I shared this post in another forum.

Last season, one of my worst fears as a parent of a college athlete was realized as I watched my daughter land oddly after jumping to secure a soccer ball and collapse to the ground. She was diagnosed as sustaining a torn ACL and sprained MCL that required surgery. While her school helped arrange a quick surgical consult with a local surgeon for standard ACL surgery, my wife performed her own research and came across a new surgical procedure that neither the surgeon, the school's training staff or athletic department had any familiarity. The procedure is called Bridge Enhanced ACL Repair or BEAR and in simple terms allows the ends of the torn tendon re-grow together with the help of an absorbable collagen implant. Unlike standard ACL re-construction, the procedure does not require a hamstring graft or graft from a cadaver. The recovery time is similar to that of standard ACL re-construction but does require that the patient remain in a brace for a few weeks longer than the normal procedure. Preliminary studies suggest that the BEAR procedure will lead to less osteo-arthritis in the knee. It looks like the BEAR procedure may be the future of ACL repair. My daughter elected to have the BEAR procedure in November and is well on her way to full recovery and playing for her team in August.

Since most parents and physicians we have spoken to have had no knowledge of this procedure, I felt it important to share with a community of people that care about college sports and student athletes. Attached are some preliminary studies regarding the procedure.

The Bridge-Enhanced Anterior Cruciate Ligament Repair (BEAR) Procedure: An Early Feasibility Cohort Study - PubMed (nih.gov)

Bridge-Enhanced Anterior Cruciate Ligament Repair: Two-Year Results of a First-in-Human Study - PubMed (nih.gov)

From my perspective, there is a significant difference between a home-grown 5 yr senior/grad student and a 5th year transfer from a D-1 school. While there are clearly many D-3 players that have the skills to play D-1 and may have chosen not to for reasons unique to them,  many (not all) D-1 players have size and skill advantages over the usual D-3 player. 

A team like John Hopkins with 9 graduate students has stacked the deck in their favor. 2 of the grad students (1 fwd and 1 defender) are home-grown, having played their entire career at Hopkins with the forward contributing 10 goals and 2 assists. The starting goalie and the backup goalies are both 5th year transfers from D -1 schools. The remaining 5 grad students are all 5th yr transfers from D-1 schools that play significant time and contributed 37 goals and 24 assists.  But most D-3 schools have not followed the path of John Hopkins.

Looking at the top 25 rankings, there are only a few schools that have added D-1 5th yr transfers. Case Western has added 2 forwards who have contributed 15 goals and 10 assists. Emory added 2 transfers that contributed 4 goals and 5 assists. Carnegie Mellon added a goalkeeper who played only 4 games. MIT added a midfielder who contributed 1 goal and 1 assist. Babson added a forward who contributed 7 goals and 7 assists.

There are 4 other teams in the top 25 that have 5th year players on their roster but they are all home-grown, playing their entire carer at their schools. Those teams are Misericordia (4), Montclair State (1), Wartburg (5) and Tufts (1). The rest of the top 25 have no 5th year players.

While I have not gone back to check the 2021 teams, my recollection is that there were a lot more teams with 5th year players that year that seemed to have an impact. This year, John Hopkins seems to be an outlier and I do not foresee many other schools in 2023 getting many D-1 transfers.

The quarterfinals are complete.

Clarkson upsets 3rd seed Skidmore and advances to the semi-final match against Ithaca. Clarkson stormed to a 2-0 lead in the first half only to have Skidmore even the match in the second half. Neither team seemed to have any serious threats in the double overtime. Clarkson advanced on PK's 5-4. Summary of the game is below.

https://clarksonathletics.com/news/2022/11/1/womens-soccer-knights-advance-to-liberty-league-semis-on-penalty-kicks-versus-skidmore.aspx

4th seed RIT gets revenge for regular season loss to Vassar and advances to semifinal match against Williams Smith. As noted previously, RIT's 1-0 loss to Vassar in the regular season was the first game following the loss of RIT's lead forward and it took 3 games before their offense re-claimed their footing and returned to scoring goals. RIT was determined to show that the loss was a fluke. Sophomore Sam Halligan assisted the first goal and scored the next 2 goals to lead RIT to a 3-1 victory. Summary of the game is below:

https://ritathletics.com/news/2022/11/1/womens-soccer-beats-vassar-in-liberty-league-quarterfinal.aspx

Looking ahead to the semifinals, I ask the following:

Can RIT defeat William Smith for the first time in their history? Williams Smith has a record of 43-0-2 against RIT. There have been times over the past 3 years that it felt like RIT could go head-to-head against William Smith, only to face defeat. This season William Smith has shown itself to be vulnerable, giving up 3 ties in League play. Yet they defeated RIT in the regular season 4-1 on the success of their counter-attack. Can RIT adjust their play to prevent that from occuring again?

