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I have a feeling Clarkson is going to be a national power for a long time. It just stinks that RPI is behind them by a few years!!!
RPI has a difficult stretch of games coming up and I just feel like these past few games against Elmira and Utica were a waste. RPI was obviously better than both teams and seemed to play pretty sloppy. I wouldn't want to see bad habits forming because of playing inferior competition. I'm sure the girls will be primed and ready for the better competition coming up.
Ralph Baer
11-14-2005, 10:45 AM
I have a feeling Clarkson is going to be a national power for a long time. It just stinks that RPI is behind them by a few years!!! Considering that we had a head start playing D-III, we should have been ahead of them. However, it won't take much to catch up if RPI is able to continue recruiting well.
As to playing Elmira and Utica (and Williams and Plattsburgh in February), I suspect that the coaching staff wasn't sure how fast the team could adapt to D-I and wanted to take it easy. I can't blame them, although it looks like a tougher schedule would have been better. The games vs. Maine will be interesting. I would be surprised if RPI isn't already better than Union.
It's too bad that RPI isn't playing SLU when they go to Clarkson. I would think that the experience would be well worth it for next season.
LakersFan
11-14-2005, 01:11 PM
Another issue in scheduling RPI (the team) is RPI (the ranking). If I was a team that thought they had a chance to make the NCAA postseason, I would have been very careful not to schedule RPI (the team) this year. I would have thought that 1) RPI (the team) would have a weak record against a 2) weak schedule. Given the components of RPI (the ranking), beating a team with a poor record and poor schedule can lower your PRI (the ranking). Since most teams already have a team in conference that has a weak record/schedule, they use up the NCAA's "remove wins that lower your RPI" rule on those teams. Therefore, before the season started, I would have kept RPI (the team) of the schedule.
However, given their success so far this season, I would have been wrong. As of 11/14/05, PRI (the team) is 6th in DI RPI (the ranking) at this early point in the season (see my D1 computer ranking thread later today). If they keep playing the same way, a win against RPI (the team) would be boost your RPI (the ranking) and look pretty good.
USCHO GM
11-14-2005, 04:00 PM
As to playing Elmira and Utica (and Williams and Plattsburgh in February), I suspect that the coaching staff wasn't sure how fast the team could adapt to D-I and wanted to take it easy. I can't blame them, although it looks like a tougher schedule would have been better. The games vs. Maine will be interesting. I would be surprised if RPI isn't already better than Union.
It's too bad that RPI isn't playing SLU when they go to Clarkson. I would think that the experience would be well worth it for next season.
A few things. John Burke has said repeatedly that one of the hardest things that he had to do for this season was his schedule. With conference schedules out there and the limited number of games that some teams could play because of it, he had a hard time getting and filling games. And also filling in games where the team was not on the road for the entire season.
Therefore when you can top flight D3 teams, you put them on the schedule *this* season because you're just a year removed. See how your progress is, get those games in there for experience.
SLU would never play RPI this season because they are one of the top ranked teams in the nation and playing RPI would have risked their position come NCAA time with the PairWise.
The games against Maine, Northeastern, Clarkson, UConn and UVM will be good barometers for RPI. Wins will be great, but it will show that when more scholarship players are added in next year's freshmen class that RPI will compete in the ECACHL and perhaps fight for a home playoff position in the league (depending on if the ECACHL changes the playoff structure or not for women).
camman15
11-14-2005, 05:22 PM
A few things. John Burke has said repeatedly that one of the hardest things that he had to do for this season was his schedule.
The games against Maine, Northeastern, Clarkson, UConn and UVM will be good barometers for RPI. Wins will be great, but it will show that when more scholarship players are added in next year's freshmen class that RPI will compete in the ECACHL and perhaps fight for a home playoff position in the league (depending on if the ECACHL changes the playoff structure or not for women).
John's a good coach and has done a good job with his transitional schedule,.....I think he has a pretty good idea where his team is (competitively) without having to play the UConn's of D-I,.....what's important is that he and his team have an idea what the "grind" is like having to play tougher competition, and the more games like this, the better,.....these games may have successful results, but the outcomes are really not all that important,.....the experience for himself and his players is,.....
hgirl
11-14-2005, 06:16 PM
The schedule of RPI is very weak. Every game is treated as an exhibitoin therefore no pressure. If you want to go DI then have a DI schedule. At least BU and Robert Morris are playing with the big names. I think RPI will be in for an eye opener in the ECAC next year.
Red Cloud
11-14-2005, 06:40 PM
The schedule of RPI is very weak. Every game is treated as an exhibitoin therefore no pressure. If you want to go DI then have a DI schedule. At least BU and Robert Morris are playing with the big names. I think RPI will be in for an eye opener in the ECAC next year.
