FINAL FOUR: MESSIAH vs WILLIAMS and DOMINICAN vs CALVIN

Predictions???? IMO whoever wins the Messiah/Williams match-up will win the national championship.

My predictions:

Messiah 2 Williams 1

Calvin 2 Dominican 0

Final: Messiah 3 Calvin 0

When do they play and who the hell beat Loras?

Loras lost to Dominican in the Sweet 16 yesterday. Dominican looked like the better team and Loras had 4 starters out with injuries.

The game are December 4th and the final on the 5th I believe.

Messiah has the experience and always find a way to win. Williams competed in the NESCAC conference which is considered the best D3 soccer conference in the country and beat York in pks in the NCAA tourney and York beat Messiah 2-0 in the regular season.

Dominican proved itself this year that they can compete with anyone. They will get the win over Calvin who have gotten pretty lucky and would not have advanced to the NCAA tourney had they not won their AQ.

I dont think Dominican or Calvin have a shot at knocking off Messiah or Williams though. We will see

Willams 2 Messiah 1
Calvin 1 Dominican 1 - Calvin wins on PKs for the third time in the tournament

Williams 2 Calvin 1 in the final

Messiah is up 1-0 over Williams just a little into the 2nd half

Messiah 2 Williams 1. who called that one....

I was going for the underdog

Now you watch Messiah murk Calvin tomorrow. Calvin beat Dom 1-0. I predicted 2-0 but thats close enough. I bet Messiah still wins 3-0 tomorrow!!

And my final four will be perfect

what time are they playing? Why did i not check this earlier? I did nothing last night. Piss.

How do you think Carroll would have stacked up against one of these teams? I would assume a loss but do you think CU had some matchups they could have taken advantage of?

Messiah is really, really, really good. I would hate to see what would happen if Carroll played them...

Messiah 2 Calvin 0

My predictions were pretty much spot on all weekend. Messiah wins 2 straight and its like 7th this decade, rediculous

The Messiah women won, too...25-0-1 on the season. Insane.

Craigaldo wrote:Messiah 2 Calvin 0

My predictions were pretty much spot on all weekend. Messiah wins 2 straight and its like 7th this decade, rediculous

7th? Holy **** man. I don't understand how teams can get such a strangle hold of national titles. The UNC women had a similar run (may still have the run going, i don't know) but they can offer scholarships and what not.

To be a division III team and run the table like this. It's really impressive.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Carolina_Tar_Heels_women%27s_soccer

They're playing for #21 right now. Yes, I'm watching women's soccer over the two crappy football games on right now.

Interesting decision Bomber. The football games are pretty bad but I don't know that I would be willing to turn them off.

What is the score of the UNC game?

UNC won 1-0 and to correct bomber I believe it was their 20th win not 21st. My brother played club with Casey Negoura (spl) for two years on UNC and she was the best player on a premier boys team. Womens is different for D1 then mens is though. The talent pool isnt as large so the dropoff from say D1 to D3 is HUGE compared to mens. In say Wisconsin you have many club teams fighting for state championships for a shot to go to regionals but for women you might as well hand it to FC Milwaukee each year...

And Messiah has been huge because they simply recruit HARD. They dont have tryouts like most D3 schools and make cuts they simply recruit a handfull of players every year as their own recruiting class.

I believe their program is successfull because of the coaches but one thing some people dont realize is Messiah doesnt have a football program so soccer is the #1. With soccer being the sport they get tons of money and in turn a huge fanbase. They average over 1,500 fans at home games, sometimes reaching almost 3,000.

Kai Kasiguran who got drafted by the Chicago Fire chose Messiah over Akron!!! Akron is becoming the most powerfull soccer program at the D1 level and will be at the FInal four this weekend with a perfect 25-0-0 record I believe...

With the atmosphere they have at games, the NCAA championships, and how hard they recruit I dont see this program going anywhere but continuing to get more and more championships

I have to disagree with the talent disparity being greater with men over women.

You can take a handful in any instance and prove your theory but women tend to turn down Division I schools (when they are recruited) more than men would.

Look no further than the Carroll women's team. They have three, maybe four players that would make plenty of division I schools across the state. You cannot say the same about the men's team and they turned in similar seasons.

If you want to look at the girls UNC recurits to the recruits any other schools, men or women, the disparity will rarely be that great. UNC women have proven they are THE school if you want to win a championship. Messiah may be one of the few men's programs that could even entertain such a claim.

Back to the girl's side. I have seen at least 8 players that were recruited to play DI but opted for Carroll for one reason or another. I don't know why girls look more at things like academics then men do...it just happens. Maybe Leanna can give insite on that.

A little difference between being "recruited" and being offerened scholarships. If you want to count being recruited as letters, coming to watch games, phone contact then I was recruited but not once was I offered any amount of money.

To be honest I dont see any Carroll player that could really play on Marquette or UWM or UW. The players are just much better. I saw Marquette play twice this year cause I know a few girls on the team, I saw UWM play once, and watched a webcast of the UW sweet 16 game. The talent is far better than Carroll and pretty much all D3 schools.


My major point was say Carroll mens team goes and plays Marquette, UWM, DePaul, NIU and the game would probably result in Carroll loses but it would still be a game...You take the womens team and go play those teams for the womens side and the game would be 14-0. Seriously.

Craigaldo wrote:A little difference between being "recruited" and being offerened scholarships. If you want to count being recruited as letters, coming to watch games, phone contact then I was recruited but not once was I offered any amount of money.

To be honest I dont see any Carroll player that could really play on Marquette or UWM or UW. The players are just much better. I saw Marquette play twice this year cause I know a few girls on the team, I saw UWM play once, and watched a webcast of the UW sweet 16 game. The talent is far better than Carroll and pretty much all D3 schools.


My major point was say Carroll mens team goes and plays Marquette, UWM, DePaul, NIU and the game would probably result in Carroll loses but it would still be a game...You take the womens team and go play those teams for the womens side and the game would be 14-0. Seriously.

Ok, I agree with you on the scores. In fact, you (i thought you were on the squad) played Marquette in a scrimmage. The starters tied the first period or two 0-0 and the backups got slaughtered by about 5. I do think the competition CAN be close with men's teams but I also think you are comparing two totally different animals.

The women's team would get destroyed by Marquette. I wouldn't dream of arguing any other way. That is not to say that a few of the girls; Blenner, Callender and Uttech would not find significant rolls on those DI teams. Hell, Blenner played two years of division I right?

This Carroll squad is similar to others i've seen, they have 3 or 4 studs that could play anywhere in the state but they fall apart against good teams for reasons previously discussed.

If you look at a 11 girls from Marquette or UWM, they will look far superior, the trick, in my opinion, is thinking of the talent the few CU girls have and see if they match up. I really think they would. (BTW, i too have played with and against girl DI grads, i'm not just talking about of my ass)

This discussion will never get resolved unless Bretzman schedules a scrimmage next year against UWM/MU, but IMO from watching several games are that most of the girls on MU/UWM posess the speed of Uttech, shot of cody,and vision of blenner and then some. They are for the most part the complete package.

Sure they could compete in little spurts but the talent level as I stated IMO is much much higher.

I was never on the Carroll squad when they scrimmaged Marquette

Not sure about Blenner or Carpenter but I do think if you put Uttech on a DI school from her frosh year to her senior year, you would not pick her out as the odd duck.

A lot of what squews the talent is that the girls you are seeing are not only DI players but they are the best DI players that team has to offer and they play awesome competition in practice and games for four seasons.

You're right that you can't really tell unless CU plays elite teams or until CU fixes a few problems at the top...