2023 D3 Men's Soccer National Perspective

[PaulNewman]

On my radar from yesterday's action....

UMass-Boston got the best of Western Connecticut (again).

Emory came from behind to nip Carnegie Mellon.

Brandeis held Chicago to a draw (and the SC early assessment of Chicago is rapidly gaining traction).

I saw North Park was up 2-0 20 minutes in and was shocked to Mr. Sager's "spit the bit" post with the Vikings managing to lose to Illinois Wesleyan 3-2.

Brockport draws with Cortland and New Paltz is held to a draw with Oswego.  Plattsburgh seems to have fallen off so a possible third SUNYAC bid could come down to Brockport and New Paltz.

The return of the draw in general...in addition to the above already noted, CWRU and Rochester drew, and also Bowdoin, W&L, etc.

John Carroll earned a 2-0 lead over ONU and held on for a 2-1 away win.

Wesleyan got a huge win on the road at Williams.

Virginia Wesleyan stays in the hunt with a massive 1-0 victory over Lynchburg on the back of a glorious wonder strike.

Loras beats Wartburg (handing Wartburg its first loss) on Tuesday 2-0 and then loses last night to Simpson 5-2?  In the Rock Bowl, no less?

And similarly, Vassar gets a major mid-week win over SLU only to lose to Clarkson yesterday?

[SierraFD3soccer]

If you want to catch Amherst v Montclair. 2nd half just started. Amherst up 2-0.   https://www.youtube.com/live/U-qQnNq4bDs?feature=shared

[stlawus]

Montclair coach was going after Serpone at halftime.  Looked like he was upset with some specific fouls.

[Kuiper]

I'll put my West Region X comments on the Go WEST thread specifically, but let me put one on the National Perspectives thread in an attempt to speak into existence the "Duncan Gillis for DIII Men's Soccer Coach of the Year" campaign (and I have no connection to Cal Tech as a coach, parent or player and I've only seen Coach Gillis but never spoken to him).

Cal Tech 4 - Whittier 1

Cal Tech led from start to finish in an easy victory, but it's important to put that "easy" descriptor in context.  It's been a long time, if ever, that Cal Tech could describe any victory as easy.

With this win, Cal Tech is now 6-4-3 overall and 3-4-2 in the SCIAC.  Since 2006 (as far back as online records go), Cal Tech had never won more than 4 games overall (which happened only once in 2018 and they only won one SCIAC game that year) or 2 games in the SCIAC (which happened only once in 2022) until this year.  It has won zero games overall in 5 years (2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016).  It has won only one game  overall in 6 years (2017, 2011, 2010, 2008, 2007, 2006).  In many years, when it has had 1-2 wins, at least one of them has been against a really small poorly resourced NAIA school that could hardly field a team. 

Before Coach Gillis took over in June of 2021, Cal Tech had never finished higher than last in the SCIAC (not counting when Chapman was a provisional member and its games didn't count in the standings).  In 2019, the last official season under the old coach, Cal Tech finished 2-12-2 overall and 1-9-2 in the SCIAC.  The prior head coach at Cal Tech went 7-75-2 in five years.  Compare that to Coach Gillis' three years at Cal Tech:

2021: 1-12-1 (1-10-1 in the SCIAC) to finish 8th out of 9 in the SCIAC, its highest finish ever
2022:  3-8-2 (2-6-2 in the SCIAC) to finish 7th out of 9 in the SCIAC, its highest finish ever, although helped by CMS' suspension
2023 (thus far):  6-4-3 (3-4-2 in the SCIAC). It currently sits in 6th place in the SCIAC, which would be it's highest finish ever for the third year in a row.  They certainly have a chance to remain there or end up higher since two of their last three games are against teams they have already beat (Pomona-Pitzer) or tied (Chapman)

More impressively, Gillis rallied the team after a demoralizing 8-0 loss to Occidental to two straight wins against Pomona-Pitzer and La Verne and a tie against Whittier.  Then, after three losses in a row against some of the top teams in the SCIAC (Cal Lu, Redlands, and CMS), Cal Tech has now won two in a row.  This is a resilient team and a well-conditioned one that often has to play with very few subs because the healthy quality is pretty thin.  At Cal Tech, I think they have a lot of true walk-ons on the bench - like post a flyer and see which kids have kicked a ball before walk-ons.  They played a ton of subs today in the 4-1 victory over Whittier, but only played two subs in the tie with Chapman, one of whom only got 8 minutes.

