2024 Schedules

[Kuiper]

St. Joseph's (CT)

They finished 13-2-3 last year, but lost in the conference tournament and didn't get to the NCAA's because of Strength of Schedule.  They are kind of the poster child for the new NCAA selection system because they only have a couple of non-conference game slots given the its 14 conference games.  They do add Wheaton this year, but instead of SUNY Poly, which was an NCAA tournament team last year and they add John Jay.  Probably still need to win the GNAC to qualify.



 

[mngopher]

St. Joseph's (CT)

They finished 13-2-3 last year, but lost in the conference tournament and didn't get to the NCAA's because of Strength of Schedule.  They are kind of the poster child for the new NCAA selection system because they only have a couple of non-conference game slots given the its 14 conference games.  They do add Wheaton this year, but instead of SUNY Poly, which was an NCAA tournament team last year and they add John Jay.  Probably still need to win the GNAC to qualify.



 

Last year their win % ranked tied for 2nd in their region of 49 teams. Their SOS wasn't fantastic, but well above average at .535 which ranked 13th in their region. They were not regionally ranked. 2 teams in their region that were in the regional rankings - one had #19 win % plus #3 SOS and another #14 win % plus #10 SOS. St Joseph's also had a similar to better record vs ranked than both. 1-1-2 vs 1-5-1 and 1-3-3.

And as you mentioned, with 14 conference games it is not easy for a team like St Joseph's to do much about SOS.

These are the types of examples (along with Mount Union) that make the argument for something new to be used with the ranking committees. SOS appears to be more important than results, which just doesn't seem right.

[Kuiper]

Buena Vista

In the last three seasons, Buena Vista has won 2 games, 0 games, and 1 game.  I'm not sure where a win comes from in 2024 among new teams to its schedule.  One candidate is Monmouth College, which it plays at home in the second game of the season and was 3-11-2 last year, but Monmouth beat NCAA tournament qualifier Lake Forest last year in conference play.  Spurgeon College, an NCCAA team, is another candidate.  It had a decent 4-7-1 record last year, but it lose to Coe College 8-1 and Buena Vista only lost to Coe 3-0.

Washington & Lee

I wonder if this was Singleton's parting gift to the team.  Open by hosting Johns Hopkins and Catholic, then travel to Tennessee to play Sewanee and Georgia to play Covenant the following weekend and the weekend after that play Oglethorpe in Atlanta.  Also plays at Christopher Newport in the middle of the week in the middle of its conference schedule.  All teams with winning records.

[jknezek]

Buena Vista

In the last three seasons, Buena Vista has won 2 games, 0 games, and 1 game.  I'm not sure where a win comes from in 2024 among new teams to its schedule.  One candidate is Monmouth College, which it plays at home in the second game of the season and was 3-11-2 last year, but Monmouth beat NCAA tournament qualifier Lake Forest last year in conference play.  Spurgeon College, an NCCAA team, is another candidate.  It had a decent 4-7-1 record last year, but it lose to Coe College 8-1 and Buena Vista only lost to Coe 3-0.

Washington & Lee

I wonder if this was Singleton's parting gift to the team.  Open by hosting Johns Hopkins and Catholic, then travel to Tennessee to play Sewanee and Georgia to play Covenant the following weekend and the weekend after that play Oglethorpe in Atlanta.  Also plays at Christopher Newport in the middle of the week in the middle of its conference schedule.  All teams with winning records.

That's not far off a typical schedule for W&L lately. Usually Emory is part of the southern swing, but Oglethorpe is in Charlotte, not Atlanta. So one long road trip for Sewanee and Covenant, who are relatively close together, Charlotte is a manageable trip. CNU is a frequent opponent, JHU and Catholic are home.

The schedule has been hard since
Singleton came in. It has paid off. Hopefully W&L can stay on the track he put them on. With the change in Pool C selections, I suspect one or two of these hard games will be subbed out going forward, but it still pays to challenge yourself.

