D3soccer.com Daily Dose

Hey soccer fans – I know its hard to believe, but the season is just around the corner! I’m sure you all enjoyed the World Cup this year and thus are all the more ready to see your own program make it to the Final Four, or least collect another winning season. Its almost too obvious to say, but any of the Spain matches would qualify as an object lesson in ball control and the fine art of passing. I’d love to see more focus on this on the part of every program; it is so fundamental, and now, so clearly part of a world champion’s strategy.

D3soccer.com will be rolling our Top 25 weekly poll again this season, with coaches, SIDs, and media members from across the nation casting their votes for the best performers of the week. And, as always, the Top 25 poll is a true nationwide vote, with no regional bias. The first poll of 2010 will be out later this month.

Stay Tuned!

Boiling down Division III into a few bullet points isn’t easy, and it hasn’t gotten easier as the division has grown. But Division III has been attempting to define itself in a way that can be easily communicated to those on the outside. After a Division II identity statement process ended up with the fairly meaningless “I chose Division II” mantra and D-II wrapped itself in a lot of the things Division III holds dear, it became important to take control of the message.

To us here at D3sports.com, Division III is the highest form of purely amateur athletics in the U.S. It’s where students — note, not “student-athletes” — play for love of the game. Division III competitors get no special treatment, no scholarships, no special privileges, no separate dining halls, no dorms to themselves. They don’t get preferred treatment from their professors; in fact, it’s far more likely they get treated more harshly from teachers who believe they don’t belong in the school.

But distilling that opinion, plus the opinions of hundreds of other Division III true believers, down into a form that can be easily shared and understood, isn’t easy. Here’s how Division III is positioning itself:

“Follow your passions and discover your potential.

“The college experience is a time of learning and growth – a chance to follow passions and develop potential. For student-athletes in Division III, all of this happens most importantly in the classroom and through earning an academic degree. The Division III experience provides for passionate participation in a competitive athletic environment, where student-athletes push themselves to excellence and build upon their academic success with new challenges and life skills. And student-athletes are encouraged to pursue the full spectrum of opportunities available during their time in college. In this way, Division III provides an integrated environment for student-athletes to take responsibility for their own paths, follow their passions and find their potential through a comprehensive learning experience.”

What’s your take?

For more, here’s the NCAA News article on the unveiling.

It’s the morning after. Or, if you’re working on my schedule right now it’s the overnight after. 5am and I’m sitting in the terminal in San Antonio awaiting my return to Minneapolis and the (slightly more so) frigid temperatures that await me there.

About 15 minutes ago a Messiah duffel bag went past me. Not soccer, though, but track and field. But a reminder of how small the Division III world is in reality. I wouldn’t be surprised to see more signs of Division III schools in the terminal over the course of the next hour. And that doesn’t include the photos and video that I have been processing on my computer for the last three days for our websites. In fact, I think I just saw a member of the men’s committee walk by.

Did you know that we have the press conferences from 11 of the 12 game and team combinations online? They are over on our YouTube channel d3sportsdotcom. And we have photos from each of the games over on Pictureprints.net. Photos from the four semifinal games are available for sale if you want to take home a momento from the Final Four – but act quickly as the NCAA only gives us a limited time to sell these photos before they are vaulted for good. You must make your purchase before January 3, 2010, if you wish to receive a print or digital copy.

What did you like about the games this weekend, what did you not like? Personally I was unhappy that we weren’t able to enjoy the best of the climate that Texas has to offer. I packed a couple pairs of shorts and ended up in a sweatshirt and jeans the entire weekend.

A special thanks to San Antonio Sports and Trinity University, Justin Parker and everyone else involved for making it a successful championship weekend! And to Wash U’s Chris Mitchell and Coach Conlin for their generous hospitality both Thursday afternoon and tonight after the championships.

We’re live in San Antonio, two games are in the books in exciting fashion and we’ve begun the first of the men’s semifinals. Are you watching the game at home? Listening on the internet or the radio? Following just the live stats? Let us know! We’ll post the links up as soon as the photo galleries are available and other things (including video from the press conferences).

