Will #2 CNU's win over #18 Salisbury be enough to jump Messiah's wins over unranked Geneva and Dickenson in this week's poll?

Not until (if) Messiah loses.  Just a guess.

CCIW schools Augustana and Elmhurst will join Carthage with lacrosse teams as well. 

Interesting with the MIAA forming their own conference, as three of those teams currently play in the Midwest Lacrosse Conference.  What would have been a 14 team conference next season (2012-2013), is already going to be down to 11 with the MIAA schools going out on their own.  This will probably be the norm as more and more schools add lacrosse to the list of varsity sports and the traditional conferences begin to sponsor it.  The Northern Athletic Conference will have four with Aurora, Benedictine, Concordia Wisconsin and MSOE. 

There are surely more to come in the next few years.

Thanks DIIIdad, I will check it out.  I have to tell you I just filled in my bracket picks and sadly I have Augie losing to Wheaton in the second round(tough draw for Augie).  The good news is I have no idea in these first couple of rounds, however I have picked the eventual winner correctly in two of the last three years . Good luck.  Go Augie..

Wheaton will be tough for anyone to beat, though they are beatable.  Although Augie did lose to them 4-1 earlier in the conference season, it was a 2-1 game until very late.  Augie only gave up 9 goals all year, with 4 of them coming in that game against Wheaton.  Three of the goals were off of corners, and the fourth was a restart from just inside the corner spot.  That defensive lapse was definitely an anomaly for a very strong defensive team.  The bigger problem for Augie is the lack of scoring.  If they advance, I see a lot of OT games going to PK's.

Hopefully the ladies aren't even thinking about Wheaton right now.  Carleton is a good team on a roll, going 13-0-2 in their last 15 games.

Quote from: DIIIdad on November 08, 2010, 05:30:43 pm

Quote from: sflzman on November 06, 2010, 10:17:35 am

You wouldn't give the defending national champs an at-large bid if they were ranked 12?

What does Messiah have to do with this conversation? 

Oops  meant defending national champ runner-ups

I know - I was just busting your chops.  Sorry.

The Messiah men are hosting 1st/2nd Round as this is an even year.  Assuming they advance to Sectionals, the women host Sectionals in even years and the men would be away.

The Augie bus is on its way to IWU for tonight's conference semi-final.  There will be no tie tonight, although I wouldn't be surprised if this goes to PK's.

Wheaton at IWU, likely for the CCIW regular season championship. 

The CCIW tournament field is set with Wheaton, IWU, Augie and Millikin.  The only question that remains is the final order.  Millikin finishes at Wheaton, so they will likely finish 4-3 and in 4th.  Augie hosts North Central tonight and finishes at Elmhurst on Saturday.  Two wins would put them at 5-1-1, whereas two losses would put them at 3-3-1.  Of course, given their lack of scoring this season, the more likely scenario is two ties, putting them at 3-1-3.  Either way, they would need help to move into second, as IWU currently holds the second tie breaker of goal differential in conference at +10 (Augie is only at +2).  Augie would need Wheaton to put a big number on the board tonight, as well as themselves putting up big numbers against their two remaining opponents for any hope of moving into second place. 

With all of that, I predict the following final order:

1. Wheaton
2. IWU
3. Augie
4. Millikin

We'll see...

Apparently they got it right. Wheaton dominated every phase of the game in a 4-1 beatdown.