[Kuiper]

Buena Vista

In the last three seasons, Buena Vista has won 2 games, 0 games, and 1 game.  I'm not sure where a win comes from in 2024 among new teams to its schedule.  One candidate is Monmouth College, which it plays at home in the second game of the season and was 3-11-2 last year, but Monmouth beat NCAA tournament qualifier Lake Forest last year in conference play.  Spurgeon College, an NCCAA team, is another candidate.  It had a decent 4-7-1 record last year, but it lose to Coe College 8-1 and Buena Vista only lost to Coe 3-0.

Washington & Lee

I wonder if this was Singleton's parting gift to the team.  Open by hosting Johns Hopkins and Catholic, then travel to Tennessee to play Sewanee and Georgia to play Covenant the following weekend and the weekend after that play Oglethorpe in Atlanta.  Also plays at Christopher Newport in the middle of the week in the middle of its conference schedule.  All teams with winning records.

That's not far off a typical schedule for W&L lately. Usually Emory is part of the southern swing, but Oglethorpe is in Charlotte, not Atlanta. So one long road trip for Sewanee and Covenant, who are relatively close together, Charlotte is a manageable trip. CNU is a frequent opponent, JHU and Catholic are home.

The schedule has been hard since
Singleton came in. It has paid off. Hopefully W&L can stay on the track he put them on. With the change in Pool C selections, I suspect one or two of these hard games will be subbed out going forward, but it still pays to challenge yourself.

Thanks for correcting the Ogelthorpe game location.  A little better, but still not a home game against a team that gave them fits last year in an early season matchup in Atlanta.

It's really the opener against Johns Hopkins that stands out, especially with a new coach (particularly if they go with someone different than Freeman and there's an adjustment).

[Hopkins92]

W&L has been playing Hop since my days, off and on. For whatever reason, it's just a thing.

[BlueJay95]

Muhlenberg

[jknezek]

W&L has been playing Hop since my days, off and on. For whatever reason, it's just a thing.

Not as often as you'd think given proximity. Only 10 game, with the first being 1973, then six more between 88 and 92. The last 3 were 2007, '18, and '19, with '18 being the Tournament game at Messiah and 1990 played in Pittsburgh. JHU has had the better of W&L, going 6-3-1, though of the 10 games, 6 were played at Hopkins, 2 at neutral sites. So it's been rare for JHU to come to Lexington, only '88 and '91.

[Hopkins92]

W&L has been playing Hop since my days, off and on. For whatever reason, it's just a thing.

Not as often as you'd think given proximity. Only 10 game, with the first being 1973, then six more between 88 and 92. The last 3 were 2007, '18, and '19, with '18 being the Tournament game at Messiah and 1990 played in Pittsburgh. JHU has had the better of W&L, going 6-3-1, though of the 10 games, 6 were played at Hopkins, 2 at neutral sites. So it's been rare for JHU to come to Lexington, only '88 and '91.

Guess the fact that I played in 2 of those clouded my perspective. The field back in 88 was one of the nicest I had ever seen.

[jknezek]

W&L has been playing Hop since my days, off and on. For whatever reason, it's just a thing.

Not as often as you'd think given proximity. Only 10 game, with the first being 1973, then six more between 88 and 92. The last 3 were 2007, '18, and '19, with '18 being the Tournament game at Messiah and 1990 played in Pittsburgh. JHU has had the better of W&L, going 6-3-1, though of the 10 games, 6 were played at Hopkins, 2 at neutral sites. So it's been rare for JHU to come to Lexington, only '88 and '91.

Guess the fact that I played in 2 of those clouded my perspective. The field back in 88 was one of the nicest I had ever seen.

Yeah. I was surprised it wasn't more. W&L's website makes it real easy to look up. But outside of conference teams, W&L has really spread around out of conference games. There are some "old school" D1 matchups from the 40s/50s/60s with UVA, UNC, Maryland, Duke, etc. that were played 20-40x, but in terms of D3, you get Southern Virginia, Catholic and UMW around 15x, Hopkins and Gettysburg 10x, and a whole lot of teams in that 0-5x range.

[Hopkins92]

W&L has been playing Hop since my days, off and on. For whatever reason, it's just a thing.

Not as often as you'd think given proximity. Only 10 game, with the first being 1973, then six more between 88 and 92. The last 3 were 2007, '18, and '19, with '18 being the Tournament game at Messiah and 1990 played in Pittsburgh. JHU has had the better of W&L, going 6-3-1, though of the 10 games, 6 were played at Hopkins, 2 at neutral sites. So it's been rare for JHU to come to Lexington, only '88 and '91.

