Liberty League

[Mr.Right]

http://www.libertyleagueathletics.com/news/2015/8/27/MSOC_0827151658.aspx

Skidmore Underrated.

Somebody better let the SID at Clarkson know that 7-10-1 was not "one of the most successful season ever" for Clarkson. They made the 1993 NCAA Final 4. They were a bit over matched in the in 1993 but certainly that has to be better than 7-10-1

[Saint of Old]

Mr. Right strikes again with out of conference knowledge.

Same record got Coach of the Year honors last year.

I will say that Bard will give many ppl, including Clarkson a tough time this year.

[Flying Weasel]

Yeah, I also found that completely bizarre that someone would describe a 7-10-1 season as "one of the most successful season ever" for Clarkson.  Obviously, you have the Final Four run as their best season, but they had plenty of winning seasons in the 80's and 90's.  Just say their best season in over a decade, perhaps.

[deutschfan]

Although some schools still haven't posted rosters, the 4 top ones have and here are my predictions in order of finish for what they are worth.  Given that they are the same four as last year I know I am not going out on a limb here.
1. SLU--Tested quality in every part of the field except keeper.  Copeland who should have been defensive MVP last year holds down the back; Brundell who had a breakout year joins a SLU of midfielders including Chandler Short who should have been the rookie of the year; and Morgan Smith up top.  Besides goalie only question is whether Smith is fully recovered but most of SLU's offense over the past few years has come from the midfield so it probably doesn't matter.  SLU has the blessing and curse of the weakest schedule of the top four--by far.  They will be undefeated and untested going into league.  If they don't win league their schedule will be a major hindrance with the committee.  What happened to the Rochester fixture?
2.  Hobart--What a difference between the team blown out by Brandeis in the first game and taking SLU to the limit in the LL playoffs.  Serafine came into his own at goalie, and the defense will be very strong again.  Like SLU they have great depth in the midfield and Fox is a quality distributor and goal scorer.  Hobart benefits from its German trip giving it a four game head start on the rest of the teams.  It will be amply tested by Rochester before league.  Even though I see Hobart going second into the playoffs unless they find more offense I see the same result as last year in the first round.
3.  Vassar--Of the four teams that made the playoffs last year Vassar was the least likely playing four freshman and starting a recruited defender as its main forward.  Yet, they gave SLU their only blemish, handily beat Hobart and but for a terrible showing in the semis may have gotten to test SLU again.  Vassar loses one starter, the least of any of the top four.  Warner is a capable goalie, Hess is a terrific defender, and Jennings and Palmer will create many goal chances.  Up top unanimous first-teamer Wiechert comes back for a 5th year after a 2014 pre-season injury.  You can look at the posts about Kramer on the NESCAC board as to how 5th year players perform.  If Vassar can generate goals and their fab freshman continue to contribute, they will be back in the playoffs again.
4.  RPI-- I understand all the polls have them as the second strongest team in the Liberty League and they have been on the NCAA cusp two years in a row.  However, they have big shoes to fill in replacing a defensive player of the year goalie and offensive player of the year midfielder.  At goalie it doesn't look like any of DeWald's successors has any game minutes in the goal.  Similarly, no one in the midfield has the experience or productivity of Koziel.  Gunderson had a great year last year at forward and looked all world in the liberty league semis.  Clinton is a great coach and I commend him for putting Oneonta and Williams on his schedule.  This is a rebuilding year for RPI.       

[Mr.Right]

I have to agree with your assessment on RPI. After watching them a couple times last year and the past few seasons. I feel like DeWald and Koziel were the 2 best players on the field for them. Those are 2 huge losses from a team that really can not afford to lose those players. I feel like they will struggle this season to try to get to .500 overall. Since Clinton arrived at RPI they have been a very tough team to break down but have not had pure finishers since their 2008 team which bowed out in the 1st round of the NCAA's to an extremely tough Stevens team. That 2008 matchup between RPI and Stevens was a great NCAA game at Babson and RPI was very skilled and athletic. Recently , they struggle to score against the better teams they play. They looked rather pedestrian in that 2014 Liberty League final against SLU and I would guess without looking at the box score might have had 3 shots all game with none of them serious threats. Oneonta and Williams dominated them last year but they did get a draw at Williams. If Clinton could get a couple recruits from the rich soccer history of the Shenendahowa / Capital region from which his father was the legendary coach / club director / guru they would be able to really compete without having to sit 10 deep against the better teams.

