South Atlantic Week in Review- Week 10
By D3soccer.com Contributor
Conference Playoffs! They are all set now, some have even started already. We know who will be playing who, and when, and where, and it’s all VERY exciting! The ODAC came down to the final day, but it’s all set now. Salisbury shocked the CAC world and knocked Christopher Newport from their throne, where they reigned from on-high for six years as the #1 seed. Centre has already won a conference playoff game, and Emory won’t play any (UAA does not have a playoff). The NJAC will, once again, go through TCNJ. Questions about playoffs? All the answers can be found at D3Soccer.com’s 2019 Conference Championship Central. Check it out, as it is THE source to follow the 2019 NCAA D3 Women’s Soccer Conference Playoffs.
Let’s see how the top-ranked teams in the South Atlantic Region did this week...
TCNJ (14-1-1 / 8-0-1) D3Soccer.com No. 4 / SA Region #1
TCNJ hosted Rowan (10-7-1 / 4-4-1) in their regular season finale, and rolled to a 3-0 NJAC victory. Gianna Coppola, Julia Obst, and Haley Bodden scored second-half goals after a scoreless first half that saw the Lions hold a 15-1 shot advantage. That advantage turned into an 18-1 advantage in the second half, bringing the shot total to 33-2 (9-1 SOG) in favor of the Lions. TCNJ also held an 8-0 advantage in corner kicks. The Lions are the No. 1 seed for the upcoming New Jersey Athletic Conference playoffs and will play host for all of their matches. They’ll start by turning around and hosting the Profs again on Tuesday night for a NJAC semifinal game.
See “NJAC Women” in 2019 Conference Championship Central
Christopher Newport (15-1-3 / 8-1-1) D3Soccer.com No. 8 / SA Region #2
Christopher Newport hosted Salisbury (13-2-3 / 9-0-1) Wednesday night in their regular season finale, looking to settle the score for a 2-5 loss at Salisbury on October 12th and retain their title as regular season champs. They needed a win and to make-up the goal differential to retain their title. They weren’t able to make up the goal differential or score at all, settling for a 0-0 double-overtime draw. The Captains put up 25 shots to the Sea Gulls’ 16, but only eight of those were on target; the same number that Salisbury managed. The Captains took nine corners, while Salisbury took six. The Captains are now the No. 2 seed for the upcoming Capital Athletic Conference playoffs, the first time in six years that they will not serve as the No. 1 seed. They’ll host #3 seed Mary Washington (9-10-0 / 6-5-0) Wednesday evening in a CAC semifinal game.
See “CAC Women” in 2019 Conference Championship Central
Centre (19-0-0 / 7-0-0) D3Soccer.com No. 6 / SA Region #3
Centre started Southern Athletic Association playoffs by hosting Millsaps (3-13-0 / 0-7-0) and suffered no letdown of any kind, pasting the Majors by the final score of 9-0. The Colonels got four goals from Alana Hughes, two from Sarah Sirkin, and single goals from Abby Hegarty, Rachael Boule, and Julia Doran. Centre put up 29 shots with 13 of those being on goal, while holding the Majors without a single shot. They also took four corners while Millsap took none. The Colonels will now host the remainder of the playoffs, with the semifinals Friday and the final on Sunday. The Colonels will play Berry (8-6-3 / 3-3-1) Friday night in the first semifinal.
See “SAA Women” in 2019 Conference Championship Central
Emory (12-4-0 / 4-2-0) D3Soccer.com 20 / SA Region #4
Emory hosted Brandeis (10-7-1 / 4-5-1) Friday night and added to their postseason resume with a convincing 4-0 University Athletic Association victory over the Judges. Aubrey Blanchard, Shivani Beall, and LJ Kolodge scored for the Eagles, and the Judges scored an own-goal to round out the scoring. The match was tighter on the stat sheet than the scoreboard, with the Eagles having a slight edge in shots at 15-11 and shots on goal at 8-5, and they trailed slightly in corner kicks at 5-6. The difference in the game was between the pipes, with senior keeper Haley Pratt making eight saves for the Eagles.
The Eagles capped off their weekend with another UAA victory Sunday with a 3-0 win against New York University (11-6-0 / 2-4-0). Samantha Hilsee, Natalie Klar, and Paige Santee scored goals for Emory and the defense did the rest, holding the Violets to six shots with just two of those on target. The offense managed to put up 17 shots with nine on goal and took six corners to the Violets’ two.
With no conference tournament in the UAA, Emory has done just about all it can to get into the NCAA Championship Tournament. They’ll continue that quest by welcoming Rochester (N.Y.) (9-5-2 / 1-4-1) to Atlanta Saturday morning in their regular season finale.
Randolph-Macon (18-0-0 / 10-0-0) D3Soccer.com 15 / SA Region #5
Randolph-Macon hosted Eastern Mennonite (10-6-1 / 4-5-1) Wednesday night and easily dispatched the Royals by a 5-0 final. Casey Kent scored twice for the Yellow Jackets, while Gabby Nelson, Haley Silva, and Madi Powell added single scores. The Yellow Jackets outshot the Royals 36-6 (15-3 SOG) and held an edge in corner kicks at 6-1. Randolph-Macon stayed perfect in the conference and will clinch the top seed for the ODAC playoffs with a draw or win against Ferrum.
