2016 D3 Season: NATIONAL PERSPECTIVE

[blooter442]

Some interesting, some high profile, and some important maybe under-the-radar action around the country.

Amherst and Middlebury play to a draw...probably a result that neither team will mind that much.

Wheaton (MA) and Springfield play to a 2-2 tie in a key NEWMAC clash.  Speaking of which, what is up with Babson?!  After very fortunate circumstances yielded a PK 2OT win over rival Brandeis, the Beavers drew with Fitchburg St 0-0 and toady lost at home to Coast Guard.  Seems almost all of the NEWMAC teams have played themselves into a position where they will need to win the NEWMAC tourney to get a bid.

Rutgers-Camden is back in the mix!  Torched Rutgers-Newark today and I think now 4-0-2.  Kean stays viable with a win over Stockton.  Rowan hands Jersey City a first loss and now looks ahead to a showdown with F&M.

Oneonta St. comes from behind to hand the Vassar Brewers a first blemish.  Plattsburgh stays unblemished and keeps Skidmore down in the dumps.  Potsdam rebounds from a loss to Hobart with a good win over RPI.

Bowdoin gains a very valuable road NESCAC win against fellow perennial mid-table foe Wesleyan, 1-0.  Tufts gets back on track dominating Bates, but still has work to do.  Williams stays on course for the hoped for revival, getting by Colby at home.

Lycoming comes through with a big win over Scranton.

W&L comes from behind in a potential trap game to prevail over Virginia Wesleyan.  Lynchburg follows up a draw with Oglethorpe with an important win over Berry to stay unbeaten.

Dubuque remains unblemished after saddling MSOE with a loss.  Perhaps lost among so many games, Loras uncharacteristically drops 2 in a row falling to Carthage last night on a late goal.  Carthage's roller-coaster ride of a season continues.  Wheaton (Ill) also lost again last night to Wash U and now stands at a stunning 1-4-1.  Unlike a Calvin that might be able to count on a conference tourney bid, Wheaton is no cinch for that route given the threat posed by Carthage, Elmhurst and North Park.

Speaking of Elmhurst, they could not handle Chicago last night, as the Maroons spotted Carthage a goal and stormed back in a romp.  Chicago is handling their business in a very professional and impressive manner, befitting a true Final Four contender.

Concordia (Wis), after beating St. Norbert right after St. Norbert bested Loras, fell today to rival Wisconsin Lutheran.

Kenyon gets a solid road win at Thomas More, while Centre gives up a lead to DePauw and shows resiliency on the road by winning in OT.  This sets up a mid-week collision of unblemished teams, as the Colonels head to Gambier.  Grove City gets back to its winning ways outlasting Heidelberg 3-2 in OT and now can look forward to a huge game for them versus Carnegie Mellon.

Whitworth shrugged off jet lag and an early deficit to get a win against Willamette.

Haverford takes a big early season Centennial bout over Hopkins.

SLU's climb up the polls should continue after a huge win over Cortland St.  Now the Saints go on the road to face another still unblemished SUNYAC, Plattsburgh.

Out West, we should note that Trinity (TX) toppled Colorado Coll last night.  Redlands lost to Christopher Newport in one of the games of the week last night but rebounded today with a 5-0 shellacking of Whittier.

In late action, just saw that MIT barely got by Emerson 1-0 in OT.  ONU has gone up 1-0 late against CWRU.

Great recap NCAC.

Babson continues to confound. I was impressed by them against ECSU, but despite outshooting and then beating Brandeis they really haven't impressed other than that this year. Also, for all of its strength in SoS, Babson has pretty much stumbled into NCAAs via the NEWMAC tournament the last two years, and missed NCAAs three years back. Granted, winning the NEWMAC isn't a given, but the strength of the conference isn't the same as that of the NESCAC, and even if Bowdoin has done similar the last two years Bowdoin has been largely helped out by the top seed being upset elsewhere in the quarters and also managed to at least win an NCAA game both years, something Babson hasn't done since 2011 despite being at home twice. Simply put, Babson is a good program that plays a tough schedule, and they're a program I respect, but I would still say that they have a much easier road to an NCAA bid than, say, a NESCAC team with similar talent, a similar record, and a comparable SoS. It will be interesting to see how things unfold this year for the Beavers, as seemingly all of the momentum from the Brandeis win has evaporated.

