Wild, Wild West

[Ommadawn]

In response to PaulNewman's lament about the lack of discussion regarding leagues and teams in the Western portion of the country, I decided to start this thread in the spirit of "if you build it, they will come."  I don't know much about D3 men's soccer in that neck of the woods, but look forward to the opportunity to learn more about it in the weeks ahead. 

Two teams caught my eye opening weekend--Colorado College (CC) and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS).  CC hosted two midwestern teams (Albion and Luther) and emerged with a pair of 3-goal victories (4-1 and 3-0, respectively) in the rarefied air of Colorado Springs. CMS "went down to Georgia" and challenged themselves in a set of matches with strong opponents Oglethorpe and Emory.  The Stags earned a split, falling to Oglethorpe 2-1 before rebounding with a 1-0 triumph over Emory.  It appears that Coach Edwards has the team ready to build on last year's successes.

[Domino1195]

CC here in Ohio this weekend to take on OWU and Kenyon. Fall weather taking over already - highs in the 70's, lows in the 50's - no rain forecast for the weekend. Great line-up for this tourney.

[PaulNewman]

Thanks, Ommadawn.

Any insights into Whitworth being down the past couple of years?  Any prognostication for Redlands?

[Ommadawn]

Following up on the initial posts in the thread, CMS challenged themselves with another difficult travel weekend, venturing deep into the heart of Texas to face Trinity and UT Dallas in a set of back-to-back games. The "road warrior" Stags handled Trinity 3-1 before falling 1-0 to UT Dallas.  With a match against St. Thomas coming up on Friday, CMS is sure to battle-tested before they begin conference play. 

As noted on the Great Lakes thread, CC descended from their mile high perch to take on Kenyon and Ohio Wesleyan.  I watched most of the Kenyon game and it appeared that the Lords were fortunate to walk away with a 2-1 victory. The next day, the Battling Bishops defeated the Tigers decisively, claiming a 4-1 triumph.  A character-building weekend for CC for sure!

Another out-of-region trip caught my eye, with Pacific Lutheran University spending the weekend in St. Louis, where the Lutes dropped a 2-0 decision to WUSTL on Friday before rebounding with an 8-0 drubbing of Fontbonne on Sunday.

[Ejay]

CNU comes to town this weekend to play Trinity and Hardin-Simmons. Great test for all involved.

[Ron Boerger]

CNU comes to town this weekend to play Trinity and Hardin-Simmons. Great test for all involved.

Only if Trinity figures our what's going on in goal.  Their starting keeper has saved less than half the shots faced this year (.429 vs last year's .833), leading to two 1-3 losses against CMS and Hardin-Simmons.  That's the first time since *1995* Trinity has allowed three or more goals in consecutive games, and the current three-game winless skid also the first since that year.    Their other options in goal are a soph who saw no action last season (two second halves this season against Hardin-Simmons and Willamette are the sum of his college experience) and a first-year from the UK.   Will be interesting to see if McGinlay makes a change in goal on Friday. 

[Ommadawn]

Courtesy of Christian Shirk in the spirit of "If we build it, they will come"

WEST REGION - NCAA REGIONAL RANKINGS - October 23, 2019

Rank	School	. Div. III . Record	. Div. III . SOS	. R-v-R .	. Overall . Record	. Prev. . Rank
1.	Trinity (Texas)	8-2-2	0.618	--	8-3-2	--
2.	Claremont-Mudd-Scripps	10-3-1	0.561	--	10-3-1	--
3.	Colorado College	7-5-0	0.586	--	10-5-0	--
4.	Whitman	8-4-0	0.529	--	10-5-0	--
5.	UC Santa Cruz	3-2-2	0.566	--	6-6-2	--
6.	Hardin-Simmons	11-2-0	0.485	--	13-2-0	--

[Ron Boerger]

Trinity catches a break because their third loss was against a St. Thomas (TX) team in the process of reclassifying to D3.  I wouldn't put them over CMS, especially with the H2H result. 

[Christan Shirk]

WEST REGION - NCAA REGIONAL RANKINGS - October 30, 2019

Rank	School	. Div. III . Record	. Div. III . SOS	. R-v-R .	. Overall . Record	. Prev. . Rank
1.	Claremont-Mudd-Scripps	10-3-2	0.559	2-1-0	10-3-2	2
2.	Colorado College	9-5-0	0.576	2-2-0	12-5-0	3
3.	Trinity (Texas)	8-3-2	0.614	0-3-1	9-4-2	1
4.	Whitman	10-4-0	0.543	1-1-0	12-5-0	4
5.	Hardin-Simmons	11-2-1	0.491	2-0-0	13-2-1	6
6.	Redlands	7-3-3	0.517	1-0-3	7-4-3	--

[Ommadawn]

I'm still hopeful that some fans of western D3 men's soccer will hop on board this thread.  Little did I know in the initial post that Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and Colorado College would end up atop the regional rankings when all was said and done.  If only I'd put some money down in the high stakes office pool back in August