Guess the fact that I played in 2 of those clouded my perspective. The field back in 88 was one of the nicest I had ever seen.

Yeah. I was surprised it wasn't more. W&L's website makes it real easy to look up. But outside of conference teams, W&L has really spread around out of conference games. There are some "old school" D1 matchups from the 40s/50s/60s with UVA, UNC, Maryland, Duke, etc. that were played 20-40x, but in terms of D3, you get Southern Virginia, Catholic and UMW around 15x, Hopkins and Gettysburg 10x, and a whole lot of teams in that 0-5x range.

Yeah, Hopkins has a "Record Book" that lays out just about any stat or other bit of history you could think of: https://indd.adobe.com/view/247eb226-77ec-4525-a731-f6603128a193

We also had some funky matchups, like Delaware and Maryland around the same timeframe you mention.

[Kuiper]

Beloit

They have Westminster (PA) on the schedule to play at Beloit on 9/22, but Westminster (PA) does not list Beloit on its schedule.  Assuming they have the wrong Westminster on the schedule, I checked the one in Missouri.

Westminster College (MO)

It is indeed Westminster (MO) that is traveling to Beloit on 9/22.  I'll blame AI for the error (or an overworked SID intern).  That makes a lot more sense anyway. 

[Kuiper]

Luther

Luther's non-conference schedule has to be in the top 10 for degree of difficulty.  First, they take a big trip out to Southern California the first weekend of the season to play at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and Redlands.  Typically, when schools make this trip, they try to schedule one upper half and one lower half SCIAC team, but they are taking on teams that finished 2nd and 3rd in league last year and are historically at the top of the table.  Plus, when they get back to the Midwest, they take on a decent  Augsburg team in Minneapolis and then host Macalester, Wisconsin-Platteville, and North Park.  They get a break hosting Franklin and then they host Wisconsin-Eau Claire and St. Olaf and then at Gustavus Adolphus.  Holy Cow! Most of these are the second game of a two -year deal, but they only made it harder by adding CMS, Redlands, and North Park. Should be a big test for Luther and a chance to see if they will be likely to rebound from an uncharacteristically weak 2023 season for them, when they finished below .500 for the first time since 2010.

Hanover 

Tough trip east to Ohio to play at Otterbein and Capital.

Grove City

Denison and Carnegie Mellon highlight the non-conference schedule

[Kuiper]

Mississippi University for Women (which still apparently hasn't found a better name)

They travel to Shreveport in mid-September to play Centenary and Austin, which is interesting since both of those teams are in the SCAC and usually these weekend round robins involve the non-hosting teams playing each other on the off day for the host.  Maybe they aren't, but if they are filling their non-conference schedule by playing a conference opponent, that would be a couple less non-conference opponents for the remaining ASC teams to schedule.

Dubuque

Hosting North Park in the last weekend before conference play

Alma

Playing Wabash and Monmouth (IL) in the Robbie Dreher Classic the second weekend of the season

Rhodes

Opening at Wash U is an interesting matchup, plus traveling to Virginia to take on Hampden-Sydney and Mary Washington in mid-September

Carnegie Mellon

This isn't the soft non-conference schedule of CMU seasons past.  Three straight away games to start the season - at York, at Gettysburg, and at John Carroll - plus they host Montclair State and Ohio Wesleyan on successive weekends in mid-September.

[Ejay]

Lebanon Valley

Season opener vs. Washington College then Alfred in the shared tournament with Elizabethtown.  That means Etown will open vs. Alfred and then host Washington College. 

Some other decent non-conference games on the slate include @Muhlenberg, @Gettysbug, @York, @Rutgers-Camden, Etown, F&M.

I suspect the MACF title will once again be a battle between LVC and Stevens, although the Dutchmen host Stevens this year in the regular season which should help their chances of earning the #1 seed.

Nathan Prex is a fun one to watch. A junior this year, Prex was 1st team All-American last year with 21 goals and 5 assists. LVC also return 3 other All-Region players, making them a great sleeper pick this year.