i personally need more data. UOP, Pep, Princeton, and lets see Fordham play someone tough.
In Big West, need to see who bubbles up - SB, Davis, SD, LB, UCI could be extrapolated to be relatively even from Triton viewing/scores. I wouldn’t count Cal out just yet…
It is a long season, lots can change. Every game is a “game” the best team does not always win, the team that played the best that day usually wins. I could see UOP and Pep making it in, leaving Stanford and UCLA from the MPSF. I would love to see it but am not so confident… The next 3 weeks should start to narrow it down or at least give us more context.
Big West seems pretty 2nd tier. Did not see or hear much to impress this past opening weekend. They all lost to top teams. LB maybe, UCI maybe, Davis Maybe UCSB doesn’t even have a pool UCSD not really. Fullerton is an infant.
Yes I watched Pepperdine a few times this weekend and they are definitely a strong team. I’m not sure the defense is strong enough to beat the top teams but they will have a shot.
It’s gonna be tough battles with them and UOP for the WCC title.
Chase Wilson is an unsung stud for Pepperdine…that guy plays hard and makes things happen for sure. He completely opens things up for Hosea and Carcarey to score the way they do.
On that note the only big Thursday game, Stanford v. UCSB disappointingly was not streamed. Flacks probably pulled it to reduce scouting. Wigo is probably happy, since no one could scout how his starting Goalie put in a 2 save 11.8% showing. My question is what decision process goes on in his head? He was left in for 3.7 quarters averaging .5 touches per quarter. Stanford goalie 46.2%…
Any former D1 goalies want to chime in?
Pacific play Princeton at noon pacific time on a game that will be on ESPN+. Both teams have not looked there best to start the season, it will be interesting to see who comes out on top. First of two matchups between fellow Tigers.
Took the dive and bought the $30 floswimming to support our D3 brothers.
It seems UCLA hasn’t opened up on anyone yet UCI was not really that close.
Back to my theme, the goalie play was decent. UCI was fairly represented by their guy.
After Week 2 of the NCAA season, this would be my current top 10. I’d love to hear other people’s thoughts.
UCLA – The preseason consensus best team in the country has done what everyone expected them to do six games into the season.
Stanford — I considered putting Stanford at 1 because of how much they have impressed me. It looks like West Temkin has beat out Griffin Price for the starting spot, playing in every big game. Temkin is playing like one of the best goalies in the country. Fellow transfer Dash McFarland is allowing the perimeter players to flourish. With the experience of Painter, Pittman, and Parish alongside a great first-year class, it looks like Flacks finally has the team to win a national championship.
USC – 7 wins and 0 losses to start the season, winning comfortably against Pepperdine, UCI, and LBSU. The only significant loss was Di Martire, but the team seems to be just fine. Miller, Kranz, and Brnetic are all playing well. Brankovic is doing what everyone expected him to do right away and Robert Lopez Duart should only get better as the season progresses.
Pacific – While they did not look the best to start the season, it was clear the focus was on Princeton. Graham’s squad looked significantly better in that game. Cote and Vukazic looked amazing for Pacific.
Cal – I think many people in this group overreacted to the Pepperdine loss. While I do think Cal is the weakest of the Big Four schools this season, you cannot count Kirk Everist out. Avakian (center) and Clansen (goalie) are filling some of the biggest shoes in program history (Papa and Weinberg). When you lose your two most important players, you cannot expect to success to continue overnight. This team will continue to improve as the season goes on. Freshman Patrik Kolak and Maddox Arlett will only get better under Kirk.
Pepperdine – I don’t think Pepperdine is the sixth-best team in the country. However, they beat Cal and you need to credit them for it. Unfortunately, I think that may have been a one-off result and the team had a lot of weaknesses against USC today. I think they will continue to drop as the season progresses, being closer to the same tier as LBSU and UCI.
Princeton – Princeton is a team you can never judge this early in the season. The group of players just met each other a few weeks ago. Historically, the first few weeks of this program have not been the best and Litvak has been vocal about this in interviews. Mitrovic looked fantastic for Princeton against Pacific. It also looks like they added two players this week who featured in the European U19 Championships. This is a program that we will learn a lot about in the coming month, a month that they will dictate if they can challenge the Big Four schools this year.
Fordham – This is a program that has been in the shadow of Princeton for multiple years. They had a very impressive 13–5 win over UCSD this weekend and are undefeated to start the season. Brian Bacharach has by far the best team in program history and one of the best assistants in the country in Ilija Duretic (former St. Francis Brooklyn head coach). The game to watch is September 27, when they host Princeton. A quick Google search tells me Princeton has played only one out of 16 games against Fordham at Fordham, with that game being the lone loss. If Fordham wins on the 27th, the committee may have no choice but to put Fordham above Princeton come December.
Long Beach State – LBSU looks like a much better team with Gabi Acosta, who recently joined the team and was not available for the Triton Invite. He had 9 goals in his first three games. The goalkeeping battle between Ward and Wilson will be interesting. I ultimately think the Big West will come down to LBSU or UCI.
T – 10. UCI: Dan Klatt’s team will only get better. Four early season losses all to Big Four Schools will tell Dan a lot about his group and their weaknesses, only allowing them to improve as the season progresses. This is a team that returned a strong core from the 2023 team that won the Big West for the first time in 30 years. Cole Francisco and Ethan Spoon have looked great and will only continue to improve.
T – 10. San Jose State: A team that started their season this weekend, losing to Cal by only two and handling UC Davis 15–9. I have not watched any of their games, but this will be a team to watch for.
The rest of the teams are below for anyone interested.
12 UC Davis
13 UCSB
T –14 LMU and UCSD
16 Harvard
