Home Stretch / National Rankings

[lovelax]

Wes men hosting its pod. While Wes men and women play on different fields, hotel accommodations might factor in. 6 visiting teams in one weekend is a lot.

[laxfan8911]

Bracket Quadrants:

Middlebury (1): has Ithaca (8) & Pomona Pritzer(11) (2 ranked teams)
F & M (3): Tufts (4) is only real threat.
Salisbury: (5) W & L (7) only real threat in bracket
Weslyan (2): TCNJ (10), William Smith (9), and Gettysburg (6) (

I guess somewhat better balanced than last year but the Wesleyan bracket has 4 top 10 teams based on latest coaches poll and the others only have 2.
Massey Power Rankings has Midd, Wes, Tufts, F & M, Gettysburg, Salisbury, W & L, William Smith,Colby & Ithaca in the top 10. ( with pomona pritzer at 19) Trinity & TCNJ are at 11 and 12. And they are both in Wesleyan Region.

Let's play some May lacrosse!!!!

[lax410]

Better than last year but still imbalanced. I’d like to see the way over-ranked PP in another section and move one of the ranked teams from the Wes bracket to Midd’s bracket.

The at large bids were interesting. Surprised that they took Trinity and Haverford.

[laxfan22]

Definitely a 180 from last year where they gave AL bids to DePauw and mount union and someone else (I could be wrong about a few of the teams), which were ridiculous (whether the choice or the criteria to be followed)

[lax410]

Definitely a 180 from last year where they gave AL bids to DePauw and mount union and someone else (I could be wrong about a few of the teams), which were ridiculous (whether the choice or the criteria to be followed)

Totally agree. Last year was silly. And I’m all for this year’s selections. Haverford and Trinity are both good teams in tough conferences. It’s great for them to make the playoffs.

I suspected maybe they’d give someone like Ohio Wesleyan the nod based on the regional ranking and last year.

[Bart]

Definitely a 180 from last year where they gave AL bids to DePauw and mount union and someone else (I could be wrong about a few of the teams), which were ridiculous (whether the choice or the criteria to be followed)

Totally agree. Last year was silly. And I’m all for this year’s selections. Haverford and Trinity are both good teams in tough conferences. It’s great for them to make the playoffs.

I suspected maybe they’d give someone like Ohio Wesleyan the nod based on the regional ranking and last year.

OWU's loss to Kenyon probably did them in. Looking at the regional rankings pulled on 5/5 they appear still better than Kenyon however. What is interesting is that region 6 had 0 pool 3 teams. Region 05 and 04 went as low as the #5 team (based on 4/28-regional rankings) while region 6's #2 team was left out (OWU). Everything else seemed to follow suit.

[laxfan22]

Agreed and good job to this committee. Curious if it was the same members or different this year.

[laxfan8911]

Take a look at the Massey Power Rankings by Conference. They have NESCAC and Centennial as 1 & 2 followed by the Liberty League, New Jersey AC and then at 5th the North Coast Athletic Conference. Maybe that is why Ohio Wesleyan and Kenyon were left out? Also did the decide the regional hosts yet or are they waiting til the First and Second Round Pods are completed. Last year the regional hosts were set out ahead of time.

[lovelax]

Agree with much fairer brackets than last year. The Wes bracket is brutal in that even this Sundays' games are competitive. Not many other competitive games until regional weekend when the rubber hits the road.

I think region finalists are pretty solid for the Midd (Ithaca), F&M(Tufts) and Salisbury (W&L) brackets. The Wes bracket has four teams capable of reaching Salem. However, anything can happen and if a team is overlooking anyone, they might have played their last game......

[rollwave]

Have no issues with the bracket. Agree that Midd's region is a little weaker, but I think all the teams in the Wes region would rather be where they are than having to play Midd before MDW. Will be interesting to see if anyone can actually challenge Middlebury. Wes/Tufts did in the regular season, but the postseason is different.

[Seacoaster(1)]

Man, that Wesleyan pod and that side of the bracket is tough. Looks to me like six pretty good to very good teams: Wes, Gettysburg, Colby, William Smith, York and TCNJ. Kind of a gauntlet.

Looks like Middlebury really got the benefit of a long undefeated season or something. Is St. John Fisher any good? Looks like they had a good battle with a good Ithaca team.

[laxfan22]

It’s harder for certain but TCNJ really hasn’t beat anybody this year. Colby beat Wesleyan in the opener but they haven’t beat anyone since. I think the issue is once you get middlebury to host, and you want to avoid early Nescac matchups (understandable), the NCAA isn’t going to pay to fly Gettysburg, Salisbury, WL. So that leaves few options. Could have put Wm Smith in middlebury’s bracket and maybe they should have? But ncaa is going to take the cheapest options possible.

[rollwave]

William Smith being in the Midd bracket would have set up a third WS/Ithaca game, and you probably want to avoid that. It was unavoidable to have a Gettysburg/WS-type game in the Round of 16, it just happens to be in the Wes quadrant. However, given that, it probably would have made sense to not have such competitive first-round teams in that section. York, Colby, MIT, and Trinity are all pretty good and I wouldn't be shocked to see 1-2 of them win on Sunday.

[laxfan22]

Good point. And yes, some of the early matchups are very unbalanced. I also found it somewhat humorous stage Chicago gets to host and likely play a team that scored TWENTY SIX on them earlier this season. 26!

[laxfan8911]

It is the second year in the row that F & M is in an easier bracket. Until they meet Tufts there is not much competition. Last year the W & L regional was a beast and York, and Gettysburg were in that one I guess it is luck of the draw. It does not make sense for two NCAA semi final teams meet in the sweet sixteen that could have been avoided. You could have put GB in the Salisbury bracket and/or W&S in the Franklin and Marshall bracket. I agree that the Wesleyan bracket has the most competitive Sunday games by far...and that is certainly avoidable. Also Chicago , Colorado College and Pomona Prizter are in the Middlebury pod and if they win would certainly need to fly. Other than Ithaca there are not very competitive teams in the Middlebury bracket. That being said you have to beat everyone you play to get to the end and the winner of the Wesleyan pod will have had some stronger competition heading into the later rounds.

[lax410]

The F&M side is definitely different than last year with the addition of Tufts. You’ve got the #3 and 4 teams vying for a final four spot. And Roanoke is no joke.

If they wanted a little more balance there should be more ranked teams with Middlebury. Especially given they are the expected winner. Make it a little interesting. And putting the untested and likely over ranked PP in that bracket doesn’t really count.

[laxfan8911]

Roanoke is a tough matchup for teams and Tufts being put in the bracket makes it stronger. Middlebury is weakest by fa far. Wes bracket has toughest 2nd round matchups and then Wes, GB and W&S. York is a lot better than their record and always tough. Should be a good weekend of games.

[westcoastlax]

Middlebury benefits from being undefeated and ranked number 1. In addition to a softer bracket, there is a tremendous benefit to not having to travel. This is especially true during finals. They also have an additional home-field advantage playing on their faster field hockey turf field.

[laxfan22]

I don’t have any real issues this year with brackets. Sure one is stronger but they avoided the absurdity of lady year giving one program what amounted to a bye to the FF.

[rollwave]

A few close games today (Gettysburg/Trinity, WS/MIT, Babson/Stevens), but there weren’t really any upsets. I guess some might argue that Colby upset TCNJ, but IMO 15-11 seems like the right score. I’d imagine there are some better games next weekend.