Awaiting Our Postseason Fate

November 10

Today is a big day as college teams all around the country find out their postseason fates. The NCAA tournament seeding will be announced at noon, with ECAC selections being made sometime after that. While we are not in consideration for an NCAA bid, we are hoping to find out this afternoon that we have been chosen for the ECAC tournament.

Some teams on the ECAC selection list will not be participating as they will instead be competing in the NCAA tournament. Medaille College won the AMCC postseason title and will be participating in NCAAs. While Hobart suffered a shocking upset in their Liberty League semifinal against Union, it was the first loss of the season for the Statesmen and they will likely receive an NCAA bid. Rochester also has a strong profile, as the national powerhouse finished tied for first in the University Athletic Association, one of the strongest D3 conferences in the nation.

Ithaca may be on the bubble for an NCAA bid as the 23rd-ranked team in the country fell to Stevens in the Empire 8 championship game. Ithaca is 11-4-3 overall, and defeated Stevens earlier in the year after drawing with Hobart. Other Empire 8 teams who applied for ECACs are Utica (who fell to 8-9-1 overall in a playoff loss to Stevens), and St. John Fischer (who also made the Empire playoffs despite a 5-9-3 record overall).

In the SUNYAC conference, a strong team from Brockport could be an ECAC favorite after a 10-6-2 overall record and a conference final loss to Cortland. SUNY Oswego (8-9-1 overall after losing to Brockport in the SUNYAC playoffs) have also applied for ECAC consideration.

Conference Tournament Weekend

November 6

This weekend, most conferences around the country hold their playoffs, and while we did not qualify this year there is still a lot for us to keep an eye on. In the Liberty League, host Hobart takes on Union in the first semifinal. Union (11-3-3 overall) is a great team, but Hobart (16-0-2) is the top-ranked team in the Northeast and the #4-ranked Division 3 team in the country. Union will be a tough test, but Hobart is almost unbeatable at the moment and playing on their home field will be a big advantage as well. In the other semifinal, second-seeded RPI takes on St. Lawrence. RPI was the surprise team this season, after not making the league playoffs last year they have risen to second place in the league and are ranked #25 in the country. St. Lawrence is a consistent contender, having won the Liberty League championship in 2005 and 2006 before finishing second last season. My prediction is that Hobart takes the title over St. Lawrence in the final, but we’ve learned that anything can happen in Liberty League action.

There are other results for us to watch this weekend, as teams on the ECAC selection list have an opportunity to win automatic bids to the NCAA tournament and leave more spots open in the ECAC tourney. There are three teams in the Empire 8 final four that have also applied to ECACs. However, the final team in the tournament is powerhouse Stevens Tech, so it will be very difficult for one of these squads to emerge victorious. Stevens takes on Utica in one semifinal, while St. John Fischer plays league-leader Ithaca (who upset Stevens in the regular season to grab the top seed). A win by anyone but Stevens in the Empire 8 will help us out, although Ithaca, currently ranked #23 in the country, could also claim an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament if they fall short of an automatic qualifier. Elsewhere, Medaille is in the AMCC championship game against Penn State-Behrend, while Brockport will be playing in the SUNYAC semifinals tomorrow.

The Tradition of the Plastic Necklace

November 5

A tradition on our team in recent years has been to hold a series of competitions in practice, both during the fall season and in spring training sessions, with the winner awarded a plastic necklace that has been passed down within the team for several seasons (although it had to be replaced last year as the original broke).

This year, we’ve done three competitions for the prize. Earlier in the season, we had an intra-squad scrimmage with each captain taking control of one team. The winning coach would gain control of the necklace and captain Kevin Goldberg was victorious as his team ran away with an easy victory. Then, over October break I earned my first winner’s medal when we conducted our annual 6-on-6 tournament. The team is split into random groups and we play eight 10-minute games, with the teams rotating each time. At the end, individual records are tallied and this year I was in first place at 6-2 along with sophomore Jimmy Worboys and freshman Brett Anker. We went into a sudden death penalty shootout which turned into a marathon tie-breaker, with Worboys and I taking over ten kicks each before I finally won the competition. The third challenge (also held over October break) was a golf tournament, with the pairing of Brian Bianchetti and Jason Cetel emerging victorious by one stroke. This was very exciting for my senior house, as I live with Kevin and Jason and we were able to keep control of the necklace for our entire senior season, with each player contributing a victory.

As a team, we are still practicing this week in case we are awarded an ECAC bid, which should be announced next Monday. If selected, we’ll play a first-round game a week from today. This weekend’s conference tournaments will have an impact on our potential seeding in the ECAC tournament, as tournament winners will be awarded automatic bids to the NCAA tournament, making them ineligible for ECACs.

Going Out On a High Note

November 2

Yesterday was our Senior Day against SUNY Cortland and our 3-2 overtime victory was a perfect ending to my career - although with the win, it is possible that the season might not be over. In my four years at Vassar, we have emerged from overtime games with some heartbreaking losses and ties, so to finally get an overtime win on Senior Day was incredibly redeeming. In my career here, we have also never made the playoffs, but one strike from Brian Bianchetti in the first overtime period of yesterday’s game may have changed that. Bianchetti’s goal off a perfect flick-on from Jon Hootnick gave us our first overtime victory in 10 tries and also qualified us for the ECAC playoffs with an 8-8 overall record. While we will not hear until after next weekend’s conference tournaments whether we have been selected, Saturday’s win kept alive our hopes of playing a first-round playoff game next Wednesday.

Yesterday’s game was the final home game for myself and our five other seniors (Jason Cetel, Kevin Goldberg, Danny Kadishson, Matt Belli and Jon Hootnick). We were all in the starting line-up for the game, and I made my first-ever start up top since Cetel is also a goalkeeper. It has been a tough season for Jason but he saved one of his best performances for last as he made a handful of difficult saves to keep us in the game. While we fell behind late in the first half, we came out firing in the second half and grabbed two quick goals- the first a difficult chip shot by Hootnick and the second a finish from sophomore Ben Scaglione after a great combination from Hootnick and Ross Macklin. Still, we could not hold onto the lead, as Cortland answered through striker Bryan Patterson, who has scored three goals against us in two games. Patterson sprinted past our defense for an easy breakaway goal, setting up Bianchetti’s overtime heroics.

