Here's how I saw it last night: It certainly wasn't the most captivating match, but I had a good time last night. The atmosphere was pretty good last night. Mac students always show up in good numbers and voice for big games, and Gustavus had impressive numbers of their own. Plenty of singing and chanting. Attendance was announced at 1,200 but maybe it was slightly bigger than that. Gustavus started out the better of the two teams with a few chances early on, but keeper Mike Madigan made a good save on one of them, and Gustavus wasn't doing a good job delivering corners. Mac answered right back with a chance of their own before winning a corner in the 14th minute. Nordstrom floated one over the defense to Peacock, who headed home from close range. The goal really fired up the Mac crowd and changed the game. Unlike the carefree attacking Mac teams in recent years, this year's Scots rely on defense and full-field pressure. They hadn't given up a goal in conference play all season, and I figured they'd try to win another 1-0 game. The game really slowed down after the goal as Mac dropped back, marking well in the midfield. Gustavus finally created a few chances right before and right after the break. Madigan had to make one save right away in the second half, and soon afterwards Iblings fired a blast from 20 yards out and it went wide. From where I was in the stands, it looked like it didn't miss by much. Mac has had a few injury problems of late and didn't have a very deep bench last night. The few substitutions they did make were swapping forwards. The Scots dropped back even further, and played no-nonsense long balls up to their fast forwards to relieve pressure and possibly find a break. The Gusties made a few offensive substitutions late in the second half. Although Gustavus started to put a lot of pressure on Mac's defense, they never really broke past the Scots' back line, which performed admirably. Mac held on to win the game and clinch their fifth MIAC title in six years. Maybe this wasn't supposed to be the Scots' year, but Leaney is one hell of a coach who has really adapted to a very different squad this time around. While last year's team dominated the MIAC with flashy play and pretty goals, this year's team won a close title race with solid tackling and hustle. I thought Gustavus was a solid team but they know that last night was not their best performance. Eric Carl was having a good season up front but I guess I expected more from him than I saw last night. He didn't get such great service. They're a good team, but last night, they were missing that creative spark. MAC and GAC is like a tale of two seasons. Mac struggled early on, losing a few disappointing non-conference games to start the season, and after beating a few weaker teams, tied St. Thomas away to start MIAC play. But soon afterwards, the team started to gel, winning a few big away games and gaining a lot of confidence. Gustavus played well for almost their entire season but stumbled in the last week. Had Mac not scored fairly early, who knows what could have happened. If there was a man of the match award I'd definitely give it to Stuart Peacock. Not only did he score the goal, but he played one hell of a game at sweeper. So, the Scots successfully defend their MIAC crown and after a season finale against St. Mary's, will wait and see where they go for the regionals.
I thought we (gustavus) played average if not a bit below. In the midfield we were to nervous, we tried to make plays to quickly instead of being patient and waiting for things to happen. Defense played well as usual. Gustavus has one of, if not the strongest defenses in the conference, led by Adam Macleod-Roth. We didnt get a lot of movement up front, Eric Carl did what he could, hustled non-stop, but we couldnt find ways to get him the ball, we played to tense during the attack. The Mac keeper was hardly tested, the mac defense played well. I wasnt impressed with MAC's attack, I feel they will make an early exit in the nationals due to there lack of scoring, but they do find a way to get the job done. As for the Mac goal, the ball was well struck out of the corner, tough to judge in the lights especially for our only night game of the year. The man went up unmarked and put the ball away. I misjudged the ball, but theres also no reason the man should be left open on a corner, atleast that much. The rest of the game was rather slow. I thought we dominated play, corners was like 8 to 2 in favor of us. we didnt take corners well at all during the game. I feel if both teams would have played there best it would have been a different outcome, but its soccer anything can happen at anytime... hopefully mac represents the MIAC well in nationals.
University of Rochester pushed to 16th nationally (#2 regional) with their victory over previous #8 Suny - Brockport and victory over Brandeis this past weekend (2-1). With one game to go against rival RIT, the #2 regional ranking looks to send UR to the tournament (with other teams in the top four: St. Lawrence #1, Brockport #3 and Plattsburgh #4)
Luther won another IIAC title, thanks to a 2-0 victory over hosts Wartburg. Central lost 1-0 (in OT) against Wartburg in the semi-final.