Congrats to all of the Final Four participants, but a real strong thumbs up to the three newcomers, Dominican, Calvin, and Lynchburg.

Dominican has been to the Elite Eight twice before and is riding an eight year post-season streak streak, while Calvin has been to the post-season nine times. This is Calvin’s first year in the Elite Eight and the Final Four. They started their NCAA tournament experience way back in 1980. And the Lynchburg women have been to three Elite Eight levels, and are running a three year Sweet Sixteen streak.

Dominican is from the Chicago area and won the NathCon Tourney to grab the conference AQ. Calvin, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, was the MIAA winner, and Lynchburg, an ODAC member from Lynchburg, Virginia was an at-large team after losing to Washington & Lee in the conference semi-finals.

Three key matches were settled by shoot outs today: Williams over York, Christopher Newport over Stevens, and Calvin over Transylvania. Yesterday, the Wash U women advanced past Wheaton in the same manner.

Adding to the excitement today was Messiah’s 3-2 double overtime win over Johns Hopkins, and Dominican’s last minute overtime victory over Loras.

Has parity arrived in Division III soccer? It sure looks that way!

Great weekend in Division III soccer. Most of the Top 25 teams advanced, but Ohio Wesleyan and Trinity (Texas) both fell unexpectedly. But in OWU’s case, perhaps everyone underestimated Transy. they have played good soccer this season, but not with a tough enough schedule to get them ranked too highly in the NCAA regional polls. Nor did they capture the fancy of the Top 25 weekly voters. But Transy deserved some attention as they have performed well in this post-season; the team is well coached and has strength in the net. And while not a high scoring team, they have come through when needed. Now for a match on Saturday against No. 11 Swarthmore.

Hardin-Simmons might be even less likely to be in the Sweet 16. While Trinity did lose one match early on, the Tigers had been playing well enough to get through the first two rounds. And HSU was coming off a bruising battle with Mary Hardin-Baylor. But the Cowboys were convincing with a 2-0 win. This is a new mark for the American Southwest Conference as no at-large bid has ever been picked out of the conference – and thus no at-large bid has ever made it into the third round. In their match against No. 25 Whitworth on Saturday, the Cowboys do have a shot at advancing. It may be that Trinity will be a great warm up for the Northwest Conference champs.

With all but the Dominican/Elmhurst results in, it looks like a first round whitewash so far. All six matches that started at 11:00 were shutouts. It appears that these matches were easy victories for the winner. That certainly wasn’t the case with last night’s first round match at Wheaton. Calvin and rival Wheaton played a well fought match that really was really in play through the the 89th minute. Calvin won their first ever at Wheaton, 2-1 and advances to face Wartburg today at 6:00. It will be Knights versus Knights in that one.

Calvin’s Alex McKenzie won the match in the 77th minute with a perfectly placed shot from 15 yards. It was a 3 touch ball and was a hard hit ball. The Wheaton keeper had a chance but couldn’t stop the shot as it was high and in the right corner.

So this first round match was a close one, and a great one to watch. Let’s see what happens this afternoon and evening.

Well, the 2009 post-season is upon us. The brackets are out, the analysis has started, and now the matches are ready to begin.

After writing the preview of the Thursday matches, it seemed empty without some sort of prediction. So putting our the great relationship we enjoy with the coaches at risk, here is our take on the matches tomorrow:

1. Mary Hardin-Baylor over Hardin-Simmons by 1 goal. While HSU attacks the goal well, UMHB finishes stronger. The ASC final was a great match and it ended in a draw. But in a replay, this one goes to the team that had a 2.00/.61 goal per match ratio – and had a tougher schedule.

2. Ohio Northern over Brockport State by two goals. We think that ONU has a stronger and more skilled attack and has ground their teeth on better opponents. The SUNYAC is no cakewalk and Brockport has shown their ability to play a tight defense, but the Polar Bears are smarting after that PK loss to Capital and they will come out swinging.

3. Capital over Transylvania by one goal in overtime. Transy plays strong defense. ONU played a tougher schedule but lost most of those matches. This will be a close match, but the OAC plays tougher soccer these days than does the HCAC.