Can Clarkson reverse the trend and defeat Ithaca? Clarkson won its first ever match against Ithaca in 2017 but has lost every match against Ithaca since. Ithaca won 2-0 in the regular season.  The #6 seed Knights pulled the upset against Skidmore. Can they continue the magic?

Your thoughts?

Been a little while since I posted because I was waiting for the dust to settle a little. Some thoughts on the race for the Liberty League playoffs.

William Smith is currently 6-0-1 in the League and  11-1-2 overall. With 2 remaining matches against Vassar and St. Lawrence, they have essentially locked up the Liberty League regular season title. While their overall record look like years past, this team is not the powerhouse it usually is and is beatable. It will be interesting to see which team claims the fourth seed. Their first playoff game could be a re-match against Skidmore, the only team in the League to tie them this season.   

Ithaca is 4-1-1   in the League and  9-2-3 overall with 3 remaining games against RPI, RIT and Vassar. Ithaca is second in the League for goals scored. Their last 2 games will determine whether they hold on to the second position and secure a playoff bye.   

RIT is 3-2-1 in the League and 9-2-2 overall with 3 remaining matches against Bard, Ithaca and Union.
RIT was looking dominant until they took on William Smith and lost their most dangerous forward for the season with an ACL tear. Although William Smith won 4-1 off of counter-attack goals, RIT looked like the more dangerous team, out-possessing and controlling the game against William Smith. It clearly took a while for RIT to adjust to losing their top forward as RIT did not score a goal in their next 3 matches. Yet they walked away with 2 ties and 1 loss during that period. Since that time, RIT has not lost. The game against Ithaca should determine who holds second place in the League.

Vassar is 3-2-1 in the League and 7-4-3 overall with 3 matches remaining against William Smith, RPI and Ithaca. Vassar has been inconsistent, pulling off ties against NYU and Wesleyan, beating Scranton and West. Conn and RIT. However, the win against RIT can be discounted a little since it was the RIT's first match after losing Cataldo-Smith and RIT just couldn't find the back of the net. Despite these good results, Vassar also had losses against College of Mt St Vincent, Union and Clarkson and a tie against Skidmore. Which team shows up in the League Playofffs will decide how far they advance.

Skidmore is 2-1-3 in the League and 7-2-3 overall with 3 remaining matches against St. Lawrence, Union and Bard. Skidmore is the only League blemish for William Smith (0-0 tie) and also secured ties against both Vassar and Ithaca. Skidmore has a stingy defense and is tied for League lead for fewest goals against. Skidmore should hold on for the fifth spot in the League playoffs.

There is currently a tie for the final position in the League playoffs between Union, Clarkson and St. Lawrence. Clarkson controls their own destiny since they play both Union and St. Lawrence in the upcoming weeks. 

Union is 2-3-1 in the League and 8-4-2 overall with 3 remaining matches against Clarkson, Skidmore and RIT. Union started off strong winning their first 7 games but have only won once since. They have not scored more than 2 goals in any game this season and have given up nearly as many goals as they have scored.   

St. Lawrence is 2-3-1 in the League and 6-4-2 overall with 3 remaining matches against Skidmore, Clarkson and William Smith. IMO, they have the toughest remaining schedule of the three and are unlikely to advance.
 
Clarkson is 2-3-1 in the League and 7-5-2 overall with 3 remaining matches against Union, St. Lawrence and RPI. Clarkson led the League with the most shots, goals and points through the first seven games of the season but the stats fell off after League play started. With the exception of the 4 goals against Bard, Clarkson has only scored 1 goal in their six other games.

RPI and Bard have no chance of making the playoffs.

National Poll 9-13

https://unitedsoccercoaches.org/rankings/college-rankings/ncaa-diii-women/

Region IX rankings 9-13

https://unitedsoccercoaches.org/rankings/college-rankings/ncaa-diii-women-ix/

Region VII rankings 9-13

https://unitedsoccercoaches.org/rankings/college-rankings/ncaa-diii-women-vii/