Monday, October 20, 2014

Ivy League Roundup (October 20 edition)

Four teams are tied for first place. Four teams. This past week did not separate many teams from contention and the Ivy League is heating up. Let's start by looking at what happened in the last week, starting with the games.

October 15:
Maryland 8 at Princeton 1

October 18:
Yale 2 at Dartmouth 4
Brown 0 at Princeton 4
Cornell 1 at Harvard 2
Columbia 4 at Penn 3 (overtime)

October 19:
Longwood 0 at Penn 5
Columbia 2 at Delaware 1
Yale 3 at Connecticut 8
New Hampshire 1 at Harvard 0 (overtime)
Dartmouth 0 at Mass-Lowell 1

League Standings:
1) Columbia 10-4 (3-1)
    Cornell     8-4 (3-1)
    Dartmouth 5-8 (3-1)
    Princeton   4-9 (3-1)
5) Harvard 8-5 (2-2)
6) Brown 8-4 (1-3)
    Penn  5-7 (1-3)
8) Yale 2-11 (0-4)

Game of the Week: The honor this weeks goes to Columbia and Penn for their 4-3 overtime thriller. Something about sudden death makes games more exciting. Congrats to both teams!

Team of the Week: Columbia wins for team of the week.  The squad went 2-0 over the weekend with a win over Penn to move into a four way tie for first place in the league.

Upcoming Game to Watch: Dartmouth at Columbia, Sunday at noon eastern. Columbia has been on a tear recently and is looking to break the deadlock at the top. Dartmouth on the other hand had been down until conference play started, where their NCAA hopes and dreams now lie. Both teams are coming into this match strong and it should be a great one.

General Notes:
-Last week's Cornell-Harvard game of the week definitely did not let us down. With the win, Cornell is tied for first in the league.
-With three match weeks to go, the conference still has plenty of contenders. This upcoming weekend should be incredibly exciting to see who truly can do it.
-Don't rule out Harvard this season. Going at Princeton and at Dartmouth will be a tough task, but if the Crimson play at the level they have shown in earlier matches, they could pull it off.

Thanks for reading and enjoy the games!

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Ivy League Roundup (October 14 edition)

There may have been a break from conference play, but that does not mean that we are going to take a break from talking about Ivy League field hockey! Teams still played, so let's take a look at the games. Lots of midweek action took place, so we will start there.

October 8:
Brown 1 at Quinnipiac 3
Bryant 0 at Yale 1

October 9:
Monmouth 4 at Penn 2

October 10:
Towson 3 at Columbia 5
Delaware 2 at Princeton 1 (2OT)

October 11:
Albany 3 at Dartmouth 1
Yale 0 at Maine 4

October 12:
Lehigh 2 at Brown 4
Penn 0 at Maryland 9
Harvard 3 at Fairfield 0
Massachussetts 2 at Columbia 3
Syracuse 5 at Cornell 0

October 13:
Providence 0 at Brown 2
Holy Cross 4 at Dartmouth 5 (OT)

League Standings:
1) Cornell 8-3 (3-0)
2) Columbia 8-4 (2-1)
    Dartmouth 4-7 (2-1)
    Princeton 3-8 (2-1)
5) Brown 8-3 (1-2)
    Harvard 7-4 (1-2)
    Penn 4-6 (1-2)
8) Yale  2-9 (0-3)


Player of the Week: The honor this week went to Junior Christina Freibott of Columbia. She recorded a goal and four assists during the last week, which made her worthy of the award. This is the first time that she has won it. Congratulations Christina!

Game of the Week: A lot of good games were played, but the honor goes to Dartmouth and Holy Cross. Their 5-4 two overtime game was thrilling and high scoring, so it wins for game of the week.

Team of the Week: Brown was the team of the week. They went 2-1 on the week with wins over Providence and Lehigh and a loss to Quinnipiac.

The teams return to Ivy League action this next weekend and the race for the championship is heating up. Cornell currently leads with three wins and no losses, but Columbia, Dartmouth, and Princeton are sitting close behind with only one loss. The biggest upcoming game to watch in the next week is Saturday when Cornell travels to Harvard. Cornell is 3-0 in Ivy play, but Harvard is 7-4 overall and has faced tough opponents. Harvard on the road is a touch matchup for Cornell, and that makes this the game to watch this upcoming weekend.

Week 6 coaches poll

Hi all. Another tuesday brings us another coaches poll to look at an examine. So let's get started.

To start, North Carolina retained their number one ranking. This was never really in doubt though, because the tar heels outscored their opponents 15-1 over the weekend.

Biggest winner: Definitely Stanford. The cardinal only has one loss on the season with that loss coming to #11 Albany. Why did the cardinal just now move up to #3 though? Over the weekend they went on the road to take down #8 Northwestern (now #9) and #14 Michigan. Stanford may not have the impressive or grueling conference schedule that others have, but Stanford simply does not lose and the coaches are taking notice. Because of this, Stanford has been rewarded with the highest rank in program history.

Biggest loser: A tough one, but Boston College. The eagles have faced top notch opponents all season, but have lost four of their last six games, and all of the losses have come in overtime. If that sounds like a lot of overtime games, it is. The eagles have played the most overtime games in division one this year. While Boston College has slid down to #17, it is entirely possible for them to rebound. They face Louisville next weekend, and a win on the road will definitely put the eagles on the right track.

Other thoughts: 
-UCONN is climbing back up the rankings, now up to #4.
-Maine enters the rankings for the first time this year at #20.

Friday, October 10, 2014

What To Watch For (October 10-12 edition)

Last weekend saw a lot of great teams face each other and a lot of games going into overtime. Now that October is in full swing we have another great slate of games for this weekend. But who is playing who and what games are the biggest? Let's look at the top three.

