NESCAC

[Dr.2Slide]

Always must use caution when reading Lasanga on IL. He has a flair for the dramatic and is a master of misdirection. When recruiting against alpha males / personalities like JT and Dnnalfo these tactics have proved handy. Keep an eye on the Bobcats this year. Something is brewing in Lewiston... perhaps more potent than any of us would like to believe...

[Chesedice]

Bobcats drop one to Babson, losing 11-12 in OT

[oldlaxjunkie]

somethings brewing in Lewiston all right but right now its not wins. thats a bad loss last night. even without your preseason 1st team all american attackman you should be able to handle Babson. they rely way to much on Matt. PL better make some adjustments real soon. you have the dirty birds on Saturday, that has the making of being a real ugly game.

[DaveyBags]

Big one for the humps out of New-London-Vegas on Saturday. Taking on a hungry RWU team that thinks they can hang with the ranks of NESCAC competition. Will be interesting to see who Nagle likes offensively for the Camels this Saturday. Hearing murmurs that Pilecoaster will be playing.......

[HumpDay]

Big one for the humps out of New-London-Vegas on Saturday. Taking on a hungry RWU team that thinks they can hang with the ranks of NESCAC competition. Will be interesting to see who Nagle likes offensively for the Camels this Saturday. Hearing murmurs that Pilecoaster will be playing.......

Pilecoaster?

[caclax12]

All NESCAC predictions?

[MA Lax Fan]

It baffles me that some NESCAC schools don’t have any rosters up yet and the lead stories on some of the pages are from last year.

The season is underway, fans and alumni don’t want to read a story about games played 10 months ago.

I would think think the coaches would be all over this and update their pages.

Even if rosters were just finalized, put out a story about your 2020 schedule, or a new hire or anything that highlights this current season.

[ctbagataway]

It is up to the SID at each school to manage that process, typically. And at some of these schools, the SID's are pretty bad at what they do. With the tuition at these schools, I wouldn't think it would be a funding issue, but I also wouldn't be surprised if funding for the SID wasn't a top priority of those administrations.

[ah23]

Always must use caution when reading Lasanga on IL. He has a flair for the dramatic

Fair point. I suppose that is part of being a good writer! The play-by-play guy did note at one point that Chlastawa was dressed on the sideline despite not playing, but who knows a) if that was accurate b) if it wasn't just a bit of gamesmanship.

and is a master of misdirection.

What?

When recruiting against alpha males / personalities like JT and Dnnalfo these tactics have proved handy.

Keep an eye on the Bobcats this year. Something is brewing in Lewiston... perhaps more potent than any of us would like to believe...

There is plenty of talent up in Lewiston, but it will take time to figure out their offense - time they don't have, given that they face the NESCAC's most frustrating defensive opponent on Saturday. Wesleyan may have graduated basically their entire offense, but almost everyone on defense returns - should be a scary unit.

Obviously take predictions made less than a week after the start of the season with a grain of salt, but I wonder if Bates could be this season's version of 2019 Middlebury - a talented team that sputters out of the gate and drops off the radar, but grows into its style as the year goes on and becomes dangerous around tournament time.

[laxrex]

Middlebury put out a 2020 Men's and Women's lax preview yesterday. 2020 roster is up too.

[ColonelFastBreak]

Something is brewing in Lewiston... perhaps more potent than any of us would like to believe...

There is plenty of talent up in Lewiston, but it will take time to figure out their offense

We may be looking at different teams.... There are certainly some good players up at Bates and Curtis Knapton would probably be a first line midfielder anywhere in division III except Salisbury, Amherst, Tufts, Cabrini, RIT and Lynchburg (the teams with the deepest midfields in the country as far as I can tell so far/judging from last year), but there aren't very many elite players or what look like they may become elite players. They don't look remotely like the teams from 2015-2018 with Fay, Weber and Chlastawa/Allard on one end and Fantoni/Ulbrick on the other with Faria in net (before Strain/Drake took over after he graduated). Even Andrew Melvin and Clarke Jones could be dynamic offensive players. Those teams had Eli Cooper and Sam Francis taking FOs and while they were not consistently dominant they had that potential in an individual game. Now they mostly have some high IQ players who struggle to beat their man one on one. That's OK when you have one dominant dodger. Now that dodger is injured and there is no doubt it will be an adjustment. I'm just not so sure, as it seems other posters are, that the talent is present for the Bobcats to "figure it out" with the current group if Chlastawa does not return at or near his top form.

If I had to choose a team where I thought something might be "brewing", which to me implies that the performance will be above and beyond expectations or previous performance, I would guess it would be Colby. That program is stabilizing after some tough times. CJ Hassan is an excellent midfielder and they get the return of Mason Brady who was their third leading scorer as a sophomore two years ago before missing last year. If someone from the Bergstrom, Rickards, Lynch trio makes a big step forward and Brady is able to contribute to the offense then you have the makings of a nice group. On the other end, Henry Nelson does not appear on the roster, which is too bad as he started every game for the Mules last year. Two things that may hold Colby back are FO play and goaltending. Last year they got inconsistent FO play against good opponents with the high end of that play being essentially splitting the draw and the low end being a route. Their stats were padded against the likes of Husson, UNE and Thomas. Goaltending is a question mark as CJ Layton graduated. If they can replace 90% of what he did, natural improvement everywhere else should make up for it. If they replace all of it or have someone better then they could be formidable.

