2009 and more

Season ticket holders are getting their renewal notices in the mail this week. The schedule is below. There is also notification of a Conference Call with Garrett on Tuesday April 14th at 7:30 PM. The call in number is: 1 877 229-8493 Pin number 14784. There will also be a couple of players and there will be time for questions from fans.

The schedule:

Date Opponent Location All times are TBD

August 28 Cal Merlo

August 29 UW Seattle

September 4 Columbia Seattle - UW Tourney

September 6 Colorado college Seattle - UW Tourney

September 11 Miami Merlo - Nike Invitational

September 13 U of Illinois Merlo - Nike Invitational

September 18 Texas A&M College Station

September 20 SMU Dallas

September 25 OSU Merlo

September 27 UO Eugene

October 2 Montana Merlo

October 4 WSU Merlo

October 10 Gonzaga Merlo

October 16 Pepperdine Malibu

October 18 LMU Los Angeles

October 23 St. Mary's Merlo

October 25 USF Merlo

November 1 Santa Clara Santa Clara

November 7 USD Merlo

Thanks for the info... I love the idea of the conference call... very cool.

one slight clarification: Isnt the game @ UW on 8/30, not 8/29?

UW announced the game for 8-30 at noon.

Here

(bottom of article)

Gotta love ending the year with Santa Clara and USD. I pick either one for number two spot in the league.

I stand corrected, the UW game is on the 30th. Sorry!

Am I wrong, or does this look like an easier schedule, RPI-wise, than last year? Will the Pilots need to go undefeated to end up with a top 4 ranking?

The risk is that even going undefeated is no guarantee of a top ranking.

Notre Dame, last year, had a lower RPI than some of the other top 4 but got a one seed because of going undefeated. In fact, wasn't Notre Dame number no. 5 RPI last year? I seem to remember UCLA and UNC being clearly in the top 4, both RPI and tournament seeding, with ND being conceded a top 4 seeding because of going undefeated, and Stanford and the Pilots fighting for the final number 1 seed.

fan from afar wrote:Notre Dame, last year, had a lower RPI than some of the other top 4 but got a one seed because of going undefeated. In fact, wasn't Notre Dame number no. 5 RPI last year? I seem to remember UCLA and UNC being clearly in the top 4, both RPI and tournament seeding, with ND being conceded a top 4 seeding because of going undefeated, and Stanford and the Pilots fighting for the final number 1 seed.

Notre Dame's undefeated season did, however, include a victory against another team (UNC) in that top-five group. So the argument could be made that they were on par with (or better than) the other teams in the group. Portland was the only school that did not have at least a tie against one of the other teams in that top group, and I think that hurt us. (UNC and Stanford tied; UCLA beat Stanford and UP.) I don't see anyone on this year's schedule that is likely to be a top-five team, unless Santa Clara bounces back or if A&M has a particularly good season.

Good points. I guess we root for A & M, except when they play us.

Sure looks to me like even undefeated could send us to UCLA or Stanford in the quarterfinals again.

eProf wrote:I don't see anyone on this year's schedule that is likely to be a top-five team, unless Santa Clara bounces back or if A&M has a particularly good season.

I generally agree with the discussion about what happened last year and whether being undefeated will be sufficient this year for a top 4 seed. However, there's a lot of guesswork involved in scheduling. I've looked at last year's RPIs and concluded that (due to Oregon State and Montana) our schedule will not be as tough as last year's. However, what matters will be not what teams did last year but what they do this year.

In that context, I'm not sure I agree that there are no likely top-five teams in our schedule. I'm looking particularly at Cal and UW. UW lost no perennial starters from last year's team (Beal at forward started 9 games, played in 21; Robison at midfield 12/22; and Stim at defender 9/11). Unless last year was a fluke, they should be excellent this year. Cal lost two perennial starters in Kanu at outside defender 17/18 and Barnes at forward 17/18; plus sometime starter Schray at forward 10/19. However, they will have full time availability of Alex Morgan, who was the top scorer at the U20 Worlds. They should be very, very tough. The biggest problem these two teams will have is the simple fact they are in the Pac 10, which probably will be tougher than it's ever been.

Fanatic - If Cal and UW have good seasons within the PAC 10, but lose to UCLA and Stanford and still don't manage to get into the top 4-5 in the country, does their difficulty of schedule help us, assuming we beat them? If we beat both, is that better than beating USC and losing to UCLA? I realize that's very hypothetical now, but in general -

Ir we beat Cal and UW, their strengths of schedule will help our RPI. However, if we are among the top five teams in terms of RPIs, the Women's Soccer Committee looks at results against the other teams we are in competition with for a top 4 seed and common results of those teams against third-party opponents. This is where we got hurt last year: UCLA, Stanford, and North Carolina had higher RPIs than we did. We were ahead of Notre Dame. However, we lost to UCLA. Notre Dame had a win over North Carolina at North Carolina. It appears that the essence of the Committee's analysis was that there was no reason to elevate us over UCLA, Stanford, and North Carolina; plus Notre Dame's win over North Carolina gave the Committee a reason to elevate them over or at least to the level of North Carolina, which then put them ahead of us. There were some other very minor considerations, but that appears to have been the Committee's logic and it's hard to argue with it.

What really hurt the Pilots last year was the relative weakness of the West Coast Conference. Going into conference play, the Pilots were at the top. It was only conference play that dropped them to position 5, notwithstanding that they ran the conference. A win over a top 4 team would have saved them, in all likelihood, but they didn't have one.

Thanks, UPSF - I guess this year we are more dependent than last year on other good teams beating on each other so that there is a spot in the top 4 left for us.

(It would also help us if certain members of our conference didn't fall off the face of the earth with injuries)

fan from afar wrote:Am I wrong, or does this look like an easier schedule, RPI-wise, than last year? Will the Pilots need to go undefeated to end up with a top 4 ranking?

That was my first impression too. In my opinion, our success next year depends on finding finishers to take Rapinoe's place... Of course, Sophie is a good start...

I'm sorry to be the old curmudgeon here. And this is not to take away anything from all the great points made here and UPSF's great work on the RPI every year.

However, I have always believed that a true champion will find a way to win regardless of where the game is played. Sure, home field is a great advantage. But if we make it to the Quarters and we can't beat a team on the road, then we ain't champions in my book. We shouldn't fear playing anyone, anywhere in any playoff round, including the quarters. If we can't beat UCLA or Stanford on the road, hey, enough with the excuses. Maybe we're just not good enough, don't quite have what it takes to be champions. I know, that is hard to admit, myself included.

The RPI is an extremely valuable tool, and these discussions are great off-season fodder for our minds to toss around ideas and thoughts about next season. When I found out we scheduled Montana, I almost had a seizure. That's ridiculous. If we're good enough, we'll be at College Station next December, and let the chips fall where they may.

True enough, FANatic. But home games mean we get to see the game in person and not on TV.

I had some fine company last year for the UCLA game but we just love watching the game live at Merlo.