I'm sorry, but this is just ignorant.
sister
11-14-2005, 10:16 PM
I agree with Red Cloud. RPI's schedule is a good mix of upper level DIII and some of the more established DI teams. They played BU and Robert Morris already and we see where they stood with those teams - what about Colgate, are you saying they are a weak team?? I don't think there is a question that they could be very competitive with the DI teams this year. Their schedule is getting tougher this weekend with Maine and they have Wayne State and Clarkson coming up.
Good Luck RPI - I think you're playing great and more great games are yet to come. ;)
I love this!!! It reminds me of the line from "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" where they keep saying "who are these guys?" (in this case "gals"). Nobody seems to know what to make of RPI. Some say "easy schedule", some say "sucks that they aren't yet Clarkson", but everyone seems to be trying to figure out - how good are they, really? I have watched this team closely for 4 years now, and for what its worth, here's my two bits worth:
- first, the comparison with Clarkson is a good one, because Rick Seeley has done an outstanding job of building a solid team quickly there. But, talk about easy schedules in the first year!!!! In year one, Seeley had Clarkson play 2 games against Canadian teams (1-1), nine games (count 'em, nine!) against D3 teams ( 8 wins and a tie against RPI which I'm sure Rick hasn't forgotten), 20 games against legitimate D1 teams in the lower half of the rankings (6 wins, 12 losses, 2 ties) and two games against Sacred Heart, who everyone agrees is in a weird categoy unto themselves - officially D1 but not as good as a lot of D3 teams. By comparison, RPI's schedule is not bad, and by the end of the year, their record is going to be one heck of a lot better than Clarkson's first year. Already, RPI's win and tie against Colgate beats anything Clarkson achieved in year 1. At the end of the day, all of us armchair experts will be quite irrelevent and it will be up to the team to prove what they can do on the ice. After a great start, I suspect that they will have some disappointing losses the rest of the way, but it is still hard for me to imagine being less than very happy about their first year in D1. If they can pull off a couple more upsets before the end of the year its just icing on the cake. Anyone who has seen good D3 teams (Plattsburgh, Middlebury, Elmira) play knows that they have several players who would be quite competitive at the D1 level, and RPI, as a D3 team was in that league. What D3 teams lack is the depth to compete at D1, but all it takes is one or two years of strong recruiting to make up the difference. RPI's first recruiting year looks pretty darn good. Final point: while RPI looks competitive this year, don't underestimate the impact of the returning Olympic players next year. Adding a few world class players to teams like Harvard, Dartmouth and St. Lawrence will totally change the landscape, so we better get ready for a reality check.
Ralph Baer
11-15-2005, 12:32 AM
A few things. John Burke has said repeatedly that one of the hardest things that he had to do for this season was his schedule. With conference schedules out there and the limited number of games that some teams could play because of it, he had a hard time getting and filling games. And also filling in games where the team was not on the road for the entire season.
Therefore when you can top flight D3 teams, you put them on the schedule *this* season because you're just a year removed. See how your progress is, get those games in there for experience.
SLU would never play RPI this season because they are one of the top ranked teams in the nation and playing RPI would have risked their position come NCAA time with the PairWise.
The games against Maine, Northeastern, Clarkson, UConn and UVM will be good barometers for RPI. Wins will be great, but it will show that when more scholarship players are added in next year's freshmen class that RPI will compete in the ECACHL and perhaps fight for a home playoff position in the league (depending on if the ECACHL changes the playoff structure or not for women). I didn't mean to suggest that at the time the schedule was put together it didn't make sense. It just seems at this point in the season that a somewhat harder schedule wouldn have been better for the team. Some games which are somewhat out of reach (and RPI may still have these in Clarkson, for example) would greatly help in the long run. (This is also what my therapists keep saying when they tell me to attempt excercises which I can't yet do as I recover from my bicycling accident. :) )
That's a good point that SLU would have been worried about risking their RPI rating by playing RPI, the team. However, the way things are turning out, RPI, the team, might have an artificially high rating, and by playing RPI, SLU might have benefitted. Obviously they could not know it in advance.
Red Cloud
11-15-2005, 02:42 PM
That's a good point that SLU would have been worried about risking their RPI rating by playing RPI, the team. However, the way things are turning out, RPI, the team, might have an artificially high rating, and by playing RPI, SLU might have benefitted. Obviously they could not know it in advance.
My source indicated that SLU had actually offered to play RPI at Appelton opposite the Clarkson game, but this was turned down by RPI because of how they wanted to set the schedule up.
At the time the schedule was created, most people were in general agreement that it was considered to be an excellent way to challenge a first year D-I programs. A few games that the team would win or have a shot at, like Sacred Heart and Robert Morris, and some competitive games like Colgate, Maine, and Clarkson. Throw in 3 games against some of the best D-III programs and 3 against the best Canadian programs and it looked like a good primer for ECACHL play.
