BYU Women's Soccer

The Portland fans over at Don's Central sent me over here. Lest the WCC (Portland and Santa Clara specifically) think that BYU focuses exclusively on football in the fall (admittedly, most of my attention is on football right now -- despite the horrible last few weeks), I wanted to let you know that BYU won again and is up to 7-0-1, will remain in the top 10, and ahead of Santa Clara.

I don't know what TV coverage of Portland soccer is like but maybe I can make you a little jealous by the fact that we get BYU games on BYUtv every couple of weeks, which is nice. Starting next year, we will be getting many, many more I believe (which means that you should be getting more too).

We may not be Portland, but we don't suck. Good to be here.

Nice win over A&M by the way.

Oh yeah, we've got RSL too!

I had to go back and look at the very, very comprehensive Portland stats (http://www.portlandpilots.com/documents/2010/8/20/2010_womens_soccer_info_guide.pdf ) and it looks like the last time BYU visited Merlo Field was back in 2000 (we won 2-1). Looking forward to seeing BYU visit the Pilot Nation again!

Welcome. It will be nice to have another conference game against a strong opponent. And beating Washington in football (or anything) makes you all right with me.

tyscat wrote:
Oh yeah, we've got RSL too!

When did the King of Spain give you the Royal seal of approval? I missed that?

No really, that's a good team too.

Thanks for letting the Timbers borrow Alex Nimo. He went to high school in Portland.

We're very happy to have BYU joining the WCC. It will be good for the WCC teams and also for BYU, for NCAA Tournament purposes. BYU will help the current WCC teams for RPI strength of schedule purposes, and BYU will get help from the WCC also for RPI purposes.

I just did a check and as of this moment, in the RPI (unadjusted) rankings, we have:

3. Portland
14. Santa Clara
28. Loyola Marymount
38. San Diego
44. BYU

With these rankings, if the NCAA had to set the Tournament lineup today, most likely all 5 would be playing.

BYU's lower ranking, notwithstanding its great record, is because its strength of schedule has not been that great. I suspect that BYU is stronger than its RPI ranking.

BYU in the WCC will be good for BYU and everyone in the conference for soccer.

right now the ACC has won 78.4% of its games. the Pac10 is next, with 69.2%, the WCC is third, with 68%

This is important because when we start playing in conference, the winning percentage translates to element 2 of the RPI (wins of opponents) so we will take a little hit against those other conferences when we go into conference play. is some years (like last year) it can hurt a bit.

But if BYU were in the conference this year, the conference winning percentage would be 75.6% ahead of the PAC10 and nearly on par with the ACC. whoever is on top the conference (us, I hope, and even the next three or four teams), would all be in the tourney. The top team has a much better shot at a #1 seed.. and the rest would have better seeds.

Good for the whole conference.

So, welcome. I look forward to the competition and beating the rest of the world.

Tyscat - If you haven't checked it out yet, you should really read the thread "BYU Coming to the WCC". You'll get a good sense of how excited we are to have another good team in the WCC.

Thanks all. We're excited too. I expect to take some lumps but it will be great to have a higher level of competition and better quality games. I am most excited about the increased exposure (and, selfishly, the increased opportunity to watch games). Should be a good time.

I'll have to plan some trips to those ridiculous soccer stadiums you have (in Portland and elsewhere in the WCC).

Tyscat: We do appreciate Utah soccer players out here in Portland. Ellie Reed, Hailee DeYoung, Cloee Colohan ... just excellent.

purple haze wrote:Tyscat: We do appreciate Utah soccer players out here in Portland. Ellie Reed, Hailee DeYoung, Cloee Colohan ... just excellent.

Yes - Welcome Tyscat, and keep sending those Utah players Portland's way.

fan from afar wrote:Yes - Welcome Tyscat, and keep sending those Utah players Portland's way.

Where does Portland recruit? Are there a lot of Oregon / Washington players? We recruit in Utah / California / Texas (and LDS kids around the country). With the WCC connection, I'm sure we will start trying to pillage some of your players.

"With the WCC connection, I'm sure we will start trying to pillage some of your players."

Well, that's not part of the deal!!

Some of the locals can answer better than I, but I know UP gets a lot of local (Ore, Wash) talent, and a lot of them are under-the-radar types who turn out to be real good players.

tyscat wrote:Where does Portland recruit? Are there a lot of Oregon / Washington players? We recruit in Utah / California / Texas (and LDS kids around the country). With the WCC connection, I'm sure we will start trying to pillage some of your players.

