D3 womens preseason poll

[gojackets]

Team (First Place Votes) Record Points Last Poll
1 Middlebury ( 9) 27-2-0 125 2
2 Plattsburgh ( 4) 26-3-1 120 1
3 Gustavus Adolphus 22-5-2 104 4
4 Manhattanville 23-4-1 80 3
5 Wis.-Superior 22-4-2 77 6
6 Wis.-Stevens Point 21-5-4 58 5
7 Elmira 18-9-0 51 7
8 Bowdoin 17-9-1 33 10
8 St. Thomas 21-5-1 33 7
10 Utica 18-7-2 30 9
Others Receiving Votes: Wis.-River Falls 3, RIT 1

Probably nothing too shocking there.

[UCANDOIT]

[QUOTE=gojackets;2758507]Team (First Place Votes) Record Points Last Poll
1 Middlebury ( 9) 27-2-0 125 2
2 Plattsburgh ( 4) 26-3-1 120 1
3 Gustavus Adolphus 22-5-2 104 4
4 Manhattanville 23-4-1 80 3
5 Wis.-Superior 22-4-2 77 6
6 Wis.-Stevens Point 21-5-4 58 5
7 Elmira 18-9-0 51 7
8 Bowdoin 17-9-1 33 10
8 St. Thomas 21-5-1 33 7
10 Utica 18-7-2 30 9
Others Receiving Votes: Wis.-River Falls 3, RIT 1

Probably nothing too shocking there.[/QUOT

Enjoy this poll.....it'll change soon!

[gojackets]

[QUOTE=UCANDOIT;2758607
Enjoy this poll.....it'll change soon![/QUOTE]

how? who's overrated/underrated?

[playitagain]

how? who's overrated/underrated?

I would have to think with Utica's firepower that they will finish much higher. Nuemann may sneak into the top 10 before it's over

[PrezdeJohnson09]

Elmira is getting too much respect right now for an extremely young team that lost the core of their team from last season.

Utica's team is stacked and ready to go this year after losing barely anything from last year's MUCH improved team. Nolan and Wiegland are disgusting together and will spark some magic and be a treat for Pios fans to watch all year. I fully expect the Pios to make some noise on the national level this year. If Plattsburgh wasn't so good, they would have a good chance at competing for the ECAC West title this year.

[polarbear2]

Greetings to all here on the board!! The poll looks about right to me. Though, as usual, it'll probably take a few weeks to sort itself out...Great Div III Women's hockey is beginnning for some and just around the corner for others. Good luck to your team!!!

[aerogroup2]

Elmira is getting too much respect right now for an extremely young team that lost the core of their team from last season.

Utica's team is stacked and ready to go......


Prez: Would you care to explain the underlined part of your statement? Do you have some statistics we are not privy to, or is it :rolleyes: :rolleyes: just a poor choice of words?

[PrezdeJohnson09]

Prez: Would you care to explain the underlined part of your statement? Do you have some statistics we are not privy to, or is it :rolleyes: :rolleyes: just a poor choice of words?

Utica returns almost everyone from last year's squad that beat Elmira twice and played other top teams much more competitive than they had in years past.

Utica is certainly legit, are they as a good as Plattsburgh and Middlebury? Nope. But they are certainly improving and I fully expect them to challenge those two a bit more this year and decrease the talent gap from last year.

At this point, I put Utica and Elmira up with the Manhattanvilles, RITs, and Bowdoins. However, I feel Utica and Manhattanville have a bit more on the other 3 teams mentioned right now.

[uvmcats]

Utica returns almost everyone from last year's squad that beat Elmira twice and played other top teams much more competitive than they had in years past.

Utica is certainly legit, are they as a good as Plattsburgh and Middlebury? Nope. But they are certainly improving and I fully expect them to challenge those two a bit more this year and decrease the talent gap from last year.

At this point, I put Utica and Elmira up with the Manhattanvilles, RITs, and Bowdoins. However, I feel Utica and Manhattanville have a bit more on the other 3 teams mentioned right now.

RIT???:confused:

[Tigerdad0607]

NECDAD:
Yes, RIT must be considered here. Before he "left" Coach Grainsky believed he had the pieces in place to earn an NCAA berth. He thought his incoming class was better than Manhattanville's and that RIT lost much less to graduation than the Valiants. He mentioned to me that anything less than an NCAA berth would be a huge disappointment. Time will tell if the new inexperienced coach can get it done. :confused:

[pioneerhockey23]