Would like to see Rochester go on the road, as while the Yellowjackets are 5-0 all 5 games have been at home. Next weekend's trip to RPI will be worth a look.

Really curious to see how Chicago-Carthage turns out tomorrow. I'd expect Chicago to win, but this could be perhaps an even bigger test than Wheaton was.

[D3soccerwatcher]

I've been watching Lycoming as they progress through their schedule.  And something jumped out at me...what seemed to be an inordinate number of of Yellow and Red cards.  So I compared them to a sampling of top 25 teams around the country and here's what I found (information thru 9/17):

Lycoming: 17Y + 1R = 18 total cards
Rowan:  10Y + 1R = 11 total cards
Amherst: 5Y + 0R = 5 total cards
Trinity:  4Y + 1R = 5 total cards
F&M:  5Y + 0R = 5 total cards
Elizabethtown:  4Y + 0R = 4 total cards
Kenyon:  8Y + 1R = 9 total cards
Lynchburg:  7Y + 1R = 8 total cards
Univ of Chicago:  7Y + 1R = 8 total cards

It looks like Lycoming is leading this category (by a lot).  There might be a place on the internet to compare these stats across all teams.  I thought I had found a site that did that last year, but I could not find it this year.  If you know where that site is, please let us know.

[PaulNewman]

Today's Action

On the edge of my seat waiting to see if the Pine Manor Gators (Chestnut Hill, MA) in their 3rd year of existence can knock off the defending national champion and #1 ranked Amherst Lord Jeffs.  Pine Manor?  Really, Amherst?  A browse around the Pine Manor website did reveal some interesting info.  If you click on men's soccer history you are taken to results for the 2015-2016 Pine Manor basketball season.  The Gator cagers smoked Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences 118-54, right after losing to Ivy League Dartmouth 121-56.  The Gators ended up on the wrong end of a 105-98 OT affair with Tufts and in the first round of the ECAC tourney nipped Elms 127-124 after two OT periods.  The soccer team is led by Head Coach John Shimer, an OWU graduate who was an asst to Jay Martin for the 2012 OWU season and then an asst at Endicott, credited with recruiting some of Endicott's current players.  Most surprising, especially given that Pine Manor only became co-ed for men a couple of years ago and has an enrollment of 450 or 350 depending on what web page you land on, is that the men's roster of 25 only has 2 players from Massachusetts, and 7 from El Paso, TX alone.  The rest of the roster includes players from FL, GA, NY, AZ, MI, NC, NJ and CT.  The Gators are 1-3 on the young season with a W over Becker and Ls to Newbury, ME-Framington and Suffolk.

Elsewhere, look for Univ Dallas to push Trinity (TX) in what might seem like an afterthought game for Trinity.  A date with Chicago gives Wartburg a chance to grab a head-turning win, but the Maroons don't look like a letdown is in their near future.  Christopher Newport closes out its West Coast trip versus Chapman.  Getting to Monday morning classes will be a challenge for the Captains.  Oneonta looks to continue reasserting its dominance with a visit to Hamilton.  Don't be shocked if the Continentals make this more of a game than most would expect.

In the South Atlantic, Sewanee and Birm-Southern finish up a Virginia road trip by reversing partners.  Sewanee (4-1-1) lost 1-0 to Hampden-Sydney yesterday and takes on Randolph (3-1-1).  Birm-Southern looks to rebound from a 2-0 loss to Randolph by giving Hampden-Sydney (5-0) a first blemish.  Hampden-Sydney is a bit like the Southern version of Wabash, one of the last remaining all-male colleges in the US.

The two most compelling games of the day might be Babson@Williams and Luther@Wash U.  Who knows which Babson squad will show up.  Luther at 4-0-2 could use a high quality win while Wash U still with only 3 games played (3-0) hopes to signal that the Bears are going to be a    factor in November.

