2022 D3 NCAA Tournament Bracket

[laxpert]

Thought Tufts would win, but man…that was a complete blowout. Made SJF look like a very average team for sixty minutes.

Mason Kohn suddenly taking the majority of the draws at X and dominating is a wrinkle that most probably didn’t see coming. Curious as to why he wasn’t more of a factor earlier in the season. Bredahl also broke Uppgren’s single season points record and is in striking distance of the DIII single season record. They’re going to be a tough out if they can do this next weekend against Salisbury.

Seriously. Kohn showing up and beating Joe Post straight up was shocking. Thought faceoffs were Tufts' biggest weakness last year by far - if that's fixed (aka if this wasn't an aberration) and they can string together make it-take it possessions against high-level FOGOs, hard to imagine any defense in the country stopping them for 60 minutes.

Tufts was better in every facet of the game. I would have to give an assist for the dominating performance to the under ranked Catholic Cards who gave SJF a challenging contest 24 hours earlier while Tufts easily took care of business. According to the box Kohn didn't take any faceoffs on Saturday and possibly his technique was the SJF guys kryptonite. A previous poster pointed out how prepping for Tufts zone was going to be challenging when playing back to back games for SJF and same would be true for RIT if they advance. Excited to see if the Gulls can dissect the Jumbos D, if not, Tufts is probably headed to Memorial Day weekend.

[ergit]

Thought Tufts would win, but man…that was a complete blowout. Made SJF look like a very average team for sixty minutes.

Mason Kohn suddenly taking the majority of the draws at X and dominating is a wrinkle that most probably didn’t see coming. Curious as to why he wasn’t more of a factor earlier in the season. Bredahl also broke Uppgren’s single season points record and is in striking distance of the DIII single season record. They’re going to be a tough out if they can do this next weekend against Salisbury.

Seriously. Kohn showing up and beating Joe Post straight up was shocking. Thought faceoffs were Tufts' biggest weakness last year by far - if that's fixed (aka if this wasn't an aberration) and they can string together make it-take it possessions against high-level FOGOs, hard to imagine any defense in the country stopping them for 60 minutes.

Tufts was better in every facet of the game. I would have to give an assist to the under ranked Catholic Cards who gave SJF a challenging contest 24 hours earlier while Tufts easily took care of business. According to the box Kohn didn't take any faceoffs on Saturday and possibly his technique was the SJF guys kryptonite. A previous poster pointed out how prepping for Tufts zone was going to be challenging when playing back to back games for SJF and same would be true for RIT if they advance. Excited to see if the Gulls can dissect the Jumbos D, if not Tufts is probably headed to Memorial Day weekend.

FYI, MIT played zone D vs. RIT.

[Laxdds]

For fun if you were to seed the final 8 what would it look like? This is what I have:
1. CNU
2. RIT
3. Salisbury
4. Tufts
5. York
6. Bowdoin
7. Union
8. Gettysburg
GO BULLETS!

[Asgot]

Four games and it looks like it will be two at 12 and two at 3. That’s disappointing.

Disappointing why most teams don’t have game video on their schedule. LYN has them all game video linked to utube on their schedule (although I didn’t feel the need to watch my bugs get squished again by WNE)….
Salisbury, W&L, Stevenson and some other teams do as well..
Seems all these playoff games could easily not be missed….

CNU has far and away the best D3 broadcast. The announcers are not the same homers you get from watching three of the teams mentioned in your post. The analysis is detailed and unbiased. They will be highly knowledgeable not only about the Spartans but Gettysburg and Union as well.

The CNU guys are absolutely homers, they use the terms we and us. but that is fine and they should be homers. They know there stuff and it should be a good listen. The guy that Does the York game is good as well.

[Nearpost]

Great to hear about quality broadcast teams. It’s an important role. The folks that do it well deserve recognition. Unfortunately not all sites benefited by conscientious people on the broadcast team. The folks at Tufts were horrible! Disparaging both SJF and Catholic with anti Christian comments, and insulting players abilities. Really disappointing. Let’s get people who love and understand the game. I heard of many people listening at home who had to turn the audio off.
Let’s stick to lacrosse and keep it on the field, it’s a great game played by great young adults who’ve spent countless hours of hard work to get here. All these players deserve respect.

[ah23]

I wonder if you’re the same person I saw on Twitter complaining about how it was “insulting and ignorant for the Tufts lax announcers to repeatedly call St. John Fisher 'Rochester'” without realizing that SJF has an All-American defenseman whose last name is Rochester.

Anyway. Was going to actually say something about that post, but…then I remembered that responding to trolls on brand new accounts is not helpful. Just commenting to point out that the post is made up BS. If you're mad about your kid's team losing, take a deep breath and find a different outlet.

