NCAA Selection Day WSOC

[Deleted]

Allwhitekit predicts La Salle will get a rematch with WVU at a neutral site. But I don't think this will come to pass. We'll know the actual opponent at 4:30 today.

Only thing for certain is that it won't be Penn State, because they are seeded too highly.

I hope for Rutgers, a familiar team in the area that La Salle has already performed well against in two scrimmages in NJ earlier this season. Rutgers is our biggest natural rival in the field of 64.

Here is the webstream for the show, which starts at 4:30 PM.
LINK:

www.ncaa.com/sports/soccer-women/d1

[Deleted]

The 15th seeded La Salle will travel to #2 Virginia.

[Deleted]

hykos, I know you follow soccer pretty closely and maybe you can explain this to me. How does La Salle, who has a 35 RPI and is ranked both in the coaches and Top Drawer polls at 34 end up as a 15 seed?

They should have been a 10 seed at worst based on the numbers.

[luhoopsfan]

Does geography maybe impact seeding for the bottom half of the bracket? Meaning, keeping teams closer outweighs their natural matchup?

[Deleted]

Geography plays a role. However, for a better attendance draw and winnable game I wanted to see La Salle @ Rutgers, not a seven hour drive to face the top-10 UVA, the ACC champions. EDIT: There are legal circumstances preventing this. The state of NJ is exempt from hosting postseason games.

Also, for the second year in a row, the blogs are indicating La Salle is about a tough a draw as any ranked team can have and similar compliments and so in that sense, Virginia should have complaints they did not get a better draw as well, like a true 15 seed opponent they deserved.

A Friday night playoff game 7 hours away means Hykos can't go. Unlike 2011 there is NO webstream planned. Last year a caravan of La Salle fans did the easy drive to Maryland, and we had a free web stream for those of us at home. In that sense this is an unlucky draw for La Salle soccer fans.

Winning the outright A10 Championship meant a lot for La Salle, even though it apparently wasn't noticed by the committee.

[luhoopsfan]

I just hope the Department starts to realize that winning is really, really good and should be the expectation for all sports not some sort of miracle to pray for. The attitude needs to change and seeing the team bus arrive back to Gola to a crowd of students hopefully helps. Not to mention, hosting an NIT game in men's BBall should ahve lit a small fire as well.

[Deleted]

I have just learned from the soccer forums that Rutgers was an ineligible host due to sports betting's legalization in NJ making NJ exempt from hosting all NCAA postseason competitions across the board. That meant Rutgers had to travel, and therefore it was not an option to send La Salle to Rutgers to face their natural rivals.

However, the NCAA did not preclude Harrison, NJ from hosting the men's Big East Tournament, in an MLS arena this weekend. So I am not speculating as to whether dumping Atlantic City and not requesting/accepting their rebid had anything to do with the NCAA policy. It may have, but not definitely.

[La Salle 08]

I was really hoping for a 6-7 seed and a home game considering they finished 26th in the coaches poll. Instead, the girls get the #3 team in the country, yikes.

Hoping for the best.

[Deleted]

Nov 7, 2012 8:58:23 GMT -5 La Salle 08 said:

I was really hoping for a 6-7 seed and a home game considering they finished 26th in the coaches poll. Instead, the girls get the #3 team in the country, yikes.

Hoping for the best.

REPPED.

Nonetheless, I am not sure we are considered "host eligible" for anything more than a high school football game on that field nor do I know whether we ever applied for this coveted status. It would be a good question to ask Dr. Brennan at one of the meet and greets, but I am afraid of what the response might be. Some teams have refused to play at McCarthy, even forcing La Salle to go on the road a lot more than other NCAA teams.

Fortunately La Salle has developed into the #1 road killer and for example of that, La Salle was the only team to win at Princeton last year, and the only A10 team in 5 years to sweep at Charlotte and Saint Louis in the same weekend. These road wins also look good to the selection committee (supposedly).

As for UVA's #3 in the nation status, this ranking by the coaches came out on Tuesday, but the seeding was already determined on Monday. It's as if the coaches decided the recent ACC championship had to be worth a lot more than the regular season, but the selection committee looked (correctly) at the total season picture, and considered UVA as merely splitting with Maryland 1-1, not actually besting them. Still, for Virginia to be supposed #3 in the country and still to be a 2 seed matching up against the best midmajor team in the country except for maybe Princeton, UVA has gripes of their own, that their coach tried hard to downplay, concentrating on just winning whatever games stands in their way. The attitude of a potential champ.

And I'm looking forward to the NCAA game even more that it's a top 10, top 5, make that TOP 3 opponent. Scalp them!

[jellybean]

Nov 6, 2012 11:33:12 GMT -5 luhoopsfan said:

I just hope the Department starts to realize that winning is really, really good and should be the expectation for all sports not some sort of miracle to pray for. The attitude needs to change and seeing the team bus arrive back to Gola to a crowd of students hopefully helps. Not to mention, hosting an NIT game in men's BBall should ahve lit a small fire as well.

I think they (Ath Dept) recognize that winning is a good thing. I wonder how much of the current success in most sports is due to the work of the AD or the yeoman job done by many coaches and their staffs with less than stellar resources.

Special note, the WSOC team has a 3.6 GPA. Softball has or will have 3 players in Med School.