I daresay you could have your pick of top coaches and put them in the Cal Tech job and many of them would probably struggle mightily.  You can't just recruit your way to improvement at a place like Cal Tech that only has 267 kids in the freshman class and 982 undergrads in the school, with a 2.7% acceptance rate.

[stlawus]

Ugly scenes to end the MSU-Amherst game.   Watched the minute or so after the final whistle on replay a few times, just bad scenes all around. 

[SimpleCoach]

I'll put my West Region X comments on the Go WEST thread specifically, but let me put one on the National Perspectives thread in an attempt to speak into existence the "Duncan Gillis for DIII Men's Soccer Coach of the Year" campaign (and I have no connection to Cal Tech as a coach, parent or player and I've only seen Coach Gillis but never spoken to him).

Cal Tech 4 - Whittier 1

Cal Tech led from start to finish in an easy victory, but it's important to put that "easy" descriptor in context.  It's been a long time, if ever, that Cal Tech could describe any victory as easy.

With this win, Cal Tech is now 6-4-3 overall and 3-4-2 in the SCIAC.  Since 2006 (as far back as online records go), Cal Tech had never won more than 4 games overall (which happened only once in 2018 and they only won one SCIAC game that year) or 2 games in the SCIAC (which happened only once in 2022) until this year.  It has won zero games overall in 5 years (2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016).  It has won only one game  overall in 6 years (2017, 2011, 2010, 2008, 2007, 2006).  In many years, when it has had 1-2 wins, at least one of them has been against a really small poorly resourced NAIA school that could hardly field a team. 

Before Coach Gillis took over in June of 2021, Cal Tech had never finished higher than last in the SCIAC (not counting when Chapman was a provisional member and its games didn't count in the standings).  In 2019, the last official season under the old coach, Cal Tech finished 2-12-2 overall and 1-9-2 in the SCIAC.  The prior head coach at Cal Tech went 7-75-2 in five years.  Compare that to Coach Gillis' three years at Cal Tech:

2021: 1-12-1 (1-10-1 in the SCIAC) to finish 8th out of 9 in the SCIAC, its highest finish ever
2022:  3-8-2 (2-6-2 in the SCIAC) to finish 7th out of 9 in the SCIAC, its highest finish ever, although helped by CMS' suspension
2023 (thus far):  6-4-3 (3-4-2 in the SCIAC). It currently sits in 6th place in the SCIAC, which would be it's highest finish ever for the third year in a row.  They certainly have a chance to remain there or end up higher since two of their last three games are against teams they have already beat (Pomona-Pitzer) or tied (Chapman)

More impressively, Gillis rallied the team after a demoralizing 8-0 loss to Occidental to two straight wins against Pomona-Pitzer and La Verne and a tie against Whittier.  Then, after three losses in a row against some of the top teams in the SCIAC (Cal Lu, Redlands, and CMS), Cal Tech has now won two in a row.  This is a resilient team and a well-conditioned one that often has to play with very few subs because the healthy quality is pretty thin.  At Cal Tech, I think they have a lot of true walk-ons on the bench - like post a flyer and see which kids have kicked a ball before walk-ons.  They played a ton of subs today in the 4-1 victory over Whittier, but only played two subs in the tie with Chapman, one of whom only got 8 minutes.

I daresay you could have your pick of top coaches and put them in the Cal Tech job and many of them would probably struggle mightily.  You can't just recruit your way to improvement at a place like Cal Tech that only has 267 kids in the freshman class and 982 undergrads in the school, with a 2.7% acceptance rate.

I've said it before.  He is my DIII Coach of the Year.  Nothing short of remarkable.

SC.

[SierraFD3soccer]

Montclair coach was going after Serpone at halftime.  Looked like he was upset with some specific fouls.

Could not see that. Screen to small. Will check out when home. Game done 2-1. MCU got a PK. 2-1. MCU definitely fought for the equalizer and it got very heated between each other at the end and after the whistle almost a big bruh haha. Fortunately, an Amherst separated his player away from the scrum. Not TLU level though.

