Landmark Conference Blog

9/2/2010 -- 4:33 p.m.

More Deep Thoughts

Maybe those ones yesterday weren't so deep, but I wanted to continue in my attempt to highlight some of the things I'm looking at as the Landmark seasons get underway. Here are some thoughts bouncing around my head for the women's soccer season.

-- From my rather distant position as Assistant Commissioner I have no real idea what rivalries exist between specific players and teams within the conference. However ever since Landmark play began in 2007 there have been two standout players who will close their careers this season who have seemed to have something of an award or individual highlight rivalry. Both Kelly Donnelly of Catholic and Chelsea Paskman of Scranton are three-time All-Conference players, including first-team honors as sophomores and juniors. Statistically Donnelly has been more dominant as her 77 points are the most in Landmark history. Paskman has a slight edge in Landmark hardware, having been the Rookie of the Year in 2007 and the Offensive Player of the Year last season when both were strong contenders. Both players have also each earned All-Region honors, though Paskman also was tabbed as an All-America this past year. They both also have a Landmark Championship to their credit with Paskman being a part of Scranton's title team in 2007 and Donnelly helping Catholic claim the crown last year. Soccer is far from an individual sport, and every player is their own player, but I am curious to see how both these talented players stack up once the 2010 season concluded.

-- Another senior I could have mentioned is Goucher's Sisley Pumilia, who has the most goals in the three years of Landmark play with 77. Which raises brings me to my thought of whether her Gophers can take a step forward this season and move up the Landmark standings. The team has come a long ways since a tough 2007 campaign as three of its Landmark losses last year were by 1-0 scores. Nearly the entire team is back from last year's squad, including Pumilia and All-Conference goalie Kellen Matthews, which makes me consider that the Gophers might be a team to watch.

-- The Landmark regular season is obviously important in every sport, but it has been critical in the first three years of Landmark women's soccer. That is because women's soccer is one of the few Landmark sports where the regular season champion and number-one postseason seed have gone on to win the Landmark Championship. So keep an eye on those regular season standings, as history suggests the team at the top when the regular season ends, will be hoisting the trophy at the conclusion of the postseason.

 

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9/2/2010 -- 8:38 a.m.

Morning Round-up

A quick look at some of the highlights on the first day of competition from the new season.

-- Offense has not been in short supply in field hockey in the Landmark over the past three years, but this is a bit crazy. In winning their respective openers, Catholic, Susquehanna and Drew combined to outscore their opponents 34-0 yesterday. The previous Landmark record for goals in a game was 10, set by Drew in a win over Sweet Briar last season. The Rangers matched that with 10 goals yesterday, only to see Susquehanna notch 11 in a win over Rosemont, followed by Catholic putting up 13 in a rout over Virginia Wesleyan. Could this be a year when offense dominates in field hockey? We shall see.

-- Drew men's soccer got off to about as fast a start as possible to the new season, scoring four goals in the first 15 minutes to earn a win over TCNJ. You might recall that early last season Drew piled up a series of 0-0 results in the early going. In fact, last year the Rangers did not score their fourth goal until the sixth match of the season.

-- Three teams gave themselves big challenges in their season openers as Susquehanna men's soccer, Juniata field hockey and Drew women's soccer all had nationally-ranked opponents on the schedule to start the year. Susquehanna came the closest to earning a win, pushing 8th-ranked York to overtime before falling 1-0. Drew gave up a lone goal but could not find the offense to upend 3rd-ranked TCNJ. And Juniata had its hands full with second-ranked Messiah, suffering a 5-0 setback.

-- Just another day at the office for Susquehanna volleyball standout Lindsey Jankiewicz in the opener. The senior posted 18 kills with one error for a cool .654 hitting percentage as the Crusaders downed Penn State-Harrisburg. Elsewhere in volleyball Moravian rallied from a one-set deficit to beat DeSales 3-1. Senior setter Christine Poole had 52 assists, which is more than she passed out in any match last season.

 

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9/1/2010 -- 2:30 p.m.

Let's Get It Started

Not posting anything on the blog for more than three months isn't going to do much to dispel the rumors that the Landmark Office shuts down during the summer. While I assure my loyal readers that is not true, there just didn't seem to be much to blog about over the summer months.

All that changes today as the fall season kicks off with multiple Landmark teams in action. With that being the case, the only logical reaction is to provide a few of my thoughts on each sport, starting with, men's soccer. Remember, this is just a few things that are kicking around my head, it's by no means comprehensive.

-- Who are these guys? Obviously that's a rhetorical question, but there might not be any sport in the Landmark that had more turnover among the personnel. Of the 12 first-team All-Conference players from a year ago all but one were seniors, meaning there are going to be a lot of new faces leading teams this year. While the traditional teams were again favored to be at the top of standings again, could all the change lead to a bit of a changing of the guard?

-- Defense first has been the motto of the Landmark men's soccer over the past two seasons. After a high scoring 2007 season goals have been harder to come by over the past two years. The consistency has been that the winning teams have been ones that defended, as each of the three champions have ranked among the top defenses in the conference.

-- As the Landmark will now be in its fourth season, this year will feature players closing their careers as full-time Landmark players. As such, those players that were freshmen in 2007 have thus far dominated the Landmark record book. One such player is Jim Robertiello of Susquehanna who enters the year as the active player with the most career Landmark goals scored. He has netted 26 in three years, and is seven away from closing his career as the Landmark record holder. The closest to Robertiello is Andrew Bull of Goucher who has found the net 12 times.

-- While there are many of the top players from last year graduated, one area that has plenty of talent returning is goalkeeper. The lone first-team All-Conference player back is Catholic's Quinn Daly. Also back are Jeff Rogers from Drew who was an All-Conference keeper in his sophomore year, and Brandon Dombrowski who was an All-Conference pick in goal as well last year. Juniata's Joe Kohler is back in net for his team while Gary Poulin of USMMA had a 0.93 goals against average in 18 games as a freshman. Susquehanna has both its keepers returning from last year and Tim Dollarton is back in goal for Moravian. Goucher is the only team without its starting keeper back among the eight Landmark team.

 

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5/20/2010 -- 7:30 a.m.

NCAA Update

I didn't want you all to think my blogging would completely disappear once the regular season ended. So here is a quick update on following the remaining Landmark teams as they battle their way through the NCAA Championships.

The Moravian softball team is the closest a Landmark team has been to a national championship since Juniata's volleyball team reached the finals this past fall. This interactive bracket will have links to live video and stats once play kicks off in Wisconsin tomorrow.

On the men's side, Moravian dropped its first NCAA baseball game yesterday, but is back in action today in an elimination game. Live stats are available here.

5/13/2010 -- 7:24 a.m.

Morning Round-up

Thirty-three percent is not a terrible percentage. That is the percentage of Landmark teams that survived the opening day of NCAA play, as Catholic women's lacrosse picked up a convincing victory over Christopher Newport. The Goucher men's lacrosse team, and the Drew women's lacrosse team saw their seasons come to an end with tight losses.

-- Catholic rode a five-goal performance from the recently selected Landmark Player of the Year Mary Swarthout to upend Christopher Newport 19-9. The Cardinals dominated the first 30 minutes, jumping out to a 13-4 lead and would never look back from there. Melissa Brashear made five saves in each half in net for the Cardinals who outshot the Captains by 12 for the match. Catholic now travels to face second-ranked Salisbury on Saturday, the team that has eliminated them from the NCAA field each of the previous two years.

-- Drew fell behind early in its contest against Mary Washington and were unable to recover as the team suffered a 18-8 loss to finish the season at 10-9 overall. Drew was making its third NCAA appearance in the last four seasons but started slowly on this day, falling behind 10-1 and never threatening at that point.

-- Goucher was tied with perennial power Middlebury at halftime after a four-goal second period, but the Gophers were limited to just a pair of second-half scores as they fell to the Panthers 10-6 in the team's first NCAA appearance. Matt Lynch had two goals and two assists for Goucher in the game, with his second goal tying the game at four with 5:17 left in the first half. Neither team scored again until the 7:41 mark of the third period when Middlebury scored the first of three goals in the period to open its lead up to 7-4. Chris Stricklin made 14 saves in net for Goucher which finished the year with a program-best 14 victories.

5/12/2010 -- 12:04 p.m.

Follow the Landmark In NCAA Action

NCAA play kicks off today for three Landmark teams as Goucher men's lacrosse and Catholic and Drew women's lacrosse will both be in action. You can follow all of the action on-line in one form or another.

For women's lacrosse Drew will face Mary Washington which is providing live stats for the match. The same is true for the Catholic women's team as live stats will be available for the matchup against Christopher Newport.

In men's lacrosse Goucher's match against Middlebury can be followed with live stats, live audio and live video, each of which can be found here.

Enjoy the contests and hopefully there will be more NCAA lacrosse events to follow after today's games.

5/11/2010 -- 7:23 a.m.

Postseason Schedule

I did this the previous two seasons where I lay out the dates and times for all the Landmark postseason games. Quite honestly, I do it as much for me as for you the devoted readers, simply because I think it makes tracking all these games a little easier. Keep in mind we also are not including baseball as that tournament starts a week later. But here is a breakdown of all the NCAA opening game action.

Men's Lacrosse:
Goucher at Middlebury, May 12, 3 p.m. (NCAA)

Women's Lacrosse:
Christopher Newport vs. Catholic, May 12, 4 p.m. (NCAA)
Drew at Mary Washington, May 12, 2:30 p.m. (NCAA)

Men's Tennis:
Drew vs. Lycoming (at Johns Hopkins), May 14, TBD

Women's Tennis:
Drew vs. Western Connecticut State (at Mary Washington), May 14, TBD (NCAA)

Softball:
Susquehanna vs. Frostburg State (at Christopher Newport), May 13, 2 p.m. (NCAA)
Moravian vs. Neumann (at Rhode Island College), May 14, 12 p.m. (NCAA)
Catholic at Alvernia, May 12, 4 p.m. (ECAC)

5/10/2010 -- 7:41 p.m.