More locally, curious to see how Wheaton (MA) handles Bridgewater State on the back-end of a weekend that started with a draw at Springfield.

[rudy]

Some interesting, some high profile, and some important maybe under-the-radar action around the country.

Amherst and Middlebury play to a draw...probably a result that neither team will mind that much.

Wheaton (MA) and Springfield play to a 2-2 tie in a key NEWMAC clash.  Speaking of which, what is up with Babson?!  After very fortunate circumstances yielded a PK 2OT win over rival Brandeis, the Beavers drew with Fitchburg St 0-0 and toady lost at home to Coast Guard.  Seems almost all of the NEWMAC teams have played themselves into a position where they will need to win the NEWMAC tourney to get a bid.

Rutgers-Camden is back in the mix!  Torched Rutgers-Newark today and I think now 4-0-2.  Kean stays viable with a win over Stockton.  Rowan hands Jersey City a first loss and now looks ahead to a showdown with F&M.

Oneonta St. comes from behind to hand the Vassar Brewers a first blemish.  Plattsburgh stays unblemished and keeps Skidmore down in the dumps.  Potsdam rebounds from a loss to Hobart with a good win over RPI.

Bowdoin gains a very valuable road NESCAC win against fellow perennial mid-table foe Wesleyan, 1-0.  Tufts gets back on track dominating Bates, but still has work to do.  Williams stays on course for the hoped for revival, getting by Colby at home.

Lycoming comes through with a big win over Scranton.

W&L comes from behind in a potential trap game to prevail over Virginia Wesleyan.  Lynchburg follows up a draw with Oglethorpe with an important win over Berry to stay unbeaten.

Dubuque remains unblemished after saddling MSOE with a loss.  Perhaps lost among so many games, Loras uncharacteristically drops 2 in a row falling to Carthage last night on a late goal.  Carthage's roller-coaster ride of a season continues.  Wheaton (Ill) also lost again last night to Wash U and now stands at a stunning 1-4-1.  Unlike a Calvin that might be able to count on a conference tourney bid, Wheaton is no cinch for that route given the threat posed by Carthage, Elmhurst and North Park.

Speaking of Elmhurst, they could not handle Chicago last night, as the Maroons spotted the Bluejays a goal and stormed back in a romp.  Chicago is handling their business in a very professional and impressive manner, befitting a true Final Four contender.

Concordia (Wis), after beating St. Norbert right after St. Norbert bested Loras, fell today to rival Wisconsin Lutheran.

Kenyon gets a solid road win at Thomas More, while Centre gives up a lead to DePauw and shows resiliency on the road by winning in OT.  This sets up a mid-week collision of unblemished teams, as the Colonels head to Gambier.  Grove City gets back to its winning ways outlasting Heidelberg 3-2 in OT and now can look forward to a huge game for them versus Carnegie Mellon.

Whitworth shrugged off jet lag and an early deficit to get a win against Willamette.

Haverford takes a big early season Centennial bout over Hopkins.

SLU's climb up the polls should continue after a huge win over Cortland St.  Now the Saints go on the road to face another still unblemished SUNYAC, Plattsburgh.

Out West, we should note that Trinity (TX) toppled Colorado Coll last night.  Redlands lost to Christopher Newport in one of the games of the week last night but rebounded today with a 5-0 shellacking of Whittier.

In late action, just saw that MIT barely got by Emerson 1-0 in OT.  ONU has gone up 1-0 late against CWRU.

Quite a thorough summary. Now I know where to come to see how games played out over the weekend! Great job

[PaulNewman]

Wash U is blowing out Luther, 4-0, after roughly 70 min.  UAA will be really interesting if Wash U is as good as that scoreline suggests.  The Bears already have a win over Wheaton, which is still a good win even with Wheaton struggling record-wise.

[PaulNewman]

Overlooked and [maybe] deserving some coverage

Best laid plans....did the prep work for this post only to have Keene St lose for the first time to Western CT and Hampden-Sydney lose at home to Birm-Southern.

