NCAA Women's Bracketology

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Northeastern and Sacred Heart were both eliminated yesterday. That leaves BC and Harvard as definite qualifiers and BU and U Mass on the bubble. The results yesterday parobably secured BU an at-large bid, even if they were to be upset by Albany in the America East final. UMass's upset over Lasalle returned them into the at-large picture, but they probably still need an upset win over Dayton to be guaranteed a NCAA spot. BTW, as of this AM, U Mass has an uRPI of 43.

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Things really haven't changes much for the local teams. Six New England teams remain in the hunt for NCAA births.

Harvard has already qualified due to their eminent Ivy League Championship. They will likely be a non-seeded team and travel to face a team seeded in the high teens or low 20s.

That opponent may be BC, who is safe for an at-large bid but is probably lucky that the first round has expanded to 32 sites. Otherwise I doubt that BC would have got a chance to host. Their 16 RPI, weak non-league schedule, uneven ACC performance and heavily weighted home schedule (13 of 18 games) likely will keep them out of the top 16 seeds.

BU is a bubble team. It is pretty remote that they will lose to Albany, but if they do (and miss out on the America East automatic birth) they could be the team with the highest RPI (it would be in the low 40s with an AE finals loss) that stays home. A tough pill for a team that was in the top 20 earlier this year.

U Mass flirted with bubble status for the latter part of the year, but their loss to Richmond means that they need to win the A-10 to get an invite. They will have to beat LaSalle (and then probably Dayton) to win the A-10. No short order.

Northeastern remains alive in the Colonial thanks to yesterday's exciting 2OT/ PK win. They are a long shot (William & Mary remains a strong favorite) but the core of seniors on the NU side have won a CL title and understand what it takes.

Sacred Heart starts their quest for a NEC title today at St. Francis. I like their chances and of the 3 NE teams in a must win scenerio, they probably have the best shot as they face the weakest competition. If they do get in, expect the reward to be a visit to Penn State or Virginia!!

St Francis finished first in NEC standings and will face Long Island in the NEC tournament finals. LI is the only team to beat St Francis this season (handily by a 4-1 score). I mention this only because St Francis' coach, Brenda van Stralen, use to coach for the Bandits and I believe was DOC of the club before their merger with Inter.

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November 3rd, 2011
Massachusetts handed La Salle its first loss in 19 games when it beat the Explorers, 1-0, on Julie Morrissey's goal in the 2nd minute to move into the Atlantic-10 final against host Dayton.

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ACC
Quarterfinals
Duke 1 Virginia Tech 0
Boston College 2 Wake Forest 3
North Carolina 0 Florida State 1
Virginia 2 Maryland 0

Semifinals
Nov. 4 in Cary, N.C.
Duke 1 Wake Forest 2
Virginia 1 Florida State 2

Final
Nov. 6 in Cary, N.C.
Wake Forest vs. Florida State (TV: ESPNU, 1 p.m. ET)

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America East
Final
Nov. 5 in Boston
Boston Univ. vs. Hartford

Atlantic 10
Quarterfinals
Nov. 3 in Dayton, Ohio
Dayton 1 Charlotte 0
Massachusetts 3 St. Bonaventure 1

Semifinals
Nov. 4 in Dayton, Ohio
La Salle 0 Massachusetts 1
Richmond 0 Dayton 2

Final
Nov. 6 in Dayton, Ohio
Dayton vs. Massachusetts (TV: asun.tv, 1 p.m. ET)

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CAA
Quarterfinals
Nov. 3 in Williamsburg, Va.
George Mason 1 Northeastern 1
(Northeastern wins 4-2 on penalties.)
Delaware 1 Hofstra 0

Semifinals
Nov. 4 in Williamsburg, Va.
VCU 1 Northeastern 0
William & Mary 2 Delaware 1

Final
Nov. 6 in Williamsburg, Va.
William & Mary vs. VCU


Ivy
No tournament -- Harvard clinched automatic berth.


MAAC
Semifinals
Nov. 4 in Baltimore
Marist 1 Fairfield 1
(Marist wins 3-2 on penalties.)
Loyola, Md. 5 Niagara 0

Final
Nov. 6 in Baltimore
Loyola, Md. vs. Marist


Northeast
Semifinals
Nov. 4 in Loretto, Pa.
St. Francis, Pa. 0 Sacred Heart 0
(St. Francis, Pa. wins 4-3 on penalties.)
LIU 2 Monmouth 1

Final
Nov. 6 in Loretto, Pa.
St. Francis, Pa. vs. LIU (TV: northeastconference.tv, noon ET)


Pac-12
No tournament -- Stanford clinched automatic bid.


