2017 North Region

[D3 Scout]

Games are just a few days away! Hearing exciting things out of the North Region. Supposedly UWW brought in the Raymond Twins (transfers from UW Parkside and UW Milwaukee). Who else has any reports?

[casualfan]

I expect Loras to rebound to be in the mix to be top dog in the North. Elsewhere in the IIAC, it should be intriguing to see how Luther and Dubuque shape up after NCAA tournament appearances.

St. Thomas will have the target on their backs after their surprising run to the Final 4. They seem to be a hotbed for transfers over the past few seasons. Wonder who they'll suit up this year. Who knows how the rest of the MIAC will be in 2017?

St. Norbert should come out of the MWC with Lake Forest and Knox in the conversation as well. Norberts has been putting together a decent program over the past few seasons and took Luther to OT in the first round of NCAA 2016.

As for the UW's, I imagine UWW will prove to be the better of the 2 schools with UWP being competitive as well. Logan Rinderknecht is an exciting player for the Pioneers that will have to carry the team if they want to make a run at an NCAA tournament bid. As for UWW, it seems that the Raymonds twins could help though they haven't been productive at the college level thus far. Peter only has 2 goals and 1 assist in 2 seasons of play at UW-Milwaukee while Henry has 1 goal and 1 assist in 2015 and does not appear in the statsheet for 2016. Going back to high school, both were high scoring forwards for Brookfield East HS leading their team to the State Championship in 2014. Peter was named Wisconsin Gatorade Player of the Year. We'll see if they can recapture their form.

Should be an exciting year!

[dontshootthegoose]

It's the time of year again; my thoughts on the North 2017 Season.

Overall, I think the North region will be down w/exceptions to St. Thomas and Whitewater.

IIAC: Dubuque, Luther, Loras, and Simpson will be a four way race to win their conference. Loras looks down after losing a solid senior class. Should be a wide open race.

MIAC: St.Thomas, Macalaster, who knows? This is always a fight much like the new IIAC.


Midwest Conference: Knox or Norberts - Norbs was just beat by Chicago 7-1.

Non-Conference: UWW + Platteville.

Top Teams to watch this year:

St. Thomas - have to respect last year's run
UWW - Lost quality seniors, but picked up a great recruiting class. Probably gained more than lost. Believe this is their year to finally make a push in the national tournament. Guinn is starting to build a reputation of reviving players careers.
Loras - Rothert always finds a way. Although I do think this year will be a rebuilding year.
Luther, Dubuque, Simpson - 1 or 2 of these teams will take over the IIAC.
Platteville - They return their goal scorer, but will be over-shadowed by their big brother, Whitewater.
Knox will win the Midwest.

[Wisco21]

Agree with y'all about the North being down this year. Hopefully we're all wrong come November!

Tough to make any real depictions with the seasono being less than 10 days in. Wartburg and Gustavus Adolphus looking pretty good so far, they play each other tomorrow. Other beefy match ups slated for 9/10 to keep an eye on:

UWW @ Macalester
Loras @ St. John's
St. Scholastica @ Luther

[Dubuquer]

I've watched pieces of all 4 Loras games this season and I don't know what to think of this year's team yet.  They seem to be playing a much more possession-oriented game; even my wife, who doesn't have much knowledge of soccer but enjoys watching it said while watching the St. Johns game yesterday "the Duhawks are actually passing the ball this year."  I haven't seen them string together 10 passes or anything like that but they will routinely put 4 or 5 together, which is more than last year.  That being said it seems like there is something missing from their play thus far and I can't quite put my finger on what it is - maybe it's just a lack of experience.  I know sometimes it's hard to get a good feel for a team just from watching not-so-great camera feeds online and so I'm really looking forward to seeing how the Duhawks stack up against a top-quality side like Chicago on Wednesday night in their home opener in the Rock Bowl.

[Wisco21]

Just taking a peek at my Wisconsin schools, appears to be a rough September for most of 'em.

St. Norbert College seems to have had a decent month though- even if they're 6-3-1, they beat a stingy Carthage side in OT tonight. It seems like every year SNC has been trending upwards. Awesome to see, Head Coach Derek Rhodes has done a terrific job building this program up.

Speaking of which, the Red Men fall to 5-4-1, I always feel like it's a toss up with them. We'll see how they do in conference.

Carroll is looking to become an afterthought at 2-7-1, although they mustered a 4-2 win against SNC. Don't see them doing much in conference.

UW-Whitewater at 5-3-2 does not have a win against a decent opponent, they will have to prove themselves in October if they want that Pool B bid from UW-Platteville, who is by the way 8-1. UWP just took down Dubuque tonight but other than that have an absolute cupcake schedule so far. Their October looks a little more competitive just like UWW's so we'll see what both teams are made of in ~30 days. UW-Superior is sitting at 4-3-1 but I see them more of a Minnesota school anyway. Anticipating their usual battle with St. Scholastica for the UMAC AQ.

In the NACC, Concordia Wisconsin (4-2-3) and MSOE (5-3) look to have the only decent shout but have a lot to work to do to unseat Dominican.

I know some of these schools belong to the Central region, but I did feel inclined to include them. All I have to say so far about North Region soccer so far is:



Woof...

