# Early season games



## shupioneers1 (Feb 28, 2008)

Granted I'm just looking through D-3 schedules at the moment to see if I can piece together West Conn's OOC schedule (since ours isn't up yet), but I've got a couple few exciting games on the schedule. I'm gonna go through the New England & mid atlantic East regions then go through D-2 & D-1 so I'll update this the next couple months; What I've gotten so far:

Amherst vs. Mount St. Mary (women) (scheduled-November 19). Their on the opposite sides of the Amherst tournament, but assuming both win should be an exciting matchup. Amherst has lost only 2 games the last 2 years, but this is an early season challenge as MSM returns all but 1 player, and should once again roll through the Skyline conference this year. Of course knowing my luck watch 1 of the 2 lose, so this matchup doesn't happen. Amherst tournament will take place November 18-19 @ Amherst, still trying to find the other 2 teams.
Brandeis @ Babson (women) Nov 17. Brandeis really struggled once they got into UAA play as they got bitten by the injury bug. Babson is extremely loaded once again this year, and should be one of the favorites to advance to the final 4 assuming everyone stays healthy. Last year when Brandeis had their full compliment of players they lost by 3 in overtime and Brandeis was leading the whole game until Babson took their first lead with 9 seconds to go in regulation.
Babson @ Williams November 20 (women). Williams was 21-6 last year, but was 0-5 against the top 3 in the NESCAC (Amherst, Bowdoin & Colby). This will be Babson's first challenging road game as the Brandeis game is at home where Williams only lost 1 game last year @ Chandler gym, 66-55 to Amherst who was unbeaten at the time. They did not play last season.
Mount St. Mary @ Western Connecticut (women) December 6. Will be a nice barometer about where we are, trying to replace our 3 seniors with a core of young talent. The 3 seniors (Heather Lee, Melissa Teel, Karli Spera) combined for 38 of our 60 points and 20 of our 33 rebounds in last season meeting (a 63-60 MSM win), so we'll have to get points and rebounds from our juniors & sophmores along with any freshmen to fill that void. Will be a measuring stick game for sure.
William Paterson @ Mount St. Mary December 16 (women). In a matchup of top 30 teams last year (MSM was recieving votes the week of the game), MSM dominated the second half in handing WPU their second of only 4 losses last season. Both teams return a ton of talent (just 1 senior lost between the 2 teams) so should be another good game. MSM outscored WPU 37-21 in the second half after a 23-23 halftime tie to run away with a closer then it looked 60-44 win last year @ WPU.
This is after Christmas but still have to mention it anyway: Kean @ Amherst January 17 (women). Assuming Kean even still has a team at this time (see the grade fixing scandal), this should be a marquee matchup. Amherst should get the new players settled into their role by the time this matchup takes place. Kean won last years meeting 85-82 and return all 5 starters who started in that game. Amherst at home is extremely tough. Of course Jan 17 is also the first West Conn East Conn meeting of the year; men's matchup should see 2 of the top 3 in the conference; women's matchup pits 2 teams that lost the most from last year.


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## shupioneers1 (Feb 28, 2008)

Some more:
RIC @ Bridgewater state (men) November 22. Bridgewater state finished 19-10 last year losing by 1 to WPI in the NCAA first round; however they lost 8 games by a total of 21 points including 4 by 1 possession, included in there 3 by 1 point. One of those 1 point losses last year was to RIC. RIC, as long as Bob Walsh is there will always be a force to be reconked with in the LEC. This will a be a chance to show Bridgewater can close out those close games that haunted them last year.
Mass-Boston @ Bridgewater state (women) Jan 12. Another one after New Years but I'll keep tabs on. Boston last year finished with only their 4th winning season in their history last year. After beating Bridgewater last year 70-62 to run their record to 11-3, Boston preceded to lose 9 of their last 11 to finish 13-12. With the top 2 teams in the LEC from last year looking to be depleted, a young team which competed will look to go to the LEC tournanement. Bridgewater finished tied for second in the MASCAC last year, upsetting conference winner Westfield state in the tournament to go to the NCAA's.
Amherst @ Eastern Connecticut (women) December 8. Both teams lost a lot from last year, but could still be very good. Amherst gets a tough road game, and Eastern gets a tough opponent to gauge how they'll be this year. This looks like MSM @ Western game.
Eastern Connecticut tournament (men) November 18-19. Eastern plays Worcester state, Geneseo state plays St. Joseph (LI), winners play in the final. Geneseo state was 6-2 OOC last year and St. Joseph's was 22-7.
Elms @ Kean (men) December 17. Elms made the NCAA tournament as a pool C (at large selection) while Kean should have made it as pool C but got left out. Kean's all american center is graduated, but they still have a good team down there, while Elms has to win this if they don't win their conference.
Emmanuel @ Eastern Connecticut (women) November 22. Emmanuel runs through the CCC, pretty much undefeted every year, and to give them credit they play a hard OOC schedule. They have WPU opening the season at their tournament, and this game against Eastern starts a 4 gamr stretch that includes games against Brandeis and RIC (should win the LEC this year) at home and concludes with a game @ Amherst. Could be a big game for Eastern if they win this, finish top 3 in the LEC and Emmanuel finishes unbeaten in conference like they did last season.


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## shupioneers1 (Feb 28, 2008)

Feel free to delete this since I posted this on the wrong board.


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