Quote from: blooter442 on November 06, 2021, 03:53:19 PM
Brandeis pulled out some decent results down the stretch and today capped it, even if they were out-shot and out-possessed. Below .500 is not where the program wants to be but they have a ton of young guys and I think they will only improve. Guthro kept them in a lot of games this year and could be one of the best goalies in D3. Optimistic to see what they do next year.

Brandeis showed a lot of heart these last few games down the stretch. These are tough tough games to win. This is the first win in NYU since 2014, and their win against Chicago was the first since 2002. There are plenty of stacked Judges teams in that stretch, which shows how tough these road UAA games are.

That was one of the most frustrating Brandeis seasons to watch, especially as an alum. If this team scores 15-17 goals (they scored only 11 this year), they likely have 10 wins and a Pool C bid. The way that Brandeis always qualified was to dominate these New England teams like WPI, MIT, Western New England, and then tread water in the UAA. The past 2 seasons they have done exceptionally well in the UAA, just have choked their season away early on against these New England schools. Not sure if it's a lack of heart or if the gap has truly closed in New England. I personally am rooting for Wash U to win it all this year since I feel personally victimized by Chicago from my 4 years!

Hey, for the record, Deis should be bolded! I got 18 points, since they beat NYU for third place. Not bad for a former player, looks like I still know the league a bit

Friday:

Brandeis 2-0 Emory
Chicago 1-0 Case
Wash U 0-0 Carnegie
NYU 1-1 Rochester

Sunday:
Brandeis 1-0 Rochester
Chicago 2-0 Carnegie
Wash U 1-1 Case
NYU 1-0 Emory

I'll hop on the prediction bandwagon too... Big win for Deis, they're not 5-0-1 against Carnegie in their last 6 games, and the one tie was when Ocel got a red card and they played a man down for the last 85 minutes.

Brandeis at Case: Funnily enough, this is Case's "homecoming" game, and it's being played at Oberlin. This is a team that now has a must win game in front of them, so I think they'll put up a fight, but if Walter starts at CB for Deis I think they can negate lots of the attack.
------ Deis 1 - 0 Case

NYU at Carnegie: I never really rated Carnegie, probably because of the success we had during my time playing, but this seemed like the worst version of themselves in the last 5 years. Still not fully bought in on NYU though. They need a big win to prove to me they're back to the steps they made last year. I'm thinking draw on this one, score will be whatever, but I'll say...
------ NYU 1 - 1 Carnegie

Wash U at Emory: Don't trust Wash U just yet, but they put in a heck of a performance last weekend, and Emory I think is still reeling. Even at home I think they drop another one.
------ Wash U 2 - 0 Emory

Chicago at Rochester: Both these teams I think are at a point where their season kind of hangs in the balance. Rochester has played I would say 4 "good" teams, in Cortland, John Carrol, Wash U, and Hobart, and they are 1-3 in those games. I thought they'd have a great run of form in the league, but I don't think they've fully proven to be a 7-3 team. Chicago has proven they can go on the road and grind out tough results, but I think at some point some of those ties will turn into losses. I think they pull this one out, but it could easily fall to a draw as well.
Chicago 3 - 2 Rochester

Once again, the Carnegie Mellon coach did not shake everyone's hands in the line yesterday. He got about halfway through the Brandeis players and just turned around and walked to his bench. That's now the third year in a row he's done that. He got chirped by some recent Brandeis alumni in the beer tent as he was walking away as they saw the whole thing, and they dealt with it when they were playing

Quote from: d4_Pace on September 14, 2019, 10:15:58 PM
Tufts with their best performance of the year tonight against Brandeis.  After a lackluster performance midweek against Keene they were up for it tonight. This is on par with Amherst as the biggest rivalry, and for whatever reason the deis game seems to get even more chippy.  Tonight it boiled over early on.  After the Tufts goal on the corner a meelee broke out and resulted in a brandeis player being sent off. 

Given that Brandeis had to play 60+ minutes down a man its hard to use this game to gauge either team.  Overall, Tufts managed the game, kept the ball, found the second goal, and gave nothing to brandeis while integrating a ton of new players. 

Brandeis was solid but down to ten men posed no real attacking threat. I thought the right back had a good game dealing with constant pressure from tasker and the tufts outside backs. Dylan Hennessy on the other side is one of the top defenders in the country. Brandeis will be a tough team to play all year, but might struggle in the two penalty boxes where ultimately games are won.