[SierraFD3soccer]

Ugly scenes to end the MSU-Amherst game.   Watched the minute or so after the final whistle on replay a few times, just bad scenes all around.

Wonder if they have a home home deal?? First time meeting so may be the case.  Guessing both will rethink.

[Gregory Sager]

I'll put my West Region X comments on the Go WEST thread specifically, but let me put one on the National Perspectives thread in an attempt to speak into existence the "Duncan Gillis for DIII Men's Soccer Coach of the Year" campaign (and I have no connection to Cal Tech as a coach, parent or player and I've only seen Coach Gillis but never spoken to him).

Cal Tech 4 - Whittier 1

Cal Tech led from start to finish in an easy victory, but it's important to put that "easy" descriptor in context.  It's been a long time, if ever, that Cal Tech could describe any victory as easy.

With this win, Cal Tech is now 6-4-3 overall and 3-4-2 in the SCIAC.  Since 2006 (as far back as online records go), Cal Tech had never won more than 4 games overall (which happened only once in 2018 and they only won one SCIAC game that year) or 2 games in the SCIAC (which happened only once in 2022) until this year.

Caltech before 2006:

2005:	0-17-1	0-14 SCIAC
2004:	2-16	1-13 SCIAC
2003:	1-19	1-13 SCIAC
2002:	0-20	0-14 SCIAC
2001:	0-18	0-14 SCIAC
2000:	2-18	1-13 SCIAC
1999:	2-16-1	2-12 SCIAC
1998:	2-13	n/a SCIAC
1997:	1-18	n/a SCIAC

That's as far back as the NCAA goes. I don't know when Caltech started its men's soccer program.

The scores of most of Caltech's games over the years I've listed above were pretty horrific. Shutout losses in which the opponent scored double-digit goals were not uncommon.

I've said it before.  He is my DIII Coach of the Year.  Nothing short of remarkable.

SC.

I'll go so far as to say that it isn't even up for debate. In fact, if you want to give Duncan Gillis the D3 Coach of the Decade Award already, you can just hand it to him right now without feeling qualms that perhaps your assessment is premature.

Duncan Gillis has proved that Sisyphus can actually manage to push the boulder all the way up the hill.

[WUPHF]

Brandeis held Chicago to a draw (and the SC early assessment of Chicago is rapidly gaining traction).

I have only seen Brandeis play twice, but I am inclined to think this result says slightly more about 3-5-5 Brandeis than it does Chicago. 

The Judges suddenly look way better than the record, but most of my early season records have held true so.  Only my Rochester predictions if the standings remain relatively stable through the end of the season.

Also, Rochester and Case Western Reserve played to a draw yesterday which is big.

Here are the UAA standings with four league games left to play.

Emory  9  3-0
New York 6  2-1
Brandeis  5  1-0-2
Case Western  4  1-1-2
Chicago  4  1-1-2
Rochester   2  0-1-2
Carnegie Mellon  2  0-1-2
Washington  0  0-3

[SierraFD3soccer]

That looks like it could be flip with 4 league games to go. Do they have a tournament with teams so spread out??

When you said 3-5-5, I was thinking what sort of crazy formation is that till I did the math. Hahaha.  leave the math for others.

[WUPHF]

LOL! No tournament in UAA soccer, but I would not be surprised if they add one sooner or later.  UAA volleyball has a tournament.

This is a big weekend coming up with each team playing two league games.

Emory and Rochester host Brandeis and NYU
Case and Carnegie host Chicago and Washington University

[SierraFD3soccer]

That'll be some great soccer!!

[SierraFD3soccer]

Ugly scenes to end the MSU-Amherst game.   Watched the minute or so after the final whistle on replay a few times, just bad scenes all around.

One thing I failed to mention, the MSU young announcers were pretty incredible. Probably the best I've heard this year for people who may most likely not be professionals. Seemed to have pretty good grasp of the game and only once used the term "penalty" for a foul not in the box. Just my observation especially when comparing to games like Tufts v. Williams. They were of course rooting for MSU, but definitely gave Amherst it due during the game.

[d4_Pace]

Ugly scenes to end the MSU-Amherst game.   Watched the minute or so after the final whistle on replay a few times, just bad scenes all around.

This has to be the least surprising outcome in D3 soccer all year. Amherst-Montclair ugly scenes was -10,000 before kick off