Patriot League
Semifinals
Nov. 4 in Hamilton, N.Y.
Colgate 0 Army 2
Navy 3 Lafayette 2

Final
Nov. 6 in Hamilton, N.Y.
Navy vs. Army


WCC
no conference tournament -- Pepperdine clinched automatic bid.



Is there an advantage to teams not playing a conference tournament? I would think there is.

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Most interesting results above are Navy and Army in Patriot championship game. How do these two schools manage to field such good women's teams given the nature of the schools and ratios of men to women?

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Most interesting results above are Navy and Army in Patriot championship game. How do these two schools manage to field such good women's teams given the nature of the schools and ratios of men to women?

Ah, maybe because all the women that go to these schools are amazingly physically fit and athletic. BTW, all those girls are getting a bona fide full ride.

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Ah, maybe because all the women that go to these schools are amazingly physically fit and athletic. BTW, all those girls are getting a bona fide full ride.

According to my daughter who played against one of these teams, that is not the case at all. She had a similar preconception, but felt her team was more physically fit and was very surprised that the military women were not.

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Most interesting results above are Navy and Army in Patriot championship game. How do these two schools manage to field such good women's teams given the nature of the schools and ratios of men to women?

Warrior girls.

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Ah, maybe because all the women that go to these schools are amazingly physically fit and athletic. BTW, all those girls are getting a bona fide full ride.

I'll put my money on these Navy and Army women to be hugely successful in 10-15 years....must be an incredible experience if they can get through it in one piece.

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Of the 30 D1 leagues in the country, I would say that the Patriot is about 23/24. That is in respect to soccer, not overall educational quality because those are some great schools and I'm sure the players will all do quite well in life. But don't kid yourself, place any of these programs (including Annapolis and West Point) into most of the nation's conferences, and they would struggle. As for the service academies, they typically have difficulty in any major team sport (outside the friendly confines of the PL) and that makes sense considering the rigid academic, disciplinary and stress requirements of the schools.

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Of the 30 D1 leagues in the country, I would say that the Patriot is about 23/24. That is in respect to soccer, not overall educational quality because those are some great schools and I'm sure the players will all do quite well in life. But don't kid yourself, place any of these programs (including Annapolis and West Point) into most of the nation's conferences, and they would struggle. As for the service academies, they typically have difficulty in any major team sport (outside the friendly confines of the PL) and that makes sense considering the rigid academic, disciplinary and stress requirements of the schools.

Yeah, I don't think I said they would be playing in the WPL or WPLS or whatever the league is that won't be around in another year. I was of course just talking about life in general. I could care less what the Patriot League's ranking is, except for the constant refrain of NESCAC parents who swear their kids would have been stars in the Patriot League (and thus D1).

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From All White Kit

Comments on today's A-10 final:

http://www.allwhitekit.com/?p=8113#more-8113


(26) Dayton vs (47) UMass – 1:00 PM EST (Atlantic 10 Tournament Final)

Two sides who, like the pair of teams above, didn’t meet up in the regular season meet in Dayton to clash for the A10 Tournament title and the all-important automatic bid for the league. Ed Matz’s UMass team may be looking to play the role of bubble buster in this one with the Minutewomen fresh off the heels of knocking out La Salle in the A10 Tournament semi-finals. Finishing fourth in the league, UMass has taken the hard road to the final, having to win a pair of matches, including against unbeaten La Salle in the second round of the tournament. The Minutewomen aren’t complete outsiders for an at-large bid in the event of a loss though. Wins over Boston University and the aforementioned La Salle help their cause, though they’d certainly like to remove all doubt with the auto bid. Tournament hosts Dayton are probably where they expected to be all along, playing for the tournament title on home soil. It was a bit of an adventure to get there though, as a third place finish in the league meant an extra game as the Flyers were consigned to the first round against Charlotte. But this Dayton team has been playing with supreme confidence over the past few weeks and have won five straight by multiple goals. There place in the NCAA Tournament secure, the Flyers probably can’t get into the national seed discussion, meaning this one’s likely all about the trophy, which Dayton is surely craving after missing out on the league title. Colleen Williams and the rest of the Dayton offense have gotten out to a rapid start in the postseason and will look to continue their momentum heading into the Big Dance with a final win in the A10 Tournament against upset minded UMass.

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I don't give UMass much of a chance today against a very good Dayton team, but what a remarkable job he as done at UMass.