Go WEST young man (and NORTH)

[Kuiper]

SCIAC afternoon results

Chapman 2 - CMS 1

Chapman clinched a spot in the SCIAC tournament when it broken open a 1-1 tie with a PK in the 76th minute.  Chapman will be in 4th or 5th spot depending upon later games.

Pomona-Pitzer 2 - Caltech 0

P-P controlled play from the outset, scoring goals in the 33rd and 59th minutes to clinch a spot in the SCIAC tournament.  They are in 2nd at the moment pending the outcome of the Redlands-Cal Lu game.

[Ron Boerger]

The only two SOG Trinity had in this game were the two goals.  They were fortunate to win tonight and will need a better effort if they face off again in the SAA championships.

[Kuiper]

ASC action today

Mary Hardin-Baylor 2 - Hardin-Simmons 2

In what could be a preview of the ASC tournament final, UMHB overcomes a 2-0 deficit at the half to tie it up with goals in the 67th and 76th minutes.

East Texas Baptist 4 - Howard Payne 1

The game started with a bank with ETBU scoring in the 3rd minute and HP matching them with a goal of their own in the 7th minute, which is where it stayed almost the rest of the half before HP conceded in the 44th minute.  ETBU efficiently scored 2 goals in 3 shots in the second half to win going away.

[Kuiper]

SCAC Action

St. Thomas 4 - Centenary 2

UST plays spoiler as it thwarts Centenary's bid to jump LeTourneau for the 6th and final spot in the SCAC tourney

Colorado College 10 - University of Dallas 1

Hard to believe Dallas scored first in this game at 12:08 in the first half, but they only held it for 45 seconds and Colorado College was up by a 4-1 score at the half and scored 6 more in the second half, including a hat trick by Teddy Oppler. CC clinches the top spot in the SCAC tourney and the regular season championship with a win against winless Dallas.

Hendrix 2 - Ozarks 1

Hendrix claimed 4th spot in the SCAC tourney in a game where it couldn't feel comfortable until scoring a second goal in the 79th minute, and even then had to suffer for over a minute as Ozarks scored a goal in the 89th minute.

McMurry 1 - Schreiner 0

McMurry ends the season on a high note with its second straight win among teams already out of contention in the SCAC

[Kuiper]

Summary of where things stand on the two open questions in the NWC

1.  AQ race between Whitman and Pacific Lutheran

Without a conference tournament and three games left, the only team that can catch Whitman (38 points) is Pacific Lutheran (33 points) and the two play each other on the last game of the season.  They are each on 5 game winning streaks.

Whitman has three games left (home to Lewis & Clark today, @Puget Sound, and @ Pacific Lutheran next weekend), and PLU has three games left (@Pacific today and home to 3rd place Whitworth and Whitman next weekend).  So, if Whitman wins against Lewis & Clark and Puget Sound and PLU beats Pacific and 3rd  place Whitworth (currently at 24 points) Whitman (44 points) will have clinched the NWC AQ before the last game of the season. 

If, however, Whitman slips up in one of the next two games and PLU wins its next two games, the game next Sunday, 11/9 between Whitman (41 points) and Pacific Lutheran (39 points) will be the de facto conference championship game.  Whitman definitely has the easier road to the AQ with the easier last two games, but if PLU does get to the last game with a chance to pass up Whitman, PLU may be the favorite playing at home after the two teams tied 1-1 on Oct. 11.

2.  Lewis & Clark quest for a win (any win)

After losing to Whitworth 2-0 on Saturday, L&C is 0-11-2 in the NWC and 0-14-3 overall.  An improvement from last season (when they were 0-20), but still no wins since the program restarted in 2022.  Can they pull one off in the last three games?  They play @Whitman, @Linfield, and home to Willamette.  Whitman seems a really steep hill to climb, but on 10/3 L&C was up on Whitman 1-0 at half and 2-0 at the start of the 67th minute before Whitman woke up and decided to mount a furious comeback, winning 4-2.  Still, seems crazy to think it's even possible @Whitman with Whitman knowing the conference AQ may be on the line if they lose.  Willamette is another possibility. They only beat L&C 1-0 at home on 10/11, but Willamette has been hot lately.  Since that last L&C game, Willamette went 3-0-2 (including a 1-1 tie to Whitman) before losing 3-2 @ Pacific Lutheran yesterday.  The most likely game for a win is @Linfield (1-13-3 and 1-9-3 in the NWC) next Saturday.  The last game the two teams played - on 10/12 - ended in a 4-4 tie when Linfield went up 3-0 in the pouring rain, and was up 4-1 at the half, but Lewis & Clark came storming back in the second half to tie it up 4-4 before falling short.  So, that could be a game to watch next Saturday.  Defense may be optional (not because they aren't trying, but kind of by default).

[Ron Boerger]

Turns out the SAA men's championship is at Southwestern - I got the tournaments backwards when I looked at them last week.  Should be a big boost for the Pirates to play at home where they played the huge majority of their matches (13 of 18, 10-0-3) this season.

[Ron Boerger]

As noted by Kuiper in the NPI thread, Trinity jumped from 11th to 5th in NPI after defeating Southwestern last night.  They got a double boost; not only did the win over the formerly 28th-ranked Pirates bump their NPI, but possibly more significantly the win allowed them to drop a win against now #237 CMS from their calculation.  In order to stay in the top 8, the Tigers want #96 Berry to win their opener against #181 Oglethorpe, but a win against either in the SAA semis would let them drop a result against #230 Centre.  A subsequent win in the final (ideally, against the homestanding Pirates) would let them drop a result against #217 Rhodes.