NCAA Update

The men's and women's tennis pairings are out, giving the Landmark another set of NCAA destinations.

The Drew men's tennis team will be traveling to Towson, Md. and will play one of ten matches on Friday when the Rangers face Lycoming. With a win, Drew would take on host Johns Hopkins in the second round on Saturday.

Drew women's tennis will be part of a four-team regional in Fredericksburg, Va. on the campus of Mary Washington. Drew will battle Western Connecticut State in the first round on Friday. A win would give the Rangers a matchup with Carnegie Mellon.

5/10/2010 -- 12:31 p.m.

NCAA Update

More good news for the Landmark as Susquehanna earns at at-large bid in softball to go along with Moravian's automatic qualification. Moravian will be traveling to Providence, R.I. for regional competition, while Susquehanna will be heading south to the regional hosted by Christopher Newport.

More details to come a little later in the day.

5/10/2010 -- 8:54 a.m.

NCAA Update

Two NCAA brackets have been released as of this hour and both of them were quite good to the Landmark Conference.

Goucher already knew it had a place in the men's lacrosse bracket, but it is now official as the Gophers will face Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vt. on Wednesday at a time TBD. Should they win, the Gophers will be on the road again, traveling to take on RPI in Troy, N.Y.

And for the second time in as many seasons, the Landmark's one sport without an automatic qualifier has fared very well in the selections as both Catholic and Drew earned berths in the NCAA Division III women's lacrosse tournament. Catholic earned the right to host its opening round match and will welcome Christopher Newport to Washington, D.C. on Wednesday. Drew will travel to Fredericksburg, Va. to tangle with Mary Washington in its opening round contest. In the second round, Catholic will square off with familiar foe Salisbury if the Cardinals win their opening round match, while a Drew victory would pit the Rangers against the winner of the game between Washington & Lee and Elizabethtown.

There will be full previews coming later on landmarkconference.org as well as quick updates when other brackets are released.

5/10/2010 - 8:48 a.m.

Championship Recap

I'm assuming that most of the news about the championships has already been digested, so I won't go into too much detail. Instead here are some tidbits from the weekend.

-- Of the six spring championships completed over the weekend, there were three first-time champions, and three three-time champions.

-- With Goucher's men's lacrosse title and Drew women's tennis title on Saturday all eight Landmark institutions claimed at least one conference championship this season.

-- For the first time in three years the winner of the Landmark baseball tournament was the host and number-one seed.

-- Sunday's 5-3 margin in men's tennis was the closest a men's tennis championship has been in the three years of the Landmark.

-- Moravian and Susquehanna have now played five times in the past two years of the softball championships, and three of the five games have been decided in extra innings.

-- Goucher's 11 goals in the men's lacrosse final were the most scored in the three Landmark men's lacrosse championship matches.

-- Catholic's margin of victory in the women's lacrosse postseason was 12.5 goals, the highest of any of its two previous titles.

-- Drew women's tennis was a perfect 6-0 in doubles competition in its postseason matches, marking the second-straight year the champion has gone without dropping a doubles point in the postseason.

5/7/2010 - 10:55 a.m.

Following the Landmark Championships

Championship play is underway in Bethlehem with the first baseball game getting started at 9 a.m. There will be a number of different ways you can follow the action over the coming days.

The Landmark scoreboard will be providing periodic score updates on both baseball and softball over the course of the weekend (for example, you can see that right now, Moravian is leading Juniata 12-0 in the bottom of the 5th).

All of the Juniata baseball and softball games will have live stats provided through the Juniata website.

Radio station WQSU will be broadcasting all of Susquehanna's softball games from the tournament, and they can be found on the web here.

In non baseball/softball updated, Catholic will be providing live stats for the Landmark women's lacrosse championship as the Cardinals host Drew.

Finally, yours truly will be on the road and on site at baseball/softball/tennis over the next three days, and will be tweeting the sights, sounds and scores throughout the weekend (assuming I figure out how to tweet from my phone).

It's going to be a fun weekend of competition.

 

5/6/2010 -- 9:03 p.m.

Championship Saturday

After many months of competition the day when it is all decided. Saturday is championship day, when several of the spring sports will crown a champion and earn an NCAA bid. So for one more time this season, here is a breakdown of the championship matches.

Men's Tennis:

#2 Scranton at #1 Drew: This is the first championship matchup for these two teams, as Scranton reaches the finals for the first time after two previous semifinal berths. Drew has dominated the Landmark postseason, boasting a 5-0 record and has never dropped more than three points in any of the postseason matches. These two teams met in the opening match of the Landmark season with Drew claiming a 7-2 win. Scranton has picked up wins in eight of its past nine matches since the loss to Drew and is believed to have set a new program record with its 15 victories. A key point to watch in the event could be in doubles action where the Scranton team of Bennett Kelley and Michael Arrighi earned a key win in the semifinal win over Moravian and also had one of Scranton's wins over Drew in the regular season. Drew seems to be peaking at the end of the season as it looks for its 10th-consecutive conference championship. Since opening the season 3-6, the Rangers are riding an eight-match winning streak. The Rangers have been nearly unbeatable at the top of the singles ladder with Raul Smego, Matt Brisotti and Alex Belfiore at first, second and third singles respectively holding a record of 17-1 in Landmark singles competition this year. Drew has won its last nine matches against Scranton, with the last Royals victory coming in 2000.

Men's Lacrosse:

#3 Catholic at #1 Goucher: For the third time in as many seasons there will be a new champion in men's lacrosse as Catholic and Goucher square off in the title match where neither has earned a Landmark Championship the two previous years. Catholic pulled off one of the few upsets of the semifinal round by going on the road and knocking off Drew 15-4. It was only Catholic's third road win of the year, but the team will need another to claim its first Landmark title. If the championship is a close match entering the fourth period, it might favor Catholic as the Cardinals have outscored Landmark opponents 24-10 in the final period, its best margin in any quarter. Goucher's defense locked down USMMA to earn its second championship match appearance. The Gophers reached the final match in 2008 before falling to Drew. Chris Stricklin matched a career-high with 16 saves in the semifinal victory, giving him 10 or more saves in four of Goucher's eight matches against conference foes. He currently is in the top-15 in NCAA in save percentage and goals against average. The Gophers are riding the longest win streak in program history and have a 17-3 record against Landmark opponents. In addition, the regular season win for Goucher over the Cardinals moved them to 14-0 all-time against Catholic.

Women's Lacrosse:

#2 Drew at #1 Catholic: A rematch of last season's thrilling Landmark Championship will take place on Saturday after each of the top seeds earned convincing wins in the semifinals. Drew earned a return trip to the finals by knocking off Susquehanna in the semis. After working through a tough non-conference schedule Drew is riding a five-match winning streak where it has piled up at least 12 goals in each of those five victories. The only team to cool off Drew during its current stretch was Catholic, which held the Rangers to four goals in their regular season meeting. Staci Brown has been an offensive force during the current run, both scoring and setting up teammates as she has 11 goals and a team-best seven assists. Catholic has kicked it into high gear since beginning conference play, and really has been rolling since a March 28 win. Since that non-conference victory, Catholic is 10-1 and has outscored its opponents 175-74. The defense has been the key element with the goalie duo of Melissa Brashear and Gab Sena has posted a team goals against average of 6.67 during the run and is average more than 11 caused turnovers and more than 20 ground balls. Drew is the only Landmark team to beat the Cardinals in nearly three full seasons and last year's championship match was a one-goal affair that was tight throughout the contest.

Women's Tennis:

#3 Moravian at #1 Drew: Drew tries to become the third-straight number-one seed to win the Landmark women's tennis championship, while Moravian tries to capture its third-straight title, this time as the underdog. Drew has enjoyed a remarkable turnaround from a year ago, improving from 5-13 to 11-3, and going from one Landmark win to six. The Rangers defeated Susquehanna 8-1 in the semifinals to reach its first championship match, where it will face a Moravian team that it played in the regular season finale last weekend. Drew won that match by a 7-2 score to complete an unbeaten conference regular season. One of the team's strengths has been in doubles where the Rangers have built leads in nearly every conference match. Drew has a .889 winning percentage in conference doubles play on the year, compared to a .722 mark for Moravian. The Greyhounds have already avenged one regular season loss, reaching the final with a win over Scranton in the semifinals. Moravian is trying to claim its third-straight Landmark title and has earned its 15th-consecutive trip to a conference championship match. Chelsea Ott had the lone singles win for the Greyhounds over Drew, and has an unblemished conference singles record. The Greyhounds are trying to win that third title with a singles lineup featuring only two of the same players who played in last season's championship match.

 

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5/6/2010 -- 7:23 a.m.

 

Morning Round-up

The semifinals are complete and the championship matches are set. Keep an eye on the Landmark site for game times which I suspect will be confirmed sometime today. In the meantime here's a rundown of the semifinals.

-- The seeds held true across the board with one exception as Catholic stunned second-seed Drew in men's lacrosse. The 15 goals Catholic scored in the victory were the most the team has had in any Landmark match this year, and was the most Drew has ever allowed in a Landmark match.

-- Catholic earned the right to face Goucher which put together a stellar defensive effort in claiming a 6-2 win over USMMA. Goalkeeper Chris Stricklin matched his career high with 16 saves, while defender Justin Dunn matched a career-best with seven caused turnovers. The two goals were the fewest Goucher allowed all season.

-- There will be a new face in the men's tennis championship as Scranton earned its first shot at a title with an 8-0 win over Moravian. This was Scranton's third appearance in the Landmark postseason, but had fallen in the semifinal round the previous two years. The team has won eight of its past nine matches entering Saturday's final.

-- The other men's tennis finalist is not unfamiliar to the challenge as Drew handled Catholic in semifinal action to reach the final for the third time in three years. A 10th-straight conference title, three in the Landmark, will be on the line for the Cardinals who swept the doubles play to build a commanding lead over Catholic, and then secured the match with a pair of singles wins.

