Liberty League

[stlawus]

SLU's Henry Brown has transferred to Tufts for next season.

Wow.  Big pickup for Tufts and loss for the Saints.

Y would a Saint who has top scored (basically) his first seasons leave the team for a D3 program?
Not blaming the young man,  but imo things cannot be going right for this to happen.
Disrespecting history eventually impacts the present and future.

Tufts has a reputation of being a very good academic school throughout the nation and their soccer program is top notch. One of the best in the nation and plays in the best league in the nation, NESAC.  SLU use to play in the best league in the nation back in the early 90's.  Maybe he just wantedmore of a challenge both academically and athletically.  Can't blame him for that but he will be missed.

I've always been more optimistic than everyone else, but Saint might have a point.  SLU used to get transfers from programs like that.  Durocher's last team had a transfer from UR as an example.  It is a much different landscape now of course, but hard not to wonder.

[kevdog]

Yeah Durocher had some transfers and it started with a UMass transfer in 1990 and then 1992 got another transfer from St.Francis in Chris Rose.  Saint of Old and I have talked about this. Durocher built up some very good pipelines for recruiting and transferring players. I know things have change but sometimes transfers can help both on the field and off

[stlawus]

You're of course right, I was just referring to transfers from high academic programs comparable to Tufts like Rochester, not just in general.  But yes, Durocher's last team had transfers from UR, Syracuse and American. 

[Kuiper]

[Cross-posting from the 2025 Schedules Thread because of the Liberty League crossover]

Middlebury

Middlebury had a pretty strong non-conference schedule (for a NESCAC school) last season.  This one might not have a highly ranked opponent, but the schedule may be more exciting with two highlight matchups against Liberty League powers.  They drop Norwich, Keene State, Endicott, and Babson and add St. Lawrence, Thomas, and Vassar.  Vassar is a particularly interesting opponent after losing to Middlebury 2-1 at Middlebury in the 2nd round of the NCAA tournament last season.  St. Lawrence is another really interesting matchup.  I think the last time the two schools played each other was in 2006, when the Saints beat Middlebury at Middlebury 2-1 in the first round of the NCAA tournament.  I'm sure there are some SLU alums who remember that one.  I don't know when the two teams last played each other in the regular season, though.  It would be pretty cool if this became a regular thing.

[stlawus]

[Cross-posting from the 2025 Schedules Thread because of the Liberty League crossover]

Middlebury

Middlebury had a pretty strong non-conference schedule (for a NESCAC school) last season.  This one might not have a highly ranked opponent, but the schedule may be more exciting with two highlight matchups against Liberty League powers.  They drop Norwich, Keene State, Endicott, and Babson and add St. Lawrence, Thomas, and Vassar.  Vassar is a particularly interesting opponent after losing to Middlebury 2-1 at Middlebury in the 2nd round of the NCAA tournament last season.  St. Lawrence is another really interesting matchup.  I think the last time the two schools played each other was in 2006, when the Saints beat Middlebury at Middlebury 2-1 in the first round of the NCAA tournament.  I'm sure there are some SLU alums who remember that one.  I don't know when the two teams last played each other in the regular season, though.  It would be pretty cool if this became a regular thing.

There was talk of Middlebury trying to schedule SLU but didn't sound like much had come of it.  I'm glad to see it did.  At the very least happy to see SLU mix it up in the non-con, they've had the same schedule for what seems like 6 years.  The last time they played was indeed that 2006 NCAA tournament matchup.  They've only played each other 13 times , I'm actually surprised they haven't played more.

Vassar wasn't really outplayed by Middlebury last year, in fact I'd say Vassar might have been in control more than they weren't.  Had some good chances at the end to tie it up. 

[stlawus]

I guess I'll start things with the season about to get underway.   I guess I just don't know.  Vassar probably picked to finish 1st, they bring back the league's best player and still have most of their midfielders.  Have to replace a few defenders, but Vassar's strength was never their defense, they just impose their will offensively.

SLU is eh, I don't really know either.  Back line should be solid and will have lots of size, no one below 6'2" across all 4, but there are a lot of ifs with the midfield. Ogango back healthy will give them a definite boost there.  Couldn't keep their top scorer from transferring so they're going to need goals from Campbell. Not sure how much they'll get out of their freshmen group, 1 or 2 players look like they'll get extended minutes, but at the moment there isn't anyone like a Tobolski that I foresee jumping onto the scene right away.   SLU has started out very poorly the last couple seasons, so if that happens again Cortland could put them in a big hole right off the bat. 

After that, I really don't know about the rest of the league.  Hobart I suppose could make noise, they had a nice run the 2nd half of the year.  Ithaca had a coaching change, Union lost another one of their best players to the NESCAC and RPI has been in dire straights.  Would like to see Clarkson finally get over the hump and into the playoffs with the return of Carter Lincoln. Clarkson is the sleeping giant of the Liberty League across several sports.  If they had any semblance of an effort to upgrade facilities besides Cheel they could easily be one of the top Liberty League athletic departments. 

[deutschfan]

So it's that time of year again.  Here is my two cents on the Brown transfer.  Other than the fact that there are very few inter-school transfers in general, this decision makes all the sense in the world.  Brown spent two years at SLU and never made the dance.  He would be looking at an uphill battle as the LL has typically been a one team invite.  Tufts plays in the best league in the nation and has won multiple national championships in the last decade.  It is almost always in the dance.  Its acceptance rate is around 10 percent compared to an over 50 percent acceptance rate at SLU.  Tufts has Boston, while SLU borders on a neighboring nation that our current administration is trashing.  Brown also probably saw the experience of Marco Perugini, the Union midfielder who imho should have been the 2023 ROY.  He goes to Connecticut College, leads the team in assists, and is a shootout away from a national championship.  Does Tobolski follow in Perugini and Brown's footsteps?  If he duplicates last season I think he's gone.  Vassar's last 2 ROYs before him were Mrliks, who had family ties to Vassar that likely kept them there.  Tobolski's academics had to be top notch to get into Vassar and he would be an attractive target for an Ivy or NESCAC program.