UAA Soccer

[stlawus]

Can't take seeing "UAA Soccer 2022" in 2024 anymore  so just starting clean with an all encompassing thread.

[Kuiper]

[I'll take that as permission to re-post some things I had put on the 2022 thread]

Rochester posted its 2024 Roster

A few observations:

- 32 on the roster, which is the same as last year

- Rochester has an embarrassment of experience at GK.  GK Santino Lupica-Tondo, who has been a lock-in starter for the last three years, returns for a COVID year as a grad student.  However, Ben Ziegler, who was a regular starter at Hamilton in '21 and '22, but only played 1 game in '23 as team captain (perhaps due to injury?), has also come to Rochester as a grad student.  They also have a third keeper who is a senior, even though he has played very little.  With new coach Ben Cross coming in off stints as a an asst coach for the first team at Columbus Crew and FC Dallas, I wouldn't be surprised if it was an open competition, with some playing time for Salvador Castaneda from Austin, Texas as well to get him ready to take over next year

- In addition to Ziegler, Rochester picked up a couple of other transfers.

  - Kamuleeden Ibrahim is a grad transfer forward from Skidmore, where he was first team all Liberty League and All Region in 2022 when he scored 15 goals.  Only saw action in 3 games in 2023 (injury?)
  - Tomas White is a grad transfer midfielder from DI Presbyterian, where he played 14 games and started 6 last year

- 7 freshman.  With 10 seniors or graduate students on the roster, that gives Cross some ability to shape his team pretty substantially next recruiting class

[Kuiper]

University of Chicago has posted its 2024 Roster

A few observations:

- 35 on the roster, compared with 31 last year

- They lose some important players from last year, including starting GK Will Boyes (although he's now an assistant coach in charge of GKs) and leading scorer and assist man Ryan Yetishefsky, plus some experienced defensive depth in Lucas Gen, Nathan Moonesinghe, and Maina Ngobia.

- One big returning player is Robbie Pino, who was second on the team in goals and assists last year as a senior and comes back as a grad student for a Covid year.  Alex Lee is also back after not playing in the 2023 season.

- One very inexperienced position will be GK.  Boyes was a steady, if not spectacular, GK who played just about every available minute his last two years, and the minutes he didn't play went to his fellow '24 grad Nate Drew.  As a result, none of the GK options have played in college.  Presumably, junior Gabriel Diaz (or maybe even senior Dhirpal Shah) will play, but it's possible it could be an open competition with the two incoming freshman, especially since Coach Philip Kroft recruited them and was not around for the recruitment of the two older keepers.

- Speaking of freshman, there are 10 on the roster, including the two GKs

- There are also two DI grad transfers, both of whom might be candidates to help to fill the gap left by Yetishefsky's departure.  Alex Salvino is a 6'3" forward from Notre Dame and Julius Rauch is a 6'2" forward from Syracuse (and before that a member of the U19 and U23 teams at Borussia Dortmund Academy).

- I found it interesting that Kroft has replaced his lead assistant coach, Michael Mauro, who was a hold-over from the previous head coaches, with his own staff.  Jack Curtain has a good amount of experience and Gustav Ericsson has local and int'l connections as well as DIII experience.  Ericsson comes over after serving as a grad assistant last season at his alma mater North Park, where he played in the 2017 national finals, transferred to DI University of San Diego, and then returned to North Park and was a second team USC All-American as a senior in 2021.  He might provide a little bit of a Swedish connection for recruiting should Kroft want to look in that direction.

[Kuiper]

Case Western Reserve has posted its 2024 Roster

A few observations:

- 33 on the roster, compared with 29 last season

- 10 freshman on the roster

- Several upperclassmen newcomers as well.  Midfielder Quinn Flaspohler, who played at Depauw for three seasons and was third team All NCAC last year as a senior is using his Covid year as a graduate student at Case. Phil Vlastaris, a defender, transferred after one season at Ohio Northern where he appeared in 15 games.  Defender Eshwar Challa is a grad transfer from DI University of Tulsa where he played 8 games

- One player who is sadly out of eligibility is Matt Vatne

[cruyff18]

Recent grad and a stalker of the boards for the last couple years... now I feel comfortable putting my opinion on here.

