UAA Soccer

[kansas hokie]

Thoughts on first weekend for UAA teams?

Numbers in parentheses are NPI rank at end of last year.

Chicago with quality loss against Gustavus Aldophus (6) and a tie with St. Olaf (23), top competition there.

NYU two losses, Rowan (38) and Vassar (43), but both were top teams last year. Still a result would have been good for the conference.

CMU win against Baldwin Wallace (214) is as exptected, tie to Allegheny (282), ugh.

Brandeis, two wins, good start, Coast Guard (51) and Suffolk (134).

Case, similar, two wins, Fransciscan (71) and Juniata (65), quality wins.

Rochester, terrible weekend, 4-0 and 4-1 losses, Cortland (31) and Nazareth (123), those scorelines are never good.

Wash U - 8-1 over Milliken (115) is quite impressive, 2-1 loss to Westminster (341) is equally shocking

Emory - wins over Washington & lee (42) and Covenant (34), great start against strongest out of conference games they will play.

Overall, don't think UAA did enough this weekend to give hope that it will be more than a one bid conference again this year. Case, Brandies, and Emory starting well; Chicago up there playing top teams; Wash u and CMU confounding; NYU next...then Rochester in the back.

Looking forward this week, there's a bunch of games that UAA teams should be winning, let's go 12-0 this week!

[deiscanton]

Kansas hokie, your NPI rank numbers are not from the end of last year-- They are from the NPI report of October 27, 2024-- going into conference tournament play for most d3 conferences.   These were not the NPI rankings at the time of the selections on November 10, 2024.   I am posting an update with the NPI rankings at the time of selection-- those are the true final NPI rankings.  I also went to the Brandeis at Suffolk game yesterday and have some thoughts on that game as well, which I will post today.   It will be harder to discuss the UAA this year with casual d3 fans due to the requirement of getting a FloSports subscription to watch most of the games involving UAA teams. 

Here were the NPI rankings of the non-conference opponents that UAA teams played this weekend at the time of selection for the 2024 NCAA DIII Men's Soccer Tournament on November 10, 2024.  If a team is listed as an AQ, it means that the team won their conference's automatic bid to that tournament.

Source: http://status.ncaa.org/selection_rankings/nitty_gritties/40157

UChicago--  Gustavus Adolphus (#11-- at-large pick #5), St. Olaf (#15-- MIAC AQ)
NYU-- Rowan (#29-- NJAC AQ), Vassar (#39-- Liberty League AQ)
Carnegie Melllon-- Baldwin-Wallace (#216), Allegheny (#267)
Brandeis-- US Coast Guard Academy (#91), Suffolk (#110-- CNE AQ)
CWRU-- Franciscan (#60-- Presidents Athletic Conf AQ), Juniata (#78)
Rochester-- Cortland (#22-- SUNYAC AQ), Nazareth (#153)
Wash U-- Millikin (#100), Westminister (MO) (#336)
Emory-- Wash & Lee (#18-- ODAC AQ), Covenant (#37)

Lowest ranked NPI team that got an at-large bid last year was Buffalo St with an NPI ranking at #33. 

Thoughts on first weekend for UAA teams?

Numbers in parentheses are NPI rank at end of last year.

Chicago with quality loss against Gustavus Aldophus (6) and a tie with St. Olaf (23), top competition there.

NYU two losses, Rowan (38) and Vassar (43), but both were top teams last year. Still a result would have been good for the conference.

CMU win against Baldwin Wallace (214) is as exptected, tie to Allegheny (282), ugh.

Brandeis, two wins, good start, Coast Guard (51) and Suffolk (134).

Case, similar, two wins, Fransciscan (71) and Juniata (65), quality wins.

Rochester, terrible weekend, 4-0 and 4-1 losses, Cortland (31) and Nazareth (123), those scorelines are never good.