Always a great game when these two get together, shoutout to Tufts for absolutely locking everything down after going up a man. Didn't give Brandeis  much room to operate, class way to finish it out. Tufts is the real deal, and should be treated as such. Deis needs a full 90 to compete, because if they make a mistake, it will be punished, and usually is.

Deis needs to relax and move forward. The Tufts game would be great to win, but one of the roads to the Final Four will go through Medford, as long as they keep being strong. They need to focus up and not drop any more New England games, and then compete in a surprisingly open UAA.

Quote from: d4_Pace on September 13, 2019, 06:34:52 PM
Paul we have been robbed of the Tufts-messiah rematch two years in a row. The 2017 tufts team that had conceded only 1 goal (off the amherst long throw) all season lost in the 109th minute on a fluky back pass goal at home in the elite 8. Would have been a classic unstoppable offense, in which nick west was scarily enough the second or third option, against arguably the best defensive side in dIII history

Fluky back pass is a bit much. Missed clearance by Mieth more like it, and a good finish to boot

Brandeis has a big NE game against WPI tonight, but looking forward to this weekends matchup against Tufts, it's interesting to note that over the past 4 years, Brandeis is 2-1 on Bello field, including the NCAA Elite 8 win. And both wins came in the year AFTER Tufts won the national championship. Which 2019 is as well. One to watch for sure!

Recently graduated Deis player here...Excited to see how the squad turns out this year. I have a feeling that goals will be hard to come by, but the defense will stand strong, as has been the case in the past successful years. The only outlier being the 2016 team, that had to score a lot during the year. My predictions

Top 3: Rochester, Chicago, Deis (a bit biased, but who cares)
Mid 3: NYU, Case, Wash U
Bottom (but still competitive): Emory, Carnegie

I think next year can shape up to be a year where no one has more than 4 league wins, as it has done in the past. Again, as stated above, it will come down to scheduling and overall exhaustion by the end of the grueling period.

Brandeis put out this video before the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight games, but like it has been said, it wasn't necessarily targeting anyone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5ZWktUVVa8

I don't know how much you want to target a certain team, as it gives them "bulletin board" material, if you know what I mean. I don't see any reason in giving another team more motivation then they already have. Sure, make the video, and distribute it amongst the players to get them hyped up. But no need to give Messiah any MORE reason to get up for next years game.

Just saw that Brandeis put out their last trailer for their film...this one takes a look at their win at Emory...

https://www.instagram.com/p/BfElmgVluPk/?taken-by=brandeissoccer

Just from looking at it, you can see that they are very close as teammates. Hennessey and Flahive play off each other well. Who is that on the narration though? Sounds familiar

Quote from: blooter442 on January 23, 2018, 09:16:18 AM

Quote from: d4_Pace on January 22, 2018, 10:44:16 PM
So for those of you that have been following (or anyone else that is interested).  Tufts has put out the last three episodes of the documentary following this team's season.  These three detail the program's first NESCAC Championship, the two NCAA shootout victories, and then the heart-breaking loss to Brandeis.  The last episode has all of the seniors talk about their feelings losing in OT and what the program meant to them (that part starts around 10 minutes in after the guys spoof radio show).  It gives a really good look into how much being a part of these programs means to the guys for everyone that never had a chance to play or for those of us wishing we could go back. 

Episode 13: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrCvPFFIcgY&t=3s

Episode 14: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xd1D6SBm4yM

Episode 15: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unImbWrWdZw

And if Conor Coleman's prediction at the end that "now we have finally cleared out the deadweight" is true then the rest of the country better look out.

After seeing the Sweet 16 recapped in Episode 14, I had half-guessed that there wouldn't be a recap of the next game. Personally I wouldn't have blamed you all for not wanting to re-live that game, regardless of my interest. Fair play for seeing the series to its conclusion, and to the seniors for providing genuine reflection, and really well-done on the cinematography front.

Best part of the series recapped in the final episode: Kevin Halliday dancing to the Bro Safari/Dillon Francis song.

I have heard through the grapevine that Brandeis filmed the whole year as well, and is putting out a recap of the whole year. Not sure what it'll be like though.

And was there an announcement who was on the all-tournament team?

Quote from: Hopkins92 on December 22, 2017, 11:45:15 AM

Quote from: Buck O. on December 21, 2017, 07:21:07 PM

Quote from: Hopkins92 on December 21, 2017, 12:08:13 PM

Quote from: PaulNewman on December 12, 2017, 01:05:13 PM

Quote from: d4_Pace on December 12, 2017, 12:10:31 PM
Paul Newman despite the Kenyon-Tufts rivalry you have been one of my favorite posters so I'll give it a shot.  First off, I do know of some other players that post more anonymously than I have, so they are out there.  In terms of choice...