4. Bowdoin over Plattsburgh in PKs. This is going to be an interesting match as Bowdoin has played the typically tough NESCAC schedule, but didn’t have much success. And as referenced above, the SUNYAC is tough as well. But we think that as well as Plattsbugh has been playing, Bowdoin will be ready with a tested defense. But in the end, both teams have struggled to score against strong opponents, and that will happen tomorrow.

5. Stevens over York by three goals or more. If this was the Big Dance, this would be the No. 3 seed playing the No. 13 seed. York has had a good season, but they will not be able to stick with Stevens, who has played well against some tough company. York has no answer for Terrence Johnson and the Duck’s experience in post-season play.

Comments?

INDIANAPOLIS — The NCAA Division III Men’s Soccer Committee has released its third regional poll with records through Nov. 1. The top teams in each of the eight regions are listed below. The committee ranks 15 percent of the eligible teams in each region.

The first record is in-region record, followed by overall record.

Central
1. Wheaton (Ill.) 12-2-2 13-3-2
2. Dominican 13-1-3 13-1-3
3. Chicago 10-3-2 11-3-3
4. Elmhurst 10-2-3 12-3-3
5. Hope 11-3-2 12-3-2
6. Calvin 12-4-1 13-4-1

East
1. RPI 13-1-2 13-1-2
2. Rochester 11-1-2 12-1-2
3. Hobart 12-3-2 12-3-2
4. Stevens 13-3-1 13-3-1
5. Plattsburgh State 12-2-3 12-2-4
6. Oneonta State 11-4-2 12-4-2
7. Nazareth 10-4-2 10-4-2
8. Hamilton 9-4-1 9-4-1

Great Lakes
1. Ohio Wesleyan 17-0-2 17-0-2
2. Carnegie Mellon 12-2-0 14-2-0
3. Ohio Northern 14-2-2 14-3-2
4. Capital 13-2-1 15-4-1
5. Baldwin-Wallace 12-4-1 12-6-1
6. Denison 9-3-2 10-4-3
7. Kenyon 13-4-1 13-4-1

Mid-Atlantic
1. Messiah 13-1-0 17-1-0
2. Swarthmore 13-1-2 14-1-2
3. Merchant Marine 15-2-0 15-2-0
4. Johns Hopkins 11-2-2 13-3-2
5. Muhlenberg 11-3-2 11-3-2
6. Dickinson 11-3-2 12-3-2
7. Catholic 14-3-1 14-3-1

New England
1. Wesleyan (Conn.) 11-0-4 11-0-4
2. Williams 12-2-1 12-2-1
3. Bowdoin 11-3-1 11-3-1
4. Amherst 11-3-1 11-3-1
5. Middlebury 9-3-2 9-4-2
6. Wheaton (Mass.) 16-3-1 16-3-1
7. Trinity (Conn.) 10-4-1 10-4-1
8. Babson 12-5-1 13-5-1
9. Keene State 13-4-0 13-6-0
10. Eastern Connecticut 14-4-1 14-4-1
11. Western New England 14-5-2 14-5-2

North
1. Loras 15-1-1 15-1-1
2. St. Olaf 13-3-2 13-3-2
3. UW-Whitewater 8-4-2 10-5-3
4. Carleton 14-4-0 14-4-0
5. Carroll 14-1-3 14-1-3
6. UW-Oshkosh 12-3-2 13-3-2
7. Dubuque 14-3-1 14-3-2

South Atlantic
1. Montclair State 14-1-1 15-1-2
2. Christopher Newport 16-1-0 16-2-0
3. Salisbury 13-2-1 14-2-1
4. York (Pa.) 13-1-4 13-1-4
5. Virginia Wesleyan 14-2-2 14-3-2
6. Hampden-Sydney 16-3-0 16-3-0
7. Lynchburg 13-2-2 14-2-2

West
1. Trinity (Texas) 12-1-1 13-1-2
2. Whitworth 11-1-3 12-2-3
3. Mary Hardin-Baylor 13-3-0 13-3-0
4. UC Santa Cruz 10-2-2 13-3-2
5. Pacific Lutheran 12-4-0 13-5-0
6. Pomona-Pitzer 12-2-2 13-3-2