2014 D3 Season: National Perspective

Started by PaulNewman, August 24, 2014, 02:13:42 PM

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lastguyoffthebench


Just looking at some of the teams from last years NCAA grouping:

Stevens  2-3
York        1-1-3
MSU        3-2
RUC        4-3
CMU        3-3
Roch.       3-1-1

PaulNewman

Kudos to Centre for aggressive scheduling but a big ask to go to OWU where played 110 minutes and then 17-18 hours later facing #2 Kenyon in Gambier.  3-0 Kenyon.  The SAA does get an automatic bid this year so perhaps this weekend will help the Colonels when they head into conference play.

chelseafc30

Quote from: NCAC New England on September 14, 2014, 06:19:19 PM
Kudos to Centre for aggressive scheduling but a big ask to go to OWU where played 110 minutes and then 17-18 hours later facing #2 Kenyon in Gambier.  3-0 Kenyon.  The SAA does get an automatic bid this year so perhaps this weekend will help the Colonels when they head into conference play.

Kenyon has 15 goals scored and 1 against in 5 games. They look like they're going to be very difficult to beat this year and I think they're the NCAC favorites thus far, although it's very early in the season.

PaulNewman

Games of the Week

Monday

Westminster (Mo) at Wash U

Tuesday

Rochester at Oneonta State

Dickinson at Messiah

Thomas More at Denison

Skidmore at RPI

Bates at Bowdoin

Wednesday

Methodist at Christopher Newport

Vassar at Stevens

Johns Hopkins at York

Wesleyan at Tufts

Brandeis at WPI

Swarthmore at Richard Stockton

Amherst at Conn College

DePauw at Rose-Hulman

Carleton at GAC

Ohio Northern at OWU

Roger Williams at MIT

Thursday

Chicago at Loras

Friday

Roanoke at Randolph

Saturday

Virginia Wesleyan at Washington & Lee

Johns Hopkins at Haverford

Williams at Amherst

Franklin & Marshall at Swarthmore

Tufts at Brandeis

Messiah at Montclair State

RPI at Oneonta State

Emory at Berry

Rochester at RIT

Kzoo at Calvin

DePauw at Hiram

Rutgers-Camden at Christopher Newport

Brockport at Medaille

Rutgers-Newark at TCNJ

Western New England vs Roger Williams

Bowdoin at Middlebury

Conn College at Hamilton

York at Misericordia

Case Western at Ohio Northern

Sunday

Luther at Carleton


PaulNewman

Messiah rolling over Dickinson 3-0 into the 2nd half, and unfortunately the Messiah announcers appear to have picked up right where they left off last year.  Could only tolerate 5 minutes which is a shame because I love watching Messiah play, but the entire commentary was about Dickinson fouling, physical abuse against Messiah, and the ref not calling the game both ways despite reflecting a 9 to 3 advantage in fouls for Dickinson.  Apparently they were still upset 15 minutes into the 2nd half about a PK called against Messiah in the first 10 minutes of the game.

PaulNewman

Checked in again to make sure wasn't being unfair.  85th minute and they are still vigorously complaining about every single call and how the ref clearly has been against them the whole game.  Messiah was up 4-0 and Dickinson pulled 2 back to make it 4-2 will 5 or so minutes left.

OldMCGuy

Just a word in defense of the Messiah announcers from an old Messiah soccer alum from the 1970's.  The announcers admit to being "homers" and partisans on almost every broadcast.  While I do not know them personally, they are not students pursuing journalism majors doing this for college credit or financial aid, they are fans with families and careers who volunteer their time to broadcast the games and they even cook the food for the tailgates before the games.  Because of the service/missional nature of the college, alums and particularly soccer alums are scattered all over north,south and central America and also Africa, Asia and Europe and a few islands in between.  The announcers have been doing this as a service to Messiah fans for years, long before HD video came along, and those of us who don't get to attend the games appreciate the analysis from the perspective of announcers who are fans but who clearly understand the "Messiah system".  Now that Messiah has recently gained some small measure of national success and as a result the audience may have expanded beyond that handful of fans, perhaps they will have to reconsider their broadcasting approach so I will not argue with the concerns expressed above.  However, I thought the Messiah announcers effusive praise of Dickinson's play, both their skill and their intensity for the last 25 minutes of last night's game clearly demonstrated their love for the beautiful game when well played.  Further, I believe the announcer's enthusiasm keeps Messiah fans connected to the college and the team  and partially explains why Messiah has the fan support that it does.  Home game average attendance =1800, away game average attendance =200.  Maybe North American soccer needs more of that informed partisanship :-).  I am not trying to pick a fight, start a flame war or highjack a thread to make this Messiah-centric.  Just explaining what I love about the announcers.

