In the tourney! Open home against UCLA

by bobtcat2 Mon Nov 12, 2018 10:13 am

Didn't think it would happen, very glad!

by DoubleDipper Mon Nov 12, 2018 10:16 am

UP Athletics wrote:We're in!!! Pilots are playoff bound and will host UCLA on Thursday!!

It would seem a good draw for the Pilots....UCLA comes to Merlo with a 10-8-0 record and a #30 RPI.

Just have to hope everyone is healthy, for a change...

by DoubleDipper Mon Nov 12, 2018 10:29 am

UP Athletics wrote:Here’s a look at the side of the bracket that @UPMensSoccer is in! First round is set to be played on Merlo Field against UCLA. Onto the big dance!!

In the tourney! Open home against UCLA Bracke10

by ExpatPilot Mon Nov 12, 2018 10:46 am

How I'm feeling!

In the tourney! Open home against UCLA Img-4679jpg-47331338d2d35547

by PNWPilot Mon Nov 12, 2018 10:52 am

First Round is slated for 4PM this Thursday at Merlo....

by ExpatPilot Mon Nov 12, 2018 10:54 am

It's also worth noting that Saint Mary's (auto-bid) AND Pacific are both in the tournament. 3 teams from the WCC is impressive!

Oregon State made it too. 2/2 on men's soccer teams from Oregon.

by SoreKnees Mon Nov 12, 2018 11:07 am

This is a great surprise. Might have expected an away match, but at home???

by DoubleDipper Mon Nov 12, 2018 11:25 am

SoreKnees wrote:This is a great surprise. Might have expected an away match, but at home???

Just guessing, but I would imagine the fires in Southern California weighed heavily on the decision to play the game at Merlo.

No doubt Coach Nick is really looking forward to playing against UCLA, the school where he was the associate head coach for four years and where he was honored as one of College Soccer News’ top-15 assistant coaches in the country in 2013 and 2014.

I was told UCLA has been reluctant to schedule preseason games in Portland (the two teams have not met since 2003), so now's your chance, men!

by SoreKnees Mon Nov 12, 2018 11:28 am

DoubleDipper wrote:
Just guessing, but I would imagine the fires in Southern California weighed heavily on the decision to play the game at Merlo.

That makes a lot of sense. I was thinking maybe there was a facilities conflict or something like that.

Then again, the Pilots have a much stronger record in terms of numbers, so maybe it would have been in PDX anyway?

by DoubleDipper Mon Nov 12, 2018 1:30 pm

SouthCarolinaPilot wrote:It's also worth noting that Saint Mary's (auto-bid) AND Pacific are both in the tournament. 3 teams from the WCC is impressive!

#34 UOP will host #82 UC Riverside on Thursday, and the winner will travel to Durham to play #6 Duke.

#8 SMC drew a first round bye, and will play the winner of the #37 SMU @ #29 Oregon State in Moraga on Sunday.

(# numbers listed are RPI, although #6 Duke is also a #6 seed, and #8 SMC is also a #8 seed. With a win, UP's next opponent will be #3 seed Kentucky in Lexington...their current RPI is #5). tongue

by Geezaldinho Mon Nov 12, 2018 1:48 pm

We were 6 slots lower in the RPI than UCLA, which is within the margin of error for the RPI system. The other criteria the committee depends on in comparing teams includes head to head competition and common opponents.

We didn’t play UCLA, but we did have some common opponents. We beat Udub and OSU and UCSB.
UCLA split with the first two and lost to UCSB. On the other hand they beat USD and we didn’t.

We both beat LMU and lost to USF.

Another thing they look at is record against top teams and the tournament field. We did better against the top 25, top 50, and top 100 teams.

by VillaGorilla Tue Nov 13, 2018 8:28 pm

Why on earth is this game being played at 4 PM?

by ejjqb Tue Nov 13, 2018 10:22 pm

When I posed this question to the university, the Director of Public Affairs responded that the school was selected to administer the Opus Prize by the Congregation of Holy Cross. It is the culmination of a 21-month process and the presentation is a major event for students and faculty in the Chiles Center that night. The 4:00 start will allow the school folks to attend both events. Not good for those of us who cannot be there at 4:00 but hard to go up against this event evidently.

by DoubleDipper Tue Nov 13, 2018 10:43 pm

UP wrote:The Opus Prize is one of the world's largest faith-based awards for social entrepreneurship and University of Portland students and faculty are partnering with the Opus Prize Foundation to select finalists for the 2018 awards.

Each year the Opus Prize Foundation chooses one Catholic university to help it award one $1 million and two $100,000 prizes recognizing individuals who are addressing persistent and pressing social problems.....

The year-long partnership between UP and the Opus Prize Foundation supports the work of faith-based, social entrepreneurs around the world while seeking to inspire the next generation of leaders to pursue lives of service.

You can read about the finalists here: https://www.up.edu/opusprize/

by ExpatPilot Thu Nov 15, 2018 6:11 pm

WE WON!