Anyways, I guess I'll throw my two cents in for the three teams mentioned above.

First Rochester, which I am extremely interested to see their play style under a new coach. After being a team that seemed to rely on long throws & set pieces regularly, I find it hard to believe that a coach who has spent time within the top level of US professional soccer to play that brand. But I guess we'll see the brand they play... at least in their away games because paywall at home 

Next Chicago, they'll be fine. I remember seeing a message about them (I think) last year or a couple years ago. They don't rebuild, they reload. They'll be good, but I agree that losing Boyes/Yeti doesn't help.

Finally Case, which I'll be following closely. Non-conference has tough match-ups again (Ott, Denison, Mount, JCU...) so it will be far from easy. Last season was lead by a defense that allowed 7(?) goals in the regular season, and that will be the key to this season if they want to find themselves successful again. For what it's worth, they return their starting keeper, who arguably could challenge for best in the conference after receiving All-UAA honorable mention in his first year in the starting role as a sophomore.

[Kuiper]

Carnegie Mellon has posted its 2024 Roster

A few observations:

- 37 on the roster, compared with 33 last season

- 9 freshman

- Several transfers, including Robert Lloyd, a midfielder from Wheaton (MA) who was first team all Region and NEWMAC Athlete of the Year, Dallan Schoenberger, a defender who was a regular starter at D1 St. Francis, playing 39 games over 3 years before graduating early, and Rohan Dhingra, a F who transferred from D1 Colgate after seeing no action (I think he suffered a knee injury at some point).

- One regular starter returns for a grad year - forward Diederik Schlingemann who was third on the team in goals scored last season

- Most notable departure is 1st team All-UAA forward Josh Baugh, who led the team with 9 goals and 5 assists last season

[Freddyfud]

University of Chicago has posted its 2024 Roster

- Speaking of freshman, there are 10 on the roster, including the two GKs

Fun fact: freshman Eddie Wu is the younger brother of Daniel Wu who won a national championship at Georgetown in 2019 contributing both a goal in regulation and a PK in the shootout during the final vs. UVA.  The final was played in Cary, NC where the family resides.  The brothers are not only talented on the field but are highly respected for academic achievements.

Eddie is a fantastic player.  Look for him to do great things for the Maroons.

[4samuy]

For anyone interested

Division 1 Eastern Illinois University begins their regular season vs University of Chicago on ESPN+ at 5 pm Central time.

[Kuiper]

For anyone interested

Division 1 Eastern Illinois University begins their regular season vs University of Chicago on ESPN+ at 5 pm Central time.

Thanks for the heads-up!  It's very odd though.  It looks like Eastern Illinois is counting that as an official game, but it obviously can only be a scrimmage for University of Chicago under DIII rules, which opens it's regular season on Friday, Aug. 30, hosting Gustavus Adolphus. 

I've never heard of that and I'm not sure why the NCAA would allow it as a countable game for Eastern (if they indeed are allowing it).  Chicago hasn't even had a week of preseason training and has no incentive, other than pride, to go for a win. The rule allowing DI schools to schedule one game against DIII opponents that will count in its overall record is only a few years old.  Did Eastern discover a loophole to give them even better odds that they can boost their record (they only won 4 games last year)?  I noticed Eastern was scheduled to play Chicago on Aug. 24th last year and the game was cancelled.

I'm also not sure what the incentive is for Chicago to play Eastern under regular season DI rules.  Presumably, for a scrimmage they could play all or most of the roster and they could agree on playing three 30 minute periods or something like that.  If this is under D1 rules, does that mean they there is no re-entry too (which is new in 2024 I think)?

[4samuy]

Imho the odd incentive to play lies with the division 1 institution.  I just don't understand the incentive to play a regular season game against a division 3 opponent.

Maybe an attempt to inflate your record as you try to lure recruits in a rebuilding process.

It does happen at times in NCAA basketball.

I don't believe this affects Chicago at all other than taking it as an exhibition game.

