Brackets and such announced today.... South @ CBU Christian Brothers vs. Tampa U. Barry vs. West Florida Southeast @ Kennesaw St. Kennesaw State vs. Presbyterian Tusculum vs. Carson-Newman Central @ Nebraska-Omaha*** North Dakota vs. Minnesota State-Mankato UNO vs. Truman State Great Lakes @ Grand Valley St. GVSU vs. Wisconsin-Parkside Ashland vs. Northern Kentucky New England @ Franklin Pierce Franklin Pierce vs. Southern New Hampshire Merrimack vs. St. Rose Northeast @ Adelphi Adelphi vs. Kutztown Slippery Rock vs. West Chester Midwest @ Metro St. Metro State vs. Central Oklahoma Texas A&M-Commerce vs. West TX A&M Far West @ UCSD UC San Diego vs. Cal. St.-San Bernadino Cal. St.-Dominguez Hills vs. Seattle Pacific All regional matches will be Friday-Sunday except for the Far West, which will play Saturday-Monday. *** = North Dakota was named top seed in the Central region, but failed to enter a bid to host the tournament.
I'm glad to see that Tusculum has gotten into the tournament. As to the Far West regional... UCSD will have to play San Bernardino and (probably) then Dominguez Hills again for the 3rd and 4th time each this year. That reminds me of 2 years ago, when the Tritons had to play Pomona (who was arguably the 2nd or 3rd best team in the country) 4 times. *** Here are the Albin-Jones team and conference ratings thrugh 09 November: http://www.soccerratings.com/W03D2.html http://www.soccerratings.com/W03C2.html
Rk Rtg Opp Team Conf 01 1526 1003 Metro RMAC 02 1453 987 Kennesaw PBAC 03 1570 1258 UCSD CCAA 04 1341 926 Adelphi NYCAC 05 1567 974 CBU GSC 06 1348 986 Grand Valley GLIAC 07 1573 1186 FPU NE10 08 1378 891 Truman St MIAA 09 1411 1031 Ashland GLIAC 10 1399 1095 Seattle Pac GNAC 11 1472 1133 Merrimack NE10 12 1204 951 Slippery Rock PSAC 13 1297 922 W Fla GSC 14 1245 1068 Tusculum SAC 15 1340 1064 W Tex A&M LSC 16 1229 1037 Mankato NCC 17 1397 1223 CSU-DH CCAA 18 1440 1137 NKU GLVC 19 1348 1096 Barry SSC 20 1331 1118 A&M-Comm LSC 21 1164 777 Carson-Newman SAC 22 1357 1152 St Rose NE10 23 1234 920 N Dak NCC 24 1117 1042 W Chester PSAC 25 1280 992 C Okla LSC Votes 1422 1070 UNO NCC Votes 1096 922 Kutztown PSAC Votes 1213 1068 Presbyterian SAC Votes 1239 999 W Parkside GLVC Votes 1274 1095 Seattle GNAC In 32 1151 963 Tampa SSC In 32 1247 1152 Southern NH NE10 In 32 1281 1243 CSU-SB CCAA AJ20 1295 1152 Bryant NE10 AJ21 1293 1256 SF State CCAA AJ22 1288 1003 Regis RMAC AJ26 1270 1220 S Conn NE10 AJ27 1263 1256 CSU-Chico CCAA AJ28 1259 1244 Pomona CCAA AJ29 1256 1259 UC Davis CCAA AJ32 1243 1259 Sonoma St CCAA *** 1st Column is the 10 Nov NSCAA Ranking, followed by the teams that got votes, and then teams with the next highest A-J ratings. Note that Seattle got votes but wasn't included in the tournament... 2nd Column is Albin-Jones 09 Rating 3rd Column is A-J Opponents Average Rating 4th Column is Team 5th Column is Conference
