2015 D3 Season: NATIONAL PERSPECTIVE

[Mid-Atlantic Fan]

Weather Alert:  Looks like games on Tuesday and especially many of the big slate of key games on Wednesday could be substantially impacted by very heavy rains Tuesday through Weds night (remnants of "Patricia").  Wonder how many might be moved to turf fields (if schools have them) and/or pushed over a day to Thursday.

Wednesday games will be a mess in the northeast region. Would hate to see weather alter the outcome of a game.

[Mr.Right]

That's the best part...Weather usually benefits the underdog and teams will feel it for sure...

[PaulNewman]

That's the best part...Weather usually benefits the underdog and teams will feel it for sure...

The question is poor conditions versus unplayable conditions, and maybe that will vary depending on the area.  When I looked last night seemed like at least the entire Great Lakes region and much of the Northeast corridor could be looking at several inches of rain over 2 days.  Also wondering if coaches will be hesistant to really tear up their fields right before playoffs and NCAA games.

[Mr.Right]

Coaches will have no say on the tearing up the field issue....If the field does not properly drain well and their are huge puddles the coaches and the REF will call it as unplayable and it will either be cancelled or replayed....Conn's field will most likely be unplayable but they could go down to the turf field behind the gym

[Mr.Right]

Does anyone know why the UMAC Conference awards the regular season champion the NCAA berth but still proceeds to have a conference tournament??

[Mid-Atlantic Fan]

NCAC Top 25 (thru 10/24)

1) Amherst
2) Calvin
3) Haverford
4) Franklin & Marshall
5) Montclair State
6) Thomas More
7) Brandeis
8) Kenyon
9) OWU
10) Oneonta State
11) Trinity (TX)
12) UW-Whitewater
13) Elizabethtown
14) Lycoming
15) Middlebury
16) Case Western
17) Stockton
18) Whitworth
19) Redlands
20) Macalester
21) Tufts
22) Wash U
23) Colorado College
24) MIT
25) Brockport State/Wheaton (Ill)/SLU/Loras (TIE) [Would make for a very solid Final Four!]

RV/Watch List (no order) -- Rowan, Kean, Messiah, Washington & Lee, ECSU, Randolph, Oglethorpe, Christopher Newport, Ohio Northern, Emory, Carnegie Mellon, Pacific Lutheran, Stevens, DePauw, Endicott, Gordon, Rose-Hulman, Texas-Dallas, Concordia (Wisc), Kalamazoo, North Park, Carthage, Cortland State, Plattsburgh State, Conn College, Bowdoin, Williams, Eastern, King's, Cabrini, UW-Oshkosh, UW-Superior, Greensboro, Rutgers-Camden, Rutgers-Newark, Methodist, Hobart, Skidmore, St Scholastica, UMass-Boston, Salisbury, Dickinson, Johns Hopkins, St Johns, Denison, York (PA), Westminster (MO), Morrisville, Keuka, Dominican, Milwaukee Engineering, Mt Aloysius, Penn State-Behrend, Wheaton (MA), Babson, Springfield, WPI, Bridgewater State, Roanoke, Wentworth, John Carroll, Capital, Wabash, Oberlin

I'll take a stab at what I think the D3 Poll will look like tomorrow. Please keep in mind this is not what I think the rankings should be. Just a guess at what I think we will see tomorrow morning. Here a go: 

#   School
1   Amherst
2   Calvin
3   Kenyon   
4   Trinity (Texas)   
5   UW-Whitewater
6   Thomas More   
7   Brandeis   
8   F&M
9   Montclair St.    
10   Etown
11   Oneonta St.
12   Haverford   
13   Loras
14   Case West Reserve
15   Texas-Dallas   
16   MIT   
17   OWU
18   Tufts   
19   Lycoming   
20   DePauw   
21   Eastern Connecticut   
22   Stevens   
23   Denison   
24   Whitworth
25   Messiah

RV: Eastern, Plattsburgh St., Wash. U, Colorado College, Macalester, Middlebury, Redlands, Cabrini, Kings, Rowan, Stockton,Washington & Lee, Christopher Newport, Ohio Northern, Emory, Carnegie Mellon, Pacific Lutheran, Endicott, Gordon, Rose-Hulman, Concordia (Wisc), Kalamazoo, North Park, Carthage, Cortland State,  Conn College,  UW-Oshkosh, UW-Superior, Greensboro, Rutgers-Newark, Hobart, Skidmore, St Scholastica, UMass-Boston, Salisbury, Dickinson, Johns Hopkins, St Johns, York (PA), Keuka, Dominican, Milwaukee Engineering, Mt Aloysius, Penn State-Behrend, Wheaton (MA), Springfield, John Carroll, Capital, Wabash