Who knows.

[Kuiper]

Chicago starting Dhirpal Shah at GK, which doesn't mean he is the new starter, but might indicate he is a leading contender to take over

UPDATE:  And I jinxed him because he caught a corner cleanly and a striker knocked it from his hands into the goal.  I think it was called a foul, but that kind of bailed him out because at 6'5", there's no reason a striker should come anywhere near to the ball when it is in the GK's hands. 

0-0 at the half.  It's somewhat telling that Chicago could substitute out its entire team halfway through the first half and still look pretty even with D1 Eastern's starting lineup and probably better in terms of stringing together passes on the ground.  Eastern had a couple of chances that could have gone in (one of which drew calls for a PK), but Chicago had a few dangerous sequences that forced the GK to make saves or could have resulted in goals as well.

[Kuiper]

Brandeis has posted its 2024 Roster

A few observations:

- 34 on the roster, compared with 25 last season, so a pretty substantial increase

- 12 Freshman

- How do they increase roster size by 9? They have only 3 seniors to replace, and they do so with 12 freshman.  The problem for Brandeis is that all three seniors leaving are important departures - regular starter Nick Dunstan-Maise, 2nd Team All-UAA forward and co-leading scorer Sancho Maroto Tobias and 2nd Team All-UAA forward and co-leading scorer Roee Maor

[Kuiper]

Emory has posted its 2024 Roster

A few observations:

- 39 on the roster, compared with 31 last season

- 10 Freshman

- Several transfers to Emory for a graduate Covid year, including two from DI Princeton, defender Whit Gamblin, who played 14 games with 13 starts in 2023 and forward Ryan Winkler, who played 15 games with 6 starts and assists while serving as team captain in 2023, one from DIII Washington & Lee - midfielder Grant McCarty, who was 3rd team All Region in 2023, one from DI Louisville - wing Ryan Nichols, who played in 3 matches in his career, and one from DI Furman - midfielder Kameron Smith, who played 2 games over two years

- One player returning for a Covid year as a grad students - defender Jake Atallah, who was 2nd team All Region last season

- Notable departures include 2nd team All Region GK Peter Wagner, who has transferred to D1 University of South Florida for his Covid year, defender Thomas Toney, and 2nd team All Region forward Colton Myers

[Kuiper]

Washington University has posted its 2024 Roster

A few observations for the first roster in almost 30 years where Joe Clarke isn't the head coach:

- 33 on the roster, compared with 31 last season

- 5 freshman, which is a little light for a 30+ player roster, but gives new coach Andrew Bordelon room to shape the roster going forward when he starts to have full control of the pipeline

- Bordelon makes up the roster difference with several impact transfer students doing a grad student Covid year:  6'4" defender Cole Hutson, who transfers from DI Lindenwood, where he played 28 games with 17 starts over 2 years, scoring 6 goals.  He played his first two years at NAIA Central Methodist, where he played 15 games with 3 starts and scored 1 goal.  Forward Jesus Tadeo, who was 1st team all region at Rhodes College, who scored 17 goals and had 16 assists over his 4 years.  Midfielder Gordon Bernlohr, 2nd team All Region and Landmark Conference Offensive Player of the Year at Catholic University, where he played 60 games and started 52 in 3 seasons, scoring 32 goals and having 13 assists.

- 3rd Team All Region midfielder and leading scorer Owen Culver returns for a Covid year

- Notable departures include regular starters D Rabee Hadari and F John Daniels

[Freddyfud]

University of Chicago has posted its 2024 Roster

- Speaking of freshman, there are 10 on the roster, including the two GKs

Fun fact: freshman Eddie Wu is the younger brother of Daniel Wu who won a national championship at Georgetown in 2019 contributing both a goal in regulation and a PK in the shootout during the final vs. UVA.  The final was played in Cary, NC where the family resides.  The brothers are not only talented on the field but are highly respected for academic achievements.

Eddie is a fantastic player.  Look for him to do great things for the Maroons.

#7 Men's Soccer Knocks Off Top Ranked St. Olaf