That's why I love this thread. I learn so much. Do alot of D1 teams carry over 28? 

Ignominious end for the UAA with Emory being shut down in first round. Chicago has to be biggest disappointment from national champ in 2022 to sub .500 in two years. After the Emory loss the coaching staff mentioned in their press release the possibility of a NCAA bid. After the Wash U loss the coaching staff declined to even issue a recap of the game. That was total sour grapes.

So a final post mortem on the season.  Vassar was a great side with the impossible task of winning at Middlebury after a grinding battle with Rowan that was in doubt for the first 80 minutes while Middlebury had a JV scrimmage against Hunter.  Unfortunately for Vassar their NCAA lot was set with their two non-conference losses to Brandeis and Montclair St.  In both of those one score contests Vassar was missing its best forward, Duncan Keker, who, despite being injured for 8 games still amassed a 20 point season.  Two wins in those games and Vassar might have been hosting and currently practicing for the round of 16.  While Vassar graduates some stellar seniors in Rodhouse, Liu, Hall and Keker, they have excellent quality returners especially if Tobolski is not wooed away by a Davidson (close to home), or Colgate, or Dartmouth or Amherst, or....  The last superstar freshman with 10 plus goals for Vassar was Mattie Mrlik who led them to their LL tourney title in 2016.  Mrlik's family ties to Vassar ran deep with both his older brothers being sports stars there.  Will Tobolski be like Mrlik, and Gaudiano at RPI who stayed with their schools, or Charlie Kelly who left Hobart after his boffo 2013 season with Hobart--only time will tell.   

Tobolski starts the year with a hat trick and has a hat trick in his first NCAA contest.  Pretty auspicious showing.  Vassar staff deserves LL coaching staff of the year just for recruiting Tobolski.  He will likely be pretty well marked tomorrow by Middlebury whose coaches have the advantage of being able to scout the second game today.

LL awards are out.  I am not going to rag on Brown being player of the year given his latter season late game heroics, although his ROY award last year is still irksome and kudos to the former Union player who should have won it, left for Conn College after being snubbed, and was the second leading scorer on the NESCAC champion.  What I do take issue with, and this is despite my Vassar affinity, is any team, including Vassar, having 10 players honored.  This happened a couple years ago with SLU.  This is such a diss to the rest of the league.  Vassar didn't run the table and it was trounced by Ithaca.  Ithaca also tied number 2 SLU.  Ithaca also made the league tourney and lost in pks.  It was not a bottom feeder by any means.  Yet, it has one player honored on the third team.  Similarly RIT who gave Vassar a run in the LL semis has one player honored on the third team.  Finally, Bard received no honors at all and this is a team that started 5-0.  This phenomenon of the top one or two teams loading up on the vast majority of league recognition is so high school.   

Besides the SLU snub, the NCAA didn't do Vassar any favors by sending them to Middlebury, home of the number 1 seed.  Rowan will be a tough out in the first round while Middlebury coasts putting up 10 or so against below .500 Hunter while resting their starters in the second half.  Fortunately, this is pretty much the scenario every other year when Vassar travels to Canton with Bard in tow.  Their first game against SLU or Clarkson is a war while their next opponent has a walkover against Bard and is rested for the next day's game.  This is Vassar's best and most physical team since 2012 when they beat a Tufts team in the first round that would go on to win two national championships in the following years, and then lost in the last 30 seconds to a very, very good Brandeis team when Brandeis was a national power.  Most of that 2012 team had the experience of beating Number 1 in the country SLU in penalty kicks in the LL tourney the year before.  Bottom line--this Vassar team can advance to the next weekend.  It won't be easy but it is not out of the realm of possibility.

You forgot in 2022 St. Lawrence advancing in PKs in Round 1 and then losing to Amherst.  While I respect SLU greatly, I rarely feel bad for them as I think they rarely get the short end of the stick either from the LL or the NCAA.  That said, their omission from the tournament this year is a travesty.  Maybe not if you go just by the NPI math but the notion that you can lose your first two games, one to a very strong Cortland team, and then go undefeated the rest of the way and not make the dance makes no sense to me.  I don't know how ties are rated but I do know that Williams had a ton of ties in 2022, was a bubble team, and made it to the finals.  The notion that 6 NESCAC get at large bids and the LL none given SLU's performance this year just frosts me.

Tosh is certainly a gentleman.  Kudos to Vassar for their first double.  Last time they won the regular season in 2012 they lost in PKs in the final.  Given their NPI they are unlikely to have an easy draw in the first round and it seems like pretty much every team east of the Mississippi will be playing a NESCAC squad by the second round.  St Law is right--7 bids is absurd if it goes down that way.  For SLU it was a season on the brink with late heroics against Vassar in the regular season and against Skidmore in the semis keeping them in the conversation.  Their current NPI will not generate an invitation to the dance unless the committee mistakenly inverts their number.  Another 1 bid year for the LL.  Hopefully it is not 1 and out like last year.  Case was a tough first round draw for Hobart. 

Two seasons after winning a national championship Chicago finishes sub .500.  Had a difficult schedule but in a soft UAA year, and with a number of players on their roster with rings, the year must be incredibly disappointing.

Welcome to Gordon. 

Crazy finish.  Brown gets two in last dozen minutes for a season saving tie but title still runs through Gordon.

Crickets from the SLU alums.  Here is the update.  SLU is down 3-1 at home near the 70th minute and is passing it around in the back which Vassar is more than happy to let them do.

Thanks. They have been hapless from the start of the year. We are getting to the point that the covid grad student impact is just about over.

I doubt Brown is moved from up top. Every year coaches get behind a player to promote him with accolades, deserved or not. This is Brown's year for that. Give the pks to Mogul, by far the team's best player, and you have a whole different dynamic. This year's LL tournament is going through Gordon—-the best pitch in the league with a quaint field of dreams atmosphere. Keker is back and Vassar will get the most out of Tobolski until the Ivies or Serpone start calling at the end of the year. Despite the north country keeper hype Vassar has all clean sheets in league. Someone should do an analysis of the fall of Hobart. They had the best returning player and there is a good chance they will not make the playoffs. 

They happened to beat Oneonta, a team that SLU was a minute away from losing to until bailed out with a penalty.  And perhaps I have my history wrong but didn't Union finish ahead of SLU last year?