[Flying Weasel]

NORTH REGIONAL - NCAA REGIONAL RANKINGS - October 25, 2017

Rank	School	. Div. III . Record	. Div. III . SOS	. R-v-R .	. Non-Conf. . SOS	. Overall . Record	. Prev. . Rank
1.	St. Thomas	15-1-0	0.572	3-1-0	0.629	15-1-0	1
2.	Loras	11-5-0	0.568	3-2-0	0.589	11-5-0	--
3.	UW-Platteville	10-3-1	0.567	1-2-1	0.571	10-3-1	2
4.	Macalester	10-3-2	0.562	1-2-1	0.600	10-3-2	3
5.	Luther	10-4-3	0.582	2-2-2	0.607	10-4-3	5
6.	St. Norbert	13-3-1	0.515	2-2-0	0.621	13-3-1	4
7.	Simpson	13-2-2	0.534	0-1-1	0.501	13-2-2	7

[Flying Weasel]

Interesting to see how the addition of the RvR in week 2 of the regional rankings helped catapult Loras up to #2 after not being ranked last week.

[Wisco21]

DuHawks out of nowhere! Agree FW, committee loves their RvR... Also don't understand why Luther is pegged at 5th. Better SoS than MAC and UWP and in my opinion, better RvR (8 pts out of a possible 18 for Luther vs 4 pts out of a possible 12 for MAC, UWP).

[Flying Weasel]

NORTH REGION - NCAA REGIONAL RANKINGS - November 01, 2017

Rank	School	. Div. III . Record	. Div. III . SOS	. R-v-R .	. Overall . Record	. Prev. . Rank
1.	St. Thomas	17-1-0	0.562	3-1-0	17-1-0	1
2.	Loras	12-5-0	0.572	2-1-0	12-5-0	2
3.	Luther	10-4-4	0.577	1-3-2	10-4-4	5
4.	St. Norbert	14-3-2	0.526	2-2-0	14-3-2	6
5.	UW-Platteville	11-3-2	0.561	0-2-1	11-3-2	3
6.	Simpson	15-2-2	0.524	0-2-0	15-2-2	7
7.	Macalester	10-5-2	0.557	0-2-1	10-5-2	4

[Wisco21]

Thinking the bids for the North will shape up as such:

MIAC: St. Thomas should be coming away with the AQ by beating Macalester on Saturday. However, should the Tommies lose this match, I believe they will suck up the only At-Large bid the North will be receiving.

IIAC: Luther and Loras will battle for the IIAC crown. Can see the loser getting the Pool C At-Large if UST wins this weekend.

UMAC: They play their semifinals today, final on Saturday. Hard to see anyone other than St. Scholastica taking the AQ, UW Superior may have a shout. Whoever draws these guys in the tournament should go out and buy a lottery ticket. This conference will not receive a Pool C.

MWC: Semifinals scheduled to be played Friday, final on Saturday. Would love to see St. Norbert College remove all doubt and win the AQ, especially after the fantastic campaign they've had this year. SNC plays Lake Forest on 11/3 and Knox College looms in the other semifinal, so it looks like they've got their work cut out for them. This conference will not receive a Pool C.

Pool B: I assume UW Platteville takes this bid over UW Whitewater since they've been regionally ranked all three weeks and Whitewater has not. The two may be closer than I initially thought- UWP end at 11-3-2 with 0-2-1 (.167) RvR and an SOS of 0.561. UWW end at 10-6-4 with 1-5-2 (.278) RvR and an SOS of 0.565. Although the 10 blemishes of UWW versus the 5 blemishes of UWP might indicate your tipping factor.

To sum up, I see the North sending 6 teams to the tournament this year. In previous years it seemed that we've gotten 7 bids (4 AQ, 1 Pool B, 2 Pool C) but only when the North teams had strong seasons, and the West region received 1 less bid because of that. This year, the North is down and the West appears to be more down? down-er? Who knows what the committee will do with these two regions, maybe another Pool C will be tossed to a stronger representative out East. Thoughts lads?

[Dubuquer]

I think your analysis is right on, Wisco.  With the momentum Loras has and the way they are playing over the last 9 games they deserve to be in the tournament even if they lose to Luther on Saturday, but they would have to overcome their lackluster performance in the first half of the season in the eyes of the selection committee.  They are a very young team and depend on a lot of first-years and sophomores.  I'd love to see them get a few NCAA games under their belt this year as they look to be very strong next year and could have the potential to make a deep run.

Loras always puts a few MIAC teams on the schedule.  I hope that they play St. Thomas next year.

[Flying Weasel]

NORTH REGION - NCAA REGIONAL RANKINGS - November 06, 2017

Rank	School	. Div. III . Record	. Div. III . SOS	. R-v-R .	. Overall . Record	. Prev. . Rank
1.	St. Thomas	19-1-0	0.573	4-1-0	19-1-0	1
2.	Loras	13-5-1	0.589	3-2-1	13-5-1	2
3.	Luther	11-4-5	0.581	1-2-3	11-4-5	3
4.	St. Norbert	14-4-2	0.534	2-2-0	14-4-2	4
5.	UW-Platteville	11-3-2	0.562	1-2-1	11-3-2	5
6.	Macalester	12-6-2	0.576	0-3-1	12-6-2	7
7.	Simpson	15-3-2	0.531	0-3-0	15-3-2	6