Liberty League

[Mr.Right]

Quick Hit Predictions for Wednesday:

Ithaca at RIT---Still have only seen these teams for a Half each all year so it is tough to call. RIT has not lost a game in a month and have not lost at Home since losing to Vassar 2-1 on 9/23. Not only that they are scoring at an impressive clip against solid competition. They are 2-0-3 in their last 5 games all against LL foes and have scored at least 2 goals in each of those 5 games with a total of 15 goals(yes 6 against Bard but still). The senior Dean Kouroupas leads the team with 6 goals and he looked to have been possibly injured because he missed about 2 weeks in the middle of the season. Soph Simon Garno(guessing Coach's son) leads the team with 10 assists. This has to be RIT's best season since joining the league and best season in a while under longtime Head Coach Bill Garno. Still Ithaca is no slouch and they have struggled a bit recently I am sniffing an upset of sorts and predicting a draw...1-1

Vassar at RPI----Night game in Rensselaer. Big game as if Vassar wins it final 2 league games against RPI and Ithaca they will win the LL Regular Season. Still a draw will not kill them here as they would still have a possibility of winning it all if Hobart and SLU draw on Saturday. Adam Clinton got his charges pumped on Saturday and am guessing had them working their tails off to defeat Ithaca in OT. Vassar just has more talent as I do not see how RPI scores in this match.
2-0 Vassar

Union at Bard----The most meaningless league game of the year. Union showed well up at Clarkson on Saturday and had a real solid chance to win the game in the 108th minute but ultimately failed. Still a well played match especially with only pride on the line. Union lays an egg and Bard steals a victory.
2-1 Bard

[1970s NESCAC Player]

Quick Hit Predictions for Wednesday:

This has to be RIT's best season since joining the league and best season in a while under longtime Head Coach Bill Garno.

In RIT's inaugural season in the LL (2011), they actually made it to the LL Championship game, where Vassar prevailed 3-2.

[Mr.Right]

Quick Hit Predictions for Wednesday:

This has to be RIT's best season since joining the league and best season in a while under longtime Head Coach Bill Garno.

In RIT's inaugural season in the LL (2011), they actually made it to the LL Championship game, where Vassar prevailed 3-2.

Ahh did not realize that...I was thinking back when RIT was a force in Upstate NY and made the NCAA's a couple times in the mid 2000's

[Part_Bart]

Quick Hit Predictions for Wednesday:

Ithaca at RIT---Still have only seen these teams for a Half each all year so it is tough to call. RIT has not lost a game in a month and have not lost at Home since losing to Vassar 2-1 on 9/23. Not only that they are scoring at an impressive clip against solid competition. They are 2-0-3 in their last 5 games all against LL foes and have scored at least 2 goals in each of those 5 games with a total of 15 goals(yes 6 against Bard but still). The senior Dean Kouroupas leads the team with 6 goals and he looked to have been possibly injured because he missed about 2 weeks in the middle of the season. Soph Simon Garno(guessing Coach's son) leads the team with 10 assists. This has to be RIT's best season since joining the league and best season in a while under longtime Head Coach Bill Garno. Still Ithaca is no slouch and they have struggled a bit recently I am sniffing an upset of sorts and predicting a draw...1-1

Vassar at RPI----Night game in Rensselaer. Big game as if Vassar wins it final 2 league games against RPI and Ithaca they will win the LL Regular Season. Still a draw will not kill them here as they would still have a possibility of winning it all if Hobart and SLU draw on Saturday. Adam Clinton got his charges pumped on Saturday and am guessing had them working their tails off to defeat Ithaca in OT. Vassar just has more talent as I do not see how RPI scores in this match.
2-0 Vassar

Union at Bard----The most meaningless league game of the year. Union showed well up at Clarkson on Saturday and had a real solid chance to win the game in the 108th minute but ultimately failed. Still a well played match especially with only pride on the line. Union lays an egg and Bard steals a victory.
2-1 Bard

I'm on board with Mr. Right's picks for RIT/Ithaca draw and Bard upset of Union.
If RIT were at Ithaca, I'd be picking the Bombers to win.  Ithaca is a good side and has rounded into form quite well as season has gone along.

Am aware that RPI is playing for its tournament life.  Vassar had trouble with Hobart's defense this past weekend (save for the 2' after Hobart scored and Vassar put one by their GK) and see RPI's defensive posture as more of the same. I'm thinking this a chippy tie or perhaps RPI gets some luck and finds a goal.

[Flying Weasel]

Quick Hit Predictions for Wednesday:


This has to be RIT's best season since joining the league and best season in a while under longtime Head Coach Bill Garno.

In RIT's inaugural season in the LL (2011), they actually made it to the LL Championship game, where Vassar prevailed 3-2.

Ahh did not realize that...I was thinking back when RIT was a force in Upstate NY and made the NCAA's a couple times in the mid 2000's

I was forgetting that RIT even made the NCAA tournament in the 2000's.  Looking it up, they made it in 2000, 2001 and 2004 and not since. Not sure how much of a force RIT was in those years (early 2000's). They were qualifying out of the Empire 8 before Stevens joined. They ahd good but not great records in 2000 and 2001, but barely over .500 in 2004.