After four years of ups and downs, it was really important for our class to go out on a high note, and we certainly did that on Saturday. Games like that one remind you why you play college athletics; all the difficult practices and heart-breaking losses never hurt as much as the exciting victories feel good. Now we need to hope we are selected for the ECAC tournament, and if we are, hopefully we can build off of this performance. We needed to rebound from a disappointing loss to New Paltz on Wednesday and I think we played more relaxed on Saturday and had fun defeating a very strong team from Cortland. We will surely be underdogs if we advance to the ECAC tournament but this could be an advantage as I think we can surprise some teams.

Halloween Community Service

October 31

Each year our team does several community service projects around Poughkeepsie. Yesterday, for the second time we helped construct and run a Halloween “haunted house” for young children in the area. The haunted house actually consisted of part of a cafeteria, where we used tarps to construct dark hallways. The players then dressed up and hid in different parts of the set-up, either jumping out at people or playing some role in the storyline. Brian Bianchetti led groups of children through the house, telling a story of a haunted school that included a crazy music teacher and a student who had been stuck in detention for anywhere from 40 to 200 years, depending on how Brian was telling it. My job was to be a zombie gym teacher. Other Vassar students were helping outside, organizing Halloween games and activities with the kids.

We got involved in this project through John Flowers, a local resident who conducts a wide variety of community service projects around Poughkeepsie. Every year around Christmas time we work with Mr. Flowers to bring gifts to all the area nursing homes. Our coach has always stressed to us the importance of giving back to the community, and with John Flowers’ organization there are always projects that we can help out with.

Final Home Game, Senior Day

October 31

Tomorrow’s game against Cortland will be our “Senior Day,” where the other seniors and I will play our final home game at Vassar. Our class started with ten players but that number has dropped down to six going into what will be our final game together unless we win and get selected for the ECAC tournament.

Kevin Goldberg, in his second year as captain, has been a four-year starter for us. He originally played outside back and defensive center-midfield, but has started the last two seasons at center back. His importance to our back-line has been greatly underestimated as he rarely stands out in games, but this is because he never makes mistakes at the back. Kevin has not yet been selected for the All-Liberty League team but if he does not get picked this year it will be a huge oversight by the other Liberty League coaches.

Our other captain is Danny Kadishson, who has played all over the field for us, beginning as a winger, then starting last season as a defensive center-midfielder, then moving to outside back this year before starting at center back in our last game against New Paltz. Danny has been hampered by injuries this season but has still provided the energy and tough, physical play that this team sorely needed at times.

Jason Cetel was our starting goalkeeper since we arrived here at Vassar. Though he was beaten out for the number one job this season by junior Jake London (who worked extremely hard all year to put himself in that position), he leaves Vassar on the all-time records lists in multiple goalkeeping categories. His biggest strength has been his acrobatic saves, which have kept us in many big games over the past four years (such as a 1-1 draw with Merchant Marine when we were freshmen, and 1-1 and 0-0 draws with Liberty League powerhouses Hobart and Union last year).

Jon Hootnick has been our top striker this year, and has been playing up top since freshmen year. In past years, he was a very complete player who just couldn’t translate his ability into goals. That has changed dramatically this season, as he is currently tied for second in the Liberty League with 8 goals. A strong, fast striker, Jon has been a good target man this season which has allowed us to run our offense through him.

Matt Belli has been a wild-card player for us over the past four years, a guy who can line up in almost any position on the field and routinely switches around between outside back, center midfield, and wing, often within the same game. He is lightning quick and has the rare ability to control the ball at speed, making him one of the most difficult players in the league to mark. He also has a cannon long-range shot, and has scored multiple goals from 40+ yards out over his career, while also tallying two Liberty League goals this season.

Tough Loss in League Finale

We lost 5-1 to Hobart on Sunday, eliminating us from Liberty League playoff contention, although we would have been out anyway due to RPI defeating Hamilton and Union beating Clarkson. It is still disappointing for the senior class to end our Liberty League careers like that, along with the fact that a victory over Hobart would have given us a very convincing profile for ECAC selection. The game was a disaster from the start, as Hobart's early 3-goal barrage was followed by a scary injury to our captain Kevin Goldberg that delayed the game for over twenty minutes (luckily he’s doing better now and can hopefully play this week). We briefly made a game of it when Matt Belli scored early in the second-half, but Hobart responded right away with a fourth goal and was able to cruise to an easy victory.

This year’s Hobart squad was probably the strongest Liberty League team in my four-year career and it would not surprise me if they won the National Championship this year. I thought they were stronger than defending National Champions Middlebury (although we played them in pre-season), and they are currently ranked 4th in the nation. I saw the nation’s #1 team (Trinity, TX) on television in the national championship game last year and their standard of play was on another level, but Middlebury was still able to shut them out and win in a shootout, so you never know what will happen in this year’s knockout tournament.

Tomorrow we take on New Paltz, a team that has given us a lot of trouble in recent years. While not traditionally one of the stronger teams in the area, they had a run of four straight victories over us, including a 3-2 overtime victory my freshman year and a disastrous 5-4 overtime win in 2006 when they played down a man the entire game after an early red card. We broke that streak last season, but it wasn’t easy, as we scraped out a 3-2 victory. New Paltz is also much stronger this season than they have been in the past. They defeated Bard 4-0 (a team we beat by five goals), beat a good Fredonia team 2-1, and only lost 1-0 to nationally-ranked Stevens Tech (who beat us 3-0). It will be a very tough match-up for us. A win will make us eligible to be selected for the ECAC playoffs, but we’ll probably need to win both of our remaining games to be chosen.

Coming Off One Big Win, Looking For Another

With pouring rain and blasting winds, it would have not been a surprise to anyone if our game with Hamilton ended up being a high-scoring affair. And while the 4-3 scoreline did not surprise me, it was shocking how much of a roller-coaster the match ended up being. We have had a tendency to give up goals early, so when a 3rd-minute cross from Ben Scaglione skipped through the Hamilton defense to Brian Bianchetti, it was a pleasant change to have an early lead. Scags then found Jon Hootnick for his second assist of the game, and when Matt Belli tallied in the 60th minute it appeared we were cruising towards an easy win. Less than fifteen minutes later the game was tied as Hamilton pounded three goals home, two in the span of one minute followed by a fantastic free kick from Frank Campagnano. But before the feeling of “oh god, not again,” had finished running through my head, our starting freshman midfielder Ross Macklin saved the day. Macklin sent a curling shot off the post into the net, an amazing shot that ranks up with the best collegiate goals I have seen over the last four years. The 4-3 victory is probably our best win of the season in the eyes of selection committees, and puts us in the running for an ECAC bid (one more win will make us eligible to be selected). It also means our Liberty League playoff hopes are not completely dead either.