This is rediculous. Grainsky may have brought in a solid recruiting class, but to say that anything but an NCAA bid would be a disappointment is absurd. RIT lost ground on the rest of the nation every year Mike was there coach. He took a team that actually did compete for a spot in the NCAA tournament with the Valiants every year and turned them into a .500 team that strugled to get to the championship game in the weakest league in the country. If this team makes it to the NCAA tournament, it will because of a new coach that knows hockey not despite him.
I don't think Utica gets slighted in the coaches poll this year. Elmira clearly lost more from a team that Utica beat 2 of three last year. Bowdoin has lost and tied Utica the last two times those programs have played, and St. Thomas didn't stack up in the Pairwise at the end of the year last year. I think USCHO's new writer may have a better tab on where Utica fits in this year than coaches. Keep in mind Utica lost only 6 games last year. 3 to Plattsburgh whom they played very tough, 1 to Elmira who they clearly were better than, 1 to Neumann who seemed to give the Pioneers fits, and 1 to NEC which I can't explain. To play devils advocate Utica does return a lot of players this year. Unfortunatley success in D-III women's hockey is often more about what you bring in than what bring back. Time will tell I guess.


NECDAD:
Yes, RIT must be considered here. Before he "left" Coach Grainsky believed he had the pieces in place to earn an NCAA berth. He thought his incoming class was better than Manhattanville's and that RIT lost much less to graduation than the Valiants. He mentioned to me that anything less than an NCAA berth would be a huge disappointment. Time will tell if the new inexperienced coach can get it done. :confused:

[uvmcats]

NECDAD:
Yes, RIT must be considered here. Before he "left" Coach Grainsky believed he had the pieces in place to earn an NCAA berth. He thought his incoming class was better than Manhattanville's and that RIT lost much less to graduation than the Valiants. He mentioned to me that anything less than an NCAA berth would be a huge disappointment. Time will tell if the new inexperienced coach can get it done. :confused:

RIT was the 4th best team in the league last year after M-ville, St As and NEC. NEC dominated the games with RIT territorially and blew the two games at RIT before finally proving the proper relationship in the ECACs. There was nothing in RIT's performance last year that merits a top team consideration at this time. RIT had only 1 win (St. A's if they were D3) vs. teams that would be considered for the top 10 last year and lost to every other quality team they played (M-ville 2 times, St. A's, Plattsburgh and Utica). They will need to prove that they should be taken seriously by the pollsters.

pioneerhockey23 - I went to the Utica-NEC game last year and NEC completely outplayed Utica for the first 2 periods building up a lead Utica was unable to recover from. I didn't see that Utica was the superior team. I saw two well matched teams.

For some reason, NEC has never played consistantly at the level its talent was capable of. Therefore, I could never tout them for top 10 status. In previous years they would play RPI to a standstill and have trouble with a Holy Cross or a UMass Boston. Last year they played even with Plattsburgh for 50 minutes, they were even with Middlebury after 50 minutes, were even territorially with Elmira, one game with M-ville and then lose to UMass-Boston and RIT, go figure. They only lost a couple of players to graduation but they will probably be inconsistent again this year.

[hockeysb11]

We will have to see what happens at RIT this coming season. I have had a close relationship with the team the past 2 seasons as my daughter has played for them, she will be out this season with a season ending injury and possibly a career ending injury. RIT has brought in some very nice players and should be much stronger up front and put more pucks in the net. There goaltending should be strong, but they are very suspect on defense.

I wish there rookie coach alot of luck even though I was strongly against bringing in a coach with no Womans experience and no Head coaching experience.

Will they be able to get back to the top 10? I dont know, we will have a much better idea of where they are at after this weekends games. When I had my last talk with Coach Grainsky before he was let go we both agreed that they should be able to start the season 10-0 anything less then that with there schedule in my eye's will be a disappointment. Well we will see.

[pal7]

hockeybs11
sorry to hear about your daughters injury...hopefully she will come through it ok.

As far as RIT chances, they over came NEC twice and only got to play Utica once last year. One game doesn't show much unless it is a 6-0 blowout and that was not the case.

Necdad, it very hard to place teams that play a non conferance competitor and the out come is a one goal difference..I have seen Utica play, given more than another opportunity I am sure Utica would be the winner in most instances. But like every sport, every player and every game, it is a dice roll as to who will be the better team that day. I wouldn't but put all my hockey puck's in one basket on any one game outcome.

Let just say that RIT and NEC were well match last year...a new recruiting year and a new coach brings a lot of changes. It will be interesting to see who comes out on top.. I will say that NEC looks to have the slightly tougher schedule in Jan which could help NEC standings should they come out the winners.

[uvmcats]

hockeybs11
sorry to hear about your daughters injury...hopefully she will come through it ok.

As far as RIT chances, they over came NEC twice and only got to play Utica once last year. One game doesn't show much unless it is a 6-0 blowout and that was not the case.