Here is a breakdown of each of the 8 pods, looking at it from the viewpoint of the team that has the highest A-J rating in each pod. The average A-J rating for the other 3 teams in the pod will be put in brackets. Christian Brothers (1265) met 6 playoff teams, 5 wins, 1 tie and 1 loss - beating the team that they lost to, West Florida, who is also in this pod. Kennesaw State (1207) met 4 playoff teams, 3 wins, 1 loss. They face the 4th and 6th weakest teams in the tournament and beat the other, Tusculum, 3-1, back on 14 September. They would have to face CBU (their 1 loss) in the quarterfinals. Nebraska-Omaha (1277) is rated higher than Truman State, met playoff 4 teams, 2 wins, 1 tie and 2 losses - both of those to North Dakota, also in this pod. Northern Kentucky (1333) met 4 playoff teams, 3 ties and 2 losses - both of those to UW-Parkside, also in this pod. Franklin Pierce (1359) met 4 playoff teams, 3 wins and 2 losses. They avenged 1 of the losses in their conference final, but that team, Merrimack, is in this pod. Adelphi (1139) met only 1 playoff team, beating lowly Kutztown, who has the lowest AJ score in the tournament. It also faces the team with the 2nd lowest score, West Chester, and the 5th lowest, Slippery Rock. The Committee must have owed the Adelphi coach a lot of favors! Metro State (1317) met 2 playoff teams, 1 win and 1 tie. They would probably have to face UCSD in the quarterfinals. UCSD (1359) played 3 playoff teams, 4 wins and 1 loss - they avenged the 3-2 loss in the conference final, by a 5-1 score.
Nebraska-Omaha 3 Truman State 1 Northern Kentucky 1 Ashland 1 (NKU advances on PKs) Grand Valley St 4 Wisconsin-Parkside 0 West Chester 3 Slippery Rock 0 Metro St. 4 Central Oklahoma 0 West Texas A&M 2 Texas A&M Commerce 1 New England Regional at Rindge, N.H. - postponed due to weather Nebraska-Omaha: Mavs Advance to Play MSU in Central Final Northern Kentucky: NKU advances on PKs Grand Valley State: Lakers Win 4-0 in First Regional Game
to summarize Yesterday's results: Barry 1 West Florida 0 Christian Brothers 3 Tampa 0 Tusculum 1 Carson-Newman 0 Kennesaw State 4 Presbyterian 0 Minnesota State, Mankato 2 North Dakota 1 Nebraska-Omaha 3 Truman State 1 Northern Kentucky 1 Ashland 1 (NKU advances on PKs) Grand Valley State 4 Wisconsin-Parkside 0 Adelphi 4 Kutztown 0 West Chester 3 Slippery Rock 0 Metro State 4 Central Oklahoma 0 West Texas A&M 2 Texas A&M-Commerce 1 Today's 1st round games: New England Regional at Rindge, N.H. St. Rose vs. Merrimack 11 a.m. Southern N.H. vs. Franklin Pierce 1:30 p.m. Far West Regional at La Jolla, CA: CS Dominguez Hills vs. Seattle Pacific 4:30 pm CS. San Bernadino vs. UC San Diego 7 p.m.
New England Regional: St. Rose 0 Merrimack 0 (St. Rose advances on PK's and will play the winner of the Southern N.H. vs. Franklin Pierce match)
Dominguez Hills 2 - Seattle Pacific 1 The Toros scored late in the first half, got an insurance goal late in the second half and had a goal scored on them in the 89th minute. They were the more physical team and they picked up a lot more fouls. UCSD 1 - San Bernardino 0 The Tritons dominated the game but were not able to score until there were 4 minutes left in the game.
Regional finals Sunday Barry at Christian Brothers, 1 p.m. Tusculum at Kennesaw St, 2 p.m. Minnesota St, Mankato at Nebraska-Omaha, noon Northern Kentucky at Grand Valley St, 1 p.m. West Chester at Adelphi, noon West Texas A&M at Metro, St noon Monday Saint Rose at Franklin Pierce, 1 p.m. CS. Dominguez Hills at UC San Diego, 7 p.m.