The good news is that we are still mathematically alive for a playoff spot, though we do need all of the Liberty League games to go our way tomorrow. If we can win tomorrow against undefeated Hobart, we’ll root for Hamilton to beat RPI, St. Lawrence to beat Skidmore, and Clarkson to beat Union. This will get us into a tie for the final playoff spot, and although the tie-breakers are complicated, I interpret them to mean that we would get the spot if these results go through. And while it seems a lot to ask for an 0-6 Clarkson to beat Union, we can’t forget two years ago when an 0-6 Clarkson team pounded us 6-2 on the final day of the Liberty League season. This is proof that they won’t take a game lightly even if they are eliminated from playoff contention, and with star forward Scott Desmond I believe they can get a result at home against a solid Union squad. Score checks will be for after the game though, our only focus until 3 PM tomorrow must be to defeat Hobart. Anyone back on campus should come by the fields at 1 PM for the game.

The Playoff Picture

With two games left, we are not mathematically eliminated from a top-4 league finish and a playoff spot, however if that is to happen we will need some help in addition to two victories this weekend. The league table currently looks like this:

RPI (5-0-0, 15 Points)
HOBART (4-0-1, 13 Pts.)
ST. LAWRENCE (3-2-0, 9 Pts.)
UNION (2-2-1, 7 Pts.)
HAMILTON (2-3-0, 6 Pts.)
SKIDMORE (2-3-0, 6 Pts.)
VASSAR (1-4-0, 3 Pts.)
CLARKSON (0-5-0, 0 Pts.)

We know a few things:
- To have a chance to make the playoffs, we must win both games, which would put us at (3-4-0, 9 Pts.) We could conceivably tie Hobart and beat Hamilton and find ourselves in a tie for fourth-place with Union or Union/Hamilton at 2-4-1, but due to Union’s victories over both us and Hamilton, we would not win the head-to-head tie-breaker.
- Clarkson is eliminated from the playoff race (so any victories by them this weekend will help us).
- We cannot catch RPI or Hobart, so again, victories by them should help us.
- We also cannot catch St. Lawrence. While we could tie them, their victory over us gives them head-to-head. We could beat Hamilton and then be in a three-way tie with Hamilton and St. Lawrence, but St. Lawrence also beat Hamilton, so they would still take the head-to-head tie-breaker. Any other teams that could join this theoretical logjam at 9 points (Skidmore with a win and a loss, Union with two draws) have already beaten us, so that would only push us further down the table on head-to-head tiebreakers.

So, with RPI, Hobart and St. Lawrence out of reach and Clarkson eliminated, our goal this weekend is to beat out Union, Hamilton, and Skidmore. These are the remaining fixtures for these three teams:

Union (at St. Lawrence, at Clarkson)
Hamilton (at Vassar, at RPI)
Skidmore (at Clarkson, at St. Lawrence)

We can help ourselves by beating Hamilton, which would insure we win a two-way tiebreaker if we beat Hobart even if Hamilton then beats RPI. As far as I can figure it out, these are our scenarios to grab a playoff spot (all of these assume that we defeat Hamilton and Hobart):

- Skidmore loses or draws against both St. Lawrence and Clarkson, and Union grabs only one draw from both games.
- If Hamilton beats RPI and Skidmore gets one win this weekend, but Union gets no more than one draw, there will be a three-way tie for fourth place at 9 points between Hamilton, Skidmore and Vassar, with all three teams at 1-1 in head-to-head. Then I assume the final spot would come down to goal differential, which is still very tight at the moment.

That’s it, as far as I can figure it. I cannot guarantee these scenarios are completely correct, as I came up with them all myself. Obviously, this is asking a lot, including results from Clarkson and a winless weekend from a very strong RPI team. Perhaps the biggest ask here however is for us to get two wins against some very strong teams from Hobart and Hamilton. This has to be our only focus as we take on Hamilton on Saturday. But if we can manage to upset Hamilton, we’ll know that we head into Sunday still alive if Union doesn’t beat St. Lawrence, which is all we can ask for at this point.

Previewing The Weekend's Games

This weekend we take on Hamilton and Hobart in our final two league games of the season. Last year, we could have won against both of these teams, but left with only a point from both games. Against Hamilton, we achieved our main goal of shutting down their star midfielder Max Akuamoah-Boatang, but conceded a goal two minutes in that we never pulled back, losing 1-0. The next day we were out-played by Hobart but defended valiantly after Alex Freund found Ben Scaglione for a first-half goal. We very nearly held on until Hobart grabbed a heart-breaking equalizer with 36 seconds to go. We had two great chances to win the game in overtime, but were forced to accept a draw when it looked like we had the game won.

This year, the Hobart Statesmen have been on fire, sprinting out to an undefeated 13-0-2 record and the number four ranking in the country. With victories over some of the top teams in the region, including Rochester and Oneonta, they could be a national championship contender this season. Hobart is led by star goalkeeper Pete Van Dellon and league-leading scorer Dan Riso (7 goals, 3 assists). Hamilton are the defending Liberty League champions, and although they’ve struggled a bit in league play they head into this weekend right in the mix for a playoff spot. Hamilton still have midfielder Akuamoah-Boatang, who is probably the best all-around player in the league. They also have the league’s second-leading scorer in sophomore Jesse Aroyave (7 goals).

Both games are at home. We play Hamilton at 3 pm on Saturday and Hobart at 1 pm on Sunday.

Soccer 24-7, Even On Break

With no class because of October break and no practice until today, a lot of the team has been able to hang around campus without any real responsibilities for a few days, which has been nice. One of the best things about not having class on Tuesday was that we were all free to watch Champions League soccer on ESPN all day.

After watching Manchester United beat Celtic 3-0 at my house and before heading to a teammate’s place to watch TIVOed recordings of two other games (Real Madrid-Juventus and Arsenal-Fenerbahce), a group of us went up to the gym to kick a ball around. We ended up getting challenged by a group of Poughkeepsie residents who were there playing, and found ourselves in a hard-fought scrimmage with them that lasted an hour and a half.