3) #5 Louisville at #13 Syracuse (Saturday)
The cardinals have been shooting up the charts each week and are now sitting pretty at #5. This is the first time that Louisville has entered the top 5 since 2002 and they look to stay there. They certainly have the impressive resume to be worthy of #5, however most of their big wins have come at home. Traveling on the road to Syracuse is a tough test for #5, but it should bring us great hockey. Syracuse is no slacker either and had a brutal end to september playing three top 11 teams in the span of 8 days.

2) #7 Stanford at #8 Northwestern (Friday)
Last Sunday, Northwestern got the chance to knock off then #7 Iowa in Iowa with an impressive 3-1 victory. Tonight they will get another shot at knocking off the #7 team when they take on Stanford in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Currently both teams are riding six game winning streaks, which makes this game even more exiting because one team has to lose tonight. this is Stanford's last big weekend in the regular season, so the cardinal is going to need to make a statement on Friday night.

1) #4 Penn State at #2 Maryland (Friday)
It still feels a bit weird to see Maryland in Big 10 play, but seeing them playing against the top teams is not unusual at all. Penn State is sitting at #4 this week and has a record of 10-2. The Nittany Lions only losses have come to ranked teams in overtime so clearly they are ready for a huge matchup with the #2 team in the country, Maryland. The home side Maryland has faced eight ranked sides already this season and has been impressive all season long. This may not have the excitement of a 1 vs 2 matchup, but there is definitely going to be an amazing atmosphere in College Park this afternoon. For those that have the Big 10 network and Big 10 to go, the game will be available at 3:30 pm today.

Honorable mentions this week: Friday- Old Dominion at Connecticut, Michigan at Iowa, Boston College at Duke. Saturday- Michigan State at Indiana. Sunday- Wake Forest at Virginia, Connecticut at Boston U.

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Ivy League Roundup (October 7th edition)

Another week and more exciting games in the Ivy League. Let's take a look at what happened last weekend.

Princeton 2 at Columbia 3
Yale 0 at Cornell 4
Penn 3 at Dartmouth 4
Harvard 3 at Brown 4 (2 OT)

The teams then took the field in non-conference matchups on Sunday.

American 1 at Cornell 0
Columbia 3 at Hofstra 4 (OT)
Syracuse 4 at Princeton 3 (2 OT)
Sienna 2 at Brown 3
Harvard 1 at Boston U 3

Current league standings:

1) Cornell 8-2 (3-0)
2) Columbia 6-4 (2-1)
3) Dartmouth 3-6 (2-1)
4) Princeton 3-7 (2-1)
5) Brown 6-2 (1-2)
6) Harvard 6-4 (1-2)
7) Penn 4-4 (1-2)
8) Yale 1-8 (0-3)

Team of the week award goes to Brown, who went 2-0 on the week with a dramatic double overtime win over Harvard and then beat Sienna to improve to 6-2 on the season. Congratulations to the bears.

Other notes:
-Princeton may have went 0-2 this week, but they put up a fight against nationally ranked syracuse. The orange prevailed in dramatic fashion in the second overtime.
-League leading Cornell has only given up one goal in Ivy play so far. Their hot defense has been a huge factor in their 8-2 start to the season.
-Dartmouth may have started the season in rocky fashion, but their offense has been a catalyst in their recent Ivy successes, scoring 11 goals in league play.

That does it for this week, come back next week to see how these teams do.

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Week 5 polls

With another Tuesday brings another Coaches poll


So who are the biggest winners and the biggest losers?

The biggest two winners are currently sitting in 4th and 5th place. Penn State went 2-0 this week while many of the teams that were ahead of them lost.  The other big climber, Louisville, jumped up the polls thanks to a win over then #4 Duke and then #15 Michigan. Both teams deserve to see their stocks rise and they will definitely be tested in big games coming up.

Who dropped? Duke dropped the game against Louisville and saw themselves fall from #4 to #9. Duke has had a lot of strong wins this season though, so it would not be surprising to see them pull off a few more big wins and go back into the top five.  Boston College fell to #12 this week after two heartbreaking overtime loses against Wake Forest and Northwestern.  Both games were close and exciting as overtime usually is.

There are many matchups this upcoming weekend involving ranked teams going head to head, so we will see some changes in the next week. While the polls give us a good idea of how good the teams are, the actual games tell us the real story.



Thursday, October 2, 2014

What to watch for (October 3-5 weekend)

Another exciting weekend of college field hockey is finally almost here.  Last weekend brought us huge games and we saw teams fall and team rise.  What will this weekend bring?  Let us start by looking at the top three games to watch for!

3) #11 Northwestern at #7 Iowa-Sunday
Both of these teams have been sneaky good all season long so look for this to be a sneaky good game. This is the Northwestern team that beat Maryland earlier in the season and took Connecticut to overtime, and Iowa is strong too.  Look for this to be the best game on Sunday.

2) #4 Duke at #12 Louisville-Friday
Duke has been steadily lurking in the rankings for weeks now with their only loss coming against Virginia. This game will prove to be a big test for them heading on the road to face another ranked team.  A win for Duke will solidify their top 5 ranking.  Louisville is coming off of a loss to Liberty and a win over a top 5 team will boost their confidence and set them on the right track with other ranked opponents coming up.

1) #3 Virginia at #1 North Carolina-Friday
Brutal schedule for North Carolina.  Last weekend they played Boston College and Connecticut and now they play Virginia? Regardless, this is going to be a great game and the high scoring Virginia offense looks to be tested by the tar heels defense.

Now we just have to wait for the games to get here. What do you think the biggest games are?