All NESCAC predictions?

OK.

Attack

Minicus - Amherst
McCormack - Middlebury
Jacoby - Wesleyan

Others Considered - Waldbaum (Tufts), Clementi (Amherst), Hasse (Williams), Lund (Williams), Forbes (Middlebury)

Midfield

Hoffman - Williams
Soleberg - Amherst
Shanks - Tufts

Others Considered - Treiber (Tufts), Chase (Wesleyan), Hassan (Colby), Samuelson (Tufts), Clementi (Amherst), Knapton (Bates), Cosolito (Middlebury)

Defense

Savage - Bowdoin
Sullivan - Amherst
Malarchuk - Wesleyan
Stewart - Williams (LSM)

Others Considered - Donahue (Tufts), Burdick (Williams), McPhee (Wesleyan) LSM, Emerson (Middlebury), Castro (Amherst)

FO/SSDM

Finazzo - Amherst
McAfee - Amherst

Others Considered - If they're healthy it won't be close. Maybe Sean Penney from Wesleyan.
Goalie

Bohan - Wesleyan

Others: Pollack (Tufts), Anybody could get this....

POY: McAfee (Amherst) Won't win it, but is Amherst's best player. Probably Minicus or Hoffman.

A couple notes on the above.... McCormack has a good chance to be an All league player if he is healthy regardless of whether he plays attack or midfield, assuming, and this is a big if in my mind, that Middlebury is actually decent. I have no idea what they will be this year, except I know they'll be talented.

Clementi was so good last year when he was on the field, I have to imagine he will be excellent this year regardless of the position he plays for the Mammoths.

Chase never found his role in the Wesleyan offense last year, outside of EMO, but he shoots the ball well, has good size and I doubt it was an accident that he was wearing #31 the first year after transferring from Rutgers. I imagine he will have a big year in a new-look Cardinal offense.

I really like the Tufts midfield of Shanks, Treiber and Samuelson (when all three are healthy), but they do cannibalize each other's opportunities a bit. Will be interesting to see which one stands out this season. They're all very good.

[guslax]

What a day for some NESCAC lacrosse! The wait is finally over... time to see which teams will live up to expectations and which will be an afterthought by week three. Here are my picks:

Amherst 21, Hamilton 10: the Jeff’s should run away with this one

Middlebury 18, Bowdoin 11: this is the best Midd team in years. Period

Wesleyan 14, Bates 9: should be a great game but I’ll give the edge to the cards mostly because of their stingy defense

Williams 18, Trinity 10: time to see if the Ephs can live up to the hype, I think they will not disappoint

Conn 13, Roger Williams 11: lots of preseason hype around Conn but I’m not convinced. I’ll still give them the edge

A final note: There are big things brewing in the Green Mountains. If this years Midd team plays to their potential, the rest of the NESCAC should be ready to the have their hands full. Roll pants!

[LibertyL]

Roger Williams 11 Conn C 10 OT

[LCB_Sharpshooter]

Anyone see that goal by CJ Hassan! Super excited for the Mules. Playing the Jumbos tough right now but need some help at the X. Time to strap in for the second half

[JumboFan4]

24-10 Tufts. Not sure if anyone was able to catch the game live, but the broadcast seemed to be down for the entire contest. Looks on paper like a pretty authoritative win considering what the Jumbos lost to graduation.

[LibertyL]

Very big win for the Jums

[bullfrog1]

Was at the Tuft's game. The Jumbos look really dangerous with a ton of young talent playing significant minutes this year in the spots that the graduating seniors left. Interesting that both Treiber and Waldbaum were not playing today, hopefully its nothing serious.

[Unknown Participant]

24-10 Tufts. Not sure if anyone was able to catch the game live, but the broadcast seemed to be down for the entire contest. Looks on paper like a pretty authoritative win considering what the Jumbos lost to graduation.

Tufts out to 3-0 lead early, Mules tied it at 3 and then the Bos went to town. Hellfrich awesome and the ride is relentless. Offense did not seem to miss Walbaum or Triebs much. Mules started a freshman in the cage, which made clearing a bit of a challenge. Also, not sure why Vanarsdale left that kid in to savor 21 goals against in his first collegiate game when there were two upperclassmen on the bench.

[Dave]

Jumbos are always loaded...was at Conn today they looked pretty sharp offensively early on. Was 10-3 at one point. Then they had some mistakes and turnovers to keep the game close. Their D needs help-soph D and Frosh LSM looked good.

[lilax]

I didn't think Colby looked bad, they just had no depth and struggled facing off and clearing. The Jumbos just ran them into the ground.

And looking at the Colby roster, they are all FR and SO with Hassan and Kadish sprinkled in. Tough first game for first years.

Tufts is as good as advertised and deeper than they've been in years.