These guys were pretty good and were clearly competitive as well, yelling at each other after every mistake and flying in with hard slide tackles whenever one of our guys held the ball too long. While we had come to the gym just expecting to fool around for a bit and go home to watch more soccer, it was good for us to be tested like that and to get such a workout after a few days off. I think we ended up winning 9-5, thanks to some great defending by senior Matt Pavlich and the goal-scoring prowess of Matt Belli and Noah Mosher. Today we begin real training again, in anticipation of our final weekend of Liberty League games.

The Final Four Game Push

With the entire Vassar campus on October break, our team has been given a few days off to rest up for the final four games of the regular season. Some players went home, a group of guys went camping, and some of us have just been hanging around campus. We start practicing again tomorrow in preparation for our weekend showdown with Hobart and Hamilton. We’re fighting for the playoffs after a 1-0 loss to RPI this past weekend, although a surprise victory by Skidmore over Union means we are not mathematically eliminated from the playoffs yet.

Even if a Liberty League playoff spot doesn’t happen for us, qualifying for the ECAC championship is still a goal we want to achieve. With a 6-6 record, we’ll need at least two wins from our final four games (or a win and two draws, or even four draws) in order to be eligible for selection. It’s possible we might need more than that to actually be picked though.

The loss to RPI was extremely disappointing, and was a microcosm of what has gone wrong for us over the past few seasons. While we matched RPI in shots and possession, we couldn’t score a goal and we fell behind in the first half on an own goal after a miscommunication between our goalkeeper and one of our defenders.

We know we need to move on. If we can earn a win on Saturday and hope other results go our way, we can stay alive in the playoff race. The weekend games are at Gordon Field at 3:00 pm on Saturday and 1:00 pm on Sunday.

Taking on Rival RPI

October 17

Tomorrow we take on RPI, one of our biggest rivals in the Liberty League. RPI is our “travel partner,” meaning it is the closest team to us geographically and we face off against the same Liberty League teams each weekend. Because of this, tomorrow’s game will be our only league contest this weekend. Although the RPI Red Hawks lost this week to Keene State, they have been on an impressive run of only 5 losses in 23 contests that dates back to last October when they defeated us 3-0 at their home field.

That win avenged a great Vassar performance from my sophomore year, where we erased a one-goal halftime deficit to storm back and take an emphatic 3-1 victory. While RPI did not make the Liberty League playoffs last year, they did manage to earn an ECAC birth and were the shock victors of the tournament. Playing as the eighth and final seed, RPI shut out top seed Oneonta State and 4th-seeded St. John Fischer before grabbing a 2-1 victory over Liberty League rival Union in the championship game. This would have been an even bigger surprise if RPI had not done the same thing in 2005 (my freshman season), rallying from the lowest seed in the ECAC playoffs to win the title. This season, RPI has finally translated this playoff form into Liberty League success and has become one of the dominant teams in the region. They are a perfect 4-0-0 in the league with no goals allowed, and will definitely present one of our toughest tests of the season. Goalkeeper Alex Penny has already been selected as Liberty League Defensive Player of the Week three times, and the fact that no one on their team has more than four goals is a testament to their depth (an amazing seventeen different RPI players have scored a goal so far this season).

Everyone who has not yet left for October break should come out to Prentiss Field at 2 PM for what should be an exciting match-up.

Film Sessions, Evaluate and Learn

October 15

As a team, we generally hold film sessions approximately once a week, where we watch some game footage to help reinforce concepts that we work on in training. We usually watch one of our own recent games, although a few times we have watched some tape of an upcoming opponent as well. We will also occasionally watch clips from professional games that Coach Jennings puts together to demonstrate some of the key concepts he is trying to impress on us, such as how to defend with shape or how to move the ball up the field.

This year, our film sessions have generally been on Monday nights (although before playing St. Lawrence this weekend we also met on Saturday morning to watch some of our Friday afternoon match with Clarkson). These film sessions are a great way to evaluate our performance and to see a visual of how well we are executing the things Coach Jennings works on in practice with us. Watching the second half of our 2-1 loss to Skidmore a few weeks back, I was surprised to see just how much possession we had despite giving up two goals. While this might be somewhat expected as Skidmore have been a counter-attacking team this season, it was still surprising to see how good we looked on film and what we could have done in that game if we had avoided some breakdowns both on defense and around our opponent’s goal. This past Monday we watched tape from our 1-0 loss to St. Lawrence. Again, there were a lot of positives to take from the game, along with examples of some of the things we can still do better as we head into the final five games of the regular season.

Today we have a day off as everyone attempts to get through midterms and papers before next week’s break from school. We want everyone to be rested in order to have two more good days of practice in preparation for our matchup against RPI on Saturday, a must-win game.

A Tough Loss

October 11

We lost 1-0 to St. Lawrence on Saturday, putting us on the brink of elimination from the Liberty League playoffs. In the end, St. Lawrence was just a better team, and while we fought hard and played well, it wasn’t enough to steal the points that we desperately needed. We suffered a big hit before kickoff when our starting striker Jon Hootnick was forced to sit out with a knee injury. Without Jon, our regular target man and leading goal scorer, we lacked bite up front and didn’t create many chances despite some periods of good possession.

The first period was fairly evenly-matched, and we went into halftime with high hopes that we could emerge with a victory. As the second half progressed however, St. Lawrence grew more aggressive in going forward and we were forced to defend more and look for a counter-attack. Twice St. Lawrence hit the crossbar, but the game remained scoreless until the 70th minute, when a great individual effort by St. Lawrence striker Kiel Dwyer broke the deadlock. With a burst of speed, Dwyer beat our defense to a through ball and sent a shot low to the far post. For a third time the ball hit the woodwork, but we didn’t get the lucky bounce we needed as it rebounded into the net, giving St. Lawrence the lead it needed. While everyone on the field gave their all for 90 minutes, we were unable to score and now go into our RPI game next Saturday needing a result to stay alive.