-- Ever since last year's thrilling women's lacrosse championship match in which Catholic outlasted Drew it seemed destined for a repeat performance. That's exactly what we will get as Drew handled Susquehanna 15-4 and Catholic rolled past Goucher 22-7. Catholic has won seven straight entering the match, while Drew has piled up five-straight wins. Catholic's average margin of victory has been nearly 13 goals, while Drew has been winning by more than eight.

5/5/2010 -- 7:17 a.m.

Morning Round-up

It is all about women's tennis on the round-up this morning after two teams earned championship berths on Tuesday.

-- Making its first Landmark postseason appearance, Drew insured it will get more than one match as the Rangers bested Susquehanna 8-1 to reach the final match. As they have done most of the season, Drew started strong by sweeping the doubles matches, and then captured five of six singles points. Drew was an impressive 16-2 in conference doubles matches during the regular season.

-- The Rangers will face a familiar opponent in the final as Moravian got past Scranton 5-2 in the other semifinal to reach the championship match for the third-straight year. Drew and Moravian faced off in the regular-season finale last weekend. The Greyhounds avenged a regular season setback to the Royals, which was Moravian's first ever Landmark loss. Brianna Kavanagh sealed the win with her victory at third singles, and Moravian won two of three doubles points, something they didn't do in the regular season meeting. Moravian will be facing its third different opponent in the championship match when it squares off with Drew on Saturday.

5/4/2010 -- 4:11 p.m.

Postseason Preview Continued

I previewed Tuesday's semifinal contests a little earlier today, so now let's take a little deeper look at the six semifinal matches that will take place on Friday. Look for previews of baseball and softball, along with the remaining Landmark Championship matches a little later in the week.

Men's Tennis:

#4 Catholic at #1 Drew: A rematch of the first Landmark Conference men's tennis championship match, sees Catholic back in the postseason for the first time since that contest. The Cardinals earned the postseason berth with a furious final week as they picked up three conference wins in seven days to secure the fourth seed. Drew posted an 8-1 win in the regular-season meeting between these two teams, which came in mid-April. Freshman Daniel Valverde has made a huge impact in his first season, winning all seven of his Landmark matches at first singles while also earning several wins in doubles play. Fellow freshman Kyle Kramer has also enjoyed a productive first season with four singles Landmark wins, and Catholic holds a 12-9 record in conference doubles action. Drew is in a familiar position as the top seed as the team pursues its 10th-straight conference title, and third in the Landmark. The Rangers have yet to lose a Landmark match in either the regular or postseason after completing a 7-0 record this year. The success starts at doubles where the team has a 19-2 record in its Landmark matches, including a sweep of doubles play against Catholic in the regular season meeting. Playing primarily at second singles, sophomore Matt Brisotti made it through conference play without a loss and along with freshman Raul Smego gives Drew a formidable pair at the top of its singles ladder. Drew's tightest match in conference during the regular season was a 6-3 decision against Moravian in the finale and the team has not had a match closer than 6-3 in either of its Landmark postseason appearances.

#3 Moravian at #2 Scranton: Familiar semifinal foes but at a different setting as last year #2 Moravian topped #3 Scranton in the semifinals as the Greyhounds advanced to the Landmark Championship. This year Scranton claimed the two seed after posting a 7-2 win over the Moravian during the regular season. Moravian has virtually the same lineup that reached the Landmark postseason a year ago, but have struggled with injuries and have not been quite as consistent this year. Ian Box has consistently performed as one of the top players in the Landmark, an honor he earned in his sophomore year, and he has earned four wins at first singles this year. Stefan Apostolos has played his way into the singles lineup in his sophomore year and is a strong 4-1 in Landmark play. The team has actually been far better on the road this season, going 4-1 in road contests compared to 3-4 on its home court. Scranton is in the Landmark postseason for the third-straight year, and has never been lower than the three seed in the tournament. This will mark the first time they've hosted a semifinal match, after traveling for the semifinals the first two seasons. It should be an intriguing matchup at first singles as Scott Melideo of Scranton takes on Box of Moravian. Melideo recently went past the 80 victory (singles and doubles) mark for his career and has a stellar 4-1 singles record in Landmark competition this year. The already strong Royals team has also had the valuable additions of freshmen Joe Morra, Jonathan Russo and Tim McGurrin who are a combined 14-5 in Landmark singles play and have given the Scranton lineup much more depth. Also keep an eye on the doubles pairing of Michael Arrighi and Bennet Kelley who are unbeaten in conference doubles this season.

Men's Lacrosse:

#4 USMMA at #1 Goucher: Two teams familiar with the postseason as each is back for the third-consecutive year and USMMA is trying to defend the title it earned last year but will have to do it by winning two games on the road where the team is just 1-4 on the year. The two teams met in the season opener, with Goucher claiming an 11-7 win at USMMA. Goucher is coming off the first unbeaten Landmark regular season in conference men's lacrosse history, but is trying to avoid the fate it suffered a season ago when the Gophers were the top seed but dropped a close semifinal. USMMA earned its spot in the postseason with a season-ending win over Susquehanna thanks to six goals from Zach Gray. His teammate Brian Flannery ranks as one of the top playmakers in the Landmark as he leads the conference in assists per game, and the number is nearly identical in conference games. Goucher's offense ranks as the top in the conference, scoring nearly 11 goals per game in Landmark contests. The team reached double figures in five of six Landmark games, and enters the postseason on a seven-match winning streak. Goucher's Matt Lynch is the highest-scoring midfielder in the conference and is a key figure in the Gopher offense and defense.

#3 Catholic at #2 Drew: After a series of close losses in Landmark play last season, Catholic enjoyed a breakout 2010 campaign and earns its first Landmark posteason berth after finishing off the year with a 7-3 win over Scranton. Drew is making its third trip to the Landmark tourney after earning the first title in 2008, though the Rangers come into the game having dropped their last two games. Catholic's strength all season has been its defense, led by goalkeeper Sean McKenna who ranks fourth in the NCAA in goals against average, and has helped the team rank fifth in the NCAA in scoring defense. The Cardinals also rank in the top-5 in faceoff percentage with Tom Scotto doing most of the duties with a percentage of 68% which is sixth in Division III. However Drew managed to penetrate the Catholic defense with eight goals in their regular season meeting, the third-highest total Catholic surrendered all year. The pairing of Greg Reading and Jon Bucknam combined for five of the eight goals, and it was Drew's defense that controlled the play, keeping Catholic off the scoreboard for the entire second period and portions of the first and third. Charlie DeSocio and Brad Mendelson split time in net for the Rangers, but DeSocio's .690 save percentage would rank second in NCAA Division III if he played enough minutes to qualify. Drew is 3-0 against Catholic since Landmark play began.

Women's Lacrosse:

#4 Goucher at #3 Catholic: The local rivals meet up for the fifth time since Landmark play began, and for the second time in the postseason as this is a rematch of the first Landmark Championship game. Catholic has won each of the Landmark meetings between the two clubs including a 20-6 win early in the conference season. Goucher earned its spot in the postseason with a 12-9 win over Moravian in the conference finale and are back in the four-team field for the third-straight year. Colleen Cole has been the most productive offensive player in the conference all season and ranks first in the conference in goals, points and draw controls. After starting the year in strong fashion the Goucher offense has slowed slightly in conference play, and will need to get back into its early-season groove if it wants to pull off the upset of the Cardinals. Finding that offense will be a challenge after Catholic's defense has moved to a whole new level in conference play. The Cardinals have limited their five Landmark opponents to just four goals per game, and have not allowed more than six scores in any Landmark game. The defense has also not allowed more than 15 shots per game, and Catholic has outshot its Landmark rivals 184-71 in five matches. Spearheading the defense is Becky Borrell who sits among the conference leaders in caused turnovers and ground balls with 24 and 35 respectively. Catholic is trying to become the ninth Landmark team to win the Landmark Championship in each of the first three seasons of conference competition.

#3 Susquehanna at #2 Drew: These two opponents should be very familiar with each other as they played just four days earlier in the regular season finale. Drew won that meeting to earn the right to host the semifinal, something it also did last year when it reached the Landmark Championship match. Lyndsay Rossi of Drew was named the Landmark Offensive Player of the Week for her part in the win over Susquehanna as she scored twice, had an assist and six ground balls, three caused turnovers and two draw controls. Susquehanna is back in the postseason after a one-year hiatus and raised its win total from seven to 10 and won two more Landmark matches from the previous year. Improved defense has been the biggest factor with the Crusaders allowing almost six fewer goals in Landmark play this year than last. Freshman goalkeeper Emily Stankaitis is in the top-10 in NCAA Division III in save percentage while sophomore defender Brittany McCann ranks second in the Landmark in ground balls per game. Drew brings a four-match winning streak into Wednesday's contest, outscoring foes by 7.5 goals during the stretch and not scoring fewer than 12 goals in any of the wins. Balanced offense has been a staple for the Rangers with five players scoring 20 or more goals and all five also recording 30 or more points. The turnover battle could be critical in this matchup as Drew ranks last in conference play in causing turnovers, but the Crusaders have turned the ball over more than any team in Landmark action.

 

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5/4/2010 -- 10:41 a.m.

 

Postseason Preview (Part 1)

Now it gets serious. It's championship week here in the Landmark Conference and things get started today with semifinal action in women's tennis, followed by six semifinals on Wednesday. I'll have a preview of Wednesday's action a little bit later, but for now here's some quick thoughts on today's women's tennis semifinals.