The draw is out!!! The bracket is set: FIRST ROUND: November 13 Linfield @ Puget Sound Trinity (Tex.) @ Texas Lutheran Marian (Wisc.) @ Wisconsin-Whitewater Westminster (Mo.) @ Nebraska Wesleyan Dominican (Ill.) @ Hope St. Norbert @ Concordia (Wisc.) Westminster (Pa.) @ Otterbein Johns Hopkins @ Messiah Johnson & Wales @ Merchant Marine Medgar Evers @ Babson Salve Regina @ Williams Worcester State @ Ithaca Regionals in the next post...
REGIONALS- Nov 15-16 or 16-17 (Host school in CAPS) REDLANDS vs. Puget Sound/Linfield Colorado College vs. Tex. Lutheran/Trinity LUTHER vs. Whitewater/Marian Macalester vs. Neb. Wesleyan/Westminster (Mo.) WISCONSIN-OSHKOSH vs. Hope/Dominican Wheaton (Ill.) vs. Concordia-St. Norbert OHIO WESLEYAN vs. Pittsburgh-Greensburg Carnegie Mellon vs. Otterbein/Westminster (Pa.) ---- ROANOKE vs. Greensboro Salisbury vs. Messiah/Johns Hopkins ROWAN vs. Merchant Marine/J & W Drew vs. Babson/Medgar Evers KEENE STATE vs. Arcadia Richard Stockton vs. Williams/Salve Regina SAINT LAWRENCE vs. Ithaca/Worcester St. Amherst vs. Cortland State
I don't have much to say about the draw right now, I won't make predictions yet... but as a MAC student, I'm not disappointed with the way our team's draw came out. I think Macalester has the edge over its possible regional semis opponents, and if they win, it looks like they'll get a chance for revenge over Luther or UW-Whitewater (although that will not be easy). Not only that, but Decorah, Iowa is not too far of a drive (I don't think it's as close as a few Wisconsin sites but at least the NCAA didn't make us bite the bullet and go out West)—so hopefully there will be a large contingent of the best fans in Division III at Luther this weekend. I want to be in that number, When the SCOTS go marching in!
Pitt-Greensburg? They made it? No offense to anyone from that school who can actually read this, but... that team is crap.
I am pretty surprised at some of the pix for the tournament. But mostly in the NY region. No teams get an at-large bid? Cortland and Ithaca make it over teams like Rochester, Brockport and Plattsburgh? Amherst gets pushed into the regional section? Did Ithaca or Cortland win their conference tournament? There doesn't seem to be many at-large bids at all across the country.
I can answer my own question. Ithaca won the Empire 8 Tournament 2-1 over Nazareth: http://www.empire8.com/110302-2.html And Cortland won the SUNYAC Tournament 4-2 over Brockport: http://www.cortland.edu/athletics/msoccer/2002/ncaapairings.pdf The article from Cortland answers another question; What happened to Brockport and Plattsburgh? But still, how did Rochester fail to get a bid? Typical year in the NY region is four teams playing in a regional bracket.
Go Dominican! Watch out for Dominican U.. They've just moved to DIII from NAIA. They are strong and have a great coach.
Salve Regina made it? This team is not very good, I played against them. I guess they won their conference tournament? Williams is going to kill them.
Re: Go Dominican! Well, strange and unexpected things can happen in soccer and in single-elimination tournaments, so I won't say Dominican won't win anything in the tournament, esp. since they open against Hope. But I will say that their selection was probably the most dubious of the at-large bids awarded. They barely won half their games, losing 4 and tying 6. Yes, they played a tough out of conference schedule, but they didn't win any of those tough games. They were only 1-3-1 against other tournament bound teams (the one win coming against 8-9-2 Marian). And they couldn't even crack the Top 10 in their Region. But...having been given the gift of a tournament bid, it's now up to them to make the most of it. We shall see.
Re: Salve Regina made it? This is an prime example of why some of the AQ's need to be eliminating and replaced with more at-large bids. Some of the conferences getting automatic bids are laughable. Salve Regina (10-11-2) gets into the tournament with a losing record. They won the Commonwealth Coast Conference, but went 2-9-1 out of conference. What a joke. Teams like Virginia Wesleyan (15-3-1), Rochester (12-4-2, ranked #2 in Northeast Region), and Centre (13-2-2, ranked #4 in Central Region) are staying home while a team like Salve Regina get in. Ridiculous.
With so many AQ's and so few at-large bids, many teams are not rewarded for a strong regular season. Div I basketball gets away with having conference tournament winners getting the conference AQ, but there are so many at-large bids most of the quality teams get in. But in this tournament, with 4 at-large bids total, you have screwed too many teams that should be in the tourney. Keep the AQ, just get rid of the AQ going to the conference tournament winner. Then the at-large bids can go to the teams that are trully "bubble teams". Not teams that crushed in the regular season but lost in the conference tournament.