With three league games to go, we sit tied for sixth place with Skidmore at 1-3. The final playoff place is currently held by Union, 4 points ahead at 2-1-1. We’ll need at least two wins and a draw from our final three games, and possibly three wins, in order to make the playoffs. Given that we play the top two teams in the league (undefeated Hobart and RPI) along with defending champion Hamilton, this is a huge task, but until we are actually eliminated we need to continue believing in ourselves

The First Liberty League Win

October 11

Halfway through our second Liberty League weekend, and we are injecting new life into our season. While we risked a great overall performance with a lack of composure around the net, we were able to grab a 2-1 win over Clarkson, our first league victory of the season. It was a great effort by the entire team, as we came out firing with three shots off the crossbar in the first half. Clarkson keeper Mike St. Croix also made some fantastic grabs on crosses to keep the game scoreless and when Clarkson went ahead midway through the half, it was starting to look just like so many other games in my career where we let opportunities slip away. But late in the first half, Brian Bianchetti produced the play of the year as his 40-yard blast tied the game 1-1. He was booked for taking his shirt off in the ensuing celebration, but it was well worth going into halftime with the score level.

We had a host of chances early in the second half, and a breakaway goal by Jon Hootnick gave us our first Liberty League lead of the year. After Hootnick’s goal, the attacks continued as Jake Weiss hit the crossbar from nearly 30 yards out and Jimmy Worboys was set to finish from close range before being taken down from behind as the official missed an egregious penalty. Clarkson was also lucky not to go down to 10 men as Vassar freshman Brett Anker worked hard to rob the defense of the ball and was taken down by the last defender, generally a red-card offense. While we feel the scoreline could have been more impressive, it was great to get a win before we turn our focus to St. Lawrence.

While we are still in seventh place, we now sit 3 points out of the final playoff spots currently held by Hamilton and none other than St. Lawrence. While a loss would not mathematically eliminate us from the Liberty League playoffs, there is no question that we need to treat today like a playoff game. Based on our performance today, we can certainly play with St. Lawrence; the question will be whether we can finish the chances that come to us (and there may not be a lot of them). Our proficiency around the net today will go a long way toward determining whether this weekend ends in triumph or disappointment.

Crucial Liberty League Weekend

October 10

After four second-half goals to clinch a 5-0 victory over Bard on Tuesday, Vassar soccer heads into its most important weekend of the season so far, as we resume our Liberty League campaign at home against Clarkson and St. Lawrence.

This afternoon we take on Clarkson at 4 PM. Clarkson was our only league victory last season, and currently sit in last place at 0-3. They are also currently the only Liberty League team (5-5-1) to not have a winning record overall. However, we have heard that they are a tough and hard-working team that will bury you if you don’t come out focused and ready to play. We learned this lesson all too well my sophomore year, in our final league game of the season. While Clarkson came in at 0-6, we had just been knocked out of the playoff race the day before and the disappointment clearly caused us to come out flat. Clarkson ran away with a 6-2 rout. Last season was much better, as we won 2-0 in a game that possibly could have been worse if not for a fantastic performance by Clarkson goalkeeper Jonathon Rushing. It will be difficult to keep them off the scoreboard this year however, as striker Scott Desmond is second in the league with five goals and has twice won Liberty League Offensive Player of the Week.

On Saturday at 2 PM we play St. Lawrence, historically one of the top teams in the league and the region. They won the National Championship in 1999 and the Liberty League championship in both my freshman and sophomore year. They also made the NCAA tournament every year from 1998 to 2006. Their absence from the tournament last year was somewhat perplexing after holding the top seed all season before losing in the league championship game to Hamilton. Despite this daunting record, we’ll have to find a way to win this game and we’ve had some success against St. Lawrence in the past. Vassar has a 2-4-2 all-time record against the Saints despite a 4-1 loss last season. My freshman year we tied them 2-2 after managing to score two own goals on ourselves, a game we absolutely should have won. St. Lawrence has some good upperclassmen, including goalkeeper Emilio Coletta and leading scorer Emmanuel Mbong. They also have a host of young players who contribute, including freshman Brendan Gorman (5 goals, 5 assists). It will be a tough weekend for us, but we need points to stay alive in the playoff race, and we may very well need all 6 points from these two games.

Showing "Prospies" A Slice of Vassar Life

This past weekend we had our annual “Recruiting Weekend,” where high school students (usually seniors) who are interested in playing soccer at Vassar come and stay with a player for the weekend and watch a game or two. This is a great chance to see if Vassar is the right choice for the players in respect to the program, the academics, and the social scene. We have prospective students (“prospies”) visiting all year, but our coaches pick a weekend each fall where a whole group will come and stay. This past weekend we had over a dozen students from all over the country, including distant states like Arizona, Texas, and California. Our coaches generally begin with hundreds of potential student-athletes from each class, a number that is whittled down due to a players’s ability, academic qualifications, and interest in the school.

Coming on recruiting weekend is a great chance to get acclimated to life at Vassar and to meet some potential future teammates. I remember four years ago, on my recruiting weekend, meeting for the first time some of the other seniors here who have been among my best friends at Vassar. It’s also very important to get a feel for the school first if a prospective student is going to apply early decision in November, which many athletes do. Our job as hosts is to make sure these students feel comfortable at Vassar and have a great time, which they almost always do. We have good team chemistry right now and everyone on the team gets along great, which hopefully contributes to how much fun our visiting high school students have while they are here.

Halfway Point, 9-1 Victory

Vassar got back on track yesterday with a 9-1 victory over Green Mountain College, the most goals we’ve put past a team in my four years here. We knew that Green Mountain (coming in at 0-13 with 8 goals scored and 78 allowed) would not be the toughest team on our schedule, but we still needed to make sure that we came out focused at the start and put the game away early. Two goals each from our starting strikers Jon Hootnick and Ben Scaglione gave us a 4-0 lead and when we added five goals in a five minute stretch from the 31st- 35th minutes we were able to ride out a comfortable victory, despite Green Mountain pulling a goal back with a good long-range shot in the second half.

The victory puts us at 4-4 as we hit the halfway point of our season. While we’ve been able to put away teams like Green Mountain with a barrage of goals, we haven’t been able to translate this into goals against tougher opposition, as we have scored only once against our four toughest opponents this year. Our goal differential of +15 despite a .500 record reflects our inability to prevail in close games. We’ll face Bard on Tuesday before resuming our Liberty League campaign next weekend. While it was good to get some confidence on the offensive end this weekend, we need to translate that into goals against tough opposition next weekend in order to stay in the playoff race.

