#1 Colorado St. vs. Purdue:
CSU is coming into the Tournament as the #1 seed and #1 team in the coaches poll and undefeated this season. CSU is also coming into this game as the defending National Champs. Purdue on the other hand is coming into game as first timers to the Tourney after knocking off Indiana in the GRLC finals. Unfortunately for Purdue I think CSU is going to have an easy time with the game and really with the tournament, at least tell the semis roll around.
CSU beats Purdue by 8+
#8 Boston College vs. Sonoma St.
This game is the 8 vs. 9 game and for me one of the few that actually interest me in the D1 bracket. Both teams are a lot alike, both have scored around 150 goals this season and both have given up around a 100 goals so far. BC made a splash this year by travelling down to Florida and Texas. While Sonoma St. made a big return to the national stage and making its first return to the Tournament since’09. In this game I see one of the few upsets in this year’s Tournament with Sonoma St. winning. I think that Sonoma’s SOS will have them better prepared than BC even though BC has less of a travel to get to Greenville.
Sonoma St. beats BC by 1
#5 Chapman vs. Oregon
The Chapman- Oregon game is the game that gives me the most trouble this year. This is because Oregon has beaten Chapman once and has an extremely good offense, one of the hardest things to do is beat a team twice. I’m leaning more towards Chapman because of the competiveness that they had in their own conference and the huge win against Arizona St. early on in the season. I think Oregon losing the PNCLL Championship to Oregon St. really hurt their seeding this year.
Chapman beats Oregon by 2
#4 Brigham Young University vs. Grand Canyon University
This is another game like Chapman- Oregon. BYU has been at the top of the polls all year and I think they will be able to repeat this year’s win against Grand Canyon again. Grand Canyon is in their second year of being in the MCLA and both years they’ve made the Tournament. Unlike last year where they went to the Quarterfinals I don’t see them getting past BYU this year.
BYU beats Grand Canyon by 3
#3 Arizona St. vs. Georgia
ASU vs. Georgia is an exciting match up to me more because offense than anything else. Both teams have very dynamic offenses lead by two seniors who I think will definitely be first or second team All- Americans. Unfortunately for Georgia I feel ASU has a little better defense and that will carry them into the next round, but not after a high scoring row with the Bulldogs.
ASU beats Georgia by 6 but both teams score at least 12 goals
#6 UC Santa Barbara vs. Oregon St.
With UC Santa Barbara and Oregon St. I think the Gauchos are going to win this one. I think the Gauchos have a better team and are better tested than the Beavers. Really if the Beavers hadn’t won the PNCLL I don’t know if they would have had a better resume than Cal, UMD, or UConn.
UC Santa Barbara beats Oregon St. by 4
#7 Stanford vs. Michigan St.
Stanford- Michigan St. has given me more pause than a lot of the other games. The reason being is that Michigan St. probably has the third or fourth best defense in the MCLA right now. Then you throw in the fact that Stanford has the 2nd leading point getter in the country and this game is really a tough one to decide beforehand. I think whoever gets ten goals in the game will win it.
Michigan St. beats Stanford in overtime 10-9
#2 Colorado vs. Texas
Really this game is going to be a lot like the CSU- Purdue game. Unfortunately for Texas the table seems stacked against them. Colorado is red hot right now and has only lost to CSU this year.
Colorado beats Texas by 6
