is that many small private d3s, lots of D2s and even some D1s that were struggling before covid with enrollment and budgets, are still struggling and it's starting to show.

It's revealing to see who can't even buy the new Wilson game balls, who doesn't have a quality stream with commentary, who doesn't have good roster updates, AT's that can travel, etc.

 

I’m not suggesting that those tier 2 and lower schools ONLY get “lunks”… I’m saying that the 3 schools mentioned and maybe a couple of others in D3 don’t have the luxury of taking a lunk on their roster as they wouldn’t survive the class work no matter how good they are on the pitch. As the ACT enrollment bar drops, so rises the ability to “hide” a few lunks.

The recruiting pool available to those 3 schools is significantly smaller than at nearly every other D3 school.

 

The USC national Poll 1 (September 13 2022) is out at https://unitedsoccercoaches.org/rankings/college-rankings/ncaa-diii-women/

 

Some highlight games involving Top 25 teams this week:

Tuesday, 9/20 @ 7pm: Vassar v #10 Wesleyan:
https://athletics.wesleyan.edu/sports/2022/8/26/womens-soccer-stream.aspx

@ 7pm : #14 TCNJ v. RV Stevens
Stevens Institute of Technology (stevensducks.tv)

Wednesday, 9/21 @ 4:30 pm: #6 William Smith v. RV Rochester Institute of Technology
https://hwsathletics.com/watch/?Live=1329&type=Live

Saturday, 9/24 @ 11 am #19 Tufts v. RV Hamilton
Hamilton College Athletics - Team Page - NSN (nsnsports.net)

@ 1pm : #2 Misericordia v #3 Messiah
(1) MU Cougars - YouTube

Sunday, 9/25 @ 11 am #10 Wesylan V #19 Tufts
Hamilton College Athletics - Team Page - NSN (nsnsports.net)

 

The USC national poll 2 (September 20) is out at https://unitedsoccercoaches.org/rankings/college-rankings/ncaa-diii-women/

 

These folks are still doing a D3 poll as well.
Not a flashy site but I always liked how their scoreboard is in time of day order and has good direct links to video and stats.

https://d3soccer.com/top25/women/2022/week3

 

Shocking, coach should be reprimanded:
Alverno at Illinois Tech - September 21, 2022 - 07:00 - Box Score - Illinois Institute of Technology (prestosports.com)

 

Alverno lost their previous game 0-19.

A quick run through the player bios tells us the why: their keeper only played one year of high school soccer; another only played her frosh-soph years in high school; a third took last year off from soccer to concentrate on track.

Two-to-three years on the jv squad and a-year-or-two at the high school varsity level seems to be a pretty typical soccer bio for this team. Additionally, not a lot of club teams mentioned.

This is going to be a very long season for these young women. I wish them well.

 

I agree with original poster. There is something to be said about sportsmanship. It should have been clear that it was a massive mismatch and the IIT coach should have shown some respect for their opponent. Alverno had no shots on goal the entire game. Even giving the IIT coach the benefit of the doubt, it was 13-0 at half and still the IIT coach did not call off the dogs. The coach continued to play players who had previously scored. Rachel Brettin scored 2 goals in first half and allowed to score 3 more in the 2d. Laura Rios scored 3 goals in the first and was still playing in the final 10 minutes of game when she scored her 4th goal. There are ways to play meaningful minutes without scoring on an over-matched opponent.

 

The USC national poll 4 (October 4) is out at https://unitedsoccercoaches.org/rankings/college-rankings/ncaa-diii-women/

Also D3Soccer has released their top 25 ranking at https://d3soccer.com/top25/women/2022/week5

The following table is a composite of the two polls:

Rank	USC	D3
1	Chris. Newport	Chris. Newport
2	Messiah	Messiah
3	Misericordia	Misericordia
4	Johns Hopkins	Johns Hopkins
5	William Smith	Calvin
6	Wartburg	William Smith
7	Case Western Res	Trinity (Texas)
8	Trinity (Texas)	Case Western Res
9	Calvin	Wartburg
10	Montclair State	Carnegie Mellon
11	Williams	TCNJ
12	Babson	Montclair State
13	Carnegie Mellon	Mary Hardin-Baylor
14	Mary Hardin-Baylor	Tufts
15	TCNJ	Amherst
16	Trinity	Pomona-Pitzer
17	UW-La Crosse	Babson
18	Tufts	Loras
19	MIT	UW-La Crosse
20	North Central	North Central
21	Virginia Wesleyan	Williams
22	Amherst	Virginia Wesleyan
23	Loras	MIT
24	F&M	Pacific Lutheran
25	Pomona-Pitzer	Puget Sound

In also include a table showing Coach Jon's RIP (composite of the two polls and Massey computer rankings):