Recovering From a Tough Weekend

September 29

It was a difficult weekend for Vassar soccer, and after only two games we’ve left ourselves in a tough position to qualify for both the Liberty League playoffs and the ECAC championships should we fall short of the Liberty League title. Union is always a difficult opponent, but we’ve performed well against them in recent years. On Friday, we fought hard on a wet turf field, but fell behind 1-0 on a breakaway goal for Union. The big blow came with 30 seconds left in the half, as nobody picked up after a goal kick and Union grabbed a last-second goal to double their lead going into the break. While we attacked for most of the second half, we were unable to find a response and fell 2-0 in our league opener. Despite us getting to halftime against Skidmore with no score, the outcome was similar; we weren’t outplayed but two breakdowns at the back allowed Skidmore to take a 2-0 lead. A late goal by Brian Bianchetti was no consolation as we fell to 0-2 in the league and already 3 points out of the playoff places.

Of course, the season is far from over, and with our last five league games at home there is still time to turn things around. My sophomore year we started 0-3 in the league before two straight victories sent us into the final weekend with a chance to make the playoffs- we were eliminated with a 2-0 loss at home to St. Lawrence but it was a hard-fought game and the result could have gone either way. There has been a lot of discussion amongst the players this weekend and as upset as everyone is we all realize that we can’t give up- we need to push ourselves a little harder both in training and in matches. We’ll have a hard week of practice before Saturday’s game against Green Mountain. This will hopefully keep us in match shape for October 10th, when we resume our Liberty League campaign with a game against Clarkson that is surely a must-win after last weekend’s performance.

Liberty League Opening Weekend

September 25

This weekend we head to Union and Skidmore for our first Liberty League weekend. In my three previous seasons at Vassar, we’ve only managed a total of three points from our opening League weekend, and the big holes we’ve put ourselves in can explain why we’ve missed the playoffs each of these years. This season, we have a better and deeper squad, so we need to get off to a better start and pick up points this weekend. We tied both of these teams last year so they should be good games.

An away weekend is quite an experience for college athletes, especially coming from high school (I think I only played one game in high school that was more than an hour away). After our Union game on Friday, we’ll head to a hotel for the night. The next morning, we have a team breakfast (the free food all weekend is one of the best parts of the trip for the players), and we’ll watch some game tape from Friday’s match, as well as do a short warm-up jog and stretch to keep everybody loose for the second game. It can be good to get away from campus for two days- it keeps everyone focused 100 percent on the games, and allows for some time to get homework done, but its still fun to be in a hotel with all of your teammates. This is our only away weekend of the season, and a much shorter trip than last year, when we went to both Clarkson/St. Lawrence and Hamilton/Hobart. It can be a very long weekend on the field though, as several times we’ve had both games in the same weekend go into overtime (including last year against these two teams). This can mean 220 minutes of soccer in barely more than 24 hours, and usually a few starters end up playing every one of those minutes.

Dedicating Prentiss

On Saturday morning Vassar held a dedication for our new Prentiss Field Complex, which was completed last spring. I remember my first two years here, where we played on a mediocre game field surrounded by an inexact concrete oval that served as our track. We also had a practice field that became hard as cement later in the season (not great for goalkeeper drills), and our baseball team had a field that consisted of nothing more than a backstop and an infield. Our track team even had to go off campus for workouts. In the spring of my sophomore year they moved the soccer teams over to the field hockey/lacrosse fields on the other side of the road- these are actually in pretty good shape, but they couldn’t compete with some of the institutions we play against.

Fast forward two years and the difference is amazing. The new complex has a turf field with lights and a brand new soccer field, both of which have permanent bleachers and press boxes (something we didn’t have on our old fields). We also have a brand new 8-lane track and a new baseball field with fence and in-ground dugouts. The quality of grass on our game field is incredible, probably the best I’ve played on. There is also a second grass soccer field which is in great shape as well, and it gives our soccer teams five fields to choose from for training (we can go on the turf in bad weather or to prepare for a game on turf, and we can go on the old fields if we don’t want our practice to tear up the new fields too much). Another great feature is the box nets on our game field, similar to what you would see on television for a Premier League or Champions League game. I think any prospective student who plays up front should come here just for the chance to score goals in these nets.

For the dedication on Saturday, the teams got a catered breakfast before our games (field hockey and women’s soccer were at home and we went on the road to Drew). While we didn’t stay for the speeches because we had to get to our game, we did go out on the fields with some of the alumni who helped to finance the complex, including Jim Citrin ’81 after whom the new bleachers are named. They also christened the “Jennings Bench”, named after our long-time coach Andy Jennings. It may not line up completely straight with the field but he really seemed to like it. While I wish I could have had more than one season on these fields, they truly are amazing and should help our program immensely in the future, especially with recruiting.

Bring on the Liberty League

September 22

Vassar split a pair of games this weekend, losing 2-0 to Drew on Saturday followed by a 6-0 victory over Medgar Evers on Sunday. The performance against Drew was frustrating due to our complete inability to create any offense, and we were eventually out-shot 21-2. We also conceded another early goal, a tendency that has plagued us a bit over the past few years. We responded on Sunday with three goals in the first 4:35 of our game against Medgar Evers, a team we only defeated by one goal last season.

On Friday and Saturday we begin our Liberty League campaign with road games against Union and Skidmore. While our non-league games may eventually prove crucial in selection for either the ECAC or NCAA postseason tournaments, the seven Liberty League contests are the games that will determine whether our season is a success or a failure. We’ve never made the Liberty League playoffs in my time here, but this is an improved team and we’re all excited for another chance this season. Everyone on the squad has been working incredibly hard in practice for these games, but the seniors have worked four years for a chance at the playoffs and until you reach that point I don’t think it really hits you how important it is. As an underclassman there is always next year, but having reached our final opportunity I really understand what this weekend’s games mean. We have a .500 record against these two teams over the last two years, so both games should be battles.

A Tale of Two Halves

September 18

It was a tale of two halves for Vassar on Wednesday as we faced off against Stevens Tech- one of the top teams in the country. They were ranked fifth in the country before a loss to Swarthmore and a close win over New Paltz dropped them to #15, but there was no question as to their talent level. If we ever needed to come out ready to play, it was for this game, and unfortunately we weren’t quite able to do that. Unlike some of the other top teams in the country that we’ve played like Middlebury and Williams, who will tend start with lower pressure and focus on passing the ball around and building up their attack, Stevens has always come out flying from the start. This means that if you aren’t 100 percent focused defensively against them, you will get blown out, as evidenced by our 6-0 loss to them last season.