#4 Susquehanna at #1 Drew: Two teams that are both appearing in the Landmark postseason for the first time and that have both enjoyed strong turnaround seasons after each finished 1-5 in conference play last year. Drew posted an unbeaten Landmark record of 6-0 and earned a hard-fought 5-4 win over the Crusaders on April 24. Michelle Gbelama is the only senior on the Drew team and she has been a veteran anchor for the squad which has been bolstered by a talented freshman class. Drew's standout freshman Vivian Peng missed the first meeting between the two teams, but was back in the lineup this past weekend. Another freshman, Hayley Downing had the decisive victory in the first meeting, winning in three sets at third singles, one of her six Landmark singles wins this year. Susquehanna's Julie Lerner claimed a three-set win at the first singles spot, and she boasts a solid 5-1 record in Landmark singles play. The key may be in the lower part of the singles ladder where Witney Arcaro and Cassie Zerbe have both been stellar all year, with nine conference singles wins between them. In the brief history of the Landmark the number-one seed has never lost a postseason match in women's tennis.

#3 Moravian at #2 Scranton: These two teams are very familiar with each other, having met in the postseason each of the previous two years, with Moravian winning 8-1 in the semifinals last season and 6-3 in the innaugural Landmark Championship match in 2008. Scranton earned its first Landmark win over Moravian during the regular season by a 5-4 score in an epic five and a half hour match in Scranton. Kirsten Wentworth had the deciding victory for Scranton at four singles, rallying from a set deficit and from a 4-3 deficit in the third set. The duo of Wentworth and Elisha Connell in the middle of the singles ladder has been strong for the Royals as the pair has eight Landmark wins on the year. In doubles the sister pairing of Deirdre and Danielle Wylie is 4-2 at the first position and helped Scranton build a lead over Moravian with a win in their previous meeting. Moravian is looking for its third-straight Landmark title and is trying to bounce back after suffering its first two losses in the history of the Landmark. Reigning Player of the Year Jami Fein has been dominant in her sophomore season, rolling up a 16-3 record and a 5-1 mark at first singles. Freshman Chelsea Ott and sophomore Anna Meola have also been significant factors for the Greyhounds as each has five singles wins and are 4-1 in Landmark action as a doubles pairing. Keep an eye on the third doubles point in this matchup, as that match was decided in a tie-break the first time these teams met, a point that turned out to be critical in the final margin.

4/30/2010 -- 7:22 a.m.

Morning Round-up

Not a lot of wins for the Landmark last evening, with a pretty light schedule.

-- USMMA and Drew got together for the second game of their doubleheader that started last week, and the Rangers rode the bats of Kati Eggert and Jillian Lusk to a 6-3 win. It was the second Landmark win of the year for the Rangers and the seventh win and 19th complete game of the year for hurler Adriana Durso. USMMA still has a shot at the Landmark postseason, but will need to sweep its final four games and get some help from Drew in the Rangers' series against Scranton.

-- Drew men's tennis continued its momentum heading into the final weekend of the regular season with an 8-1 non-conference win over Neumann. Drew, which has now won six straight matches, can clinch the top seed for the Landmark postseason for the third-straight year with a win on Saturday over Moravian.

4/29/2010 -- 11:01 a.m.

Postseason Update

As promised, the results from Washington DC are in, with Catholic men's tennis earning its second-straight win by defeating Goucher 8-1. On the women's side, Goucher upended Catholic 6-3.

This means we now have our first sport with all four postseason berths clinched (though the seeding is still up in the air). Drew, Moravian, Scranton and Susquehanna will be the four teams in the women's tennis postseason.

On the men's side, the final spot will come down to a winner take all battle between Catholic and Susquehanna on Saturday. Winner is the four seed.

4/29/2010 -- 7:24 a.m.

Morning Round-up

The first spring championship is just two days away and teams are making their final tuneups for the final weekend of regular season competition.

-- Susquehana men's lacrosse will try to play its way into the postseason on Saturday, but first the Crusaders captured a 10-5 non-conference win over Hood. Fourth quarter defense was the key as Susquehanna kept the opponent off the scoreboard in the fourth while tallying four times themselves.

-- USMMA baseball ended its home schedule on a strong note, posting a 7-5 win over St. Joseph's of Brooklyn. The conference schedule has not been great to the Mariners this year, but the team did record a 6-7 record in non-conference action.

-- The new NCAA regional softball rankings came out yesterday, with Susquehanna holding the fourth spot in the region. The team then backed up that ranking by splitting a twinbill against fellow regionally-ranked opponent Lebanon Valley. Freshman Sarah Hoffman improved to 11-3 in the circle with the win in game two.

-- Susquehanna also got a strong pitching performance on the baseball diamond as freshman Matt Boyd allowed one run over 8 1/3 innings for his first collegiate win. Ben Leonard picked up the save for the Crusaders, his fifth of the year, which ties the Susquehanna single-season record.

-- We don't yet have results from yesterday's Landmark tennis matches between Goucher and Catholic, but those will be posted as soon as available.

 

4/28/2010 -- 7:27 a.m.

Morning Round-up

Sorry for the disappearing act, folks. It always gets a little hectic around here this time of year, and unfortunately the blog was made to suffer. But with the postseason chase coming down to the wire I will do my best to keep everything up to date here in blog world. Now on to yesterday's action.

-- The key matches with Landmark postseason consideration were played in Washington, D.C. where Catholic and Juniata squared off in men's tennis. The Cardinals took the men's result 7-2, while Juniata closed out its women's Landmark season with a 5-4 victory. The results don't do much to clear up the postseason picture, as Catholic still has make up matches today against Goucher. The Cardinal women will need a win against Goucher to keep its postseason hopes alive, while the Catholic men's postseason fate will be decideded in its final match against Susquehanna.

-- Elsewhere, Susquehanna evened its record at .500 thanks to a non-conference win over Albright in baseball action. It was the 10th time this season the Crusaders have posted 10 or more runs in a win, meaning 10 of their 17 victories have come when they scored 10 runs. Susquehanna has clinched a postseason berth, but will be playing for seeding in its final series against USMMA.

-- Unfortunately for Drew, this came as part of a tough non-conference loss, but I wanted to commend the Rangers for being involved in this wonderful fund raiser. It's not always just about the wins and losses.

 

4/22/2010 -- 7:39 a.m.

Morning Round-up

Interesting results all over the place last night as we head down the stretch run of the regular season.

-- Moravian softball is headed back to the postseason after a sweep of Scranton. After holding Scranton to zero and one run in the two games, Moravian has still not allowed more than three runs in a Landmark outing.

-- In men's lacrosse, Drew and Goucher appear to be on a collision course for the top seed in the postseason, which could be decided the final weekend of the season. Both teams improved to 4-0 in Landmark play yesterday, with Goucher getting past Catholic and Drew outlasting USMMA. As has been the pattern in men's lacrosse in the conference, the games have been close as Goucher's average margin of victory is three goals, and Drew's is 2.75

-- Another big win for Scranton tennis yesterday. One day after the women knocked off Moravian, the men followed suit, putting themselves in the driver's seat for the number-two seed in the postseason. After opening Landmark play with a loss to Drew, the Royals have reeled off four-straight wins in conference action.

-- USMMA claimed its first Landmark softball win of the season, taking one game from Drew before thunderstorms forced the postponement of game two. The win was the 100th in the coaching career of USMMA's Cassie Arroyo who saw RBI hits from Jess LaValley and Kaitlyn Robbins provide all the offense the Mariners needed.

4/21/2010 -- 7:31 a.m.

Morning Round-up

Not a lot of results surprise me when they come into my office via e-mail each night, but I will have to admit one of the ones from yesterday caught me a tad off guard. There were a few Landmark matchups last evening, with more coming today. First lets look back, and then later today we'll look ahead.

-- Few teams have been as dominant in Landmark play as the Moravian women's tennis team, but Scranton hung in and sealed a 5-4 win with reigning Player of the Week Kristen Wentworth providing the winning point. The win secured a postseason bid for Scranton and was the first Landmark loss in either the regular or postseason for Moravian.

-- Susquehanna took a big step towards its own women's tennis postseason berth with a 6-3 win over Juniata. The Crusaders overcame a 2-1 deficit after doubles by winning five of six singles matches. Susquehanna now has a firm hold on the fourth-seed in the postseason, but will need to finish out the season strong to clinch the position.

-- Off the tennis courts Meghan Brady continued her strong recent play as the found the back of the net in overtime to give the Catholic women's lacrosse team a win over Rowan. It was the fourth-straight win for the Cardinals and came after Brady scored with less than a minute left to send the match to overtime, and then found the winner just after the 63-minute mark.

4/20/2010 -- 3:48 p.m.

They Pitch Too

At times during this Landmark baseball season it seems like offenses have just been having their way. I mentioned in my Monday "Morning Round-up" that this past weekend seemed to get some of the best pitching performances of the season, at least in Landmark play. So I figured I would offer a little proof to highlight my point.

Drew's Will Van Houte went seven innings, allowing only three earned runs and six hits while striking out 10 Scranton hitters to give the Rangers a victory. That came against a Scranton offense which is scoring almost nine runs per game in conference play.

Susquehanna's Brian Wendig flirted with a no-hitter against Catholic going 7 2/3 before allowing his first hit, and ultimately tossing nine innings, allowing only one unearned run (three overall) and four hits while posting five strikeouts.

Earlier in that series, Andrew Moldawer of Catholic went the distance and kept Susquehanna off the scoreboard over seven innings. e allowed just four hits and struck out four in the complete-game shutout.

It came in non-conference play, but Moravian's Brendan Close also did not allow a run over seven innings, posting eight strikeouts and giving up just two hits in a win over Elizabethtown.

Finally Juniata's Matt Regan helped the Eagles sweep the three-game set from USMMA by allowing no earned runs (2 total) over seven innings and also striking out eight. He limited the Mariners to five hits to get his third win of the year.

Is this a sign of things to come in the final two weeks of the regular season? We shall see.

 

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4/20/2010 - 7:31 a.m.

 

Morning Round-up

A relatively quiet day in Landmark land yesterday, with just four teams in action. Though it's really the calm before the storm as this week features a plethora of conference games. Before we get to that, here's what happened last night.

-- Moravian women's lacrosse pulled out a tough win over Arcadia to snap a three-match losing slide. Katie Wise has quietly put together a solid all-around season for the Greyhounds and yesterday she became the program leader in career ground balls as she finished with five to give her 173 for her career.