Team	USC	D3	Mas	RIP
Messiah	2	2	1	1.67
Chris. Newport	1	1	3	1.67
Johns Hopkins	4	4	2	3.33
Misericordia	3	3	4	3.33
William Smith	6	5	6	5.67
Case Western Res	8	7	7	7.33
Calvin	5	9	9	7.67
Wartburg	9	6	10	8.33
TCNJ	11	15	8	11.33
Carnegie Mellon	10	13	13	12
Trinity (Texas)	7	8	21	12
Tufts	14	18	5	12.33
Montclair State	12	10	20	14
Babson	17	12	17	15.33
Amherst	15	22	11	16
Williams	21	11	18	16.67
Mary Hardin-Baylor	13	14	25	17.33
Pomona-Pitzer	16	25	12	17.67
UW-La Crosse	19	17	22	19.33
Pacific Lutheran	24	26	15	21.67
Emory	26	26	14	22
North Central	20	20	26	22
Puget Sound	25	26	16	22.33
Loras	18	23	26	22.33
MIT	23	19	26	22.67
Trinity College	26	16	26	22.67
Virginia Wesleyan	22	21	26	23
Bowdoin	26	26	19	23.67
Swathmore	26	26	24	25.33
Franklin & Marshall	24	26	26	25.33

Please note some data seems to be missing from Massey. For example, Trinity's upset victory over Tufts on Sunday is not listed in Massey and Tufts' ranking in not diminished as expected. Also, if a team is not listed in a poll, then I assign them 26th ranking for that poll.

 

The USC national poll 5 (October 11) is out at https://unitedsoccercoaches.org/rankings/college-rankings/ncaa-diii-women/

Also D3Soccer has released their top 25 ranking at https://d3soccer.com/top25/women/2022/week6

The following table is a composite of the two polls:

Rank	USC	D3
1	Chris. Newport	Chris. Newport
2	Messiah	Messiah
3	Misericordia	Misericordia
4	Johns Hopkins	Johns Hopkins
5	William Smith	William Smith
6	Case Western Res	Calvin
7	Wartburg	Case Western Res
8	Trinity (Texas)	Trinity (Texas)
9	Calvin	Carnegie Mellon
10	Williams	TCNJ
11	Carnegie Mellon	Tufts
12	TCNJ	Wartburg
13	Montclair State	Amherst
14	MIT	UW-La Crosse
15	Mary Hardin-Baylor	Loras
16	Amherst	Williams
17	UW-La Crosse	Mary Hardin-Baylor
18	Virginia Wesleyan	Montclair State
19	Babson	Pomona-Pitzer
20	Tufts	Virginia Wesleyan
21	Trinity	Emory
22	North Central	Puget Sound
23	Loras	MIT
24	Franklin & Marshall	North Central
25	Pomona-Pitzer	Pacific Lutheran

I also include a table showing Coach Jon's RIP (average of the two polls and Massey computer rankings):

Team	D3	USC	Mas	RIP
Chris. Newport	1	1	3	1.67
Misericordia	3	3	1	2.33
Messiah	2	2	4	2.67
Johns Hopkins	4	4	2	3.33
William Smith	5	5	6	5.33
Case Western Res	7	6	5	6
Calvin	6	9	9	8
TCNJ	10	12	7	9.67
Trinity (Texas)	8	8	16	10.67
Carnegie Mellon	9	11	12	10.67
Wartburg	12	7	15	11.33
Amherst	13	16	8	12.33
Williams	16	10	13	13
Tufts	11	20	10	13.67
UW-La Crosse	14	17	20	17
Montclair State	18	13	26	19
Mary Hardin-Baylor	17	15	26	19.33
Emory	21	26	11	19.33
MIT	23	14	23	20
Pomona-Pitzer	19	25	17	20.33
Puget Sound	22	26	14	20.67
Loras	15	23	26	21.33
Virginia Wesleyan	20	18	26	21.33
Trinity College	26	21	21	22.67
Middlebury	26	26	18	23.33
Pacific Lutheran	25	26	19	23.33
Babson	26	19	26	23.67
North Central	24	22	26	24
Swarthmore	26	26	22	24.67
Bowdoin	26	26	24	25.33
Franklin & Marshall College	26	24	26	25.33
Scranton	26	26	25	25.67

 

It never fails to amaze me how the west coast gets undervalued in the rankings--which then perpetuates in play-offs because they are made to travel as the lower seed. Thoughts from others??

 

It is interesting that the Massey computer ranking ranks all three western teams higher than the polls do.

 

It seems to me that the tournaments organizers' top priority is minimizing flying (costs). The second priority is forming balanced first weekend groups. The higher ranked team may not necessarily be made the host if doing so conflicts with the first priority (cost). For example, in 2019, Pomona-Pitzer traveled to Wartburg even though they were higher ranked. But once again, I think this had more to do with minimizing costs, rather than disadvantaging west coast teams.