I think you are right about the shift towards mid sized schools.  Most of the other NESCACs, Haverford, Swarthmore schools are smaller than my high school which I thought would be odd.  Second, I think Tufts being located right next to Boston is a huge advantage over the other NESCACs in terms of recruiting. Tufts is also kind of an anomaly in your LAC vs UAA type argument because the school advertises itself as a liberal arts university.  We are still part of the NESCAC and the majority of the school is in a liberal arts program.  But it also offers engineering and the hard science classes that attracted a couple guys on the team each year who would not have considered other NESCACs.
For me, I think soccer played a bigger factor than what other poster speculated.  I only was looking at "good" academic schools and knew that I would be able to fit in/take the classes I specifically wanted at any of the schools.  So while there was some small difference in the reputation of the schools I was considering, it was small enough to not play a significant role.  That meant the biggest thing was relationship with the coach, playing style, and potential to play right away, as well as potential for success.  But the final and most important factor was something less tangible or quantifiable, my experience on my official visit.  At certain schools the team dynamic or vibe was off, but at Tufts I instantly knew I wanted to be a part of that group of guys.  And I think that type of culture has remained the schools biggest selling point. 

The other big factor this post doesn't consider and is huge for the elite d3 schools is the d1 vs d3 debate.  But thats a whole other argument.

d4_Pace, you have catapulted yourself right to the top of my Tufts All-Time Faves Players List, even though I have no clue who you are.  While I am not happy about the lack of Final Four appearances and titles from 2014 thru 2016 for the Lords I think the Tufts-Kenyon rivalry is just the kind of intersectional deal that many of us crave and that is great for D3 soccer (and that many have said we'd like to see more often in the early season and not just very randomly in the tournament).  Kenyon could easily make a trip to New England at least every 2nd or 3rd year or so in that first week or two, especially when New England kids are on the roster, just as Kenyon and other schools should take advantage of the overseas allowance (and Kenyon hasn't done that either...and I'm not clear if NESCAC schools can or can't).  Recruiting at the top I'm sure is pretty fierce, so some small things and perks can be big, and for example I wonder if some coaches are hoping their teams do something similar to what you guys did in the cinematic realm.

I think most of the UAA schools would consider themselves within the "liberal arts" genre or at least having a major liberal arts component so when I refer to LACs, I am referring to the US News category of LACs where in general the high end of enrollment is 2800-3200 (Wesleyan, Oberlin come to mind).  Tufts might not be quite as pre-med heavy as Wash U and Hopkins (I know, Centennial) or maybe even Emory but I think of Tufts and Emory as very, very similar.  Carnegie is sort of its own deal.  Chicago is super-intellectual.  Rochester and Case are sort of hybrids with everything, and Brandeis is sort of its own deal.  Anyway, culturally as a New England school and athletically Tufts obviously fits well in the NESCAC but I could Tufts fitting just as well as a UAA school.

You guys probably know this, but Hopkins was in the UAA for basketball and some other sports all the way through 2001.

I've said this before on one of the threads, but I find the UAA to be a very strange conference in terms of logistics and cost. I'm certainly glad that when I was at Hopkins we weren't traveling all over the damn place playing games in Chicago, Atlanta, Boston, etc.

It's not as though they're doing it every week.  It's two weekends per year, and they're all in major cities with reasonably large airports.  For example, Brandeis went to Cleveland to play a game one Sunday, and went to Rochester and Atlanta another weekend for a Friday/Sunday pair of games.  Personally, I think I'd prefer that to the long bus rides that are typical in many other conferences.

That's a fair point. I hadn't ever really looked at their schedules closely.

Yeah its all done quite well. At most, 3 travel weekends the whole year, and it really makes you feel like a pro player I bet. St. Louis on Thursday/Friday, Chicago on Saturday/Sunday, fly home Sunday Night. Thats usually how a UAA weekend goes,

Along with this topic, what percentage of D1 teams would the ELITE D3 teams beat? There is much debate about how "you went D1" even if you play at a crappy school, and that would be seen as "better" then someone who plays at a Messiah, Brandeis, or Tufts, for example. So how do you think the best 4-6 teams in D3 this year, let's say the Final Four teams, and Tufts and Calvin, just for arguments sake, would fare against D1 teams. Of course there would be a big gap in depth and size between these programs, but I feel like these 6 teams could put up a good fight against a good amount of D1 teams