This team, however, has turned out to be, IMHO, much better than expected, which is a problem you like to have. In hindsight, with the team playing this well, maybe it would have been good to see how the team would have fared against SLU or Princeton. I think the Clarkson game at least should give us a decent idea, as they are the only ranked team on the schedule right now - UConn was ranked at one point but are no longer, though that should be a good indicator as well. Although it is apparent that this team could have probably competed for 5th or 6th place in the ECACHL this season, I don't think anyone is claiming they should have skipped this Independent year despite their success so far. Again, hindsight is 20-20, but this season is definitely an important step prior to next year. This team is definitely better than the lower rungs of the ECACHL - Union, Cornell, Quinnipiac, on par with a lot of the middle teams - Yale, Colgate, Brown, Clarkson (though they're making their bid for the top), but probably not nearly as good as the top teams - St. Lawrence, Harvard, Dartmouth, and Princeton.
I think with RPI's addition next year, the ECACHL is probably going to see a bit more parity overall, maybe not with the SLUs and Harvards of the league dropping off, but perhaps as a tossup for all the teams between SLU/Harvard and Cornell/Union.
Just throwing a lot of that out there for consumption.
RPIHFH
11-19-2005, 11:20 AM
Anyone know if Maine has an internet broadcast of today or tomorrow's games at Maine, since WRPI isn't broadcasting them?
rpifans
11-19-2005, 01:19 PM
There's a website: http://goblackbears.collegesports.com/multimedia/main-on-air.html, but they don't broadcast the Women's hockey games per the schedule. Plus there is a football game on the air at the same time as the hockey game today.
Hopefully someone with a connection will be able to provide some updates.
Maine beat RPI 4-1 today. Wasn't at the game, but looking at the box score it looks like shots were fairly even (26-24 for RPI) and the Maine goalie was named second star, so perhaps RPI had a little more offence than the one goal indicates? Same two teams go back at it tomorrow.
Ralph Baer
11-20-2005, 04:33 PM
The rematch was a 2-2 tie with Maine grabbing a 2-2 lead and then Sarah Daniel and Emily Donowick tieing it for RPI. Ashley Mayr was in goal.
Box: http://www.collegehockeystats.net/0506/boxes/wmneren1.n20
RPIHFH
11-30-2005, 06:20 PM
Thought I'd give this a bump back to the front page. Any thoughts on this Sunday's exhibition game vs Brock?
The RPI / Brock game should be a good one, but I have never seen Brock play so I'm guessing here. Based on RPI's victory over McGill, RPI should be favoured to win. McGill is still ranked #3 in Canada, and has beaten Dartmouth amongst others, whereas Brock is unranked in Canada. However, if you look at Brock's record, they have pulled some big upsets over higher ranked teams and on other nights lost to weak teams. From what I hear they rely heavily on scoring from Kate Algood (14 goals in 13 games, and next highest goal scorer has 4!) so I would think that if the Engineers keep her under control they should win.
Ralph Baer
12-01-2005, 02:26 AM
The recruit thread shows that RPI has received a commitment from a second player for next fall, a defense(wo)man Laura Gersten of Queensbury, NY who plays for the Troy-Albany Ice Cats http://board.uscho.com/showpost.php?p=2259012&postcount=8. It is also mentioned on the Ice Cats' site: http://eteamz.active.com/TAYHA/index.cfm?subsite=2943639 Laura has signed an NCAA letter of intent with RPI, she is from Queensbury, NY and attends Queensbury High School where she plays field hockey and lacrosse. Laura has participated in the USA Hockey National Development Camps for the past two years and played on the Adirondack Empire State Games team for the past four years. This will be her fourth season as a member of the Troy-Albany Ice Cats. Laura is a defenseman and has been an assistant captain of th team for three years.Her page at the Ice Cats' site http://eteamz.active.com/TAYHA/roster/index.cfm?season=303807&sport=12&subsite=2943639&id=4395431
jericho
12-01-2005, 11:13 PM
The RPI / Brock game should be a good one, but I have never seen Brock play so I'm guessing here. Based on RPI's victory over McGill, RPI should be favoured to win. McGill is still ranked #3 in Canada, and has beaten Dartmouth amongst others, whereas Brock is unranked in Canada. However, if you look at Brock's record, they have pulled some big upsets over higher ranked teams and on other nights lost to weak teams. From what I hear they rely heavily on scoring from Kate Algood (14 goals in 13 games, and next highest goal scorer has 4!) so I would think that if the Engineers keep her under control they should win.
Just a reminder that we (WRPI) will be bringing you this game live from the Field House. This is also Victorian Stroll day, so the HFH will probably be relatively empty.
rpi82
12-02-2005, 12:12 AM
Do Victorian Strolls and hockey appeal to the same audience? As a fan of women's sports I've heard lots of reasons for low attendance, but that's a new one.
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