Women's Scoop: SoCal Conference Call
by Jac Coyne | Lacrosse Magazine Online Staff | Coyne Archive
|
| Whether you think Middlebury's Missy Foote deserves
induction into the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame (read below), she
has survived the "Kessenich Stare Down," which is probably just as
impressive. © Brad Nadeau |
How odd would it be to have an automatic qualifying conference
located in Greater Los Angeles?
Considering the Landmark Conference, based in one of the more
fertile areas of the Mid-Atlantic can't (or won't) find enough
teams to reach the seven-team plateau, it would be stunning for the
most lacrosse remote part of the country to jump into Pool A.
Sure enough, here comes the Southern California Intercollegiate
Athletic Conference (SCIAC, or "Sky-ack" as those with their finger
on the WD3 pulse call it), which is currently comprised of
Claremont, Pomona, Occidental, Whittier and Redlands. With five
institutions already on board, the conference is two teams away
from earning an immediate automatic qualifier to the NCAA
tournament.
While the SCIAC is right on the cusp of Pool A, it will likely have
to reach outside of its traditional league and adopt associate
members to push it over the top. The three other institutions
comprising the SCIAC - Cal Lutheran, Cal Tech and LaVerne - don't
appear to be close to adding varsity women's lacrosse anytime
soon.
The solution is so elementary that I have to assume negotiations
are already underway. The SCIAC simply needs to add Puget Sound
(Wash.), Linfield (Ore.) and Pacfic (Ore.) as associate members,
bumping the number up to eight and triggering the countdown to an
automatic qualifier.
For the East Coast types, the geography would appear to be a
problem because of the travel costs. But let's be frank: you don't
start an NCAA lacrosse program in the Pacific Northwest or SoCal
with the mindset of saving on travel costs. These teams typically
play each other anyway, so if the members can tweak the schedules,
alternating between trekking to Oregon/Washington or hosting those
Pac Northwest teams, it would work perfectly. As a side benefit,
there would be plenty of time to pursue non-conference
opponents.
One of the hurdles facing conferences like the SCIAC - leagues
whose member institutions view themselves as a cut above - is
finding associates who fit their academic band. Puget Sound,
Linfield and Pacific all mesh seamlessly, and would be a nice
accent to the SCIAC.
Another reason I think this can work is the SCIAC is now blessed
with a coach who has the experience to put a new confederation on
the right track from the start.
Michele Uhlfelder, who helped build the Stanford program and the
Mountain Pacific Sports Federation into what it is today, is now
the head coach at Occidental and will be guiding the Tigers in
their inaugural season as a varsity program in 2010. Nothing has
been brought up yet, but Uhlfelder would welcome the challenge of
growing another powerful western conference at the D-III level.
"If that time comes when I'm asked to play a role in that, I'll be
very excited about it," said Uhlfelder.
Hopefully it will be sooner than later.
Business Merger
In an effort to help teams in both conferences find NCAA
tournament eligibility in women's lacrosse, as well as well as
men's tennis, women's tennis and baseball, the North Atlantic
Conference (NAC) and the North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC)
are joining forces.
For the purposes of women's lacrosse, the NEAC, consisting of seven
members, will allow the four-team NAC league to piggyback off their
numbers to get an automatic crack at the NCAA tournament. As the
logistics work out, the two conferences will play their league
schedule and conference tournament, with the winner of each meeting
in a one-game playoff to determine who goes to the Big Dance. This
arrangement begins in 2012.
Technically, the NEAC members - Cazenovia, St. Elizabeth, Keuka,
Medaille, Penn St.-Abington, Wells and Wilson - will be joining the
NAC - consisting of Green Mountain (Vt.), Husson (Maine),
Me.-Farmington and Thomas (Maine). In order to ameliorate the
costs, each conference was assigned two sports to sponsor, and the
NAC picked up women's lacrosse.