Forging ahead...

Who expected Clark to be 6-0?  The most recent win over WPI should have the rest of the NEWMAC taking note.  As for Keene St, we'll see what happens against Middlebury on 9/21.  Coast Guard, two years after a NCAA appearance is sitting at 5-0-1 after beating Babson at Babson 2-0.  Springfield also is at 5-0-1 after a drew with visiting Wheaton (MA).  Also worthy of mention are Williams, now 4-0-1, MIT at 4-1, Bowdoin and Conn College at 3-1, and Endicott and Gordon at 4-1-1.  UMass-Boston now at 6-0 has received attention, and we'll see how media faves like Brandeis Tufts shake out over the next few weeks.

While Oneonta and Cortland have dominated the D3 news cycles, Plattsburgh St has gone about their business and is sitting at 7-0.  Next week brings a stern challenge with SLU and Potsdam on the docket.  I'll throw in that 5-0 New Rochelle is now 5-1 New Rochelle (and that might be beginning and end of New Rochelle coverage for the season).  Old but slightly forgotten fave Rochester is 5-0 and likely to be 8-0 leading up to Wash U at home and Chicago away.  Bard is a surprising 4-0-2 but the schedule, to be charitable, has been weak with the best win probably over a 1-5 Mount St. Mary outfit.  Union most notable result was a big loss to UMass-Boston, but the Dutchmen also with an otherwise weak schedule are 5-1.  Potsdam and Vassar are both 5-1-1 with Vassar suffering a tie to New Paltz and loss to Oneonta in the last two.  Fredonia St. is 4-1-1 with its best wins over Baldwin-Wallace and Geneva.

Under the radar in the Mid-Atlantic might be Lebanon Valley at 5-1 with several at least decent wins, and Johns Hopkins, at 4-1-2, and despite a 3-2 loss to powerhouse Haverford, may be relevant in the Centennial.

How about Ramapo, at 6-0 and coming off a huge win over true NJAC heavyweight Montclair St.  Ramapo might have been the one NJAC school that I couldn't have named.  Centre is 5-0 after knocking off Thomas More and DePauw back-to-back.  I was primed to hype Hampden Sydney, now 5-1, and I can't bring myself to hype the Emory and Henry Wasps, at 5-0, beyond just typing that.  Kean opened the season with a narrow 1-0 loss to Rochester and now has reeled off 7 in a row with 26 goals for and 3 against.  Rutgers-Camden, a usual media darling, this seems to have emerged from nowhere with a 4-0-2 start.  Then there is St. Mary's at 6-0-1, sporting a draw with RUC and wins over GAC and Catholic.  NJ City was a nice story but....Lynchburg has been discussed, but Mary Washington at 5-1 and Randolph surging to 4-1-1 could use a little love.  Birm-Southern seems like they've lost 3 times but are 5-1 after today's win.  Eastern Mennonite, you are 5-1-2...enjoy while it lasts.

Despite a high ranking, Carnegie Mellon barely has had a mention.  The Tartans are a clean 5-0 with a test this week on the road at Grove City, which at 6-1, already has received quite a bit of attention.  Capital at 5-1, Oberlin at 5-1, and Transy at 4-0-2 have been largely overlooked.  We'll have to see who re-emerges among Thomas More, DePauw, John Carroll, CWRU, Wabash, Hanover and Rose-Hulman.

In the Central, the Millikin Big Blue are 5-0.  Wash U will push into the national conversation at 4-0.  Stretching to highlight anyone else , but we've got the Alma Scots at 5-1-1 and Concordia (Wis) at 5-1.  Carthage (5-2), which has received a ton of attention, and Elmhurst at 3-1-2 are sleepers in the region.

Aside from Loras, the frozen tundra North region as a whole seems to be under-the-radar as a matter of course.  The poor sister team from Dubuque, which is Dubuque, stands at 6-0 with an impressive 21 goals for and only 1 against.  Macalester is 6-0-1.  St. Thomas stands at 5-0-2.  The Hamline Pipers are 6-1, with 6 straight wins since an opening day setback to Luther.  UW-Platteville is a sneaky 6-1, as is likely not to be mentioned again North Central (Minn).  Carleton is hanging around at 3-1-2.  The next month should tell us who among UWW, Luther, Wartburg, St. John's and St. Olaf deserve more press.