Historically, the majority have been from Washington, Oregon and California. Depending on the year, any one of those states can be tops for our roster. We always seem to have a few from states such as AZ, ID, UT and CO. I can think of five players in the history of our program who have been farther east than that (two TX, one GA, one NY, one IL), most of which are on the team right now.

You may also have heard rumors that we occasionally get a player from Canada.

I'm thinking that this year's roster is the most geographically diverse we've ever had.

The right verb might be "pilfer" rather than "pillage," where players (not property) are concerned. Not taht either would be condoned here. Don't forget to look in Idaho for future Halley Kreminskis.

One of the reasons that UP recruits heavily in these states is probably that the UP coaches get to see these players frequently at regional ODP tournaments, regular summer tournaments for elite teams, and regional showcase tournaments held especially for college recruiting. These tend to be regional in nature, so the coaches from Portland see West Coast (OR, WA, BC) and Idaho players a lot, and players from Colorado, Arizona, and Utah fairly frequently.

I'm not sure how the Texas, Illinois, Georgia, and New York recruits got connected with UP, but players from those states don't usually end up at the same regional tournaments. Does anyone know the stories?

purple haze wrote:The right verb might be "pilfer" rather than "pillage," where players (not property) are concerned. Not taht either would be condoned here. Don't forget to look in Idaho for future Halley Kreminskis.

I guess it depends on whether you believe in the commoditization of your student athletes (can I call you out on "taht" so I feel better? ).

SoreKnees wrote:I'm not sure how the Texas, Illinois, Georgia, and New York recruits got connected with UP, but players from those states don't usually end up at the same regional tournaments. Does anyone know the stories?

All the ones I know of came after we won a national championship. I'd think that would have helped their interest in us.

How is Lis Lisonbee doing for your team? As you may know, she originally committed to the Portland, but later changed her commitment to BYU. I only know enough to state with some confidence that Lis survived the rigorous pillaging of BYU's recruiting process and appears to be a starter now.

Lisonbee is playing great, especially for a Soph. I didn't know she committed to Portland. I'm glad she changed her mind. You can check out her stat line here:

http://www.byucougars.com/uploads/stats/soccer_w/stats.pdf

Since I know you are all really interested in BYU Soccer, here is the official site:

http://www.byucougars.com/soccer_w/

And just an fyi, if you want to watch BYU play, coming up on Wednesday, our game against Idaho will be on BYUtv. Dish: 9403. DirecTV: 374. Online: http://www.byutv.org. 7:00 p.m. MDT; 6:00 p.m. PDT. You can get a feel for our small, little South Field.

Along the lines of our coaching staff getting to see ODP players, and so on, did anyone notice that Michelle French now is acting coach of the U-14 National Team?

She was here for the u14 ODP camp this summer right before the season started, as was Shannon Macmillan who is active with the region IV and National ODP-ers

http://www.potomacsoccerwire.com/news/458/12746
http://www.soccernation.com/u-s-youth-soccer-development-cms-523

The Next identification camp will be in San Diego county, where Shannon lives, in October.

Erin Misaki works with Shannon's soccer camps.
http://www.shannonmacsoccercamps.com/staff.html


They are EVERYWHERE!

In case you missed it on BYUtv last night. #12 BYU 4-0 over Idaho St. (I know, tough competition). Here is the box score:

http://www.byucougars.com/uploads/pdf/0000014440-1.pdf

Highlight video at:

http://www.byucougars.com/Filing.jsp?ID=14440

And if you want to watch past soccer matches (the Idaho St. game isn't up yet, but it will be shortly), they are available on demand at:

http://www.byutv.org/show/1706

My latest plug: BYU Women's Soccer v. Air Force, watch it live, Saturday, 8:00 p.m. (MDT) (7:00 p.m. for most of you) on BYUtv. Dish: 9403. DirecTV: 374. Online: http://www.byutv.org. And it should be on your local cable provider's line-up too.

I know you guys can't get enough soccer. Congrats to Portland on moving up to #2. BYU is up to #11 and into some soft MWC play.

10:00 (too late) for me, tyscat, but good luck. Congrats on moving up to number 11.

UNLV @ BYU live right now. BYU just equalized. First half just ending. Lots of offense by BYU (UNLV "scored" on an own-goal deflection). If you're bored:

Dish: 9403. DirecTV: 374. Online: http://www.byutv.org.

tyscat wrote:UNLV @ BYU live right now. BYU just equalized. First half just ending. Lots of offense by BYU (UNLV "scored" on an own-goal deflection). If you're bored:

Dish: 9403. DirecTV: 374. Online: http://www.byutv.org.

If you have problems with this link, just remove the period '.' after 'org'

enjoy!