D3soccer.com Daily Dose

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.

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?

In the first half, Messiah had seven shots to E-Town’s four shots. The Blue Jays went ahead 1-0 in the second minute on a goal by Javeim Blanchette. The Falcons came back minutes later and tied it with a goal by Nick Thompson on a nice header. Geoff Pezon had the assist. Within minutes (again), Messiah went up 2-1 on a goal by Joshua Wood off a corner by Geoff Pezon.

The second half went the Falcons way as they added three goals off ten additional shots in cruising to a 5-1 victory. Joshua Wood added two more goals and Nick Thompson added one, while Pezon added two more assists to grab four on the evening.

The Commonwealth Conference tournament kicks off next week.

All 3 of these teams have been playing very well lately, and all have only 1 loss. Trinity and Merchant Marine haven’t cracked the Top 25 this season (yet), but should be strong consideration as they are at 8-1 and 12-1 respectively. And Dominican fell out of the poll earlier after a loss and few draws. The Stars are 8-1-3.

Keep an eye on these teams as they have all played some good opposition and thus should continue to do well.

York scores in the 22nd minute on a goal by Mike O’ Connell.  Aaron Good had the assist.

York goes up 2-0 on a header off a corner kick by Andy Stromberg.

In the first half, the Spartans held the Falcons to 4 shots/2 on goal.  York had 6 shots/4 on goal. 

More to come as the match unfolds in the second half…listen to the action via Messiah’s call at http://www.messiah.edu/wvmm/listen.html

This past weekend was a great one for the New Jersey City University women’s soccer. Their 5-1 win over Rutgers-Newark snapped a long NJAC losing streak, and their leading scorer sophomore Julia Caseres snagged a hat trick, helping the team move to 7-4 on the season. Caseres is also the women’s NCAA D3 national leader in goals scored with 18 and 44 points total.

The Gothic Knight’s NJAC losing streak had gone on for 103 matches, so it was really about time for something positive to happen. A losing streak, like a winning streak, can’t go on forever. Read about the match in this release from NJCU’s excellent SID, Ira Thor.

Then in this week’s Sports Illustrated, who shows up in the Faces in the Crowd section but Julia Caseres. Often times in Division III athletics, great work goes unnoticed by everyone but the team and a loyal group of fans and parents. It is truly a great thing when the national press recognizes excellent performance at our level in the NCAA.

It truly has been a good week for NJCU, it’s women’s soccer team, it’s fans, and most certainly, for Julia Caseres.