[pcowlax]

For student broadcasters, Tufts crew is usually excellent and always respectful of the other team. I did not watch the SJF game but would be shocked if they were "disparaging both SJF and Catholic with anti Christian comments". As for insulting players abilities, there is never any need to be wantonly disparaging but this isn't middle school, heck it's not even college from 30 years ago. Many of these guys are 22, 23 or even 24. If someone is playing poorly there is nothing wrong with calling that out.

Picks to invite ridicule.

CNU-York- York entered the season with lots of hype and even some talk of pre-season #1. Two early losses to 2 great teams and they fell, if not off the radar, then off of most discussions of top tier natty contenders. Since then they have done nothing but win, with nice W's over Cabrini and Gettysburg and two wins of a decent Stevenson. Well, time to put the big boy pants back on because here comes CNU. Title contenders from the beginnings, strong favorites for awhile after an almost unprecedented pounding of Salisbury and still firmly in the top tier after losing the rematch. I think York is better than all but the top 2 or 3 teams in the country. Unfortunately for them, this is one of those teams. Named after a 0ne-armed pirate, the Captains show they can use both hands and sail on to the semis, 14-11

Gettysburg-Union- G-Burg with a lot of L's but outside of Swarthmore all to good tournament teams. That said, before the this last one with Dickinson, no real notable wins. They certainly have tradition on their side but Union has a fistful of impressive W's and a 1 goal loss to RIT. The lacrosse world learns how to pronounce Schenectady and the Dutch move on, 14-10

RIT-Bowdoin- A tremendous and unexpected (at least by me) year for the Polar Bears, who poked their heads out from several years of hibernation and immediately started scoring, with only one game this year with fewer than 13 goals. Led by the dazzling Donall Mullane, Bowdoin has 4 attackmen with over 45 goals (including 2 freshman and a sophomore) and are paced in the midfield by Zach Chandler with 49 points. Bowdoin had the player of the year (Mullane), the rookie of the year (Byrd) and the coach of the year in the NESCAC. Hobbs in goal was 2nd team all-CAC and can be lights out. This team, especially on offense, is loaded with talent and has beaten all comers....except Tufts. And there in lies the rub as neither of those 2 losses were really competitive. Now comes RIT, who has wins over SJF, Union and York, with a solitary 1 goal loss to rival RPI avenged in a 9 goal beatdown, as well as a scary mule skinning of a really pretty strong MIT team. Bowdoin has the talent but sometimes lacks the structure on offense. My concern is that they will get caught up running with RIT and trying to match flashy goal for flashy goal. It will be fun to watch if you like offense and Hobbs will make some stops but playing in warmer weather the Tigers outclaw the Polar Bears, 17-12.

Salisbury-Tufts- The main event. The Big Kahuna. The Heavyweight Championship of the Quarterfinals. A shame this one is happening now but here we are. Mac Bredahl. Any discussion of Tufts of course starts there. Sitting at 130 points, 36 broken ankles, 16 lost jock straps and a handful of broken dreams, Bredahl is having one of the best season for an attackman in D3 history. As lethal and central as he is to Tufts however, this is no one-man-band. Jack Boyden has 72 goals and 114 points, Cam Kelleher has chipped in 55 and 80 from the midfield, Tommy Swank, with one of the fastest shots you ever won't see has 46 goals and even the tastefully named Duke Alf has scored 29. Early on Tufts lost twice and lost badly, to Union and Middlebury. Both games they played extremely careless, fast and loose even for them. The key, as always for them, is dialing it in enough to not through the ball away 25 times while not so much as to take away the pace that fuels their success. Oh, and FO and goal, those are keys too. Kohn is a great story, coming out of the student body like the 12th man at Texas A&M. If he (or whoever they are rolling out) can be close to 50%, look out. Salisbury is Salisbury, except for 1 day where they were not. They have played a number of strong teams and won comfortably, no blowing them out but never threatened. This is not their best team but it is not Tufts best team either. The question as it has been every time these two titans have played is pace. Can Salisbury slow it down (not slow of course, just slower) or can Tufts impose a track meet. My head said Salisbury but my NESCAC heart says Tufts so I will reluctantly go with the Jumbos, 15-13.

[SixBySix]

One of the things I've taken away from playing on a #45-60 (depending on the year) ranked DIII team in a "power conference" and watching the sport for a number of years since is that there is a truly massive disparity in athleticism and skill in DIII. We would routinely rout teams in non conference who would be in their conference championship games, and then go on to lose multiple conference games 16-5. Those teams would lose in the playoffs to the top teams in the conference, who would in turn get run off the field by Final Four teams.

The net result is that every team can look dominant when you watch a single game, but the ultimate result of any given game is very often is exactly what you would expect before the first whistle. That said, I'm going to predict a very chalky Saturday with much wider margins than most:

Union 16-10
RIT 18-9
CNU 14-9
Tufts 17-15

Hoping to be wrong and that there will be some nailbiters and upsets though!