The West seems to have slim pickings.  There are the La Verne Leopards at 5-0-1 but they are staring down the barrel of a tilt with Redlands.  Concordia (TX) is 6-1, but the schedule has involved little heavy lifting.  Same with University of the Ozarks at 4-1-2.  Trinity (TX), Colorado College and Whitworth, and this year Redlands, seem to dominate whatever coverage the West does get but I still would recommend keeping an eye on Texas-Dallas.  The Comets are only 2-3-1 but the schedule has been legit and the Tex-Dallas gave Chicago its toughest game, succumbing in the season opener for both on a PK in OT.

[PaulNewman]

Chicago eases out of a close game with Wartburg to win comfortably, 3-0.

Meanwhile, a major upset out West as Christopher Newport fails the back end of the cross-country trip, losing 5-3 to Chapman.  A long flight back to Newport News.

[jknezek]

Lot of ODAC schools sitting with pretty records on the backs of less than sterling competition. Va Wes, Roanoke, and Shenandoah are the only teams under .500. Va Wes and Roanoke have at least played some teams. E&H and EMU not so much.

[PaulNewman]

NCAC NE Top 15 (Week 3)

1) Chicago (Tie)
1) Rowan (Tie)
3) Kenyon
4) Amherst
5) St Lawrence
6) Trinity (TX)
7) Middlebury
8) Franklin & Marshall
9) Washington University
10) Calvin
11) Washington & Lee
12) UMass-Boston
13) Christopher Newport
14) Ohio Northern
15) Centre

16 thru 25 (alphabetical)

Bowdoin, Carnegie Mellon, Dubuque, Kean, Macalester, Messiah, Oneonta St, OWU, Plattsburgh St, Redlands/Rochester (Tie)

RV (random order) -- Cortland St, Haverford, Williams, Rutgers-Camden, Ramapo, Gordon, Elizabethtown, Brandeis, Montclair St, Potsdam St, Loras, Scranton, Gettysburg, Salisbury, Vassar, Colorado College, Carthage, Scranton, Oberlin, Endicott, Lycoming, Eastern, Grove City, Johns Hopkins, Lynchburg, Randolph

[blooter442]

Lot of ODAC schools sitting with pretty records on the backs of less than sterling competition. Va Wes, Roanoke, and Shenandoah are the only teams under .500. Va Wes and Roanoke have at least played some teams. E&H and EMU not so much.

I think that there are a number of unbeaten (and united) schools right now, certainly more than I've ever seen at this point in the season. As the season progresses, however, I think that number will start to fall drastically.

[PaulNewman]

Lot of ODAC schools sitting with pretty records on the backs of less than sterling competition. Va Wes, Roanoke, and Shenandoah are the only teams under .500. Va Wes and Roanoke have at least played some teams. E&H and EMU not so much.

I think that there are a number of unbeaten (and united) schools right now, certainly more than I've ever seen at this point in the season. As the season progresses, however, I think that number will start to fall drastically.

It's down to 16 (unbeaten/untied).

[Shooter McGavin]

I've been watching Lycoming as they progress through their schedule.  And something jumped out at me...what seemed to be an inordinate number of of Yellow and Red cards.  So I compared them to a sampling of top 25 teams around the country and here's what I found (information thru 9/17):

Lycoming: 17Y + 1R = 18 total cards
Rowan:  10Y + 1R = 11 total cards
Amherst: 5Y + 0R = 5 total cards
Trinity:  4Y + 1R = 5 total cards
F&M:  5Y + 0R = 5 total cards
Elizabethtown:  4Y + 0R = 4 total cards
Kenyon:  8Y + 1R = 9 total cards
Lynchburg:  7Y + 1R = 8 total cards
Univ of Chicago:  7Y + 1R = 8 total cards

