Denver ranked in top 32 Nationally

[Reb UT '70]

There are 293 teams playing Div 1 women's soccer, so that's a pretty lofty ranking. We played two top ten teams last spring Texas (who beat us like a drum) is ranked between 5th and 8th in the polls. SMU who we tied and should have beaten is ranked 7th to 9th.

The ranking for our region (one of 5 nationally) is as follows:

1 Texas

2 SMU

3 Tennessee

4 Texas A&M

5 Nebraska

6 Kansas

7 Denver

8 Oklahoma

9 Mississippi State

10 Missouri

We got some votes, and based on what I'm told we are ranked currently in the top 64, which if we can finish there could well mean a tourney bid even if we don't win the SBC tourney. Frankly I don't think that's likely.

We are unlucky that we have to play Denver in Denver this year. If we were playing them here I'd give us a better than even shot. Still, I think we can win if we stay/get healthy.

[Eagle-96]

Reb,

I know that most pre-season polls are just a bunch of hooey, and are nothing more than a popularity contest(especially in football). My question to you is:

How accurate are pre-season soccer polls and does popularity come into play?

My point is that Notre Dame, for instance, is usually in the football pre-season top 25 regardless of their talent level. They are basically there on name recognition.

My quetsio also applies to the selection process for the NCAA tourney. How much of a favorites game is played by the selection committee?

GMG!!!!

Beat nicholls st.!!!!

[Reb UT '70]

I would put soccerbuzz pretty far up there. They called the NCAA choice of teams pretty well last year and they get a lot of imput from the coaches. I would say that they're as accurate as Dave Campell is about college footbal in Texas for the top teams. Denver is getting a lot of hard looks because of they showed very well against Stanford in their first round loss in the NCAA tourney. It was a very close game and Denver might have beaten a team that was ranked in the top five at the time.

This is their write up for Dener, which is show here as a review of their publication as is permitted under the copyright law.

Denver

Division 1 newcomer has made fast strides in just three years of top division play and went 16-3-2 last season and earned its first NCAA Div 1 Tourney bid. The Pioneers have nine starters back, losing strikers George and Montgomery, but have momentum and a taste of success on their side now. All-American Jamie Norwood joins impressive keeper Erica Izard to lead Coach Hooker's team from the backline while Flenniken, Movius, Warren and Behrent form a much underrated midfield corp. Add in high-scoring Portincaso and Antongiovanni and Denver returns the bulk of a group that should do as well as last year which puts the Pioneers within range of Top 25 status.

I actually think the NCAA does a pretty good job on picking teams for the tourney. They give the nod to old established Eastern schools more than I think they should, but that is changing too. I think SMU is generally over rated, but they are an old program too. I believe we would have gotten an at large invite if we had played more ranked teams. We were just unlucky that the only ranked teams we were scheduled to play were cancelled because of 9-11, and we lost to two teams who proved to be better than everyone thought (Missouri and Kansas both in the top then in our region this year)

We play in a pretty tough conference, at least the top half and we have three top twenty-five team in our state (Texas, SMU and A&M) We were not thought to have recruited well. Name recognition is important, but not as important as it is in football. NC is always up there, but they should be.

[Eagle-96]

Thanks for the reply, Reb.

I know Denver will be tough and we're on their pitch for the game this year. Aside from Denver, who do you see as a threat to the title this year. A second question is: Do you know if the Liberty field will be designed as small as the current one? The small surface gives or ladies an advantage when other teams come in and are somewhat restricted by the size of the field. Whereas we are used to the field and can use that as an added weapon.

GMG!!!!

Saw 'em off 08/31/02(Sorry Reb. I bleed GREEN)

[Reb UT '70]

The soccer powers in the SBC are Denver, UNT and FIU. W. Ky and USA are both about a half step behind and W. Ky migh have caught up. MTSU is also trying to push up into the top half. The other teams are bad to awful.

This year we play FIU and W. Ky at home. FIU graduated some very strong players and we should be favored but it will be very close. W. Ky just started soccer last year and has a young but very very talented team. I think we should be favored there as well but I expect a tough game. USA will be at Mobile, and they were rebuilding last year and are an X factor.

All of this also depends on how our goalie develops, we are not as strong there as we were last year, and we won games because we had a all-SBC goalie (2nd team).