[deutschfan]

Just want to applaud Union on its big win against Albany College of Pharmacy: 9 goals; 2 goals less than 30 seconds apart; and 8th goal scored in second half by last year's leading scorer who is still inexplicably on the field at 7-0 and still shooting.  Wouldn't it have been more helpful for Union's NCAA chances to schedule Albany for a scrimmage and Oneonta for an early game rather than vice versa? 

[Saint of Old]

Cant blame the kid for scoring, or wanting to score.
Coach might want to protect his top scorer in a game that has already been won though.
Ask SLU, no fun to lose top scorer in the first game of the year

[Mr.Right]

Year after year we bash Jeff Guinn for his schedule and year after year it is warranted. Union is first and foremost a Hockey and Football school and they do not care enough about soccer to force him to do anything. It must come from the players and unfortunately the parents.

Just for a reference point the Williams JV team regularly schedules the Albany College of Pharmacy and beats them 5-0 or 6-1.

We also will start to monitor Skidmore's schedule as that is looking weaker and weaker each year.

[deutschfan]

First game shows a lot about SLU's depth.  Brundell and Short don't play (I take it by Saint's comment that at least one is injured), Smith doesn't start and they still cruise.  I also agree that it is tough to put players on the field and tell them just to pass the ball around when the score reaches 7-0 and it is on the coach when he has first stringers in when a game has gotten out of hand. 

[Saint of Old]

Fan, your observations are accurate.
Up top at least, St. Lawrence has not been this deep since 1999.

Unfortunately, the nasty injury bug that has been around for the last 1/2 dozen years is still there.

Last 3 major stars have suffered agonizing and bad injuries:
Sam Demello/Gorman and now our #10.

The Rowan game this Saturday should tell us a lot about just how deep the squad is.

Meanwhile, in other news, seems like the Entire Liberty League, except Clarkson had a good first day of the season.

[deutschfan]

I don't want to get a reputation for grousing but...  I was happy to see Bard make an impact this first week especially on offense.  Given the lack of Bard performer of the week honorees over the history of the Liberty League I thought this was the perfect time to anoint their leading scorer for the week who had 4 goals and an assist in 2 games.  He also happens to be the leading scorer in the whole league with most of the the other eligible bachelors having played three games.  Much to my chagrin, but not to my surprise after last year's biggest honors did not go to the best offensive or defensive players in the league but rather to two RPI players who, while quite good, were not All-American caliber players, this week's honor goes to an RPI player with 3 goals and an assist in 3 games who had the 7th best statistics in the Liberty League for the week.  The RPI player would be the third leading scorer on either Bard or Vassar.  The only statistic he has an edge in is game winning goals, the most unpredictable and overrated measure of performance.  In RPI's case it wasn't like they needed last minute heroics, or that the team's only goal in a game came from one player.   RPI won 5-0, 3-0, and 3-0 and it was just dame fortune that determined which goal scorer hit the winning goal.  My pick for offensive performer of the week is a striker from Bard who may not be in the running again for this honor given the overall quality in the Liberty League and the cream puff pre-season schedules some of the teams have put together. 

[Mr.Right]

Good God please...their opponents might be the worst that D3 soccer has to offer. Lyndon State, Sage, Cobleskill and Southern VT...Kinda looks like an out of conference schedule for Middlebury

[Saint of Old]

I wont say much about Offensive or Defensive player of the year in 2014.
I will say that those RPI Boys deserved it. They were the backbone of their programs, and kept their team winning in a tough league.

My quibble is that a certain Coach who retired after 25 years and a Hall of Fame career did not get some votes for COY after winning the league and tourney double in back to back years.

[Mr.Right]

Really.....Who won it? Adam Clinton or Andy Jennings?

[deutschfan]

Chris Taylor at Clarkson.  Nice job for his first year but I have to agree with Saint that Bob Durocher should have been in the mix given what he was able to accomplish with a bunch of injuries and Jennings should have been given injuries and his development of 4 freshman.  Thanks Right for reminding me how weak RPI's first three games were.  I would have mentioned that a Union player also has better stats but I don't count the Albany Pharmacy game.