This is off the NCAA Tournament topic, but Rochester plays Keuka College this weekend in the ECAC Tournament. Other half of the draw has Brockport playing Plattsburgh. Consolation tournament, but should be some good soccer, with three of the four teams who deserved a look from the NCAA.
I think Dolimite was cheering for the Carnegie Mellon Tartans. Right? Pitt-Greensburg are the Bobcats.
NCAA Div. III First Round Results NCAA DIVISION III FIRST ROUND RESULTS (AS OF 6 PM EST) SOUTH REGION MESSIAH 1, Johns Hopkins 0 74:55 PK - Matt Bills MESSIAH http://www.messiah.edu/sports/msoccer/writeups/hopkins.htm http://hopkinssports.ocsn.com/sports/m-soccer/recaps/111302aaa.html http://www.ncaachampionships.com/0,5920,1_719_0_23936,00.html METRO REGION MERCHANT MARINE 2, Johnson & Wales 1 39:16 Billy Tucker (Steve Tenaglia) MERCHANT MARINE http://www.usmma.edu/athletics/article.asp?id=1008 http://www.ncaachampionships.com/0,5920,1_719_0_23939,00.html BABSON 3, Medgar Evers 0 4:54 Shaun Dowell (Steve Pagnotta) BABSON 8:19 Steve Pagnotta (Jonah Frisch) BABSON 81:31 Shaun Dowell (Mark Abraham) BABSON http://www.babson.edu/ugrad/athletics/teams/soccer_mens/games/02_03/021113ms.html http://www.ncaachampionships.com/0,5920,1_719_0_23935,00.html NEW ENGLAND REGION WILLIAMS 3, Salve Regina 1 39:10 Blake (Stephenson, Olsen) WILLIAMS 41:13 Anderson (Naymie) SALVE REGINA 43:34 Blake (Olsen) WILLIAMS 58:40 Olsen (Blake) WILLIAMS http://www.williams.edu/News/sportsinfo/data/men_soccer/2002/20021113-004-05cbc.html http://www.ncaachampionships.com/0,5920,1_719_0_23949,00.html NORTHEAST REGION ITHACA 2, Worcester State 0 GREAT LAKES REGION OTTERBEIN 2, Westminster (Pa.) 0 39:00 Adam Rothermel (unassisted) OTTERBEIN 81:00 Angelo Manzo (Mark Welp) OTTERBEIN http://www.otterbein.edu/athletics/msoccer/msoccer.htm http://www.westminster.edu/Athletics/ms111302.html http://www.ncaachampionships.com/0,5920,1_719_0_23938,00.html NORTH CENTRAL REGION HOPE 4, Dominican (Ill.) 0 3:58 Bryant Loomis (Tim Kelly) HOPE 21:38 Geoffrey Meyer (unassisted) HOPE 25:12 Devin McNeil (Eric Plewka) HOPE 42:11 Bryant Loomis (Steve Lepper, Kevney Dugan) HOPE http://www.hope.edu/pr/athletics/mso/ http://www.ncaachampionships.com/0,5920,1_719_0_23937,00.html CONCORDIA (WIS.) 1, St. Norbert 0 (2OT) 106:08 Steve Dziatwiewicz (Peter Schreiber) CONCORDIA (WIS.) http://www.ncaachampionships.com/0,5920,1_719_0_23950,00.html MIDWEST REGION UW-WHITEWATER 2, Marian (Wis.) 0 55:15 Aaron Rowley (Carl Refsell) UW-WHITEWATER 69:25 Nathan Schroeder (Marc McRoberts) UW-WHITEWATER http://www.ncaachampionships.com/0,5920,1_719_0_23946,00.html at Lincoln, Neb. *Nebraska Wesleyan (14-3-2) Westminster (Mo.) (10-7-2) 7 p.m. WEST REGION at Tacoma, Wash. *Puget Sound (16-3-0) Linfield (15-1-2) 1 p.m. Texas Lutheran 0, TRINITY (TX.) 3 6:41 Josh Card (Alex Woods) TRINITY (TX.) 36:00 Chris Giebink (unassisted) TRINITY (TX.) 84:00 Alex Woods (Josh Card) TRINITY (TX.) http://www.ncaachampionships.com/0,5920,1_719_0_23947,00.html