Who's looking strong this Fall?? Who graduated a lot? Will Messiah climb back up to the top this year or Trinity make another appearance in the finals?
Our surprising Crusaders graduated some key people but they return a ton of undergraduate talent who played major roles in the Final Four run. They are also bringing in a terrific recruiting class, so, they may be one to watch in the future!
Do they have a solid GK replacement?? As an outsider looking in she seemed to keep them in a lot of their games as they got further in the NCAA's
We hope so... but the team in front may be stronger so that might lighten the load. This time of the year everything looks good on paper though doesn't it?
Offensively, Messiah's top scorer in Nikki Elsaesser returns. They graduated Alicia Frey and Corrine Wulf. Other seniors graduated but they weren't the stars. Messiah should be a top team again this season. Looked strong last night against Kutztown (d2 team) in a scrimmage.
Of teams mentioned...
#2 Messiah proving to be the team we all know with a perfect 7-0 record and conceding only 1 goal on the year. 1-0 OT win on #11 Misericorida this week
#7 Emory seemed to have been dominant over Capital with a 3-1 win and a lopsided shot count of 34 - 6.
Other notables:
Middlebury is currently sitting at 3-3 on the season with hiccups against Amherst, Conn College and Bowdoin
#1 Washington University also ever dominant with a perfect record and 1 goal conceded as well. Next weekends match up vs #3 Wheaton will be a great test of the best playing the best.
#15 William Smith sitting at 3-2, dropping games to #4 Carnegie Mellon ( whom is having a great start) and Messiah. William Smith might be down but there not out. Those aren't bad losses by any means
Ill Wesleyan v Chicago another interesting match up next week in the top 25
My dark horses for the year are Lynchburg and Bowdoin. Impressive results against some good teams... I know its still early but this could be a interesting NCAA Tournament.
All in all it seems like this could be anyones year. Any noteables missing???