The Yellow Jackets completed regular season at a perfect 18-0 by beating Ferrum (9-7-2 / 5-4-1) 3-0 on senior Gabby Nelson’s hat trick. Nelson scored all three goals in the first half and the Yellow Jacket defense did the rest, holding the Panthers to just two shots for the game. Randolph-Macon put up 25 shots with 19 of those on goal. Corner kicks were limited to just two, both taken by the Yellow Jackets. Randolph-Macon earned the ODAC #1 seed and will host the winner of #8 Lynchburg (11-7-1 / 5-5-0) and #9 Eastern Mennonite (10-6-1 / 4-5-1) on Wednesday.
See “ODAC Women” in 2019 Conference Championship Central
Roanoke (13-5-1 / 7-3-0) D3Soccer.com NR / SA Region #6
Roanoke hosted Ferrum (9-7-2 / 5-4-1) Wednesday night in an Old Dominion Athletic Conference matchup that turned into a grinding, defensive struggle where more fouls were called (22) than shots taken (15). Despite taking almost three times as many shots as the Panthers, the Maroons fell 0-1 when Ferrum converted a penalty kick in the 52nd minute. The Maroons outshot the Panthers 11-4 (7-2 SOG) and took 11 corner kicks to zero for Ferrum.
The Maroons left no doubt to the outcome when they traveled to Hollins (4-12-0 / 1-9-0) Saturday afternoon, scoring six second-half goals en route to a 8-0 ODAC rout. Ellie Schad scored two goals, while Hailey Davis, Lexie Schult, Kailyn Yeager, Lucy Perry, Emma Stremmel, and Madeleine Dickinson scored lone goals for the Maroons. Roanoke outshot Hollins 35-2 (16-1 SOG) and took 12 corner kicks to zero for Hollins. The Maroons hold the #5 seed in the upcoming ODAC playoffs and will travel to #4 seed Bridgewater (Va.) (11-6-2 / 7-3-0) for a Wednesday afternoon quarterfinal game.
See “ODAC Women” in 2019 Conference Championship Central
Montclair State (12-5-2 / 7-1-1) D3Soccer.com NR / SA Region #7
Montclair State traveled to Kean (8-9-1 / 3-5-1) Wednesday night for an important NJAC matchup and came away with a 2-1 victory. The Red Hawks opened up the scoring in the 15th minute when Emily DeGeyter scored, but then saw the match tied in the 29th minute when the Cougars were awarded and converted a penalty kick. That score held until the 64th minute when DeGeyter scored her second goal of the night. Both goals in the 2-1 win were assisted by Samantha Senatore. The Red Hawks outshot the Cougars 17-7 (6-3 SOG) and took eight corners to zero for Kean. The victory clinched the No. 2 seed for the upcoming New Jersey Athletic Conference playoffs and made head coach Pat Naughter the all-time winningest coach in Montclair State history with 137 wins. The Red Hawks will host #3 seed Stockton (14-3-3 / 6-1-2) Tuesday night in an NJAC semifinal match. Stockton (14-3-3 / 6-1-2) tied 0-0 against Rutgers-Camden and advanced in a PK shootout on Saturday to earn a berth in the semifinal.
See “NJAC Women” in 2019 Conference Championship Central
Salisbury (13-2-3 / 9-0-1) D3Soccer.com No. NR / SA Region #8
Salisbury traveled to Christopher Newport (15-1-3 / 8-1-1) Wednesday night looking to dethrone the Captains as the regular season champions of the Capital Athletic Conference and No. 1 seed for the upcoming conference playoffs. The Captains had been the regular season champions and No. 1 seed for the last six seasons, but the Sea Gulls had handed CNU a 5-2 loss when they hosted the Captains back on October 12th and Christopher Newport needed to win and beat the Sea Gulls by more than two goals to stay champions. The teams battled for 110 minutes, but neither team was able to put a goal in the back of the net and had to settle for a 0-0 double overtime draw. The draw was as good as a win for the Sea Gulls, who became the regular season champions and the No. 1 seed for the upcoming playoffs. The Sea Gulls trailed the Captains in total shots 16-25, but were even at shots on goal at eight apiece. The Sea Gulls took six corner kicks to the Captains’ nine. The Sea Gulls will host a CAC semifinal match Wednesday night when they welcome #4 York (Pa.) (8-12-0 / 4-6-0), 3-0 winners over #5 St. Mary’s (Md.) (3-15-1 / 1-8-1).
See “CAC Women” in 2019 Conference Championship Central
It’s that time of the year - Conference Playoffs! Which means, of course, that the Championship Tournament selection is next Monday, November 11th. A very quick turn-around from conference championships to the NCAA Tournament. The third installment of Regional Rankings comes out Wednesday, November 6th, and these will be the important ones. We won’t see the final Regional Rankings until after the tournament field is announced, so as Christian Shirk states in his D3Soccer.com article “Coming Wednesday: the rankings that matter”, if your team isn’t on this third installment of rankings and don’t get the Automatic Qualifier, they probably will not be “dancing”. Only on rare occasions has a team been awarded a Pool C berth and not been regionally ranked in the third week rankings. For more information on how the tournament field is selected, see Christian’s article “AQ’s, Pool B and Pool C? What does it all mean?”
Comments or feedback for the author? E-mail us.
