The Lafayette Leopards qualified for the NCAA tournament in style with a 2-1 win at home, preserving their undefeated record on their home turf. The mark was made in front of nearly 1,000 fans, which according to records I could see the largest championship crowd in the country this season. The BU coach admitted that Rappolt Field is a difficult place to play given the enthusiastic fans and atmosphere. In total Lafayette has had 5,468 fans watch the Leopards at home this season!
The Leopards did it in customary fashion using a strong defense highlighted by a diverse attacking offense. Lena Thedrian again featured her strong drags on corners leading to two goals . But there is nothing singular about this team. Scoring can occur from anyone at anytime. One has only to witness the semi final 4-0 win against Holy Cross to see two firsWe did attend the 10 pm Sunday announcement of the field by the NCAA with the team.t year players contributing goals.
The defense continues to be a winning element with Addison Kahn’s .66 GAA average. and a 81 percent save average. The team assisted with 6 defensive saves for the season in support!! As a result, after 19 games the Leopards have only been scored on 13 times. They also have allowed only 73 corners in all 19 games while having 103 of their own.
It’s now tournament time and the record returns to 0-0 in this single elimination contest. Given their ranking of 13 RPI, Lafayette get a bye in the play-in rounds and will start as a “sweet sixteen” participant. They have drawn UConn at UConn to be played Friday at noon. If successful they will play the winner of the Princeton/Syracuse match.
I think the bracket is a fair one given the new criteria using KPI and RPI as a seeding tool. They also said they have ignored geographical considerations. If I were Wake Forest or Penn State I would be a upset at not being selected and given UNC’s inclusion after their early elimination in the ACC tournament.
We did attend the 10 pm Sunday announcement of the field by the NCAA with the team at Lafayette. It is the first time we have done this and it was exciting to be in the room with our heroines when Lafayette was announced. We did have to endure the genuflection toward UNC by the NCAA announcer ( she does the ESPN telecast of UNC games) and the lack of knowledge about Lafayette which struck me as a “diss!”
Statistics are very similar between UConn and Lafayette. UCONN was 12-0 at home and 6-0 in their conference. Total goals scored against UConn was 14 all season. Common opponents were Brown and Cornell with they won 3-0 and 2-0 respectively. Lafayette has played two Big Ten opponents and UCONN has played none they also have played no ACC teams. Their signature win was Princeton 2-1. They lost to ODU in the championship game 1-2. UCONN has scored 44 goals all season. In juxtaposition, Lafayette has score 53 in 19 games for a 2.79 average vs the Huskies 2.59 average in 117 games.
Lafayette should be very competitive and a Sunday “elite eight” game is within the realm of possibility. It would certainly be a boost for the school and the conference.!!
