2017 Spring Schedule

UW has announced their Spring schedule.  They will be playing the Pilots on April 15 at 2pm at Portland.  I have been off of Pilot Nation for awhile, so was unaware that Bill Irwin is now an assistant at PSU.

Concordia University (PDX) at Pilots 7pm April 9.

purple passion wrote:UW has announced their Spring schedule.  They will be playing the Pilots on April 15 at 2pm at Portland.  I have been off of Pilot Nation for awhile, so was unaware that Bill Irwin is now an assistant at PSU.

Lots of choices for soccer fans that day.

Thorns v Orlando at noon ( Providence PK)
UP v UW at 2:00 ( Merlo)
UP men @ Oregon state at 3:00. (Corvallis)

Going to be hard to catch all three games, may need some sort of light speed vehicle.

Apparently, the Pilots and Thorns played today. But, no news from U of P about it, that I can find. We are not happy, we would have been there. This is poor treatment of Pilots fans.

UPSoccerFanatic wrote:Apparently, the Pilots and Thorns played today.  But, no news from U of P about it, that I can find.  We are not happy, we would have been there.  This is poor treatment of Pilots fans.

Don't be too hard on the athletic department... I'm 99% sure this was a "closed" game, which means no fans were even allowed into the stadium. Some Villa Drum Squad guys showed up and were turned away - had to watch from the parking lot.

Any reports from those who watched it from the parking lot?

Anyone else catch the match Sunday evening?

Ariel is back, playing M rather than D.  Good to see her after two years of injuries.  She & Kaycie were the captains.

Kimberly's speed was noticeable and a definite plus.  Rylee started, but got injured early, left, and did not return.  Juliana, the transfer, played the 2nd half.

I hardly recognized Hanna.  Hair color change and slimmed down.

DNP:  Jess Kennedy, Sarah Jones, Hannah Griffith-Boston, & Lauren Marin.  I didn't get a good look at the sidelines, but there didn't seem to be many spare bodies.  Injured,  left program, or ???

Thanks for the report. Wish I could provide some comments on the state of the progra, but anyone in Portland knows more than I do.. This team will always be my favorite at UP.

It looked to me like Sarah Jones and Lauren Marin were not there, no idea why not. Griffiths-Boston did not suit up, but was on the bench. Kennedy was suited up and warmed up, but did not play.

Juliana scored a beautiful goal with her left foot from the top of the box, it just curled into the goal inside the left post. The Pilots looked good, but Concordia is not a Division 1 opponent. The upcoming Washington game will be a much better test.

When is the Washington game? And other games? Would love to be able to see the team in action.

The UW match is 2:00 PM Saturday at Merlo.

They also play Portland State Saturday, April 22 at 7:00PM at Merlo.

Refresh my memory... Was it Portland State that a few years back beat us in a spring game and were so excited that they took a picture with the scoreboard?

I will not be able to attend the matches against UW this weekend or next weekend vs PSU.  If anyone attends, I'd appreciate your observations.  Thank you kindly.

Any report on Saturday's game v UW?

I saw the second half.

UW scored once in the first half, described to me as a breakaway possibly off side.

The second half had no scoring. Both teams had some chances, including breakaways by both teams 1v1 with the keepers. UP started the match with one sub. By the second half there were none available. Several players were playing out of position, as was to be expected with 10 field players. I'm not sure who would have been keeper if an injury had happened at that position.

UW had no such issues. At one point they subbed in 6 players at once.

Thanks, Geez.  Given the circumstances, the result is encouraging.

Here's a prediction for the 2017 season, as shocking as it may seem:  Pilots end up ranked #23 by the RPI.

Am I interpreting this right: we held our own despite being down a woman?

Yes, that is correct. Washington dominated possession and the number of shots was lopsided in their favor. However many of those shots were rather ambitious and not on goal. Rachel was very good in goal, she made several wonderful saves to hold the Huskies to one goal.

Grifflliths-Boston, Kennedy and Seekins were on the bench, but did not play. Sarah Jones and Lauren Marin were not there. I later heard that Sarah was transferring.

UPSoccerFanatic wrote:Here's a prediction for the 2017 season, as shocking as it may seem:  Pilots end up ranked #23 by the RPI.

I understood that last year's RPI was #120, according to the NCAA. What factors would you attribute to next season's RPI being #23?

Corrado Kid wrote:

UPSoccerFanatic wrote:Here's a prediction for the 2017 season, as shocking as it may seem:  Pilots end up ranked #23 by the RPI.

I understood that last year's RPI was #120, according to the NCAA. What factors would you attribute to next season's RPI being #23?

Last year, they were #118 at the close of the regular season, which is the rating/rank that counts.

After reviewing a bunch of possible statistical ways to project teams' RPIs for the next year, the best one I could come up with is based strictly on the longevity of the current coach and the average of teams' RPIs over some prior number of years. It's a very rough way to do it, and there always will be outliers, but it's the best I could find on average, after trying a bunch of possibilities. For a team with the current coach having been head coach for 9 or more years, which applies to the Pilots, the projected rating I came up with is the team's average rating over the last 8 years. If a head coach has been in place for 4 to 8 years, then the projected rating is the team's average over the last 6 years. If the head coach has been there for 3 or fewer years, then the projected rating is the average over the last 2 years. I looked at all the teams and did a rating for each team based on how long the current coach has been head coach and what the team's average rating has been over the appropriate time frame. Then I ranked the teams according to their ratings. That's how the Pilots came in at #23.

As I said, there always will be outliers. And, really, I think the Pilots could be an outlier, meaning their rank could end up much poorer than my system has projected.

That sounds hopeful, at best.

Then there was the news report last weekend that Marta was coming to Portland...

And once again it was an apparent hoax.

Geezaldinho wrote:Then there was the news report last weekend that Marta was coming to Portland...

Fake News!

We knew Marta would not be joining Orlando soon enough to see her at Providence Park last Saturday, but it was a great crowd, a good game, and there was an abundance of sunshine without her.