-- Drew swept Stevens Tech in non-conference softball action, winning in a shutout in game one, and then slugging its way to a victory in game two. Jackie Mannino drove in six runs over the two games for the Rangers while Adriana Durso went the distance in game one, then came on in relief to win game two. It was the first time this season she has earned the win in both ends of a doubleheader.

-- Moravian men's tennis eeked out a one-point win over rival Muhlenberg on Monday afternoon. After opening the year 0-5 in non-conference matches, the Greyhounds have won two straight out of conference following Monday's win. Drew Shreter earned the clinching point as he was tied 3-3 in the third set before winning the final three games to seal the win.

4/19/2010 -- 7:30 a.m.

Morning Round-up

So much happened this weekend I'm not sure I can sum it all up in a comprehensive fashion. For now we'll hit a few brief highlights and hopefully get to some more items a little later.

-- Catholic women's lacrosse seems to have overcome its struggles in non-conference play as the Cardinals rolled past Susquehanna to remain unbeaten in conference action. They've given up a total of 13 goals in Landmark play, while scoring at least 15 in each contest.

-- Men's tennis continues to be dominated by Drew and Moravian which are both 4-0 in the conference and have each not dropped more than two points in any match. Moravian won 9-0 over the weekend while Drew picked up an 8-1 win. The regular season finale between these two teams could be quite a matchup.

-- Wins over the weekend tightened up the race in women's tennis and set up which should be some key midweek matches. Scranton outlast Susquehanna 6-3 and will face Moravian this week with a chance to move into the top part of the standings. Juniata earned its first win by topping Goucher, and now has a midweek clash with Susquehanna which might end up being the deciding match in determining the final postseason spot.

-- It has been a defense heavy year in Landmark men's lacrosse and nowhere was that more evident than in Goucher's tight 4-3 win over Scranton to maintain its place atop the standings. The combined seven goals tied for the fewest in a Landmark match (Drew defeated Susquehanna 6-1 last season) and was the third time in three games Goucher has held a Landmark opponent to seven goals or fewer.

-- On the opposite end of the spectrum, there were actually a few pitcher's duels in Landmark baseball over the weekend, a sport that his been ruled by offense over the season. Scranton picked up a 4-2 win over Drew in one game of the three-game series, while Juniata and USMMA played a crisp 5-2 game in the second game of their doubleheader. Catholic shutout Susquehanna in the first game of their series, and then Crusader hurler Brian Wendig flirted with a no hitter in the last game of the weekend.

-- The top two teams both earned sweeps again in softball, with Moravian and Susquehanna beginning to pull away from the pack, and both can clinch postseason berths with a variety of scenarios this week. There could also be some tough battles for the other postseason spots as four teams are still in the mix for those spots and there have been a number of doubleheader splits between those teams.

4/16/2010 -- 4:22 p.m.

Celebrating Both Track & Field

I mentioned at the end of my previous post that all six Landmark Track and Field teams will be in action this weekend. After rambling on about the other sports, I wanted to make sure the track & field folks weren't getting short shrift. With about half of the outdoor regular season complete, I thought this would be a fine time to see which Landmark athletes have set new conference records already.

On the women's side, there has been one record broken, and another tied in the early season.

Moravian's Brittany Moses toppd her own Landmark record in the discus with a throw of 36.69-meters at last weekend's Coach P Open. Her teammate Micah Leonard tied a Landmark record at that meet when she leapt 11.17-meters in the triple jump. Leonard already established a new Landmark indoor record in that event during the winter.

For the men, Paul Thistle continues his assault on the Landmark record books. His 14:47.98 performance in the 5,000-meters at the Bucknell Outdoor Classic set a new Landmark record, and was just a fraction of the indoor mark he set this winter. Juniata's Matthew Bailey also set a new mark in a distance event, breaking the Landmark standard in the 10,000 with a time of 32:11.78 at the Western PA Championships.

There have also been a pair of near misses on the women's side over the past few weeks. Susquehanna's Casey Hess ran 38:46.48 in the 10,000 earlier this year, which was less than a second away from a new record in that event. And Catholic's Kelly Carioto was just .01 meters from breaking her own record in the shot put when she posted a toss of 12.08-meters on March 20.

With several big events to come, including the Landmark Championships, I'd expect many more records to fall by the wayside this season.

4/16/2010 -- 10: 41 a.m.

Eye On The Weekend

I felt bad sticking with my "weekend preview" moniker for these posts, since as I explained last week I'm only focusing on one matchup per sport. So we're trying a new title and we'll see if it sticks. As a reminder, instead of previewing all the weekend action, I'm just taking a look at one matchup that intrigues me in each sport. Last weekend featured a bunch of championship rematches. We don't have any of that this week, instead it's a mix-and-match of battles between teams near the top of standings, and also some near "must win" battles for teams battling for postseason spots. (Side note, this will be one of the few times I'll ever use the phrase "must win" in a post. One of my least favorite sports phrases. But that's a post for another time).

Softball:
Moravian and Juniata both seem to be in the postseason picture, but after a hot start the Eagles have fallen on hard times. Meanwhile, despite two losses early in the week, Moravian seems to have found its rhythm, particularly in the circle. I'm interested in this one, primarily because it looks like strength on strength. Juniata's offense has been one of the best in the conference throughout the season, while Moravian's pitching and defense has been locking down opponents in May. I'd expect some offensive success for Juniata, but the question may be whether they can also slow down Moravian's hitting, which is also pretty darn good.

Men's Tennis:
I called Susquehanna's match against Moravian a "litmus test" and from the Crusaders' perspective, they can't have been too happy with the result. They get another chance this week, however when they host Scranton which is currently 2-1 in conference play after a pair of decisive wins. Just taking a look at the standings, and trying to guesstimate how the season might shake out, this has the looks of a match which could come into play both for seeding and tiebreaking purposes. Susquehanna gets another chance to prove it can hang with one of the better teams in the conference. And Scranton is playing just its second true road match of the season.

Women's Tennis:
I've used this phrase before (and I think even then I couldn't remember to whom it should ba attributed) but it's getting late early for the Catholic women's tennis team. After a strong fall season the Cardinals are 2-4 in the spring, including 0-2 to start Landmark play. Meanwhile Drew is rolling, having won four straight (prior to a non-conference match today) and is 3-0 in Landmark play. Based on other results, the Rangers can actually clinch their first postseason berth with a win, and will be in strong position to host a semifinal matchup. Two teams in very different positions, but who both will be pushing hard for a victory for very different reasons. Sounds like a recipe for a highly-competitive contest.

Women's Lacrosse:
Last week I talked about the much-anticipated championship rematch between Drew and Catholic. This week, I'm talking about the matchup between the two hottest teams in the conference as Susquehanna and Catholic square off. Susquehanna's narrow win over Scranton in midweek was their eighth-straight victory, and has them in position to try and return to the Landmark postseason. Meanwhile, Catholic seems to have raised its game in conference play, after handling Drew and Goucher with relative ease. The Cardinals have outscored its foes 35-10 in its first two Landmark games. Susquehanna has a chance to prove it can play with the best in the conference, but the question may be whether they can break through a Cardinals' defense that has been stifling in conference contests.

Men's Lacrosse:
Of all the intriguing matchups this week, this one in particular jumped out at me. Goucher and Scranton have built a nice little rivalry as they've played two tight regular season matches, and have faced off in the Landmark semifinals each of the previous two years. Goucher is off to a strong Landmark start with two wins, while Scranton is 1-2 but could easily be 3-0 as both its losses have featured winning goals in the final minute of play. Last year Scranton won both meetings between the two teams by one goal, including a double-OT thriller during the regular season, which was Goucher's only conference loss during the regular year. With this much history already in place between these two programs I cannot wait to see what this year's chapter brings.

Baseball:
Can anyone slow down Catholic? That's what I want to find out as the Cardinals return to Selinsgrove (the site of their Landmark Championship last year) to play three games against Susquehanna. The Cardinals are 9-0 in the conference, and have been getting outstanding pitching in nearly all of its conference games. They've only allowed more than four runs in two of the nine wins. Susquehanna is a game above .500 in Landmark play, and it's been about that sort of season for them as they have hovered around the .500 mark all year. But as the leading hitting team in the Landmark, Susquehanna seems like a candidate to breakthrough against that Catholic pitching staff. A few more wins this weekend would virtually (if not completely) assure Catholic of its third postseason berth, but this weekend looks like the stiffest test they've faced this year.

I'd also be remiss if I did not mention that all six Landmark outdoor track & field teams will also be in action this weekend. In fact, three of them will be competing at the Greyhound Invitational, which should, to borrow a phrase from earlier, provide a nice litmus test for where many of the teams stand with just a few weeks to go before the Landmark Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championships.

4/16/2010 -- 7:37 a.m.

Morning Round-up

Some final tuneups before a full weekend of Landmark action, featuring lots of softball. And the recently successful teams continued to roll along.

-- The win streak continues for Susquehanna softball after sweeping two games from Wilkes. Game one was tight with three runs in the bottom of the sixth to earn the win. The sixth featured a pair of triples and two doubles.

-- Moravian knocked off Ramapo, getting a pair of shutotus in the sweep. Jenna Carmon earned a shutout win in game one, and then collected the save in game two to help the Greyhounds claim the sweep.

-- Scranton pushed in 37 runs over two games to sweept City Tech. The Royals knocked out 39 hits in the two games, including 23 in the first game of the twinbill. Eight players pounded out at least two hits.

-- Goucher men's tennis earned its second win in three matches, besting Lancaster Bible by a 9-0 score. Brett Blackman and Seth Manfield both earned their first singles wins of the year to help the Gophers claim the victory and head into the weekend with some momentum.

4/15/2010 -- 7:26 a.m.

Morning Round-up

There is nothing quite like the excitement of tax day. With the possible exception of a Landmark Conference blog post early in the morning. I'll let you all decide which is truly more exciting. We had a busy slate yesterday, including midweek conference games in women's lacrosse.