Wash U - 8-1 over Milliken (115) is quite impressive, 2-1 loss to Westminster (341) is equally shocking

Emory - wins over Washington & lee (42) and Covenant (34), great start against strongest out of conference games they will play.

Overall, don't think UAA did enough this weekend to give hope that it will be more than a one bid conference again this year. Case, Brandies, and Emory starting well; Chicago up there playing top teams; Wash u and CMU confounding; NYU next...then Rochester in the back.

Looking forward this week, there's a bunch of games that UAA teams should be winning, let's go 12-0 this week!

[deiscanton]

Some quick thoughts on my experience attending yesterday's Brandeis at Suffolk game in person--

(1) How many D3 teams do you know play their home soccer games literally next door to a major international airport?   While the University Athletic Association is sometimes known in D3 circles as the "Airplane" Conference due to UAA teams flying out for away games, the on campus fields at UAA schools are not literally within walking distance of the airport terminals-- they are usually a few miles out.   Suffolk University, on the other hand, has been playing their home soccer games since 2015 in East Boston Memorial Park, which is literally next door to Logan Airport.  Thank goodness the flight patterns do not have the planes travelling over the stadium, but you can see the control tower from the field.   When I got to Boston's South Station yesterday, I took the MBTA's Silver Line Bus 3 to the Blue Line's MBTA Airport Station, and the park entrance is right there at the Airport subway stop in Boston.  From the entrance, it is about a 5 minute walk to the stadium.  The Brandeis team arrived from campus using 5 rental vans to travel all of the players, but the Suffolk players regularly travel on the MBTA from campus to go to practice and to leave the field after the games-- when the game was over and Brandeis won, I saw some of the Suffolk men's soccer players at the Airport station around 3:30 PM when I decided to take the "T" over to Charlestown, MA to go to the 99 Restaurant for my dinner.   Unfortunately, my ride home on the 5:50 PM commuter train from Back Bay Station back to Canton Junction was packed with Red Sox fans coming home from the ball game, so I was barely able to get a seat.

(2) I watched the game next to the father of Brandeis's #9 Elan Romo.  Elan's dad flew in from Florida for the first 2 Brandeis games, and recognized some of the Suffolk players as well, as a few of the Suffolk players were Elan's old high school teammates from Cypress Bay School back in Florida.

(3)  This was the first time that Brandeis soccer (men or women) played a soccer match in East Boston, and the 2nd meeting all-time between Brandeis and Suffolk-- the first meeting last year ended in a 0-0 tie, so yesterday was the first time both teams scored against the other side in a regular season match.  Elan Romo scored Brandeis's first ever goal in the very short Suffolk series so far, while Suffolk's first goal scored against Brandeis came from a low major d1 transfer from Merrimack who did not score any goals in his previous 2 seasons with the Merrimack Warriors.  The match was a hard fought contest, and I was fortunate to see Brandeis beat Suffolk for the first time in program history on the first trip for the Judges to East Boston to play a college match rather than just passing through on the way to the airport gate to take off for another UAA city.

(4) It seems that Brandeis #99 Tyler Correnti is ready to step in as the #1 keeper for the Judges this season based on his performance in playing all of the minutes the first 2 games this season. 

Unfortunately soccer is not one of the sports where an unofficial season long NPI daily ranking is currently being done by a service like D3DataCast, so I will have to wait until October when the official NPI summary reports for soccer start coming out, but it would not be surprising if the UAA ends up as a one bid league on the men's side again.   The UAA on the women's side more than makes up for multiple at-large bids for soccer in that respect.    For the men's side in soccer, it seems like NESCAC is first among leagues when it comes to at-large bids, and then comes everyone else.  We will see if that remains the case this season. 

[kansas hokie]

My apologies for using an old link and reporting incorrect NPI numbers from last year, thank you for correcting them. It's one of the data points that gives context about the results. UAA teams can win every game next weekend and might be favorites in each one of them, hope the results go as expected!