[Mr.Right]

Not bad but I would put money down that Middlebury cracks the Top 25

[Mid-Atlantic Fan]

Not bad but I would put money down that Middlebury cracks the Top 25

Thanks! Like I said I don't agree with it but if it took Haverford this long to finally crack the top 25 then I wouldn't be surprised if they left Middlebury out. I agree that they should be in it but it's a complete guessing game this year with the D3 team's thoughts. Like we discussed a few weeks ago, seems they are 2 weeks behind.

[Mid-Atlantic Fan]

And they had CMU ranked in the top 20...a team not even regionally ranked. Still baffled at how they were top 20 in D3's eyes. Also surprised they weren't at least in the last slot of regional rankings but like I said it's a coin flip this year! 

[PaulNewman]

Spotlight Team of the Week:  Concordia (Wis) University Falcons

As we wait for an enticing slate of high-profile games and the disintegrating remnants of Hurricane Patricia to drench fields of battle in the Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, and New England, let's aim our D3 soccer camera on Mequon, Wisconsin, the home of the Concordia (Wis) Falcons who are in the midst of one of the Falcons' most outstanding seasons in program history.

First, some of you while browsing the scoreboard on this site may have noticed at least a handful of schools named Concordia across the country, and that turns out to be no accident.  Concordia (Wis) is part of the The Lutheran Church, Missouri-Synod and the Concordia University System, the latter of which is comprised of 10 universities and colleges.  Concordia (Chicago) and Concordia (TX) are a couple of others that I've noticed most frequently.  Mequon, Wisconsin is about 15 minutes north of Milwaukee nestled on the Western shore of Lake Michigan. Milwaukee has been one of the primary centers for the Lutheran Church in America with a long history of hosting Lutheran national conferences.  Make sure you remember this next tidbit for a future trivia party:  despite there being a Lutheran Wisconsin-Synod located right in Milwaukee, Concordia (Wis) belongs to the Missouri-Synod.  That is a long and complicated story which requires a very good working knowledge of the history of the Lutheran Church in the United States (which I do not possess, but, as always, Google or Yahoo is your friend).  The lovely campus built right on a bluff overlooking the Lake is relatively new for Concordia.  The school purchased the property that previously was operated by the School Sisters of Notre Dame in 1982.  The town of Mequon itself is a vibrant community of @ 25,000 residents and has made lists for America's most livable places.

The Concordia (Wis) University (CUW) Falcons have a proud tradition in athletics and especially soccer.  The heart and soul of the Falcons program is Coach Tom Saleska, in his 23rd campaign at the helm.  He has coached two sons at CUW, and one of his sons, John, a 2005 graduate, is currently the Director of Soccer Operations for the men's and women's programs as well as an assistant coach for the men's team.  Coach Saleska has amassed 288 wins in his tenure, and he led CUW to back-to-back NCAA appearances in 2002 and 2003.  Both times CUW ousted St. Norbert in the 1st round and were dispatched in the 2nd round by Wheaton (Ill). 

After a sobering 7-11-2 2014 season, CUW stands at 14-2-1 and is in 1st place in the NACC, with Milwaukee Engineering, Dominican, and Aurora nipping at their heels.  The NACC tournament is setting up to be fiercely competitive as all four of those schools will scrap for the precious conference AQ.  The NACC usually is a one-bid league, although last year Milwaukee Engineering earned the AQ and usual conference champion Dominican landed a Pool C at-large bid.  CUW in 2015 holds impressive wins over UW-Whitewater and Dominican, with the victory over the latter the first for the Falcons since 2002.  This year the Falcon attack is headlined by standout senior forward, Keegan Van Dusseldorp who already is on 29 points with 11 goals and 7 assists, and boasts career numbers of 37 goals and 11 assists.  Pulling the strings in the midfield is senior Diego Campos with 2 goals and 10 assists.  Additional firepower is provided by frosh sensation Dagoberto Diaz (an Oregon product) with 7 goals and 3 assists, junior forward Jordan Moehn with 7 goals and 1 assist, and sophomore forward Luis Loya who has 3 goals and 5 assists. 