-- Susquehanna women's lacrosse earned its eighth-straight win, getting past Scranton 12-10. The eight-match streak is four short of matching the Landmark record for longest streak in women's lacrosse, but it does have the Crusaders at 2-0 in conference play and one more win will likely secure a postseason berth.

-- Earning that win could prove tough this week as they have to face off against Catholic, which earned a resounding win over Goucher. Meg Brady scored seven goals and the Cardinals posted their second-highest scoring total of the season in a 20-6 win.

-- Drew also won in convincing fashion, handling Moravian 16-5 to even its conference record. It was the first win, and only the third match overall, for the Rangers this year where the margin was more than four goals.

-- Elsewhere, a bases-loaded single from L.J. Travaglia in the bottom of the ninth gave the Catholic baseball team a 6-5 win over Bridgewater. It was his third hit of the game, and it improved Catholic to 6-0 in one-run games this year.

-- Scranton men's lacrosse held off a furious late rally to post an 8-7 win over local rival Marywood. The Royals led 8-5 after Mike Rufo's last of five goals with 6:09 remaining. But Marywood scored twice in the final minutes, cutting the lead to one before the Royals pulled out the win.

-- Drew men's and women's tennis got a rare treat, facing off against Hunter College at the US National Tennis Center in New York City. The Rangers made the most of the opportunity, posting 9-0 wins in men's and women's competition.

4/14/2010 -- 7:26 a.m.

Morning Round-up

Wow, it's the 14th of April. Which means there is more or less half a month of regular season action left on the schedule. The non-conference slate will be a bit sparser as we move through the month, but there were a few results to tackle from yesterday.

-- In its last three non-conference games, Drew has scored 13, 11 and 14 runs with the 14 coming in a 14-3 win over Yeshiva yesterday. The Rangers have been scoring a bit in conference games as well, and since April 1 the team is averaging 7.7 runs per game.

-- On the opposite side, Moravian got its second-straight gem of a pitching performance to out-duel local rival DeSales. Three pitchers combined to limit DeSales to four hits and just one run over nine innings. Kevin O'Keefe got the win, after fanning four and surrendering one hit in five innings. Kyle Longernecker also got the save by striking out the final batter of the game with the tying run at second base.

-- Catholic men's lacrosse bounced back from its second loss of the season this past weekend by taking care of Shenandoah 14-4. The Cardinals started out hot, scoring 12 goals in the first half (six in each period) to take a commanding 12-3 lead. Seven of Catholic's eight victories have been decided by four or more goals, with five of them having a margin of nine goals or more. That's my clever way of saying when the team has won, it has been dominant.

-- It wasn't a win, but the event is rare enough that it warrants mentioning. Moravian was swept in a non-conference doubleheader at Lebanon Valley, despite getting a no-hitter from pitcher Elizabeth Python in game two. It is believed to be the first time in Landmark history in which a pitcher tossed a no-hitter but came out on the short end of the decision.

4/13/2010 -- 7:31 a.m.

Morning Round-up

Four winners on Monday afternoon, and a pair of softball teams splitting non-conference twinbills.

-- Juniata men's and women's tennis each earned wins over Stevenson at home on Monday, the men by an 8-1 score and the women with a perfect 9-0 sweep. The two Eagles' tennis teams have combined for 11 victories in non-conference play, but are 0-6 in Landmark competition thus far in 2010.

-- Susquehanna women's tennis also claimed a non-conference win, besting King's by a 6-3 tally. Abby Hess and Kim Rogers won at second and third singles respectively and also claimed a win at second doubles for two victories on the day.

-- Juniata baseball pounded out 16 hits to earn a win over local non-conference rival Penn State-Altoona. It was the third time in the last four games Juniata has scored at least 10 runs in a game, and the sixth time overall on the year.

4/12/2010 -- 7:43 a.m.

Morning Round-up

It was another full weekend of Landmark spring competition, including the first Landmark women's lacrosse matches of the season. Rather than my normal Monday morning recap, I thought today I would focus on those teams that are still unbeaten in the conference and what they did over the weekend.

-- Two teams sit atop the men's tennis standings, and they are the two teams that played for last year's title. Both Drew and Moravian are unblemished in conference play at 3-0 after wins over Juniata and Susquehanna respectively. Neither has really been significantly challenged yet as the closest result was a 7-2 score, with Drew beating Scranton by that margin, and Moravian posting a 7-2 win over Catholic.

-- In women's lacrosse there are three unbeatens after the opening weekend, a weekend that featured three fairly lopsided results. Susquehanna outshot Moravian 51-24 to earn its seventh-straight victory and moved to 1-0 in the Landmark. Goucher's Colleen Cole outscored Scranton by herself, posting seven goals in a 15-6 win. And Catholic stifled Drew's offense, limiting the Rangers to just four goals in a 15-4 victory. There won't be three unbeatens for long as Catholic and Goucher square off in midweek, and Susquehanna and Catholic face off over the weekend.

-- The same two teams that are unbeaten in men's tennis action hold perfect 3-0 records in women's competition as well as Drew and Moravian made it through another weekend without a loss. Moravian overwhelmed Susquehanna to keep its Landmark winning streak intact, while Drew continues to be the surprise of the spring as the Rangers posted an 8-1 win over Juniata. That is now three wins over teams that earned Landmark postseason berths last year for Drew, and with their 3-0 start they are in strong position to earn the program's first Landmrk postseason bid.

-- There are a pair of unbeatens in men's lacrosse as well, with Drew and Goucher holding that distinction. The two teams have done it in slightly different fashion as Drew has relied on a stifling defense, which was evident as it held previously unbeaten Catholic to four goals in a win over the weekend, while Goucher ranks as the highest scoring team in conference play. The Gophers had a bye from conference play this past weekend, but will get a stiff test this coming week when they host Scranton who upset them in the semifinals of the Landmark postseason last year.

-- Catholic baseball is the lone unbeaten on the diamond in Landmark play as the Cardinals have made it through three Landmark weekends without dropping a game. The conference weekends have had a familiar pattern with the Cardinals playing two close games before erupting for double-digit runs in the series finale. For a team who won the Landmark Championship as the number-four seed the past two years, the Cardinals are already just two wins shy of matching its previous high for Landmark wins in a season.

-- Finally, there are a pair of unbeatens in softball, with once again the two teams that squared off in the Landmark Championship last year remaining unbeaten to start the campaign. Moravian is 4-0 in conference action to open the year, sweeping both Drew and USMMA. The Greyhounds have yet to allow more than three runs in a conference game. Meanwhile Susquehanna was off from Landmark competition over the weekend, but that didn't stop Cara Swerdlow from tossing a perfect game in the first contest of a doubleheader sweep over Lycoming. The two wins pushed Susquehanna's unbeaten streak to 14 games and the team has already matched its win total from all of last season.

4/9/2010 -- 4:52 p.m.

Weekend Preview

Okay, confession time. For approximately the past three weeks I've intended to get back into my video preview pattern from the fall and winter. But the sheer magnitude of spring sports every weekend intimidated me, and I just haven't had a chance to write out my scripts.

With that said, women's lacrosse officially joins the party this weekend beginning Landmark play, so I wanted to do something to preview the events this weekend. So what I'm doing is picking one intriguing matchup from each sport and providing a little bit of quick analysis. I may expand as we go through the spring weeks, but for now, this is what we've got.

Baseball:
Championship rematches are a big theme for the weekend, and that starts with baseball where Catholic hosts USMMA for a three-game set. These were the two teams that survived the double-elimination and ultimately faced off for the Landmark baseball title last season, with Catholic ultimately prevailing in the final game. The scenario is a bit different this season with Catholic sitting atop the standings at 6-0 and USMMA at the bottom at 1-8. It's too early to call anything a "must-win" but USMMA will really want to avoid falling too far off the postseason pace as they pass the midpoint of the Landmark season. Classic battle of strength vs. strength as Catholic's pitching has allowed the fewest runs in conference play, while USMMA's offense has shown it is capable of some big numbers with three double-digit scoring games.

Men's Lacrosse:
I've got my eye on another championship rematch as Scranton plays host to USMMA. Last year it was the Mariners as the #2 seed knocking of the #4 seed Royals 8-6 in a highly-competitive match. Scranton has been involved in a pair of tight conference matches and sits at 1-1, while USMMA will badly want to avoid an 0-2 start. Scranton snapped a six-match losing streak with its win last weekend, while USMMA is trying to halt a three-match slide. Scranton freshman Ben Worthington made 11 saves to get the win in his first start in goal last week, and he will have to deal with Zach Gray and Brian Flannery of USMMA who earch rank in the top-5 in the Landmark in goals per game.

Women's Tennis:
How about a matchup between Drew and Juniata in which Drew is 2-0 and Juniata sits at 0-2 int he Landmark. Only a few matches into the season, it's hard to get a read on things, but it seems like there might have been a bit of upheavel from a year ago. Leading that charge is Drew, which finished 1-5 in the Landmark last season, but has already posted 7-2 wins over two postseason teams from a year ago. Meanwhile Juniata suffered a hard-fought loss to Scranton, and were stopped by Moravian, and now badly needs a win to start a run at the postseason. The difference may come in doubles where Drew is 6-0 in Landmark play and Juniata is 2-4.

Men's Tennis:
We'll call the battle between Susquehanna and Moravian in men's tennis a litmus test. I say that because we have a pretty good idea of who Moravian is. The Greyhounds reached the Landmark finals last season, and welcomed back nearly its entire lineup from that squad. Susquehanna, on the other hand, one just one match in the entire 2008-09 season, but is off to a 7-3 overall start and is 2-0 in the Landmark. One match obviously doesn't tell us everything, but it should provide a little bit of a gimpse as to whether the Crusaders can be a postseason factor. And for Moravian is has the chance to send a message to a possible contender. Color me intrigued.