[FosterLax3]

For fun if you were to seed the final 8 what would it look like? This is what I have:
1. CNU
2. RIT
3. Salisbury
4. Tufts
5. York
6. Bowdoin
7. Union
8. Gettysburg
GO BULLETS!

Union should be ranked above Bowdoin and York here, possibly even Tufts as they beat them handily earlier in the year. Union is led by a bunch of 5th year guys who have contributed their whole careers and know how to win games. Three times in the past two seasons they have lost to RIT by one goal and you sure bet they have their eyes set on hopefully finally beating them in the finals. Union is my pick to make it out of that side of the bracket.

[Unknown Participant]

For fun if you were to seed the final 8 what would it look like? This is what I have:
1. CNU
2. RIT
3. Salisbury
4. Tufts
5. York
6. Bowdoin
7. Union
8. Gettysburg
GO BULLETS!

I'd put Union at 3, Tufts 4 and move Gulls to 5.

[ah23]

Based partially on resume and partially how they're playing now/recently, I'd have:

1. RIT
2. CNU
3. Tufts
4. Salisbury
5. Union
6. Bowdoin
7. York
8. Gettysburg

[charliefayispredator]

Thought Tufts would win, but man…that was a complete blowout. Made SJF look like a very average team for sixty minutes.

Mason Kohn suddenly taking the majority of the draws at X and dominating is a wrinkle that most probably didn’t see coming. Curious as to why he wasn’t more of a factor earlier in the season. Bredahl also broke Uppgren’s single season points record and is in striking distance of the DIII single season record. They’re going to be a tough out if they can do this next weekend against Salisbury.

Seriously. Kohn showing up and beating Joe Post straight up was shocking. Thought faceoffs were Tufts' biggest weakness last year by far - if that's fixed (aka if this wasn't an aberration) and they can string together make it-take it possessions against high-level FOGOs, hard to imagine any defense in the country stopping them for 60 minutes.

Tufts was better in every facet of the game. I would have to give an assist to the under ranked Catholic Cards who gave SJF a challenging contest 24 hours earlier while Tufts easily took care of business. According to the box Kohn didn't take any faceoffs on Saturday and possibly his technique was the SJF guys kryptonite. A previous poster pointed out how prepping for Tufts zone was going to be challenging when playing back to back games for SJF and same would be true for RIT if they advance. Excited to see if the Gulls can dissect the Jumbos D, if not Tufts is probably headed to Memorial Day weekend.

FYI, MIT played zone D vs. RIT.

A couple high schools in upstate Maine probably played zone in the past too, but I wouldn’t be brave enough to extrapolate those results to Boys’ Latin predictions.

[InsiderRoll]

Thought Tufts would win, but man…that was a complete blowout. Made SJF look like a very average team for sixty minutes.

Mason Kohn suddenly taking the majority of the draws at X and dominating is a wrinkle that most probably didn’t see coming. Curious as to why he wasn’t more of a factor earlier in the season. Bredahl also broke Uppgren’s single season points record and is in striking distance of the DIII single season record. They’re going to be a tough out if they can do this next weekend against Salisbury.

Seriously. Kohn showing up and beating Joe Post straight up was shocking. Thought faceoffs were Tufts' biggest weakness last year by far - if that's fixed (aka if this wasn't an aberration) and they can string together make it-take it possessions against high-level FOGOs, hard to imagine any defense in the country stopping them for 60 minutes.

Tufts was better in every facet of the game. I would have to give an assist to the under ranked Catholic Cards who gave SJF a challenging contest 24 hours earlier while Tufts easily took care of business. According to the box Kohn didn't take any faceoffs on Saturday and possibly his technique was the SJF guys kryptonite. A previous poster pointed out how prepping for Tufts zone was going to be challenging when playing back to back games for SJF and same would be true for RIT if they advance. Excited to see if the Gulls can dissect the Jumbos D, if not Tufts is probably headed to Memorial Day weekend.

FYI, MIT played zone D vs. RIT.

A couple high schools in upstate Maine probably played zone in the past too, but I wouldn’t be brave enough to extrapolate those results to Boys’ Latin predictions.

Yes in past years RIT has had a lot of success against zone D. It’s typically a team that has a lot of skill and finishing ability - not typically a team many coaches think they should zone.

[DeepPocket]

Fun listen getting ready for a great weekend of DIII lacrosse.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/i ... 0562531764

[Dehuntshigwa’es]

Thought Tufts would win, but man…that was a complete blowout. Made SJF look like a very average team for sixty minutes.

Mason Kohn suddenly taking the majority of the draws at X and dominating is a wrinkle that most probably didn’t see coming. Curious as to why he wasn’t more of a factor earlier in the season. Bredahl also broke Uppgren’s single season points record and is in striking distance of the DIII single season record. They’re going to be a tough out if they can do this next weekend against Salisbury.