It looks like Lycoming is leading this category (by a lot).  There might be a place on the internet to compare these stats across all teams.  I thought I had found a site that did that last year, but I could not find it this year.  If you know where that site is, please let us know.

http://stats.ncaa.org/rankings/conference_trends

This website breaks it down by conference...from there you would have to check each team's website to confirm team cards. For example if you check out teams from the Allegheny Mountain CC you will find that the conference is 2nd in the country in terms of cards as a whole behind the Skyline. If you select a few randoms you can easily find teams with multiple card accumulations similar to Lycoming's total count and other schools mentioned in your post. For example, Medaille has 19 yellow cards and 3 red cards but no one seems to mention them because they aren't top 25? I guess I am just confused why you are focusing on top 25 teams and specifically Lycoming? Is there an end analysis or just something you decided to post about? I am sure if you research the Skyline teams you will find similar results.

We discussed last season on this thread about styles of teams and physicality etc. Amherst was among the nation's leaders in cards last season and won the national title. I don't necessarily think it's a bad thing to be a physical team as long as it's not dirty play. Another example is Messiah and with the way they play they typically tend to not pick up any cards. The year they won their last national title, 2013, they had 9 yellow cards and 0 red cards. So I guess I am still just curious on where you are going with your post as you continue to monitor those teams card accumulations...   

[PaulNewman]

The Weekday Spotlight

Today/Tonight

Thin slate but Trinity (CT) @ Endicott might be of some interest, more from the Endicott side of things as a win over any NESCAC adds credibility and confidence, while a loss to a bottom-end NESCAC would be a setback at this juncture.  Another loss for Trinity might have the Bantams dusting off the golf clubs.

Also mildly curious to see that Redlands doesn't slip against Occidental...speaking of which, we really could use, to borrow political season jargon, a surrogate for regions and/or conferences largely uncovered. 

I'm going to assume Wheaton (Ill) won't have trouble with Aurora, but who knows.

Tuesday

SLU @ Plattsburgh would appear to be the headliner, but there are some other good ones as well.  This looks like derby day in various forms -- the New London, CT battle with Coast Guard traveling across the street to Conn Coll, Rochester versus St. John Fisher in another Rochester, NY affair, Bates @Bowdoin, Case Western @John Carroll, York (PA) visiting Messiah, and NC Wesleyan traveling to VA Wesleyan. 

Other sleeper match-ups are Gordon @ECSU, Salisbury @Eastern, Frostburg @Lycoming and Concordia (Wis) @Elmhurst.

Wednesday

A typical full-slate Wednesday.  Two key headliners have to be Rowan @F&M (strong case for game of the week) and Centre @Kenyon.

Also will be keeping an eye on Christopher Newport @Lynchburg, Macalester @Luther, Dubuque @North Park, RPI @Williams, DePauw @Rose-Hulman, St. Mary's @Swat and Carthage @UWW.  I doubt Calvin will lose again in the regular season but Kzoo @Calvin might be worth a glance.

Thursday

Transy @Thomas More

Friday

Cortland at Oneonta (another contender for game of the week) and Carnegie Mellon @Grove City.

Update:  And of course Wheaton (Ill) already down 1-0 in 1st half.

[PaulNewman]

Wheaton 2, Aurora 2 Final

Wheaton now 1-4-2.  Admittedly they have played a very competitive schedule, but I would think they now are in a position where they have to win the CCIW tournament.  Are they still missing 5-6 starters to injury?

[Go2Goal]

I think Rowan and Chicago have been the best teams in the country early this year. I'm an east coast guy so I haven't seen Chicago live but I hear they are the real deal. Rowan has had probably the toughest schedule so far and remains undefeated. If they take out F&M on the road tomorrow I don't  see how they can not be number 1!
I have to say that the NSCAA rankings make little sense. Teams with multiple blemishes on their record ranked ahead of teams that are perfect. Can't wait to see how D3 ranks tomorrow!
Should be:
Rowan
Kenyon
Chicago
Trinity
St. Lawrence
Amherst
F&M
Ohio Northern
Carnegie Mellon
Centre