 

Regarding rankings, it is very difficult to properly rank teams from different geographic regions in relation to each other. In order to do that successfully, there must be a large number of out-of-region games. While I have not looked at the numbers for D3, I am sure the proportion of out-of-region games is not sufficient at the D3 level. It is not even sufficient at the D1 level, for which I have the numbers.

I do not know how Massey does it, but he does about as well as one can with rating teams from a region in relation to teams from other regions. I have done a detailed evaluation of his system on that very question and his ratings correlate well with game results in games between teams from different regions, as compared to the NCAA RPI where the ratings do not correlate well with game results. This is particularly a problem for teams from the West, which tend to play the fewest out-of-region games due to geographic distance considerations. At the D1 level, they significantly outperform their ratings in cross-region games.

 

The USC national poll 6 (October 18) is out at https://unitedsoccercoaches.org/rankings/college-rankings/ncaa-diii-women/

Also D3Soccer has released their top 25 ranking at https://d3soccer.com/top25/women/2022/week7

The table below shows Coach Jon's RIP (average of the two polls and Massey computer rankings) for teams receiving a top 25 ranking:

Team	D3	USC	Massey	RIP
Chris. Newport	1	1	3	1.67
Misericordia	2	2	1	1.67
Johns Hopkins	3	3	2	2.67
Case Western Res	4	4	4	4
William Smith	5	5	5	5
Messiah	6	6	7	6.33
Carnegie Mellon	8	9	8	8.33
Wartburg	10	7	12	9.67
Trinity (Texas)	7	8	15	10
Amherst	11	13	6	10
Calvin	9	11	13	11
Williams	17	10	11	12.67
Emory	16	16	9	13.67
UW-La Crosse	12	15	17	14.67
TCNJ	15	18	14	15.67
Montclair State	13	12	23	16
Loras	14	17	22	17.67
Tufts	19	26	10	18.33
Mary Hardin-Baylor	18	14	26	19.33
Pacific Lutheran	22	26	19	22.33
Middlebury	26	26	16	22.67
Puget Sound	25	26	18	23
Rowan	24	20	26	23.33
Pomona-Pitzer	21	26	24	23.67
North Central	26	19	26	23.67
Swarthmore	26	26	20	24
Bowdoin	26	25	21	24
Wash & Lee	20	26	26	24
MIT	26	21	26	24.33
Rochester	26	22	26	24.67
Virginia Wesleyan	23	26	26	25
Trinity College	26	23	26	25
Emerson	26	24	26	25.33
Scranton	26	26	25	25.67

If a team is not listed in a poll, then I assign them a 26th ranking for that poll.

 

JHU has officially completely integrated their "1 and done" grad students. The game against Dickinson last evening was eye opening in the way the Jays dominated every aspect of the field in a 4-0 rout of what was as recently as 2 years ago, the other Centennial finalist Dickinson. In fact, JHU has dominated 3 of the next 4 best teams in Centennial (Swarthmore, Dickinson, McDaniel, Gettysburg) by a combined score of 16-1. Way to go McDaniel for scoring!!!! Only Franklin & Marshall remain. They have allowed only 5 goals all season while playing the 17th toughest schedule in D3.

They are going to be a tough out in the tourney.

 

It seems to me that finishing your season with five consecutive scoreless ties and not earning the conference AQ is NOT the best way of impressing the tournament selectors. I would not be surprised if the Herons did not make the tournament and if they do, then they will probably have to travel to a TOP team on the first weekend. It would be cool to see them play at Homewood. After all, is not second place in the Liberty League almost the definition of cannon fodder.
The thing about the Herons is they have been playing great. They have been pinning all their opponents in the own end, shown superior ball control, scrappy athletic defense and created chance after chance. They just to do not seem to have players that can finish.
I am surprised at the mess in multiple conferences. Who should go in NESCAC? Clearly Amherst, probably Wesleyan, maybe Williams. Who else? And Centenial, other than JHU? NJAC? I cannot imagine Chicago or Washu qualifying. Does Rochester make it as the 4th UAA team?

 

NESCAC always seems to get a ton of teams in (often to my dismay) so looking at the Massey ratings I would expect Amherst, Williams, Tufts and Bowdoin. Would thik Case, CMU and Emory from UAA. Don't see anyone other than JHU from Centenial.....actually see the NESCAC poised to get more teams (Middlebury & Wesleyan) in over other folks (its also cheaper for the NCAA). It is the most interesting year I have seen in a while though. Can't wait to see the final draw !!!

 

Sorry, I mispoke. The Herons had 4 consecutive scoreless ties, not 5.