Other than Mary Boland the Irish are fairly healthy. The forecast for Cary is 55 deg. and sunny, perfect for a soccer match. GO IRISH!
Meanwhile, the injured list for the Broncos seems endless. Jess Balweg has been out since the first game. Carrie Schuler was lost for the season in game three. Lauren Zealear tore her ACL last week against the Illini. Without giving too much away . . . at least three of the Bronco starters have significant injuries that they are currently playing through. Don't be surprised if at least two of those look to have surgery following the season. The Broncos accomplishments this season are a testament to Jerry and his coaching staff, the depth of talent on the team, and the work ethic of the entire Bronco program; coaches, players, and athletic training staff. Weather forecast looks great . . . I'll be arriving tomorrow just in time for kickoff of the first game. GO BRONCOS.
Sure, if the Irish win it all. Ditto for Jerry Smith, Julie Shackford and Jillian Ellis. Best to wait until after the the playoffs, though. Anson Dorrance won the ACC Coach of the Year only to lose the ACC Championship to Steve Swanson and Virginia. After the game, Anson noted that the game was actually a tie (because it was a shootout)...just after officials handed Swanson and his team the ACC hardware as the ACC Champs.
No, not at all.... Harvard made it to the NCAA quarterfinals back in 1997. And Ivy teams have consistently been in the top 25 since then. Your post complete ignores the fact that Ivies have more generous financial aid than just about any other school, and Princeton is the most generous of all the Ivies. They no longer offer loans as part of their financial aid packages - they're all grants. That's one reason why their athletic teams are overall the most succesful. But to summarize, Ivy teams will have three kind of athletes: 1) Those who are affluent, like you suggest 2) Those who are short of the middle class and get extremely generous financial aid packages 3) Those in the middle class with minimal financial aid who believe that the Ivy League experience is worth the burden of loans in terms of open up opportunities, both financial and other, in the future. In any sport other than football and basketball where the elite athletes are looking to continuing playing after school, this formula works well, and Ivy programs are nationally competitive in more sports than not.
Women's College Cup schedule NCAA Women's College Cup: UCLA vs. Princeton at Sas Soccer Park in Cary, NC Semifinal # 1 (2:00 pm to 4:00 pm ET) NCAA Women's College Cup: Santa Clara vs. Notre Dame at Sas Soccer Park in Cary, NC Semifinal #2 (4:30 pm to 6:30 pm ET). Championship Game: Sunday from 1-3 PM ET at same site. ALL 3 GAMES WILL BE AIRED LIVE ON ESPN2 NOT ESPN. I would love it a lot if both games went to PK's!!
Dave1381, I would generally agree with your post, but it also minimizes the competitive difficulties Ivy teams face in comparison to other DI schools. Regulations have made it so that from a competitive standpoint, a place like Rutgers can conceivably bring in the better and more committed soccer player, than at Princeton. For example, generally speaking, every other school generally has two weeks of pre-season under their belt when an Ivy team has it's first practice. This is the result of an Ivy only regulation. During the offseason, Ivy teams are allowed 10 (I think) full team sessions with the coach. We also have to obey a 7 week blackout period where the coaches and players cannot interact. Such is the environment. In the case of the Men's teams, it makes it all the more difficult to recruit fully committed soccer players. Add to the fact that in terms of addmissions, no special consideration is given to an athlete. If they don't meet some pretty high and tough standards, even if they are on the cusp, they will not get in. While yes, most everyone at Princeton has some sort of subsidy, the criteria for amounts received etc., is not based on Athletics. In the past we have lost players because the University has not covered the entire tuition and were unable to offer scholarships to make up the difference. What Shacks has done at Princeton is pretty remarkable no matter how you look at it. I think a lot of it has to do with the clarity of her mission, and her ability to find and attract some very talented ballplayers, in spite of being in such a restrictive athletic environment. Paul
Re: Women's College Cup schedule Not PKs. How about just overtime. I hate to see matches decided by PKs. The only thing worse would be a coin toss.
Does anyone know of a web location that is carrying the games online? Those of us at work would love to keep up with some of the action. Thanks
There's supposed to be an audio webcast, but I clicked the link on ncaasports.com, and the page didn't exist.
NCAA incompetence The same committee that did the seedings, probably arranged the audio and scoreboards--they don't work.
Paul - Thanks for following up on my post and providing clarity to other readers not as familiar with Ivy athletics. I did not intend to downplay Julie's achievements. She has done a remarkable job, especially considering that in the late 90s, Harvard and Dartmouth were certainly the more established women's programs in the Ivies. That Princeton could first become the dominant program in the Ivies and then be so successful at the national level is truly remarkable. To build on my previous post, I've more or less described the financial characteristics of the available pool of athletes for recruits. It's certainly a smaller pool than most schools have to choose from, and the academic restrictions on Ivy athletes are a bigger obstacle than the financial ones. But yes, the pool exists, and it's certainly bigger in w. soccer than it is in m. hoops, and it's certainly bigger in crew and squash than it is in w. soccer. My goal in that post was to dispel the notion that Ivy athletes are all a bunch of rich preppy kids, and I hope I did that. Yes, the Ivies have some paternalistic restrictions that their athletes, out of all athletes, need the least. But I like to see teams that despite these restrictions, still compete for national championships, and that's why I'm so thrilled to see Princeton be so successful this year, to show once again that an Ivy team can go far and do more than just win the Ivy League, where I don't know if every sport at every Ivy school buys that philosophy. I skipped out of work for a few hours to watch today's game at a local bar, and from my view, Princeton didn't play up to its level (I haven't seen them play in two years, but I think have some sense of that). So that's disappointing. But Congrats to them on such on awesome season. It'll be tough to repeat with 10 seniors graduating, but you have to like where that program is headed.