Seriously. Kohn showing up and beating Joe Post straight up was shocking. Thought faceoffs were Tufts' biggest weakness last year by far - if that's fixed (aka if this wasn't an aberration) and they can string together make it-take it possessions against high-level FOGOs, hard to imagine any defense in the country stopping them for 60 minutes.

Tufts was better in every facet of the game. I would have to give an assist to the under ranked Catholic Cards who gave SJF a challenging contest 24 hours earlier while Tufts easily took care of business. According to the box Kohn didn't take any faceoffs on Saturday and possibly his technique was the SJF guys kryptonite. A previous poster pointed out how prepping for Tufts zone was going to be challenging when playing back to back games for SJF and same would be true for RIT if they advance. Excited to see if the Gulls can dissect the Jumbos D, if not Tufts is probably headed to Memorial Day weekend.

FYI, MIT played zone D vs. RIT.

A couple high schools in upstate Maine probably played zone in the past too, but I wouldn’t be brave enough to extrapolate those results to Boys’ Latin predictions.

Yes in past years RIT has had a lot of success against zone D. It’s typically a team that has a lot of skill and finishing ability - not typically a team many coaches think they should zone.

Zone a Canadian team at your own risk. I believe RIT has 25 players from up north

[nelaxman]

Predictions for today:

Tufts 20
Salisbury 13

Rit 16
Bowdoin 14

CNU 16
York 10

Union 15
Gettysburg 7

[Jumbo]

Predictions for today:

Tufts 20
Salisbury 13

Rit 16
Bowdoin 14

CNU 16
York 10

Union 15
Gettysburg 7

Tufts 12
Salisbury 10

RIT 15
Bowdoin 7

CNU 12
York 13

Union 18
Gettysburg 8

The York pick is optimistic.

[Laxdds]

Predictions for today:

Tufts 20
Salisbury 13

Rit 16
Bowdoin 14

CNU 16
York 10

Union 15
Gettysburg 7

Tufts 12
Salisbury 10

RIT 15
Bowdoin 7

CNU 12
York 13

Union 18
Gettysburg 8

The York pick is optimistic.

Tufts 16
Salisbury 12

RIT 18
Bowdoin 14

CNU 15
York 12

Union 14
Gettysburg 12 Don't sleep on the Bullets certainly not predicting a win, but don't see an 8-10 goal blowout either.
Good Luck to all HYDRATE!!!!

[JBFortunato]

Predictions:

Salisbury 18
Tufts 16

Bowdoin 19
RIT 15

CNU 22
York 14

Gettysburg 15
Union 12

[ah23]

(Pretend that the games didn't just start)

CNU - York
I love York's defense every year, but...each of York's last three tournament appearances has ended in the QFs against the caliber of opponent they'll face on Saturday, with the offense unable to find another gear. Scored 7 last year vs. Tufts, 10 in 2019 vs. Cabrini, and 7 in 2018 vs. RIT. There's a similar pattern in 2022: York already lost to RIT 16-9 and Salisbury 13-10. Even their wins support this; W&L was 8-7, Gettysburg was 9-8, Cabrini was 9-6. If York can manage to keep the CNU offense in check (and I mean really in check), the Spartans are in business. If CNU gets into the mid-teens, it's over.

I think the latter is more likely - CNU just has so much firepower on offense. I don't think this will be a blowout, but I do think this is the part of the season where York's inability to run with high-powered teams costs them.

CNU 18 - York 11

RIT - Bowdoin
I know the focus in Rochester this weekend will be the Salisbury-Tufts matchup, but I think RIT-Bowdoin is one of the more interesting games in the entire tournament.

Not a lot of common opponents here, but what few exist suggest that RIT is a few goals better. The transitive property isn't how this works though - I think RIT just has much more talent (and obviously more experience). Worth noting that Bowdoin blew out Colorado College and beat St. Lawrence by five without NESCAC POY Donal Mullane. If Hobbs makes a bunch of saves and Bowdoin can win the balance of faceoffs, the Polar Bears can make this interesting. I just don't think their defense has much of a chance in this one.

RIT 22 - Bowdoin 14

Tufts - Salisbury
The Jumbos are actually winning faceoffs this year. If that continues, no one can stop them on offense. The question, as always, is what the defense can do (and which goalie shows up - for both teams). Salisbury's love/hate relationship with ball movement has the potential to be their defining flaw here. I think Tufts is going to score, and I think Salisbury will fall just a bit short in the end.

Tufts 18 - Salisbury 14

Union - Gettysburg

Honestly, I haven 't caught a ton of either of these teams so I'll keep this short. Like...this is it. Union is both talented and mentally tough.

Union 16 - Gettysburg 9