NESCAC

[Mr.Right]

Hamilton at Amherst knotted at 0-0 with about 15 minutes left in the 1st Half. No real dangerous chances for either side but Hamilton is holding its own and more. A relatively easy shot by Talsania was coughed up by Lee Owen but no Hamilton player followed the shot. Hamilton MUST continue to shoot on Owen and follow their shots as Amherst GK Lee Owen is just so suspect in net and will be Amherst downfall come NCAA tournament time. On the flip side Christopher Martin is playing his best futbol right now and is just such a dangerous player especially with his nasty speed...

[Mr.Right]

Amherst up 1-0 on Hamilton at Halftime. Bryce Ciambella had a great chance of the match as he missed a golden opportunity to give Amherst the lead when he sky rocketed a shot about 10 yards out. Then Amherst scores with 1 second remaining in the Half on a set piece that bobbled around the box and was not cleared. I could not see who scored but it looked very close to being offside. Very unlucky for Hamilton as they go down 1-0 at the Half at the buzzer and now will have to play into the wind to try to tie the score up.

[Jump4Joy]

Offsides unlikely with 18 people inside the box, with at least two thirds of them inside the six.

[Mr.Right]

2-0 Amherst as I missed the 2nd Goal but Hamilton is in trouble. It is very difficult to come back and score 2 goals at Amherst. Still a ton of time but looks like bubble teams can breathe a little easier as Amherst will win the Nescac Regular Season Title and the Nescac Tournament Title. I just do not see Hamilton coming back from this deficit.

[Mr.Right]

Offsides unlikely with 18 people inside the box, with at least two thirds of them inside the six.

Video is tough to tell but it looked close....

[Mr.Right]

Congrats to Amherst for winning the Nescac double and now they will host all the way to the NCAA Final 4 IMO...

Also, congrats to Hamilton after getting to the Nescac Final for the first time they end their season 10-7-1 and lose a couple KEY players to graduation now. They lose GK Harris Pollack, Speedy and skilled Alec Talsania, Mike Lubelczyk, Spencer Heller and Alex Cadet. They are all replacable but Talsania will be tough to replace right away as he really came on this year. Cadet's kill in midfield will be missed but can be replaced. Hamilton should be able to continue to build and move forward next year with a few new recruits they should be able to stay in the Top 8 of Nescac in 2017.

[amh63]

Jump4Joy....nice point wrt the crowd in the box.  Plus K.  It is noted that the first goal was from a free kick from the right side with the time running down.  The Amherst kicker made a nice kick into a crowd of players and it was almost like a "scrum"...Rugby term...of foot moment, IMO.  No ref was going to call an offside as the ball descended....even if the players wore different shoe colors . 

[Bucket]

So how's this for brutal? [Acknowledging that this has nothing to do with the NESCAC other than one of the teams being Bucket's alma mater and the loser of this match possibly snagging a Pool C.]

In the ODAC championship, Washington & Lee is 6 minutes away from capturing its first conference title since 1989, when young Bucket was a freshman.

Lynchburg not only evens the score, but then wins on a W&L own goal with 3:00 minutes remaining. Absolutely brutal.

[Jump4Joy]

Ouch!

[ECSUalum]

Jump4Joy....nice point wrt the crowd in the box.  Plus K.  It is noted that the first goal was from a free kick from the right side with the time running down.  The Amherst kicker made a nice kick into a crowd of players and it was almost like a "scrum"...Rugby term...of foot moment, IMO.  No ref was going to call an offside as the ball descended....even if the players wore different shoe colors .

Congrats to Amherst on another outstanding season, best of luck in the Tournament!!

[Mr.Right]

LOL...Williams moved up 2 spots from #9 in new England to #7 without even playing a game. Midd beats Williams and loses to an unranked team and drops 2 spots. Bowdoin beats Tufts twice in a week and has a 1-0 lead over Amherst in the 80th minute before self destructing and losing but only moves up 1 spot. All 3 teams in Bowdoin, Williams and Midd are very good teams who could have won an NCAA game or 2 but get snubbed.


Midd has not sniffed an NCAA game in 6 years and what a WASTE of a senior class with Conrad, Sydor, Glaser etc to not make 1 NCAA Tournament in their 4 years. That is very worrisome and maybe it is time for Saward to hang em up. He has said he would go a couple more years but either BEEF up the out of conference schedule or beat the Top 4 in Nescac or you just cannot get into the NCAA's...Worrisome at Midd as they graduate a TON but maybe they need a culture change and "new" leadership on the field. When your best player is a hockey player you have to question where his mind is 100% of the time. No disrespect to Conrad he is a nasty player but maybe his leadership was lacking. IDK.

Another worrisome trend is a storied program like Williams has not been to the NCAA's in 3 years and has not been to a Nescac Semi-Final in 3 years. That is just unacceptable for such a storied program. They lose a TON also in Rashid, Bahr De-Stefano, Alcorn, Dory and the Frosh that Sullivan brought in were not impressive IMO as I would rate Wesleyan's Frosh class better than Williams..That CAN NEVER happen. Sullivan and his staff really need to get going and get some good players coming in the pipeline. Also, I  hate the way Williams plays now. I usually loved watching Williams attack from all angles, give their wingbacks the freedom to run up and down the flank and really really counter well...They do none of that since he took over. They only attack with 5 and have become just another kind of conservative Nescac side that is much more boring to watch. Unfortunate...If Sullivan would turn his head 180 degrees and see how the Williams Women play and how great of a recruiter she is he might learn something. These Williams sides just do not compare to the glory days of the early 2000's when there was MAGIC all over the field with the Jamaicans and blowing good teams off the field..Oh well those days are long gone.