While I don’t think our early performance was particularly bad, I also don’t think we were as focused and intense as we are capable of it, and we paid for it by doing the one thing we really did not want to do- allowing an early goal six minutes in the game. A couple defensive breakdowns led to two more Stevens goals and we found ourselves down 3-0 at halftime and in danger of completely losing control of the game.

I didn’t hear what was said at halftime as I was helping to warm up another goalkeeper, but there’s no question that our team realized that they had a little more inside of them and committed to performing better in the second half. Sure enough, instead of falling apart in the second period, we fought back and played Stevens much more evenly, keeping the 3-0 intact. Several substitutes came on and made a difference with their work ethic and tackling, and the overall attitude in the second half was fantastic. It was definitely a lesson learned for us, as we will not be able to afford another soft start like we had on Wednesday. However, we showed a lot of character in the second half and were able to leave on more of a positive note. Also, our improved depth this season is showing, as several players who weren’t in the starting lineup put in outstanding performances in the second half, which will undoubtedly leave some tough decisions for our coaching staff this weekend, but this can only be a good thing for us as we go forward this season. We have another tough game on Saturday against Drew, currently 4-1-1 on the season.

Robb Rolfing: An Inspiration

September 14

Before our home opener against Alfred on Saturday, Coach Jennings focused our pre-game talk on a former Vassar soccer player that no one on the team has met, but whose story the returning players got to know last fall- the Class of 2000’s Robb Rolfing.

If you look around the Vassar Athletics website, you’ll see Robb is our second all-time leading scorer in both goals and points, and recorded two of the five highest-scoring seasons in Vassar history when he tallied 15 goals in 1998 and 13 more in 1999. He also scored both goals, including the overtime winner, in Vassar’s first-ever NCAA tournament game victory (a 2-1 win over Cabrini College). As we found out before last season, Robb died on June 30, 2007, while fighting in Iraq. Our team had a ceremony for him before our second-to-last home Liberty League game against Union last year, and his parents came all the way from South Dakota for it. While we had all but been eliminated from the playoff race, we responded with what may have been the best performance of my career at Vassar. We were unlucky not to score, but we managed a 0-0 tie against a strong Union team who also brought their best on that day. While we’ve probably managed better results, the standard of play on both sides was as good as I’ve ever seen at the Division 3 level.

As the freshmen have not heard Robb’s story yet, Coach Jennings took the opportunity to tell his story to the team again and to show the freshmen some pictures of Robb in action for Vassar. It is clear when Coach Jennings or any other member of the Vassar community talks about Robb just how much of an impression he made on them when he was here. While his impressive goal totals say something about his success for the Brewers, he’s been described as one of the most dedicated, hard-working and team-oriented players to ever suit up for Vassar, regardless of statistics. Hopefully his story will give our team a little extra motivation this season as we try to accomplish what no Vassar soccer team has ever done without Robb- qualify for the NCAA tournament.

Protecting the Home Turf

September 13

What a difference three days can make. For as much as we struggled with our finishing and our composure against Mt. St. Mary’s, you could forgive a Vassar fan for thinking that our home opener today against Alfred (who we only beat by one goal last season) would be a close game. While I had seen a lot of positive things out of our team in practice this week, I did not expect to see the scoreline that we produced: 8-0, the most lopsided victory of my Vassar career.

Today’s game also continued an impressive streak we have- our last regular-season loss at home was October 25, 2006 (a shocking overtime defeat to 10-man New Paltz). That statistic will certainly be put to the test on Wednesday against Stevens Tech, one of the best teams in the country. Still, with 8 of our remaining 13 games in Poughkeepsie this season, it is a good sign that we have been so successful on our home turf.

Our whole team looked great today, especially at the offensive end, which has been one of our biggest question marks. Everything was clicking for us on the attack; difficult passes and through balls were finding their targets, players were beating defenders one-on-one, and there were some great finishes as well. Jon Hootnick scored for the second straight game, Alex Freund tallied 3 goals and 2 assists, and center-back Matt Pavlich even added a goal on a late penalty. Up 4-0 at halftime, our two main goals were to keep our shutout and to not let our intensity drop in the second period like we did on Wednesday. I’d say we accomplished both goals without question. We get a much-deserved day off on Sunday, but then we’ll need to train hard in preparation for three games next week, including a match-up with Stevens, currently ranked fifth in the country.

The Long-Awaited Season Opener

September 10, 2008

Wednesday was the day we were all waiting for, although we had to wait an extra 21 hours for it to come: our first regular season game of 2008. We were supposed to play Tuesday night but the game was rained out and rescheduled for Wednesday. Our opponents were Mt. St. Mary’s, a team that we’ve beaten every year I’ve been at Vassar, but who gave us a very tough game last fall.

Mt. St. Mary’s is a pretty fun place to play, it’s a small but scenic campus, and the crowd of students is always few in number but pretty lively. The field wasn’t perfect, and the long grass gave us some trouble early on. The last-minute cancellation had forced us to practice on the turf Tuesday night in pouring rain, which meant that balls that were skipping right off the field the night before were barely reaching their intended targets on Wednesday. There were a few tense moments in the first half when our defenders gave away passes in the tall grass, but overall we were solid in the back. Outside of this, we had very little trouble in the first half, though we should have scored more than we did. A Jon Hootnick finish with 10 minutes to go was all we were able to manage, and the 1-0 lead probably didn’t reflect how much we had controlled the half.

The second half was a different story however. We were unable to get another goal to put the game away, and for some reason we began to fall apart late. Mt. St. Mary’s had a goal disallowed for offsides with about 15 minutes to go, though we also had more than a few chances killed by offsides calls. Then in a moment that nearly gave everyone on the bench a heart attack, a Mt. St. Mary shot appeared to be going in to an empty net with 48 seconds left to play before Chris Nieminski sprinted back to the line and was able to head the ball away, saving us from an overtime period we never thought would be necessary.

Overall, there are positives and negatives to take from our first game. We got away with a win, which is the most important thing. We also looked very composed in the first half, and there were several individual players who really stood out with good performances. On the other hand, we need to do a better job of finishing, and we need to avoid some of the mistakes we made later on in the game. We’ll have a better idea of where we are as a team when we take on Alfred on Saturday, another team that we beat last season by just one goal.