PaulNewman

OldMCGuy,

Understood, and thanks for the background color.  I expect coverage to be partisan and for the announcer(s) to go crazy when their team scores a goal, etc, etc.  I even expect the obligatory questioning of a bad call.  I used to listen to Kentucky basketball games for years via the legendary Cawood Ledford, and of course the coverage was geared to Big Blue Nation.  Messiah obviously has a large and loyal following, and I even get the in-game updates on what is going on with Navy games because Coach Brandt is still considered part of the family.  That said, I think it is somewhat unusual to have such a strong visceral reaction so quickly when tuning in as an outside observer or fan of the opposing team, and I know many had that reaction during the NCAA tournament last year.  At a minimum, the families/fans of the opposing team tune in, and maybe a somewhat broader audience at NCAA tourney time, and so at least a faint awareness that others may be listening would be appreciated.  And with Messiah as good as it is, and with a tremendous (and well-earned) home field advantage, it is a little much to hear that the ref is terrible and horribly against Messiah every single game and to hear specific, negative comments about players on the opposing team.  They are apoplectic when an opposing player makes a hard tackle, but when it's a Messiah player it's a good, clean tackle even though they joke that it was close to sending the opposing player for a hospital visit.  I do think it is great in general that Messiah has such strong support and comprehensive coverage.  I'll just turn the audio off the next time.

OldMCGuy

NCAC, 

I don't know if this appropriate behavior on a message board.  But I think we can AGREE to AGREE.  Although privately I hope you are forced to watch a few more Messiah broadcasts this year and hopefully into the tournament...with the sound turned off, of course.  Have an excellent day.

ppn512

Quote from: NCAC New England on September 17, 2014, 10:36:16 AM
OldMCGuy,

Understood, and thanks for the background color.  I expect coverage to be partisan and for the announcer(s) to go crazy when their team scores a goal, etc, etc.  I even expect the obligatory questioning of a bad call.  I used to listen to Kentucky basketball games for years via the legendary Cawood Ledford, and of course the coverage was geared to Big Blue Nation.  Messiah obviously has a large and loyal following, and I even get the in-game updates on what is going on with Navy games because Coach Brandt is still considered part of the family.  That said, I think it is somewhat unusual to have such a strong visceral reaction so quickly when tuning in as an outside observer or fan of the opposing team, and I know many had that reaction during the NCAA tournament last year.  At a minimum, the families/fans of the opposing team tune in, and maybe a somewhat broader audience at NCAA tourney time, and so at least a faint awareness that others may be listening would be appreciated.  And with Messiah as good as it is, and with a tremendous (and well-earned) home field advantage, it is a little much to hear that the ref is terrible and horribly against Messiah every single game and to hear specific, negative comments about players on the opposing team.  They are apoplectic when an opposing player makes a hard tackle, but when it's a Messiah player it's a good, clean tackle even though they joke that it was close to sending the opposing player for a hospital visit.  I do think it is great in general that Messiah has such strong support and comprehensive coverage.  I'll just turn the audio off the next time.

NCAC,

I understand what you were saying. I am a Messiah fan and would agree the ref was being very inconsistent in his play calling. Maybe it's my own bias,but Dickinson fans agreed with me when we chatted about the referees at the half.

I think you should continue to have the sound on, but that's just me.

Check out the women's games to. There's a different crew for those games.

PaulNewman

ppn, now I'm sorry I raised the issue at all (of course until the next time I tune in and the refs miraculously are doing the exact same thing and the opponent's players roughhousing the Messiah kids, etc, etc).  Let's re-focus again.  The game was 4-0 and Dickinson enjoyed a healthy 9-3 advantage on fouls called during one of the periods all of the comments were being made.  It's not a game-specific issue.  It's their broadcasting style (which I'm sure they are quite unapologetic about), as I think OldMCGuy confirmed in his own way.  I find it off-putting; most Messiah fans clearly are going to disagree.

Predictions on Messiah @ Montclair tomorrow?  One would think that playing at home and needing a signature win at this point in the season that Montclair might have half a chance, and for those very reasons this one presents Messiah with a real challenge which should have the Falcons and Falcon faithful pumped up as well.  Should be a good one.

PaulNewman

In addition to Messiah vs Montclair, there appear to be 4 other mega-matchups tomorrow -- F&M vs quietly undefeated Swarthmore (at Swat), Tufts at Brandeis as already noted in the NESCAC thread, Williams vs Amherst which if I was an Amherst fan I almost hope they would lose to reverse the trend of the last 2 years, and RPI at Oneonta.  I then I would underscore Rutgers-C at CNU as the bonus big game.

lastguyoffthebench

F&M should smash Swat tomorrow.   Swat has played junk teams under the radar.


As the homer that I am,  I would think RU-C beats CNU on the road, just to stir things up in the cluster that is the South Atlantic

lastguyoffthebench


I think Messiah wins 3-1 tomorrow at MSU

Saint of Old

RPI v. Oneonta is a big game for RPI.
Oneonta has dismantled Vassar and tied Rochester away with a shut-out.
RPI gets a chance to prove they can beat a quality out of conference opponent. Their win over Skidmore was quite a dominating performance, but might have told us more about Skidmore.
The real test comes now.