The UCLA-Princeton game was not very entertaining and for the most part was played poorly. UCLA stepped it up a bit in the second half, but there was no real creativity, no rhythm or sense of any system of play. This is the first time I watched Princeton, so I hope it was just nerves and inexperience because schools like Cal, Stanford, Cal Poly, San Diego (all eliminated in the first weekend of games due to stupid seeding) are far superior teams than what Princeton showed today. The SCU-Notre Dame game was like watching two heavy weights slug it out at the center of the ring. Notre Dame seemed to get more shots off, but none were very dangerous. Santa Clara looked to counter and missed on 2-3 (1 wide open) good chances. This game was far more attractive to watch (especially the first half) as both teams had a plan and were executing it. In the end the Irish Defense was just awesome. Their ability to prevent the SCU forwards from receiving balls across midfield was the difference in the second half. UCLA will have to play much better than it did today (and far less direct) if it hopes to have any chance against the Irish.
I agree with your comments and description of the second game. It was very exciting and fun -- I was so glad to be there with the Heeligans, even though our team had been eliminated. The weird thing is, where were the Santa Clara fans? I would have expected a big turn out but did not see or hear many. Probably for the best, since they lost.
For the imagination (and cable TV) challenged here are some visuals from the games on Friday night... I didn't post as many pictures as I normally do (probably more coming before the final). I did get to cover the games from the field thanks to the one of the teams in attendance. Notre Dame vs Santa Clara UCLA vs Princeton
GoCourage, you are a superb photographer. I hope you are doing this professionally. Can you tell me what camera and lens you are using? digital? How many years have you been taking pix at the Cup? Any from 2001? Jim
Funny how people see things differently. I'm not a fan of any of the final 4 teams but I thought the first game was much better soccer. More connecting passes, better rhythm and fewer unforced errors. Princeton looked very good but UCLA was just more polished and tougher to break down defensively. Not a huge difference, but enough. The second game looked sloppy by comparison - errant balls flying all over the place. After watching both games I came away thinking ND will have to play much better to have any hope against UCLA. Should be an interesting final.
Re: two games I, too, thought the SCUvs.ND game was much more interesting than the UCLAvs.PU game. For me the biggest differences wee the speed of play and the athleticism of the players. Kakedelas, Estrada, Osborne, and Horvath for SCU and Thorlakson for ND are all outstanding athletes as well as skilled players. I didn't see anyone on either Princeton or UCLA that could match up with them. The lack of speed with Princeton's forwards was particularly noticeable. I agree that the SCU/ND game wasn't very pretty. Lots of long, popped up passes, but part of it was the fact that the pace was so much faster than the UCLA/PU game and that the defenses were so strong. But watching the skill of play, the speed, the cuts, etc. of SCU and the strength of the ND team was very different from the much slower first game. Its hard to see how Princeton got to this level with their personnel. In the end I was sorry to see SCU lose; I would have loved to see them play UCLA, because I think it would have been a clinic. ND and UCLA are much more alike in that they are much bigger, stronger teams and play a siimilar style. I suspect ND will put UCLA away pretty easily, but I don't think it will be a very interesting or creative game unless Thorlakson gets hot.
Thorlakson is one calm and collected powerhouse. I absolutley agree with all the love for the " 90 minute player".
Princeton Today’s New York Times had a nice article on Princeton. The NYT requires a subscription but it is free to subscribe. Princeton’s Steep Climb Finally Ends . . . Princeton managed only two shots and none by the senior forward Esmeralda Negron, the Tigers' leading career scorer, who was marked closely by the Bruins. Still, it was a victory of sorts for Princeton and its players just to reach the College Cup. If there was a feeling of despair afterward, there was also a sense of accomplishment. "Despite the fact that we lost, I feel like the season was amazing," the senior midfielder Elizabeth Pillion said. "We had a great time together as a team and no matter what, I think we're going to always remember how much fun we had and how hard we played together, how much chemistry we had. Throughout the season, it just all seemed to click. We played some brilliant soccer. Obviously, we didn't really today, but we're going to remember the good times as well." The article is a good one and puts Princeton's experience in the context of the entire event and the state of women's college soccer.
It has been a joy to watch Katie T. play this season. She seems to never run out of steam. Even when marked closely it just takes one little opening for her to hurt you. I look for the Irish to shut down the UCLA freshman forward and bring The Cup home to South bend. GO IRISH!
Re: two games I was happy to see the soccer helmet team lose. Does SCU really have that many players with previous career threatening concussions? Maybe they should just give up the game for their own safety.
more articles on yesterday's national semifinals.. Notre Dame pulls the plug on Santa Clara's season 1-0 By Rachel Carter - Special to the Mercury News Textbook play sends Irish into title game By MARK BRADFORD - Tribune Staff Writer UCLA blanks Princeton for women's soccer finals berth By Andy Gardiner, USA TODAY
There was an entire section, just to the (from the field) left of the press box, filled all the way to the top. They were very loud and boisterous the entire game. I'm not sure how you missed them. There were more there than made the game in Chapel Hill two weeks ago.