This effort by the two leagues should prove to be an attractive
model for a lot of other leagues attempting to join an AQ
conference but don't have the numbers yet.
A Hall of a Coach
I'll just throw this out there in case there's anyone else
who believes the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame could use more
representation from the women's Division III coaching ranks and wants to fill out a lengthy nomination
form.
- Sharon Pfluger (in '07 when she was inducted): 21 years,
318-26-1, 11 national championships
- Pat Genovese: 38 years, 362-133-1
- Missy Foote: 29 years, 342-83-1, 5 national championships
I'm not saying Missy Foote should be in the Hall of Fame, I'm just
sayin'.
Late Recognition
Talking with various coaches it seems that there was one
player in particular who was overlooked during the season-ending
awards process. On three occasions, coaches singled out former
Messiah goalie Jen Venter for her performance last year.
"She played as well as I've seen a goalie play," said Catholic head
coach Meghan McDonogh, who watched Venter make 13 saves and push
the highly favored Cardinals to the brink before falling in
overtime, 9-8. Venter was also spectacular in the MAC finals, where
she made 14 saves to upset Elizabethtown and earn tourney MVP
honors.
Venter started her career at Division I UMBC, but transferred to
Messiah after her rookie season. She finished her career second on
the all-time Falcons saves list with 450.
Although Venter didn't receive the recognition she deserved last
year, new Liberty University coach Regan Denham saw Venter's
potential and hired her as the Flames' goalie coach
"Beginning my coaching career at a university with the mission of
Liberty is an exciting opportunity," said Venter. "It is a special
undertaking to start a program and I am blessed to assist Coach
Denham as she ushers in a Christian university's lacrosse program
at the Division I level."
Slides & Rides
- I'm a little worried about Union coach Jessica
Critchlow. I think she may have lost her mind.
Have you seen the non-conference schedule the Dutchwomen are
playing this year? Here's the list, along with last year's record:
Babson (15-3), Stevens (17-2), St. John Fisher (11-7), Washington
& Lee (13-5), Salisbury (20-2), Trinity (10-4), Middlebury
(11-6) and Cortland (14-7).
All but two were NCAA tournament qualifiers in '09 and the two that
weren't - Trinity and Stevens - had a gripe about not being
included. Throw in Hamilton (16-3) and William Smith (11-4) from
the Liberty League and we're talking about one of the epic
schedules of all time. If LaxPower doesn't have Union's schedule as
the toughest from start to finish, they need to re-run the
numbers.
- As I look at the Colorado College schedule, I find it curious that,
by my count, the Tigers are only playing one regional game (the
season opener against Redlands in Texas). Considering that most of
the primary criteria for tournament selection are based off of
regional play, this decision is slightly odd. While there are many
factors involved in scheduling, Colorado College had to
play Claremont, even if it meant traveling to California for a
second consecutive year. A win there and the Tigers were in good
shape (although certainly not assured a bid with the ascendant
presence of Adrian).
Also, CC is burning four dates against in-state Division II
opponents Regis and Fort Lewis. The Tigers should sweep all four
games, but those wins will only count against the overall win-loss
percentage (a secondary criterion) as inter-divisional games don't
count for much else. In defense of Colorado College, it's smart to
play D-II opponents and get something out of it instead of using a
date against a club team - something the CC men's team does.
One of the criteria the Tigers have over most of their Pool B
competition (other than TCNJ, Rowan and Catholic) is strength of
schedule. Susan Stuart's troops will hit the Maine NESCAC Trifecta
(Colby, Bates, Bowdoin) as well as taking on Catholic and Roanoke
in Washington, D.C. If CC goes 3-2 on those two trips, it'll make
up some ground on its regional deficiencies.
- More and more programs are posting their schedules online. We're
collecting them and putting them into our database for the season,
but that probably won't be rolled out for another month or so as we
cross-check many of the dates and times. From what's out there, the
season will really get cooking on Feb. 27 (although there are some
games the weekend before), which is only a scant two months away.
