Lady Vols Soccer ⚽️ Tennessee @ Virginia Tech 11/15 Friday 7PM Blacksburg VA ⚽️ NCAA TOURNAMENT First Round

#6,052
#6,052
I think today will mark the end of the SEC in the NCAA.

Georgia just lost to Clemson on PKs--5-4. Georgia scored off a deflection with 6 minutes to go in regulation, and looked like a winner. But Clemson
scored very late--not sure precisely when--to equalize. Each team had some chances in the second OT, but no goals--and then Clemson made all 5 of its PKs to win it. I was impressed by the quality of penalty kicks taken by both teams. Georgia is going to be a force in the league going forward, I predict.

I believe Miss. State is the SEC's last remaining team now--and it is playing Stanford. It will take an upset similar to Cal-Irvine's defeat of UCLA for Miss. State to beat a good Stanford team.

The Cardinal didn't give up a SOG in beating South Carolina 3-0. Alabama didn't get a SOG against North Carolina.

Otherwise in the tourney: UNC beat Texas Tech 1-0 to advance to the Elite Eight.
Nebraska thumped Cal-Irvine--4-0--painful because I wasn't overly impressed by Nebraska despite their gaudy offensive stats this season.
BYU advanced by beating Michigan State, 3-1, last night.
Pa. State scored late in regulation to tie a good St. Louis team, then the Nittany Lions won it in OT--4-3. St. Louis was 3 minutes or so away from victory but gave up the equalizing goal on a free kick when the St. Louis keeper came way out of her goal to grab or punch the ball. But she didn't get to it--and when you leave your goal to get to the ball, but don't get to it, bad things often happen. Pa. State put a head on the ball and it went into the unguarded goal. Had the keeper stayed in goal, she would have made the save.
 
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#6,053
#6,053
turbovol said:
I think today will mark the end of the SEC in the NCAA.

Georgia just lost to Clemson on PKs--5-4. Georgia scored off a deflection with 6 minutes to go in regulation, and looked like a winner. But Clemson
scored very late--not sure precisely when--to equalize. Each team had some chances in the second OT, but no goals--and then Clemson made all 5 of its PKs to win it. I was impressed by the quality of penalty kicks taken by both teams.

I believe Miss. State is the SEC's last remaining team now--and it is playing Stanford. It will take an upset similar to Cal-Irvine's defeat of UCLA for Miss. State to beat a good Stanford team.

The Cardinal didn't give up a SOG in beating South Carolina 3-0. Alabama didn't get a SOG against North Carolina.

Otherwise in the tourney: UNC beat Texas Tech 1-0 to advance to the Elite Eight.
Nebraska thumped Cal-Irvine--4-0--painful because I wasn't overly impressed by Nebraska despite their gaudy offensive stats this season.
BYU advanced by beating Michigan State, 3-1, last night.
Pa. State scored late in regulation to tie a good St. Louis team, then the Nittany Lions won it in OT--4-3. St. Louis was 3 minutes or so away from victory but gave up the equalizing goal on a free kick when the St. Louis keeper came way out of her goal to grab or punch the ball. But she didn't get to it--and when you leave your goal to get to the ball, but don't get to it, bad things often happen. Pa. State put a head on the ball and it went into the unguarded goal. Had the keeper stayed in goal, she would have made the save.
Click to expand...
Miss State is down 1-0 but if they were to come back, Nebraska would get another home match as a 5 seed.
 
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#6,054
#6,054
Didn't see the match--but certainly a respectable performance by Miss. State. They got outshot by a lot--but only gave up 4 SOG to Stanford and had 2 SOG themselves. Stanford scored early to take a 1-0 lead--and that was the game-winning goal. A 1-0 victory for the Cardinal--who have not lost this season. They've got four ties, but the rest are wins, and have a very impressive defensive record--have not given up more than 1 goal all season.
 
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#6,055
#6,055
Perhaps this is why Memphis is so good: I just looked at its roster--and there are 11 Canadians on the team, 3 Japanese
and two Germans. So out of a total roster of 27, there are 16 international players. I've not ever known a U.S. team to have anywhere close to that many internationals. Former FSU coach Krikorian often had a lot of internationals--but I don't think ever more than 7 or 8.

Also, it's not uncommon for international players who come to American colleges to be a year older than their American freshmen counterparts, and that extra year of experience can be quite significant.

It's funny: Many of the Canadians hail from different cities but attended a school named Burnaby, meaning there are multiple Burnaby schools across the country. One of their Japanese players was the AAC midfielder of the year.


FSU destroyed Texas today--winning 5-0. Ouch.
 
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#6,060
#6,060
IMG_4905.jpeg

Elite Eight Schedule (times EST)

Friday, November 24

5:00 PM - [2] Stanford vs [5] Nebraska
5:30 PM - [1] Florida State vs [7] Pittsburgh
8:00 PM - [1] BYU vs [3] North Carolina

Saturday, November 25

1:00 PM - [1] Clemson vs [2] Penn State
 
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#6,061
#6,061
---I like Stanford over Nebraska...

---BYU and UNC should be tight. Game is at BYU, which will be packed and rowdy, and I'll say BYU by a 1-0 score.

---Clemson and Pa. State: another good matchup between two evenly matched teams. I'll guess Pa. State.

----Pitt has been competitive with the high-scoring FSU--lost 2-3 when they played in the ACC tournament. Still, have to think
the Noles will prevail at home and are the favorite to win the Big Taco. One of the best offensive teams of the last 20 years or longer.

Speaking of international players, Pitt has 8 of its own--including 6 from Canada (which turns out an amazing number of high-quality soccer players)---and all three of its goals last night were scored by internationals, including one by a talented frosh midfielder from Nigeria. Pitt's coach also coaches the Nigerian women's national team---very athletic group.
 
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#6,062
#6,062
If any of you follow recruiting, you've probably heard of Cayden Norris. Phenomenal goalkeeper who had offers from lots of SEC schools.
She joined me on the podcast last week, if you'd like to check it out:
 
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#6,063
#6,063
Think of how important the portal has become. Alabama was a middling, middle of the SEC program for years, then last year
had an international from Mexico plus two or three /good/ transfers and, out of the blue, had an amazing season and went to the College
Cup. An out of nowhere season.

This season we got four players via transfer. Three were starters, and the other should have played more than she did, IMO. Not only that, but Lawton (transfer) was our best offensive player and Michel (transfer) was out best defensive player. Agresti was a solid defensive mid. Even with them this season was a struggle; imagine what it would have been without them. (Best not to think about.) So the coaches did a good job bringing in that group, and here's hoping for similar or better portal success this time. The portal and international market offer opportunities for programs like ours---and others---to improve and compete with the national big dogs.
 
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#6,066
#6,066
Panthro said:
If any of you follow recruiting, you've probably heard of Cayden Norris. Phenomenal goalkeeper who had offers from lots of SEC schools.
She joined me on the podcast last week, if you'd like to check it out:
Click to expand...

That was excellent, loved getting to know Cayden and look forward to her joining the team next season. She sounds like such a great person and hope she has a great career with the Lady Vols. Hope you have the rest of the incoming class on your program.
 
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#6,067
#6,067
MAD said:
That was excellent, loved getting to know Cayden and look forward to her joining the team next season. She sounds like such a great person and hope she has a great career with the Lady Vols. Hope you have the rest of the incoming class on your program.
Click to expand...
Thanks for listening!
 
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