Softball:
This doubleheader has me interested, mainly because I haven't the faintest idea what will happen. Generally, as I look at the stats, and see results, I go into every weekend with at least a notion as to who might win. But in the series between Juniata and Scranton, I haven't a clue. This is primarily because Scranton really hasn't played a lot of softball yet. The team's opener last weekend was postponed and it has played only 14 contests, compared to 19 for Juniata. I think the key will be whether Scranton's Kelly Zaccheo and Samantha Boccolini can hold down the Juniata bats which are averaging the most runs per game in the conference.

Women's Lacrosse:
I won't say that I saved the best for last, because all of these contests interest me, but it is hard not to have the championship rematch between Drew and Catholic jump out at you. Catholic had dominated conference play through the first two years, before Drew beat them in the regular-season finale last year. Catholic then got its revenge by winning a thriller in the Landmark final. Both teams have returned nearly their entire lineups from last season, though the Cardinals did suffer a big injury loss early in the year. Both teams have also faced a slew of tough non-conference opponents. And now we will find out which team will grab the upper hand early in the season. While last year both teams rode explosive offenses, they've done it a bit more with defense this year. Drew has held foed to 10 goals or fewer in each of its five wins, while Catholic is 3-2 when it holds opponents to 10 goals or fewer. Catholic keeper Melissa Brashear and Drew goalie Rachel Hanley are each in the top-4 in the Landmark in saves per game.

4/9/2010 -- 7:24 a.m.

Mornnig Round-up

Lopsided wins were the order of the day in the Landmark on Thursday. Don't believe me? Read on.

-- Susquehanna men's tennis won its sixth-straight match, rolling past King's 7-1. This may be one of the more remarkable turnarounds we've seen in the Landmark as just one year ago, Susquehanna went 1-16 overall on the year, and they currently sit with a record of 7-3.

-- Drew baseball continued its recent offensive surge, scoring 11 runs in a win over St. Joseph's of Brooklyn. That's two straight wins for the Rangers in which the team has outscored opponents 24-3.

-- Moravian and Scranton women's lacrosse teams each reached the 20-goal mark in a pair of non-conference wins. It marked just the third and fourth times this year Landmark teams have scored at least 20 goals in a match.

-- The Susquehanna softball teams holds the distinction of the longest current win streak in the Landmark as the Crusaders routed Penn College to run the streak to 10 games. Lisa Finizio has four hits, five runs and three RBI in the two-game sweep.

4/8/2010 -- 10:19 a.m.

More NCAA Stat Leaders

Yesterday we looked at the Landmark baseball and softball players and teams among the NCAA stat leaders. Today we give our men's and women's lacrosse teams their due. Remember, we're highlighting those teams and players that rank in the top-20 in either team or indidividual categories. You can also dig deeper into how your whole team ranks by going here.

Men's Lacrosse:

Catholic 20th in scoring offense (12.88)/10th in scoring defense (6.0)/2nd in face off % (.715)/10th in scoring margin (6.88)/10th in win % (.875)
Scranton 5th in face off % (.68)
USMMA 19th in man-up offense (.375)
Susquehanna 14th in man-down defense (.846)
Drew 8th in saves/g (16.86)
Rory Averett, Goucher 8th in goals/g (3.3)
Tom Scotto, Catholic 6th in ground balls/g (8.88)/4th in face off % (.722)
Sean McKenna, Catholic 6th in save % (.611)
Patrick Cefalu, Scranton 5th in face off % (.709)

Women's Lacrosse:

Catholic 4th in caused turnovers (13.67)
Scranton 14th in caused turnovers (12.11)
Susquehanna 13th in ground balls/g (27.2)
Rachel Hanley, Drew 14th in saves (105)
Courtney Rosenberg, Moravian 11th in saves/g (13.0)
Emily Stankaitis, Susquehanna 5th in save % (.59)
Katie Slade, Scranton 11th in caused turnovers (2.88)

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4/8/2010 -- 7:30 a.m.

Morning Round-up

Ah Wednesdays. It's just far enough away from the weekend that it is generally full of non-conference action. As such, plenty to talk about in our morning round-up.

-- We did have one conference game among the non-conference slate as Drew improved to 2-0 in Landmark play with a 12-7 win over Moravian. How about this for consistency: the Rangers scored three goals in all four periods. But the difference was the fourth when the Rangers scored three goals on five shots, and held Moravian off the scoreboard to take its lead from 9-7 to 12-7. Our Landmark featured athlete produced six points (3 goals, 3 assists) in the victory.

-- Elsewhere, Moravian picked up a win in non-conference action, posting a 9-4 victory over Albright. Last season the Greyhounds went 12-6 in conference play, but were 9-14 in non-conference action, and were outscored handily in those games. After yesterday's effort, Moravian is 5-5 in non-conference play, and has outscored its foes 58-51 in 10 games.

-- Susquehanna women's lacrosse extended its winning streak to six with an 11-3 win over Neumann. After opening the season 0-3 the Crusaders are 7-1 in their last eight, and have outscored opponents 120-49 over the eight games. Eleven players scored yesterday, let by Lindsey Derstine who had four.

-- Ross Imbrie posted a 6-0, 6-0 win at fifth singles as Juniata blanked Lancaster Bible 9-0 in non-conference action. Five of the six singles matches had at least one 6-0 set.

-- Catholic swept Stevenson in a non-conference softball doubleheader. Since returning from its spring break trip the Cardinals have been primarily all-or-nothing in doubleheader play. In nine doubleheaders since returning from Florida, Catholic has swept the two games seven times, been swept once, and only one time has split the two games.

 

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4/7/2010 -- 1:48 p.m.

 

Landmark NCAA Stat Leaders

Every once in awhile I like to take a look at the NCAA stat leaders to see where Landmark Conference teams and athletes rank out of the entirety of Division III. And with the spring season approximately halfway finished, this seemed like a good time to do it. If you really feel like getting in depth with this process, I encourage you to check out the stats section of the NCAA website. They've done a lot over the past year or so to improve that site.

Today it's just baseball and softball. Tomorrow will be men's and women's lacrosse. For each entry I list where the team or player ranks, and then have their total in parantheses.

Baseball:

Susquehanna 20th in SB (53)
Drew 14th in HBP (43)
Catholic 16th in DP/g (1.19)
Chris Bligh, Scranton 16th in HR (8)/13th in RBI (38)/
Chris Stallone, Scranton 15th in SB (17)
Tom Murrary, Drew 8th in HBP/g (0.63)/ 5th in HBP (12)
Greg Hoffman, Juniata 3rd in Sac Flies (5)
Justin Champagne, Scranton 5th in Ks per 9 (12.24)

Softball:
Juniata 12th in Batting Avg. (.364)
Catholic 18th in ERA (1.64)
Susquehanna 16th in Fielding Percentage (.970)
Kaitlyn Robbins, USMMA 5th in HR/g (.40)/2nd in RBI/game (2.0)
Brennan Balfour, Susquehanna 15th in Trples/g (.250)/7th in triples (5)
Megan Rizzi, Catholic 15th in Triples/g (.250)/3rd in triples (6)
Stephanie Clemente, Catholic 14th in ERA (1.36)/11th in hits allowed per 7 (5.13)
Cara Swerlow, Susquehanna 14th in Ks per 7 (7.4)/20th in Victories (10)/10th in shutouts (4)
Alyssa Erb, Juniata 18th in Ks per 7 (7.3)
Jenna Carmon, Moravian 20th in Victories (10)/5th in walks allowed per 7 (0.78
Adriana Durso, Drew 5th in saves (3)/17th in hits allowed per 7 (5.63)
Sarah Eckard, Juniata 12th in runs/g (1.42)
Allison Gerlach, Juniata 15th in sacrifice hits/g (1.42)
Katie Gross, Moravian 20th in sacrifice hits/g (1.15)/16th in OB% (.577)
Kim Rubino, Susquehanna 8th in HBP/g (.37)
Jess LaValley, USMMA 17th in strikeouts (90)

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4/7/2010 -- 7:26 a.m.

 

Morning Round-up

A relatively light day of midweek competition yesterday, with just one Landmark team claiming a win.

-- USMMA baseball picked up a 13-4 win over Baruch, powered by home runs from Mike Bybee and Doug Carter. The Mariners knocked out 14 hits in the contest, which was the fifth time this season they've produced 10 or more hits in a game.

4/6/2010 -- 2:25 p.m.

Meaningless Predictions Checkup

After being inspired by last night's men's basketball championship game, I thought it would be a good day to revisit those nonsensical predictions I made in the middle of the Landmark basketball season. (And though it has nothing to do with the Landmark, I always encourage people to read good writing...and this piece from Joe Posnanski is about as good as it gets in my opinion). I was also inspired by writing the release about the Winter All-Academic Team which featured some basketball standouts, and in my mind also represents some of the great things that the Landmark is all about.

Now enough delay, let's check out how I did on my predictions. You may recall the premise which was looking at the current single-game high leaders in a variety of categories, and predicting whether the mark would hold up, and if not, who would break it. Let's take a look, with the original prediction and then my follow up in (parentheses)

Men's Basketball:
Points: 37, Spenser Spencer of Susquehanna. The way he has been scoring of late, I think Zach Ashworth of Scranton will top this before the year is out. (No one got to Mr. Spencer. He finished the year as the single-game scoring champ.)

Rebounds: 17, Marcus Burke of Susquehanna. USMMA seems to get a lot of rebounds, so I'm going with their top rebounder Matt Hueber to reach 18. (Mr. Burke topped his own mark, grabbing 18 I think just a few days after my original post).

Assists: 10, Bryan Majors of Susquehanna. I think this one is safe. No double-digit assist games coming up. (Bryan Majors actually did this twice. No one else did. That's one prediction correct!)

Three Pointers Made: 7, Jeff Berkey of Juniata. Seven is a lot, and I don't see anyone getting to eight. But I do smell another seven coming...so I'm going to push. (I got this right as well, Chad Ray of USMMA knocked down 7 triples in a win over Moravian. Two in a row!)

