I don’t agree that UCLA is gong to “coast” to the title. The season doesn’t start until the MPSF championship. UCLA coasted last year until the end when it mattered. They very well may win it, but teams peak at different times. Anyone of the big 4 can win that MPSF tournament and get the auto spot. This might be the most parity in years. Someone is going to be left out and it will be painful.
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Pacific is quietly chewing up ranked opponents. That game wasn’t as competitive as the score would indicate. UOP was up on UCI 12-4 at the half.
Agree w a lot of what you wrote, especially the coverage and excellent announcing. RB nails it regarding the last few weeks of the season. What should be emphasized is that Princeton was a penalty shot away from interrupting the UCLA “coast” and knocking off the far and away favorite. They were the most inconsistent team but that’s to be expected given they have trained together for just a month.
Looking just at the scores, Cal is a bit behind USC and Stanford but maybe when Valera returns you’re right, they all come evenish. LBS played very well versus USC. Pacific was missed - assume the voters know if they were invited and turned it down or did not get the look in a smaller format (which resulted in some great games).
Wes Kading was great. Super passionate and very knowledgable in the games he did solo.
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Yeah but LMU led UOP for the first 3 quarters, lots of parity this year, UOP was clearly in panic mode vs LMU. I think they showed up expecting an easy game but LMU went up 3-0. UCI did not impress, if the refs refuse to call transition kick outs when guys are swimming under the defender UCI does not have a chance.
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I’m going to go with my sentimental favorite here…Princeton. While they may not be the eventual big winner, I’m predicting they’ll at least make the final. They weren’t at 100% this past weekend, plus, Dusty also didn’t do his pre-game/opposition team analytics for any of the games (That’ll be changing). It’s time somebody upset the applecart…might as well be Princeton.
It could be Princeton upsetting the applecart, they have talent and it seems like they play the smartest/most composed game, getting the most out of who’s in the pool….although they looked gassed by the time they played Cal. why do you say they weren’t at full strength, seemed like the big names and the big freshmen were available.
Mason Killion, underrated and probably Princeton’s best defensive player, is recovering from an injury. If one had to name the player who best exemplifies Dusty Litvak’s style of play, I’d choose Killion.
Another interesting game for them this weekend. Dusty put together an impressive schedule
At the start of the season, it’s always important to think about upside trajectory.
–Princeton: given that this team spent zero minutes training together this summer and was off spring semester, upside potential with this frosh class is huge. Only big obstacle is the lack of competitive league games.
–Cal: they have a history of improving over the course of the season, but that’s easy to do when Papa is your set Weinberg is your goalie. Not sure if they can spend the first half of this season phoning it in.
–Stanford: great start, but Flacks has a history of starting the season strong and burning out his team by the end. I’d say they have the most upside if Flack can restrain himself and not break his players.
–UCLA: ?
–USC: ?
Heard Flacks burned out the team his first season… but don’t think he has since. Last season they were hamstrung with goalie injuries at the end
UCLA is definitely the favorite but I haven’t seen Griggs (who is very solid) “step up” in big games yet… the way Porter, Weinberg, Andric, or Danner did in NCAA’s… goalies can be a big reason teams win/lose a championship… we’ll find out in December
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I don’t think it’s fair to blame Stanfords troubles at the end of last season on Goalie injuries. Liam Harrison rejoined the team and did yeoman’s work. He had 12 saves in an 8-12 loss to Cal in the final regular season game, 17 (!!!) saves in a 14-15 loss to Cal in the semi-final game of the MPSF Tournament, and 14 saves in an 11-10 win over UCLA in the MPSF 3rd place game.
Good point… hard to argue against those stats.
Agree
Often overlooked was how massive Maurizi was in UCLA’s last title game (2020 season) when he played out of his mind to help Bruins to their last title
The margins of victory are razor thin amongst the big four, generally. Should continue to be a very compelling season. It will really kick off once UCLA loses its first game (I expect them to remain favorites but not by an overwhelming margin and each of the big four should have justifiable belief in a serious title run).
Interestingly, it appears that UCLA has the fewest number of international players on its roster this season.
Did Gianpiero Di Martire decide not to play this season? I think he had eligibility but it looks like he graduated. He only played three games last year so wasn’t sure if he got injured.
GP Di Martire was injured for most of the 2023 season and I believe he took a medical redshirt. He isn’t playing this year. The word on the street is that he will play for Stanford next year.
I sense a potential upset with UCI and Cal
Agreed. 7-2 right now and UCI looks great
Goalie still an issue for Cal this game
Yikes. Having picked Cal to win it all again becomes a more bitter pill to swallow each day. But I’ll keep the faith - plenty of time to turn it around