All About Division III First Round Games!
http://www.lax.com/stories/2077
http://blogs.insidelacrosse.com/2008/05/06/diii-mens-tournament-breakdown/
Still haven’t figured out DIII’s funky 21 team tournament? You would think if they added one more team they could have had Drew, the Landmark Conference champion play one of the 11 teams not playing a “play-in” game, or have a couple more teams and there would be a 24 team tournament. Whatever! Here are the details for the five play in games for Wednesday May 7th:
Kean at Springfield 4pm EST- The game is in Springfield, Massachusetts, not the fictional town The Simpson’s live in (ha, ha). Springfield went 10-6 in 2008, and won the Pilgrim AQ. Kean is traveling from New Jersey. They won the Skyline AQ and went 14-5 on the season. Neither team really plays in an impressive conference, but Springfield did beat Stevens Tech, who is usually in the DIII tournament, (not this year). Winner of this game plays Cortland State.
Mt. Ida at Bowdoin 4pm EST- Bowdoin is located in Brunswick, Maine. Their mascot is the Polar Bears (how cool is that?) and I coached the college president’s son in lacrosse in 2005. Bowdoin finished the season 11-6 and were runners up in the very competitive NESCAC conference, even though they finished 5th in standings during the regular season. Dreams do come true! Mt. Ida is located in Newton, Massachusetts, where I once ran out of gas! They finished 13-5 and won the North Atlantic Conference. I give the edge to Bowdoin, not only do I have a more positive association with them, but they played a better regular season schedule. Winner plays Middlebury, which is in Bowdoin’s conference and finished 1st in the regular season.
Western Connecticut at Western New England 4pm EST- The game is also being played in Springfield, Massachusetts. So you have your choice in seeing either this game or the Kean vs. Springfield one. WNE won the Commonwealth Coast Conference and had a 13-4 record. West Conn won the Little East and finished 13-6. WNE played a more competitive schedule and is a ranked team. Winner of this game plays St. Lawerence.
Ohio Wesleyan at Kenyon 4pm EST- This game is at Gambier, Ohio. Chances are if you are remotely interested in this game, then you live in Ohio. Both of these teams are in the North Coast Conference which does not have a conference tournament. One other school got in from the NCC…Guess which one? Kenyon finished the season 10-3, not counting a game against the Michigan club team. OWU finished 9-6 and played powerhouses like Salisbury, Gettysburg, and Lynchburg (all losses). They did beat Fontbonne if you are scoring at home. Winner of this game plays Salisbury.
Denison at Widener 4pm EST- Denision is the third NCC and Ohio team to play in the NCAA DIII lax tournament. They travel to the Keystone State to face Widener, drink some Yuengling, eat some cheesesteaks, and visit Ben Franklin’s house. Denision was ranked 13th with a 13-2 record in 2008. They also lost to Gettysburg and Salisbury, but beat Fontbonne and Hendrix (one of my doughnut teams). Widener was 10-7 this season, they also lost to Salisbury. Winner of this game plays Gettysburg.