RIT was a force in the early/mid 80's through the early/mid 90's when Doug May was coach.  Us older Messiah fans remember RIT as a power as the Falcon's second Final Four trip was to RIT in 1988.  RIT lost in the final that year to UC San Diego (who beat Messiah in the semifinals), a year after being knocked out at the quarterfinal stage by UNC-Greensboro and a year before losing in the semifinals to Greensboro at the Final Four hosted and won by E-town.  RIT also made the Final Four in 1984 and 1992.  Four Final Fours in nine years--not a bad stretch at all.  And who knows, if not for a couple of schools who would shortly thereafter move up to D-II and D-I, maybe they would have taken home a national title one of those years.

[Mr.Right]

Yes Doug May was a very good coach and well liked by his peers..I actually believe he recently passed but not sure on that

[1970s NESCAC Player]

I've wondered why RIT, with almost 14,000 undergrads, does not challenge for the LL title every year . . .

[Mr.Right]

Well I might have overstated that RIT was a force in the mid 2000's but they were a good side. Let us remember that the Empire 8 was no slouch during this time as Ithaca and Elmira were good squads and RIT always played a very challenging non-conference schedule if I remember correctly. You are correct that with 14000 undergrads they should be better

[Flying Weasel]

Well I might have overstated that RIT was a force in the mid 2000's but they were a good side. Let us remember that the Empire 8 was no slouch during this time as Ithaca and Elmira were good squads and RIT always played a very challenging non-conference schedule if I remember correctly. You are correct that with 14000 undergrads they should be better

After 2001, RIT struggled to stay above .500 in the 2000's, never again winning more than half their games.  They were up and down in the conference in the 2000's and usually poor out of conference, typically in the .300 to .500 range (you're correct that they played a challenging non-conference schedule that usually included St. Lawrence, Hobart, Hamilton, and Rochester). Elmira was pretty bad from 2002 to 2008 with nine or more losses each year.

[deutschfan]

RIT v Ithaca is interesting as this is the best RIT team since 2011 but it is an absolute do or die game for Ithaca.  I go with RIT 1-0 as they have been very good in the month of October.  If Mr. Right is right, and he usually is, then unless Ithaca can stop Vassar in Poughkeepsie knowing full well that all hope is lost for a LL tourney berth, Vassar wins the LL regular season title with a win over RPI and either Hobart or SLU doesn't get the bye.  RPI has not beaten Vassar since 2014 which is motivational for the Engineers.  Vassar embarrassed them in the LL semis last year which is also motivational.  Vassar has not been a good road team this year although I agree that they are a better team than RPI either at home or on the road.  l am going to go with Mr. Right and choose skill over intangibles.  Vassar 1-0.  I also go with Bard over Union for purely selfish reasons, namely, I would like Union to schedule good non-conference opponents in the future and if they go winless in the LL I think that will be an incentive to do so.   

[1970s NESCAC Player]

I also go with Bard over Union for purely selfish reasons, namely, I would like Union to schedule good non-conference opponents in the future and if they go winless in the LL I think that will be an incentive to do so.

Coach Guinn's track record from a few years ago demonstrates that he is (or was) not afraid of scheduling strong non-conference opponents.  My son played for him from 2008-11 (where he was all-conference and team MVP in 2011), when the program was in a good stretch of very strong teams:  winning the LL in 2006, reaching the LL championship game in 2008 and 2009, going 5-1-1 in LL in 2010 before elimination on PKs in LL semis to RPI, consistently receiving a top 25 ranking at some point each year, averaging 12 wins per year, and annually having several all-conference representatives (including S. Jansen, All-American).  In those years, Union played an annual scrimmage against Oneonta, and scheduled annually several of Babson (while it dominated NEWMAC), Plattsburgh, RIT (before it joined LL), Geneseo (and one or two other SUNYAC teams such as New Paltz and Oswego), William Patterson or NJCU out of NJAC, RIC, and one or two Empire 8 teams.  Obviously, Union is not as strong since Jansen graduated in 2013, but, although I have no personal knowledge, I suspect something else is dictating the current weaker non-conference schedule.

That being said, I, too, hope that the program beefs up the non-conference schedule in the future, as playing cupcakes clearly is insufficient preparation for the LL.

[Part_Bart]

Hobart loses, 1:0, to Utica College in a midweek game. 
Huh?

[Flying Weasel]

Probably pretty meaningless game as Hobart may already have been AQ or bust, but that head-scratching loss guarantees that.

[deutschfan]

Head scratching is kind.  Utica does not have an E8 win this year while Hobart is undefeated in the LL and has the highest current regional ranking of any LL team.  This is a down year for the league and has been noted by others only the AQ will get through.

[Flying Weasel]

Head scratching is kind.  Utica does not have an E8 win this year while Hobart is undefeated in the LL and has the highest current regional ranking of any LL team.  This is a down year for the league and has been noted by others only the AQ will get through.

Vassar was ahead of Hobart in last week's Regional Rankings.  With the head-to-head win, Hobart may have moved ahead of Vassar this week if not for the loss to Utica.