The Final Roster, Opening Day Approaches

Saturday, September 6th:

Tonight Coach Jennings announced our final roster, which was certainly a relief for some players as everyone can now focus on the coming season. It was quite difficult this year, with two seniors being let go and five former players overall not making it through tryouts. But while the coaches had to make some very tough decisions, we will hopefully be stronger for it, and I know our team is deeper than it has ever been. This year we have 7 seniors, 7 juniors, 6 sophomores, and 9 freshmen.

We have a bit of a family connection this season with freshmen Harrison Freund (junior Alex Freund’s brother) and Eli London (junior Jake London’s cousin) joining the team. It’s good to see some of our older players having a positive influence on recruiting and helping us to bring in some players who should contribute on the attacking end in the coming four years.

The regular season starts Tuesday as we travel to Mt. St. Mary’s, a team that didn’t give us too much trouble my first two seasons, but who pushed us to the brink last year when a 90th-minute winner by Ben Fox gave us a 2-1 victory. They’ve improved every year so we need to be ready to go Tuesday night.

A Promising Start

Sunday August 31st:

Today we had our first preseason games of the year- always an exciting moment for all the players. Vassar began its 2008 campaign with the toughest opponent we could face off against, the 2007 National Champion Middlebury Panthers. We actually played Middlebury in preseason last year and tied 2-2 (and we were denied a late winner when we hit the post in the final minutes), giving us the opportunity to tell people back home that we tied the national champs. However, Middlebury played a lot of subs in that game, and it was the second game of the day for both squads. This would be the first game of the preseason for both teams and we were expecting to see Middlebury’s starters, at least in the first half. As Coach Jennings kept pointing out to us, this was Middlebury’s first match since the National Championship game in Florida last fall.

The first half went extremely well for us and though we didn’t have too many good chances, we also gave Middlebury very little, and the score was 0-0 at halftime. Both teams put in substitutes after halftime, and I went in goal for the beginning of the second half. I was a bit worried about how composed our new players would be in their first taste of college action, but I shouldn’t have been. Given the circumstances, I thought everyone met or exceeded expectations, and we continued to play the defending national champs equally, even going on the attack a few times (only to have a few offsides calls ruin our best possession). However, Middlebury finally broke through with about 25 minutes to play. It was an unlikely goal for us, and it was frustrating given how composed we had been all game. A cross came into the 6-yard box to a Middlebury player making a run at the near post. I had to stay in my goal as it appeared he would get a touch on the ball, but somehow he completely missed and it went through to an unmarked Middlebury player at the back post for an easy tap-in. There was little for either side late in the game, and Middlebury escaped with a 1-0 victory.

I was extremely pleased with everyone’s effort in the Middlebury game, and I am very excited for the season as everyone agrees that if we play like we did against the defending champs then we will have a decent chance against any team in the Liberty League.

We were much less successful in our second game, as we seemed to be worn out from the great effort against Middlebury. Everyone looked a bit flat, and there wasn’t the same amount of communication, movement or general energy. Williams scored twice in the first half and added two more in the second for a 4-0 lead. The bright spot for us came late, as a perfect cross from the right side set up our lone goal, making the final score 4-1.

Overall, it was a good day with positive performances from a lot of players, both in the starting lineup and farther down the bench. The new field was incredible as well, with perfect grass, nice bleachers, and professional-style box nets that make every goal look awesome (good motivation for us to score a lot this season!). We have a lot of work to do before our opening game against Mt. St. Mary’s a week from Tuesday, but I feel we are further along than we ever have been at this point in my previous three seasons.

Gearing Up To Face National Champs

Friday August 29th:

After a two-mile race to shock everyone back into preseason, we had the rest of our fitness testing yesterday, a mix of endurance and strength testing. Players who do not meet the sliding scale for the running tests in addition to achieving a satisfactory performance in the weight room are sent to the dreaded “Breakfast Club”- the purgatory of Vassar Soccer preseason- a series of early-morning fitness sessions before the day’s first practice.

After a tough morning, our afternoon session was less strenuous, as we began to really focus on our preseason games with Williams and Middlebury on Sunday. Both teams have won national championships, with Williams winning in 1995 and Middlebury grabbing their first national title last fall with a surprise upset over Trinity of Texas. We haven’t had much time to compare for such a difficult test, so our practice today was mostly designed to prepare us for how we were going to play come game day. Coach Jennings started by using cones to give us a demonstration on how he wanted us to position ourselves and move the ball around, and we gradually built up to an 11-on-11 walkthrough and then a full-speed scrimmage. Even though we lost a four-time All-Liberty League center-back in Ben Fox, we have a lot of experienced defenders coming back and I’m confident we can be a very tough defensive side with the players we have.

First Day, Final Season

Wednesday August 27th:

My name is Jimmy McCumber, and I am a senior goalkeeper on the Vassar Men’s Soccer team. This season, my last for the Brewers, I’ll be blogging about my team for our athletics website. First, a quick introduction of our team: we play in the Liberty League along with Union, Hobart, Hamilton, St. Lawrence, Clarkson, Skidmore, and Rensselaer. This is an extremely tough conference, with no weak teams and no easy games, no matter what the year. Last season was the first winning season of my college career, as we finished 7-5-3 overall. However, we again fell short of a top-four league finish and a spot in the playoffs, and were kept out of postseason play completely by the ECAC selection committee. This year we have a brand-new field complex which (though it took an extra year to build) is absolutely beautiful and will be fantastic to play on.

We began preseason this morning with the two-mile run, the centerpiece of our fitness testing. After the two-mile, we went right into scrimmaging. It was good for everyone to get into the swing of things before we start more specific drills. While today was our first official practice, it didn’t really feel like it as everybody got in by Monday, and some earlier than that. It has become a tradition for players on our team to come up a few days earlier for “pre-preseason”- basically a chance for us to practice a bit together before the pressure of tryouts starts. I came up Saturday afternoon and a group of players had already been here for a few days before that, including a few freshmen.

At this point, we have 36 players trying out for 28 spots, which is the largest group we’ve had in my four years here. This is weighing on some players’ minds as our coaches will have to make some very difficult cuts this fall, including some tough decisions they might not have been forced to make the last few years. The upside to this of course is that our team will be much stronger this year because of the heightened competition for spots. We don’t just have 36 players at training, we have 36 solid players, so everyone who eventually makes the team will be prepared to step in at any time. With so much more competition for spots this year, the whole team will be pushed to a higher level and hopefully it will show on the field.