[Flying Weasel]

LOL...Williams moved up 2 spots from #9 in new England to #7 without even playing a game. Midd beats Williams and loses to an unranked team and drops 2 spots. Bowdoin beats Tufts twice in a week and has a 1-0 lead over Amherst in the 80th minute before self destructing and losing but only moves up 1 spot. All 3 teams in Bowdoin, Williams and Midd are very good teams who could have won an NCAA game or 2 but get snubbed.

Not here to argue if the NESCAC got snubbed.  But wanted to point out a couple inaccuracies in your breakdown of the New England rankings.

Middlebury's win over Williams was not in the last week, it was the previous week.  Middlebury lost 0-3 to Williams and then beat Williams 1-0 that week, falling from #5 in the 2nd ranking to #6 in the 3rd ranking.  They dropped from #6 to #8 in the fourth and final ranking, having lost to unranked Wesleyan (By the way, shouldn't a loss to an unranked weaker opponent cost you more than losing to a ranked higher quality opponent?)

And both of Bowdoin's wins over Tufts were not in the last week, but in the previous week.  They went from unranked in the 2nd Ranking to #10 in the 3rd ranking on the back of those two wins over Tufts, and then, after losing to Amherst, moved up 1 spot to #9 in the 4th and final ranking.

[Mr.Right]

Yes I realize my venting about Nescac was inaccurate but I guess I was more upset with how the Week 3 rankings stacked up to begin with in New England. Brandeis deservedly pushed WAY up the rankings after beating 2 ranked teams in Emory and UR that week but Bowdoin did not after beating Tufts who was ranked #2 in New England that week. So both teams beat ranked teams twice but Brandeis got a monster jump and Bowdoin did not. Brandeis SOS and RvR were better than Bowdoin's and deserved the huge rise in the rankings but I thought Bowdoin's resume was good enough to jump to #7.

Also, is there such thing as a good loss anymore? Bowdoin losing a Nescac Semi to Amherst 2-1 after leading in the 80th minute to me is better than beating a team with a weak SOS and OWP. I don't know anymore. I am guessing Midd would still of been snubbed if they had beaten Hamilton in the Nescac Semi's because it would not of helped their RvR or SOS.

In the 4th Rankings Williams moved UP 2 spots to #7 from #9 without even playing a game. I just do not understand that. How does a team MOVE UP the rankings after getting eliminated in their conference tournament quarters and not playing a game.

[EasyGoer27]

What did the NESCAC go out of conference, like 58-6, something close to that?  Last two National champs, and one at large bid?  The system is beyond flawed.  Completely penalizing for the fact there are no cupcakes in the league and 15 game limit.  Would anyone argue even Conn would be a likely favorite first round if they got in?  Wouldn't almost every CAC team be a fav? NCAA used to take huge numbers from power conferences for a reason, the idea is best teams go, not best mathematical game goes based on sequence from poor starting point polls.....

My two cents, go Tufts and on to next year.....

[Mr.Right]

I cannot defend Midd not getting a Pool C. This board was all over them last year when they got left out and my pleading with Midd to go ply some tougher teams Out of conference went unheard. They dropped Southern Vt for Keene St. Not good enough. After another snub this year i think it is as plain as black and white that the committee is sending a message that Midd really needs to beef up their non-conference schedule. Broken record here but there is no reason they cannot play a couple Liberty League teams which are only about 2 hours away. Personally, I would keep Castleton St and Norwich on the schedule because they are teams Midd has always played and are really nice short rides. So you have Castleton St and Norwich as your "easier" non conference games. Keene St was a decent pick-up but they have been struggling the past 5 years. You can keep them BUT you must drop Plymouth St and Colby-Sawyer and get 2 better teams on that schedule.

Bowdoin is kind of in the same boat. If you cannot beat the best Nescac teams than your out of conference schedule gets a real hard look ny the committee. They have a Babson game which is good and they have always played. However, the 4 Maine schools they play out of conference just do not cut it. They used to play Wheaton(MA). That would be a good game to add...They could easily pick up a couple Newmac teams like MIT or a team like Gordon which is a little over an hour away.

We would be saying the same exact thing about Amherst schedule BUT THEY BEAT the top Nescac teams every year so it really does not matter. It will matter in the future if they start losing games to Tufts, Midd, Williams or Bowdoin even Conn.

Williams had a decent Non-Conference slate with RPI, Skidmore, Babson, Endicott and ECONN. Unfortunately for them those schools besides Babson and maybe Endicott all had "down" years. They could possibly keep that schedule and be ok but what happened to the Oneonta game they played at home last year(won 2-0)? They must still owe them a game at their place? Why not get hem back on the schedule next year?

Tufts non-conference was ok also. Brandeis. Endicott, Gordon, Keene St and Plymouth St. It would have been questionable BUT they defeated the top Nescac teams like Amherst, Midd and Williams. I thought the 2 losses to Bowdoin would really hurt them and I am guessing they were 1 of the last Pool C's selected.