Necdad, it very hard to place teams that play a non conferance competitor and the out come is a one goal difference..I have seen Utica play, given more than another opportunity I am sure Utica would be the winner in most instances. But like every sport, every player and every game, it is a dice roll as to who will be the better team that day. I wouldn't but put all my hockey puck's in one basket on any one game outcome.

Let just say that RIT and NEC were well match last year...a new recruiting year and a new coach brings a lot of changes. It will be interesting to see who comes out on top.. I will say that NEC looks to have the slightly tougher schedule in Jan which could help NEC standings should they come out the winners.

I don't disagree that NEC-RIT were well matched last year. I based my belief that NEC was stronger last year on the results vs the entire schedule. NEC played a much tougher schedule than did RIT. NEC made a game of it with national powers such as Plattsburgh and Middlebury and lost decent games with Stevens Point, Williams, and Elmira and beat Utica. That OOC schedule compares to RIT who played Plattsburgh, Elmira, Utica, Buffalo State, and Hamilton. RIT played competitive games with Utica and Elmira and lost to Buff St and Hamilton. Looking at the entire body of work last year, it seems to me NEC was slightly a stronger team than RIT.

However, my main point in even discussing this was the comment by a poster that RIT deserved consideration as a top team in D3. I don't consider NEC deserving of a top team billing. Until RIT steps up and starts knocking off those teams perceived as powers like Utica has begun to do, I will not be mentioning them in the same breathe as Manhattanville or Bowdoin.

I do believe RIT could be disappointed if they aren't 10-0 after the first 10 games. The opening matchup with UMass Boston should be the toughest series they face in this stretch. Both games were one goal games last year, one in OT. UMB is returning the key players from last year also. Of course, Buffalo State is still lurking there.;)

[nut_case]

Necdad- I have been following your comments since the 2003 season and I generally agree with your observations. On the relatively rare occasions when I disagree it seems to me that it is because of my perception that your very clear fondness for NEC sometimes clouds your view. A specific example which you might recall (and which I am sure no one else in the world cares about) would be the two Union- NEC games in 2003, which I attended. Union won both games but I would guess, based on your post game observations, that you would have ranked NEC ahead of Union, which, by the way, went on the next weekend to beat an RIT team that was 15-2-1 by scores of 6-2 and 3-2(if I recall correctly,you described the first win as a shocking upset, but the game was really not that close).As a parent of former players in this Division and the coach of others who have played for several of these teams(one is now with NEC) I am certain that I have often had my support for these kids influence my own views regarding rankings, and I am not trying to make a big deal out of these issues.By the way, I have enjoyed watching NEC steadily move up the ranks over the last several years. However,while I understand why you would consider ranking NEC ahead of RIT last year, and while I did not watch either team play a single game last year, I also believe that the argument is by no means a clear one, and I do not believe that NEC played a much tougher non-conference schedule. Each team played the same regular season conference schedule last year. RIT was 15-4-0 and NEC was 12-7-0. RIT beat NEC twice in the regular season. Each team played Utica, Elmira and Plattsburgh. NEC had a better won- loss record against those teams(1-2 vs. 0-3) but looking at the game sheets it seems possible that the overall comparative performances were not that far off( assuming, for example, that perhaps RIT's 7-0 loss to Plattsburgh might not have been quite as bad as the score indicated). I can not understand RIT's loss to Buffalo, which would seem to me to be the most troubling factor in a comparison of these two schools, and there is no doubt that Wisconsin-Stevens Point is a much tougher opponent than Buffalo. Clearly Williams is tougher than Hamilton, although Hamilton always finds a way to be respectable. Based on recent history I would bet that Wilfred Laurier would beat Middlebury( as they did in 2004) or any other D3 team, so in my view of the big picture there is not that much difference in the 2006 non-conference schedules of the two teams.I also believe that if some type of reasonably meaningful computer model(such as the one used by Laxpower to compare lacrosse teams) were available last season RIT might have finished above NEC at the end of the year.Obviously I also have no idea whether the regular season results were influenced by injuries to key players, and I recocgnize that winning the last match of the season, in the playoffs, carries a lot of weight, but for some reason I felt the need to chime in. I will also guess that if recent trends continue we might see NEC continue its progress.Hopefully RIT will do well also. Perhaps I should consider getting a life.

[carveman]

I will also guess that if recent trends continue we might see NEC continue its progress.Hopefully RIT will do well also. Perhaps I should consider getting a life.[/QUOTE]


Nut Case: Don't get a life, for goodness sake! We can't let NECDAD be right all the time!:rolleyes: I share your hope that both NEC and RIT continue progressing. As I said in a different thread, nothing could be finer than to have NEC, RIT, St. Anselm and UMB (and the rest for that matter) get stronger and develop annual rivalries; that level of competition would be the best way to help unseat M'ville and its amusing recruiting practices!