A-J as first round predictor Wins CBU vs. Tampa (1567 vs 1151) Barry vs. W Fla (1348 vs 1257) Kennesaw vs. Presbyterian (1453 vs 1213) Tusculum vs. Carson-Newman (1245 vs 1213) UNO vs. Truman (1422 vs 1378) GVSU vs. Parkside (1348 vs 1239) Ashland vs. NKU (1411 vs 1440) FPU vs. SNH (1573 vs 1247) Adelphi vs. Kutztown (1341 vs 1096) Metro vs. C Okla (1526 vs 1280) A&M-Comm vs. WTx A&M (1331 vs 1340) UCSD vs. CSSB (1570 vs 1281) Losses NDak vs. Mankato (1234 vs 1229) Merrimack vs. St. Rose (1472 vs 1357) Slippery Rock vs. West Chester (1204 vs 1117) CSDH vs. SPU (1397 vs 1399) Notes: NDak lost possible home field advantage by not bidding for tournament host. Merrimack lost on penalty kicks. CSDH game was really was like home game for them because over 100 supporters (including several loudmouths) showed up for their game in San Diego – there were only a handful for SPU. * * * A-J 2nd Round, not including the 55pt home field advantage... Barry at CBU (1348 vs 1567) Tusculum at Kennesaw St (1245 vs 1453) Mankato at UNO (1229 vs 1422) NKU at Grand Valley (1440 vs 1348) West Chester at Adelphi (1117 vs 1341) WTexA&M at Metro (1340 vs 1526) Saint Rose at FPU (1357 vs 1573) CSDH at UCSD (1397 vs 1570)
Barry 1 Christian Brothers 1 (Barry advances on PKs) Metro St. 1 West Texas A&M 0 Kennesaw St 2 Tusculum 0 Metro State Captures Midwest Regional Crown Tusculum Eliminated from NCAA tournament
2nd round game versus CSU-DH The Tritons played the better game, and this year got better results in the shootout (last year they outplayed UC Davis but did miserably in the shootout.) One thing that was done last year that was also done this year was the changing of goalkeepers specifically for the shootout - Kami Poma has been very good as a field keeper but apparently hasn't done well in practice at the shootouts. When I was at the first round games two days ago, I sat next to the UCSD coach during the first half of the early game and he said that the 5-1 championship game was a bit of an illusion because either team could have gotten an early lead from the run of play, but his team was the one who did. http://athletics.ucsd.edu/news/index.php?id=545
Division II Quarterfinals (winners in bold) Saturday: Barry 0 at Kennesaw State 1 Northern Kentucky 0 at Nebraska-Omaha 1 (OT) Sunday: Adelphi at Franklin Pierce, 1 p.m. Metro State at UC San Diego, 1 p.m. From the UNO website: Pile's OT Goal Sends Mavs Back to the Beach From the Kennesaw St. (Georgia) website: Next Stop: Final Four
Semi-Final Pairings Now Complete UCSD beat Metro State 3-2, in a game where all 5 goals were scored on headers. The Tritons had 1-0 and 2-1 leads before Kristen Jones scored her 2nd goal of the game to break a 2-2 tie. *** Earlier today, FPC beat Adelphi 2-1 http://www.fpc.edu/pages/Athletics/WomensSoccer/wsocc112303AU.htm
UNO-NKU was a classic. Both teams had a number of chances and the Mavericks blew a succession of one-on-one opportunities in the last minutes of regulation. The Final Four should be very interesting, indeed. You have one half of the bracket with two relative newcomers - UNO at five years old and Kennesaw State at just two - while the other half has established powers in Franklin Pierce and UC San Diego.
Details, details.... I'm flying out to VA Beach Wednesday so I should be there live and in person for the semifinals and final.
He said "established powers". UCSD was certainly an established power at the D3 level before moving up, and quite often played D2 and NAIA teams when they could. Go Tritons!!!