FB: Upper Midwest Athletic Conference

[Pat Coleman]

I love that Northwestern is extending the tradition of excellence among Minnesota colleges in women's volleyball!

[Baldini]

4th and final week of non-conference play for the UMAC. Here is a little look at what Massey thinks of this week's games.

Olivet @ Greenville - Massey gives Greenville a 21% chance to win this game with a likely score of 41-24. I'm thinking this is a closer game then that though, thinking this one will still be hanging in the balance deep into the 4th quarter.

Hope @ Northwestern - Massey only gives Northwestern a 2% chance to win with a score of 40-7. Now I get Hope should be a heavy favorite here, but 2% seems awfully low. I'm thinking (hoping) Northwestern puts up a respectable fight in this game and makes it closer than 40-7.

Lawrence @ Minnesota-Morris - Massey gives M-M a 58% chance to win this game with a likely score of 31-27. This might be the UMAC's big chance to win a game this weekend. GO COUGARS!

Martin Luther @ Alma - Massey gives MLC a 1% chance to win with a score of 36-3. If the Knights hold Alma to 36 points that would probably be a big win for them. Good news is conference play starts next week; bad news is they open at Greenville.

Westminster @ Rhodes - Massey gives Westminster a 1% chance to win with a likely score of 42-7. If Westminster can get their offense in gear this week a little that would be a win for them going into conference play.

Finlandia @ Adrian - Massey gives Finlandia a 0% chance (really) to win with a score of 49-0. Same thing here, find some offensive life and build from there for next week.

Crown @ UW-Stout - Massey gives Crown a 0% chance to win with a score of 55-3. Crown won't slow the Blue Devils down much, but can they score a few? Good news for Crown is they have a bye next week before starting UMAC play at MLC.

Probably going to be a tough week conference wide, but there are things to use to build on for league play.

[Baldini]

Well, the annual bloodbath that is UMAC non-conference play is finally over, and it was worse this season then most others. The fact they now play 4 non-conference games is even more painful, we long for the days when they played only 1 or 2. Of course it doesn't help with the way some of these team's schedule, hats off to Greenville and Minnesota-Morris for scheduling some games where their squads had a fighting chance to be competitive.

UMAC teams ended up 3-25 with Greenville getting wins against Rockford and Manchester and M-M against Lawrence. The week four matchups against MIAA schools had some very ugly results and the bad news is these games will probably be an annual thing without an additional team being added for conference play.

Still think the UMAC title will be decided in two weeks at Northwestern when Greenville visits, but Minnesota-Morris is going to hang around and be a dark horse to the end. The schedule lays out perfectly for the Cougars with the first 4 games being Westminster, Finlandia, Crown and Martin Luther. Very likely they enter the last 2 weeks 4-0 in conference play and full of confidence before playing at Northwestern and Greenville at home. They should keep it interesting to the end.

Aside from the top 3 who should give us some fun games, the bottom 4 should also. Crown is the only one of that group to show any ability to score, yet they also show no ability to stop anyone. Finlandia and Westminster both show a lot of fight on the defensive side, but the offenses are MIA. MLC in 4 weeks has become a complete hot mess, a year ago they played Alma close to even and Saturday they lost to Alma 69-0 and the game could have easily been 90-0. The advantage for MLC in the bottom 4 is that they get all 3 opponents at home this year.

The UMAC isn't going to make any mark on the D3 landscape in the post season, but the next 6 weeks should bring a bunch of competitive games from the UMAC fishbowl.

[Baldini]

This week was GUs best game of the season by quite some amount.  The game was more lopsided than the final score presented.  GU was up 42 - 9 in the 3rd.  Mildly concerning that returning DPOY T. McLaurin missed the second game in a row.

I see McLaurin missed another game, any update on when he may return?

[Baldini]

The UMAC conference play kicks off with 3 games tomorrow and 3 teams doing some serious traveling.

Northwestern travels just short of 400 miles to Hancock, Michigan to face Finlandia. Northwestern should be 3 TDs or more better than the Lions, but Finlandia gave them a very tough game a year ago in St. Paul. The game features the UMAC's top passing offense in Northwestern against the top passing defense in Finlandia, if Finlandia can slow their passing game they should be able to hang around for most of the game. Both teams have really struggled to run the ball with Finlandia averaging 39.8 rushing a game and Northwestern only 33.5, the 2 lowest in the conference as to date. Feels like something will give with running the ball on Saturday. Guessing Northwestern gets the first road win by any team in the conference so far this season and they have an enjoyable ride home.

Minnesota-Morris is making the 668-mile journey to Fulton, MO. to take on Westminster in what could be the best matchup of the day in the UMAC. The game pits the number one overall offense and top rushing offense with Minnesota-Morris against the top overall defense in Westminster. The whole key to this game will be the Westminster offense, can they produce some points? If not, it will be a replay of their first four games where the defense wears down and the game gets out of reach in the second half. Guessing the Cougars make it two wins for the road teams this week.

Martin Luther College travels 593 miles to face Greenville. Greenville has the top scoring offense and is averaging 27.5 points; MLC is giving up 48 points a game. This game looks like a complete mismatch and if RB Carson Oestreich is out for the Knights this one will probably get ugly in a hurry. If Oestreich returns, they will have a chance to control the clock some and keep it respectable. The turnover rate for MLC has been ridiculous this season with over 20 fumbles in 4 games and 9 INT's from only 51 pass attempts. Guessing Greenville makes easy work of MLC and sets up the big matchup at Northwestern next week.

Crown is on a bye this weekend.

[Baldini]

Northwestern took care of their business with a 30-0 win over Finlandia. The defense continues to battle for Finlandia, but the offense just fails to produce much. 5 total first downs and 117 yards in total offense will lead to a long day. Northwestern had a workman like day and in the process got their running game going to the tune of 265 yards which is something that has been missing so far this season.

