With apologies to those who are looking for less NESCAC discourse, NESCAC teams are 13-2-5 (77.5%) here at the halfway mark of the tournament (the champion in waiting has just earned its third of six results).  We'll see how the remaining three fare today (and potentially beyond) but only two of the eight teams have gone out by loss to date.

Having followed Williams closely this year, I just want to say how much some of these posts are appreciated here at the end of their journey.  From a distance, their number of regular season wins and ties might raise questions about making the field of 64.  Those questions were answered for most with a 2-1 OT win against a strong NYU side (who provided UChicago the lone tie in an otherwise perfect season).  Things began to get interesting the next day after taking out Messiah on PK's.  The team knew they could play with anyone and anyone paying attention knew they would be a tough out- no matter what you think of their style of play.  A hard earned 1-0 win against Ohio Northern meant another Sunday match-up against a host team used to piling up goals and wins.  Kenyon got neither on that day as Williams made a late goal stand up for another 1-0 win.  One of the problems with denigrating a team's style of play is that it deflects credit from the players who earned every result they got.  Ben Diffley is one of the best, if not the best, GK's in DIII.  Nick Boardman demonstrated that he's among the best field players in DIII.  They and their teammates didn't surrender a goal in the run of play from October 15-December 3- a span of 11 games and 1,075 minutes.  That's your story.  The final game in that streak was another hard fought 1-0 win against UMW in the semi's.  The UChicago game was similar to the other five games played to that point in the tournament- this time a world class strike was the difference.  All you can do is tip your cap, hold your head high and say congratulations. 

There's nothing all that crazy about Williams beating Messiah.  That's not a knock on Messiah but a complement to Williams and all the NESCAC tournament quarter-finalists who would have given Messiah every bit that Williams did on Sunday.  Games of Williams-Messiah competitiveness are played up and down the schedule every weekend in NESCAC.  Williams was fortunate to have their opportunity and they made the most of it.