The Falcons are flying, sporting one of the nation's more impressive winning streaks, now at 8 games.  CUW was not ranked in the first NCAA regional rankings for the Central Region, despite their record and a SOS of .527.  The only NACC team to be ranked was 12-4 Milwaukee Engineering, in the very last Central slot, sporting a gaudy SOS of .599.

Best of luck to CUW as the Falcons come down the stretch in 2015.

[Off Pitch]

That's the best part...Weather usually benefits the underdog and teams will feel it for sure...

Although Amherst excels in foul weather.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Coaches will have no say on the tearing up the field issue....If the field does not properly drain well and their are huge puddles the coaches and the REF will call it as unplayable and it will either be cancelled or replayed....Conn's field will most likely be unplayable but they could go down to the turf field behind the gym

I'll never forget a game my older son played in about ten years ago (on our home field, no less).  (This was high school.)  For some reason they refused to postpone the game.  The ball would literally float away from players in the 'ponds'!  We won when my son came up with the idea of lofting the ball to the middle of the pond in front of the opposing goal, where his 'accomplice' (a talented forward) would kick in in before it ever hit the water!  (Being teenagers, and not too cold of a day, all the players on both the winning and losing teams absolutely loved the game!)

I'm not sure I would call what they played 'soccer', but it was hilarious at times!   (Numerous times players just couldn't resist doing slide tackles of imaginary opponents just for the splashing. )

Just for the record, it was not raining during the game, or my memories would probably not be so fond.

Oh, and yes, it did totally destroy the field for the remainder of the season.

[Mid-Atlantic Fan]

D3soccer.com Men's Top 25, Week 8
Through games of Sunday, October 25, 2015

#   School (1st Pl. Votes)   Record   Pts.   Prev.
1   Amherst (19)   14-0-0   996   2
2   Kenyon   13-1-0   928   3
3   Trinity (Texas) (1)   15-2-0   884   5
4   Calvin   16-0-1   878   4
5   Franklin & Marshall   14-1-0   836   1
6   Thomas More   14-1-1   764   8
7   Brandeis   12-2-1   742   9
8   Montclair State   16-2-0   710   10
9   UW-Whitewater   14-2-1   676   7
10   Elizabethtown   15-1-1   662   11
11   Oneonta State   13-3-1   588   14
12   Whitworth   13-1-1   542   6
13   Carnegie Mellon   9-2-3   461   19
14   Haverford   12-3-0   419   —
15   Case Western Reserve   12-2-1   387   22
16   Eastern Connecticut   13-2-1   354   21
17   Ohio Wesleyan   13-2-2   342   —
18   MIT   13-1-1   326   24
19   Eastern   13-1-2   274   13
20   Denison   10-2-3   215   23
21   Middlebury   11-2-1   185   —
22   Tufts   9-3-2   184   —
23   Loras   11-4-1   170   18
24   Colorado College   12-2-2   155   —
25   Texas-Dallas   13-2-2   151   12
Dropped out: No. 15 Christopher Newport, No. 16 Plattsburgh State, No. 17 Kean, No. 20 DePauw, No. 25 Stevens

Receiving Votes: Christopher Newport 144, Lycoming 133, DePauw 64, Macalester 42, Pacific Lutheran 36, Redlands 34, Stockton 28, Plattsburgh State 24, Messiah 22, St. Lawrence 20, Washington U. 12, Stevens 8, Milwaukee Engineering 6, St. Scholastica 6, Kean 6, Concordia (Wis.) 4, Endicott 2

The D3soccer.com Top 25 is voted on by a panel of coaches, Sports Information Directors and D3soccer.com staff, and is published weekly.

[Mid-Atlantic Fan]

CMU at #13 is a crime let alone being top 25.

[Shooter McGavin]

CMU at #13 is a crime let alone being top 25.

Yes CMU isn't even regionally ranked!!! (By the NCAA) Also thought Eastern would drop more than they did for losing to a non-ranked team and poor SOS. Surprised that Loras is back in with 4 losses. Thought Lycoming would crack the top 25 over teams like Dension, Eastern, Loras, Texas-Dallas, Whitworth. Interesting selections but I guess it always is.