The Minnesota-Morris and Westminster game played out mostly as expected. The Cougars balanced attack put up 28 points and kept making enough plays to keep the home team in the rearview mirror. A good sign for Westminster was that their offense generated 13 first downs and actually won the time of position battle to help their defense out. We knew it was going to be baby steps on that side of the ball, but it was a good step made on Saturday.

I went into Saturday thinking I would be mostly watching the M-M @ Westminster game, but I spent my time watch all of the Martin Luther @ Greenville game. First, I'll give MLC a lot of credit for pushing Greenville to the very end. Yet this game always felt like Greenville was playing with their food and was going to win the game even when they were down 14 in the 4th quarter. I know that may sound odd to read, but Greenville did whatever they wanted to the MLC defense all afternoon. The game was tied at 13 at halftime and Greenville was averaging 10.2 per rush. Until the 4th quarter the Greenville defense spent most of their time talking about what they were going to do to the Knights offense and doing very little to actually stopping them. Greenville had 14 penalties on the day and a number of them were of the unsportsmanlike taunting type. But after MLC scored on the first play of the 4th quarter the Greenville defense said enough and just shut the MLC offense off. The last scoring drive really sums up how Greenville played with them. With 45 seconds left in the game and the score tied at 27, Greenville took over at their own 10-yard line and preceded to go 88 yards to kick the winning FG with 3 seconds remaining. Of course, Greenville added another taunting penalty after the FG just for good measure.     

[Baldini]

3 games today with Westminster having the bye this weekend.

Greenville @ Northwestern sure looks like the title game for the UMAC and should be a good one today. When the season started Greenville looked like a lock to repeat as the champions, but it does look like they read all the press clippings and believed all they needed to do was show up. Was dodging a bullet last weekend enough of a wakeup call to get their attention? Have they just not put in the effort to be the best they can be, and Northwestern takes the upper hand for the title race today? If the Northwestern run defense can hold up, they could well dethrone the 2021 champs. Must watch game in the UMAC today. 

Finlandia @ Minnesota-Morris seems like a bad matchup for Finlandia. The Cougars #1 rushing attack may have their way with the visitors today and combined with the Finlandia lack of offense, it could be a long day for the Lions.

Crown @ Martin Luther could be an interesting game. Crown had their bye last week and the extra week to prepare along with a passing attack that could be trouble for the Knights, they may make this interesting. It is MLC's homecoming, and they did show their first sign of life last weekend by pushing Greenville to the end, now can they build on that? The MLC back line defense has been just brutal this season and that is being kind in description. Crown likely will make a number of big plays in the passing game; can they make enough to stay in the game is the question. On the other side of the ball MLC should put up a huge day on the ground, which should propel them to a victory and send the homecoming crowd home happy.         

[jstoll19]

I would like to point out that UNW just beat Greenville somewhat easily with a QB that has a broken left wrist. Looks like they should definitely win the AQ for the UMAC.

[Baldini]

I would like to point out that UNW just beat Greenville somewhat easily with a QB that has a broken left wrist. Looks like they should definitely win the AQ for the UMAC.

Congratulations 87 on a huge win for Northwestern and your former teammates, they have put themselves in the driver's seat from here. 

We viewed the game a little differently though, if you need an INT in your territory in the final minute to stop Greenville from a game winning drive, I can hardly call that beating Greenville 'somewhat easily'. Northwestern played with the lead throughout, but Greenville was in their rearview mirror to the end. 3 INT's and a blocked punt for a TD were great plays for Northwestern and just too much for Greenville to overcome.   

[Baldini]

Greenville - Northwestern lived up to the billing and was a wonderful game to watch. Greenville got down 20 in the 4th quarter after Damon Clapper's blocked punt and return for a score, but Greenville never quit and had the ball in the final minutes with a chance for the winning score. Northwestern's Luke Malamisuro would have none of it as he would get the game winning INT at the Northwestern 37-yard line with 1:15 remaining and a 41-35 victory for the Eagles.

Kudos to the Crown Polars for breaking into the win column with a 26-20 victory over Martin Luther on the Knights Homecoming Day game. Crown scored the go-ahead TD with 25 seconds remaining in the game. Game balls should go to every member of the defense for holding the Knights to 6 second half points and giving the offense a chance to get on a roll. Crown's defense had been giving up an average of 63 points per game entering this game. Crazy how far MLC has fallen this season, they look like a rudderless ship right now and 0-10 may well be staring them in the face.

The Minnesota-Morris - Finlandia game went mostly as expected and actually the Lions played them better than I originally thought they would. Finlandia for the first time this season showed some real life on the offensive side of the ball. In the end a business-like performance was put in by the Cougars to get the 28-12 win at home. Coach Mike DuFrane has his Finlandia team moving in the right direction, and they have a real chance to get their first win for the program since 2017 when they travel to Martin Luther next Saturday.         

[carletonknights]

Congrats to Crown on the win.

[DuffMan]

Looks like they should definitely win the AQ for the UMAC.

Has UNW made it to the post-season before?  I can't recall that happening.

[jstoll19]

Looks like they should definitely win the AQ for the UMAC.

Has UNW made it to the post-season before?  I can't recall that happening.

They made it in 2016 and lost to St. Thomas 43-0.

[DuffMan]

Ah, ok, thanks!

[Baldini]

The UMAC has been playing football as a conference since 1974 but received their first AQ in 2011. St. Scholastica rep'd the first 5 seasons, in 2012 there was a 3-way tie for the title and CSS won the draw for post season play. Northwestern broke the streak in 2016, Eureka in 2017, Martin Luther in 2018 and 2019, no football in 2020 and Greenville in 2021.