NESCAC

[NHsocca1]

a lot of good coaches in the league.

lerner definitely all-league worthy.

look for all three nescacs to get out of weekend.

[LaPaz]

In my opinion(I could be wRONG) Amherst coach deserved it  but im willing to bet he isnt the most liked coach in nescac and doubt he would garner the votes as a Pilger or Wheeler.  Murphy has done a good job at Conn but not sure how you can compare that with Trinity and say Murphy is more deserving after Pilger gets Trinity into NCAA's. 
-Macnee to me is a very good player.  However, I think he tends to disappear in "BIG" Nescac games. Doesnt remind me of a typical Midd striker as he lacks some toughness..
-Lerner a hard worker but Kaplan might deserve the pick more. You dont put your best defender(1st team) at wing back, your best players are up the middle of the spine of your team.  Tough for keepers this year, you could make a case for like 5 of them. So Kovacks not getting it isnt all that suprising.
-Will Trinity be over confident aganist this team from Maine?  They have done it before.
-Amherst will be good for the weekend
-Wes is more unpredictable as 1. really dont know the teams 2. prob night turf games, not used to that. 3. travel

[NHsocca1]

Here are my score predictions:

Wesleyan 2, Misercorida 1
Trinity 4, St Joe's 0
Amherst 3, Husson 1

(as a sidenote, I really am not an amherst fan, but they have won me over this season to some degree.  haven't seen a team play as hard as them in a while. saw them come back in last mins at williams and then in both games last weekend. gotta give credit to them....have made NCAAs 5 or 6 times in a row now.  Wasnt the case when I was in league.)

[LaPaz]

Amherst v Husson    3-0 - Amherst just to big and powerful for Husson.  Husson has been playing well of late and I hear they have a great long throw, but just a talent difference here.

Trinity v St.Joe's      2-0 - Trinity has played extremely well defensively since #6 Buckley has moved into defense and the goalkeeping has been good. Mayernick always in the right place at right time. He works hard for his goals with his quick feet( He beat the Williams keeper and defender to ball by a split 2nd last weekend to win game for Trinity). He is a natural goal scorer but does disappear for stretches at a time. #10 played well in that game and will need to continue to do so for Trinity to keep moving along. Didnt see #11 Binnie in that Williams game but he is a help up top for Trinity if he plays. The midfield besides #10 is average at best. I think they will come out sluggish but find a way to beat this team.


Wes v Miser            0-0 PK Loss   Just a complete hunch. Have no idea about opponent, but Wesleyan hasnt played in 2 weeks and might be rusty.

[amh63]

Amherst cruches Husson, 4-0.....with S. Noon getting two.  Meets ECSU on Sunday at 1 PM on Hitchcock field.

[amh63]

Amherst moves on with a 4-2 win over ECSU today at home.

[Jim Matson]

What was the deal with the fight? Was a red card given?

[NHsocca1]

My brother was at game, said EConn took a bunch of cheap shots and really played ugly.  Apparently. Kaplan got knocked out of game on a dirty play off the ball when it was 4-1.  There was a scrum and pushing/shoving, etc.  Will be tough for Amherst to replace him if he's out for the year (which it sounded like).

Also said Alexi Lalas was there. Not sure why. 

[eyeinthestands]

Eastern played ugly? Wasn't there but the box has Amherst with 21 fouls! (Eastern 10)

[LaPaz]

Amherst is known for playing "ugly" sometimes and their coach isnt the best representative of fair play but Eastern was def chippy in this match.  Hey its tourney time and this is what happens plus you had a horrible ref who let things get way out of control far to early.

Didnt see the Wes game but congrats to them for a great season. I think they lose Paresi but not much else so they will be back pretty strong.

Trinity has to be extremely disappointed they had Babson with 2 minutes to go but Anderson scores an unmarked header off a corner to tie game. Trinity looked totally unprepared in penalties as they went 0-3(2 saves by a Babson field player who substituted for Crowley) and Babson went 3-3.  Coincidentally Crowley made a massive error to allow the Trinity goal with ten minutes left. I believe he is the weak link that will send Babson home next round.

[LaPaz]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/amherstcollege/6342352550/in/set-72157628121737070

The only guess as to why Alexi Lalas was at this game is maybe becuase Husson's assistant coach is his old Rutgers U coach Bob Reasso but Husson was eliminated the day before

[eyeinthestands]

"Amherst is known for playing "ugly" sometimes and their coach isn't the best representative of fair play but Eastern was def chippy in this match.  Hey its tourney time and this is what happens plus you had a horrible ref who let things get way out of control far to early."



AMEN to that!

[ECSUalum]

eyesinthestands, LaPaz,

You really had to be on site to see the aggressive play, because if you watched the Amherst streaming video, which was without commentators, you saw a poor quality feed that was freezing every 15 seconds or so, totally frustrating to watch, and I gave up at halftime and switched to  the Trinity/Babson video, which was relatively good and with play by play.

Anyway..... I 'll stop wining,   Congrats to Amherst and good luck in the sweet 16. With those 6'6'' Venezuelan twins, it is difficult to touch anything in the air, and should give AC a distinct advantage.  Plus Messiah is out, so that should make everyone play even harder for the walnut and bronze. 

[GarbageGoals33]

I watched the Amherst video online.  It was a poor game all around in regards to quality of play.  It looked like a very physical kickball game.  I am guessing it could have been a very good game had the officiating not been so poor.  If the refs get control of the game early then the game wouldn't have fallen apart as it did.  The last 15-20 minutes was basically player after player going in on thuggish challenges.  No commentator was necessary as you could hear the coaches screaming the whole second half, it was comedy.

[Flying Weasel]

tourney committee totally underrated nescac.  amherst shld've been seeded on schedule strength and record v. ranked teams and same record as trinity (and won league and tourney).  nescac performance in past 4 yrs. shld count for something (middlebury national champs, and then amherst, williams, and bowdoin to semis after knocking off other nescacs).  watch trinity, ct or wesleyan go to semis from weakest bracket.

Williams should be in.

Amherst got hosed. 

Who is on the decision making committee? I bet not the Amherst or Williams coaches...

Well, lots of regular season talk and pre-tournament talk, and I'm waiting to hear what you guys have to say now.  Amherst got to host their sectional due to the Messiah loss and couldn't get the job done.  Trinity and Wesleyan didn't reach the Sweet 16, much less the semifinals.  For me, Amherst was the only one of the three in whom it was reasonable to have big although guarded expectations.  I think the fact that Williams, Middlebury, and Bowdoin were not as strong this year made it harder to gauge how good the conference's top teams really were.  In other words, did Amherst and Wesleyan do so well because they were so good this year or more because the other teams weren't so good this year.  Probably a bit of both.

For me personally, I think no more or less of the NESCAC after this tournament or this year.  It is what it is: a conference that most years has more quality teams than all or most all other conferences, but nationally those quality teams are not in a class of their own.  They are Top 10, Top 25, Top 40 type teams that have the potential for a deep tournament run but also can get beaten by numerous other top level teams from all the regions.  The run of four straight Final Fours with four different NESCAC schools is a testament to this, no doubt.  But on the flip side, from 1999 to 2006 when no NESCAC school made the Final Four it was still a very good conference and one of the nation's best.