Kentucky is a great team. That will be a very tough match.

by SoreKnees Thu Nov 15, 2018 7:29 pm

Exciting match. A bit too exciting! The Pilots could/should have scored about 5, but good goalkeeping, bad luck, and poor finishing made it more exciting than it might have been. On the other hand, UCLA had quite a number of excellent chances as well, hitting the cross bar in the second half and generally making things a bit nervy at the back. I found it interesting that NCV stayed with the 4-2-3-1 to the very end, presumably figuring that the odds of scoring a second with high pressure were greater than the odds of conceding. Kudos to the three attacking MFs, who tracked back tirelessly in the second half and helped keep UCLA off the board.

It was good to see Benji play almost the whole match and Rey come back after going off with a knock in the first half. If this team has those to in top form, I think they can beat any team in the country.

I really don't know anything about Kentucky except their ranking and their record. Is the SEC any good at this game? Or are they like the Pac-12, where only half the schools even bother to field a side?

It's always kind of bugged me that so many of the "big" athletic programs (Oregon and USC, for example) can't be bothered to have a men's soccer program (or many other non-revenue sports, which would be great for the student participants if not for the alumni donors, who seem to be the only ones who matter). I guess as a Pilot fan I should be grateful that there are just that many fewer rivals in recruiting...

by bobtcat2 Thu Nov 15, 2018 8:32 pm

I actually don't think the SEC does soccer at all! I mean that literally- from what I remember the schools all have to find a different conference for soccer. Kentucky is in Conference USA, Old Dominion and Florida Atlantic are the other strong teams but it's not a strong conference.

by DoubleDipper Thu Nov 15, 2018 11:21 pm

What a great playoff atmosphere this afternoon! And it was made even better because the NCAA apparently now allows noisemakers and beer at there playoff games...something that was not possible just a few years ago.

The final score could have been, 5-4, but both teams played stellar defense when it was needed, and in addition to Kienan matching his personal record for saves in a game with 6, UCLA's two goals keepers (one got hurt early in the second half) were also amazing.

An interesting night in playoff soccer as 6 of the 16 games went to OT, and 5 of the games were decided by shootouts.

UOP beat Cal Riverside and will next play at Duke. Oregon State beat SMU, 2-1, and will play in Moraga against SMC next, but UW lost in a shootout with Lipscomb, the lowest ranked team, #104, to make it to the second round.

Not sure when the Pilots will be leaving for Louisville, but it's a long flight to the Eastern Time Zone with a couple of stops, and it would be really helpful if the NCAA would charter a flight for the team... clown

by SoreKnees Fri Nov 16, 2018 7:20 am

DoubleDipper wrote:
UOP beat Cal Riverside and will next play at Duke. Oregon State beat SMU, 2-1, and will play in Moraga against SMC next, but UW lost in a shootout with Lipscomb, the lowest ranked team, #104, to make it to the second round.

Not sure when the Pilots will be leaving for Louisville, but it's a long flight to the Eastern Time Zone with a couple of stops, and it would be really helpful if the NCAA would charter a flight for the team...

Is it even possible to get enough tickets on commercial flights at this late date? I was wondering how teams deal with this issue and assumed that they probably ended up on charters. Or isn't UPS's hub in Louisville? Maybe they could fly as cargo? Smile

On the Lipscomb issue, they seem to be in our bracket, so if we win at Kentucky and they win at Central Florida, we would play them in the next round. Given their low seed, it seems at least possible that we could get another game at Merlo. What a happy surprise that would be!

by DoubleDipper Fri Nov 16, 2018 10:24 am

SoreKnees wrote:Is it even possible to get enough tickets on commercial flights at this late date? I was wondering how teams deal with this issue and assumed that they probably ended up on charters. Or isn't UPS's hub in Louisville? Maybe they could fly as cargo?

It is my understanding the NCAA buys refundable tickets as soon as the brackets are announced (or just before, presumably) for all the possible travel scenarios, and then gets a refund for those tickets that were bought for the losing teams that will head or stay home instead of traveling to the next venue.

I'm not sure of UP's travel plans, but I think they'll leave this afternoon with just one plane change in Denver before arriving in Louisville sometime before midnight EST tonight.

by SoreKnees Fri Nov 16, 2018 11:04 am

DoubleDipper wrote:It is my understanding the NCAA buys refundable tickets as soon as the brackets are announced (or just before, presumably) for all the possible travel scenarios, and then gets a refund for those tickets that were bought for the losing teams that will head or stay home instead of traveling to the next venue.

I'm not sure of UP's travel plans, but I think they'll leave this afternoon with just one plane change in Denver before arriving in Louisville sometime before midnight EST tonight.

That makes a lot of sense, though it might not be that easy to get big blocks of tickets even on Sunday night.

I wonder if they booked tickets for Lipscomb to come to Portland next week. Smile

by Geezaldinho Fri Nov 16, 2018 11:28 am

Here’s the travel policy.

https://ncaaorg.s3.amazonaws.com/championships/resources/travel/2018-19DIChamps_TravPolicies.pdf

All flights are booked through Shorts and ground transportation is through one company also, GO GROUND.

The rules say if you charter flights the institution pays for the difference between the charter and regularly scheduled flights.

Not sure how that applies where there are no regularly scheduled flights or if there is a travel time limit..
I recall a few years ago the NCAA sent the Women’s team on an all night odyssey to State College that may have included a stage coach and flatboat.

And this link says that a team is not required to take connecting flights if the time difference is more than three hours.

http://www.ncaa.org/governance/committees/committee-travel-policies

In the tourney! Open home against UCLA

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