Steals: 7, Cody Otto of Catholic. I think this one is safe as well. (It was indeed safe. Seven was the mark).

Blocks: 7, Lucas Levenson of Drew. That is also a bunch, but Trae Lindsay of Goucher has blocked one or more in the last six games, including four against Drew. I think he doubles that and gets to eight. (This one was broken, but it came from Eli Londo of Scranton who swatted eight shots in a win over Catholic. So I get half credit.)

Women's Basketball:
Points: 36, Brianna Peterson of Catholic. Too much of a premium on defense in the conference season for anyone to best this number. (I was on the money here, no one else broke 30 in a game).

Rebounds: 17, Katarina Owunna of Catholic. Also a big number, but keep an eye on Jen Hnatuck from Juniata. She's second in the Landmark in rebounding and leads the conference in double-doubles. I think she has one big rebound game in her. (Two players got to 18, neither of them were Juniata's Hnatuck. Janay Weathers of USMMA posted 18 in a non-conference game, and Moravian's Alexandra Blair did the same. I don't think I get too many points for that).

Assists: 11, Ryan Mooney of Scranton. I can see someone getting to 10 (in fact, Drew's Danielle Barber did it just this past Sunday) but my crystal ball doesn't go to 11. (My crystal ball needed to go much higher than 11. Mooney bested her own mark of 11 by dishing out 14 in a semifinal win over Juniata. She also had 11 in a non-conference contest).

Three Pointers Made: 7, Rebecca Grimes of USMMA. My instinct was to push again here, but I'm going with Scranton's Jennifer King. She's hit 28 on the year, and the Royals have played only one home conference game. The comforts of home will get her to eight. (Nope, this one stayed with Grimes, though two players did knock down six.)

Steals: 7, Brooke Piccillo of USMMA. I'm wimping out and saying someone will match this, but not beat it. In fact, I'm going to say that Piccillo herself will match it, just so I take a bit of a stand. (Wrong again. Juniata's Ashton Bankos came up with nine thefts in a Landmark win over Drew to set the new single-game mark.)

Blocks: 6, Jill Woerner of Catholic. The freshman swatted six shots against Stevenson, and I think it will be one of the legacies of a fine first season for her. This one won't be topped. (We end on a sour note as Moravian's Alexandra Blair--her second mention in this post--collected nine blocked shots in a non-conference game against Utica to take possession of this mark).

Overall, I think I give myself about a B- for my predictions. And if you disagree...well, tough, it was my game.

4/6/2010 -- 7:31 a.m.

Morning Round-up

Most of the action from Monday took place on the tennis courts. Let's hit the highlights.

-- Scranton picked up wins in men's and women's action over Juniata to improve its conference records. On the men's side three competitors earned wins in singles and doubles action as the Royals picked up an 8-1 victory. The win evened Scranton's record at 1-1. On the women's side Moira McGin and Kelly Costello won the final two singles matches to secure a 5-4 win for Scranton. The win came with Scranton trailing 2-1 after doubles, but pulled out the victory with four of six singles matches.

-- Elsewhere Moravian women's tennis also claimed a 5-4 non-conference win. The doubles courts were the difference as Moravian won two of three matches but then split the singles competition. The win was the third-straight for Moravian.

4/2/2010 -- 3:20 p.m.

What is Division III

You may notice that there is a new video appearing in the multimedia section of the Landmark homepage. You can also view the video here. This video, and this longer version (which is too large a file to go on the Landmark site) are part of the new NCAA Division III Identity Initiative that was launched at the 2010 NCAA Convention.

As fans of a Division III institutions (and hopefully a Division III Conference) you will be hearing much more about this initiative in the coming days, weeks, months and hopefully years. The Landmark will be trying to do its part by adapting the Identity message to reflect the vision of our conference and our institutions. But for now, enjoy these videos which go a long way towards explaining the appeal of NCAA Division III competition.

4/2/2010 -- 7:36 a.m.

Morning Round-up

Several teams in action yesterday including one Landmark softball contest, so let's delve deeper into some of the action.

-- Susquehanna continues to enjoy a strong softball season as the Crusaders blanked Catholic to sweep a doubleheader. Junior pitcher Cara Swerdlow was about as good as you can be, tossing two shutouts while allowing a total of six hits and striking out 11. The shutotus were her third and fourth of the season.

-- Moravian softball also continued to roll along, piling up 25 hits and 17 runs in a doubleheader sweep of Albright. Katie Gross had five hits over the two gamses for the Greyhounds, and she is hitting a robust .492 for the season.

-- Catholic found the back of the net 21 times to earn a 21-15 win over Mary Washington in women's lacrosse action. Other than their season-opening win, the Cardinals had not scored more than 14 goals in a match this season before erupting for the 21 in the win. After a five-match losing streak they have now won three straight.

4/1/2010 -- 7:27 a.m.

Morning Round-up

Two days in a row with the Morning Round-up...now that is no April Fool's. And I was only partially right about the weather, as it has suddenly turned beautiful and some teams were able to make it out on the field. The highlights.

-- Drew women's lacrosse picked up an excellent win over Muhlenberg by a 14-10 score. The win actually snapped a 35-match unbeaten streak for Muhlenberg against non-conference opponents. I'll have to give this some more thought (I smell another blog post coming) but I don't think there are any Landmark teams that have had an unbeaten non-conference record in a season. We'll have to dig deeper on that one.

-- Freshman Jennifer O'Neil went 4-for-5 in the first game while belting her fourth home run of the season to pace Juniata softball to a doubleheader sweep of Wilson. The four round-trippers ranks her third in the Landmark, two behind two players who have each produced six home runs.

3/31/2010 -- 7:40 a.m.

Morning Round-up

Rain rain go away. That's my mantra for this Wednesday morning as the recent wet weather in the mid-Atlantic region wiped out just about all the competition scheduled for yesterday. And though the rain has stopped outside Landmark headquarters I have a feeling soggy fields could lead to some more postponements today. Rather then dwelling on that, I'm going to look on the bright side, and recap the one victory for Landmark teams yesterday.

-- Catholic women's lacrosse which struggled early on with a tough schedule and a key injury may have found its groove as the Cardinals knocked off 14th-ranked Williams by an 8-7 score yesterday, giving them back-to-bac wins for the first time this year. Kelly Ryan had the match-winner with three minutes left and Melissa Brashear was stout in goal, notching 13 saves and matching her season low with only seven goals allowed.

3/26/2010 -- 8:41 a.m.

Morning Round-up

A relatively light day of competition yesterday by spring sports standards, but still several teams coming up with wins.

-- Offense has been the story of the early season in Landmark baseball, and both Scranton and USMMA earned wins with high-scoring attacks. Scranton scored 13 in a win over Baptist Bible, and USMMA plated 14 runs to knock of CCNY. It was the seventh time Scranton has hit double digits, and  the second for USMMA.

-- There was also plenty of offense in a pair of softball sweeps, with both Juniata and Moravian collecting two wins. Moravian topped Kean 6-1 and 10-4 while Juniata routed St. Vincent 10-0 and 9-1. The wins halted a four-game losing skid for Juniata. For Moravian it was the first doubleheader sweep (of the same opponent) for the team after splitting twinbills in its previous two.

-- Susquehanna had five different players score at least two goals as the Crusaders routed Frostburg State 16-5 in women's lacrosse. After opening the year 1-4, the team has reeled off three-straight wins and now has the second-best record in the Landmark.

3/25/2010 -- 8:15 a.m.

Morning Round-up

Very busy Wednesday of action with more than 20 teams in action. Here are some of the highlights.

-- Some solid non-conference baseball wins with Susquehanna and Moravian both earning victories, and Juniata splitting a doubleheader. Juniata had six of its nine starters collect two or more hits while scoring 14 runs to take one game from Penn State-Altoona.

-- Along with Susquehanna, Catholic might be the hottest softball team in the conference right now as the Cardinals swept Maine-Presque Island. After starting the season 2-5, the Cardinals have ripped off 11-straight victories heading into their Landmark opener against Juniata this weekend. Catholic has not allowed more than two runs only twice during this streak.

-- Talking about improvements, last year the Susquehanna men's tennis team earned one victory the entire season. This year Head Coach Bob Jordan has the team sitting at 4-3 heading into Landmark play this weekend after a 7-2 win over Messiah.

-- Katie Slade had a career-high seven points (3 goals, 4 assists) as Scranton earned its second-straight women's lacrosse victory by a 15-4 score. Slade ranks among the Landmark leaders in goals, assists and ground balls in the early season.

3/24/2010 -- 8:01 a.m.

Morning Round-up

It's been quiet here in blogland, but with the spring season really ramping up I will make every effort to get back into my old daily blogging habits.

-- Moravian baseball powered its way to a win over Maine-Presque Island by a 14-2 score. Moravian led the Landmark in runs scored last season, and seem to be in the hunt to do it again as over the past four games the Greyhounds have scored 47 runs and knocked out 53 hits.

-- After a tough season last year in which the Cardinals suffered a string of tight losses, the Catholic men's lacrosse team seems focused on remedying that this year after a 13-4 win over Washington & Jefferson improved them to 6-1. The team has had an average margin of victory of almost eight goals, with only one decided by less than four goals.

-- Consistently winning close games is a recipe for a strong season, particularly in softball, and Susquehanna picked up two more close wins yesterday in a sweep of Dickinson. The wins improved the Crusaders to 12-4 on the year. Brennan Balfour scored three of the team's nine runs on the day.

3/19/2010 -- 7:49 a.m.

Morning Round-up

Another busy day of action as teams gear up for a busy weekend of competition that will feature the first Landmark baseball games of 2010. Let's see who fared the best on Thursday.

-- Drew softball got two stellar pitching performances to blank Muhlenberg in a doubleheader sweep. Adriana Durso went the distance in game one throwing seven shutout innings while allowing just four hits, then came on in relief to pick up the save in game two. Drew hurlers allowed only six hits combined in the two games.

-- USMMA's bats were far more lively on the baseball diamond as the Mariners powered past Maritime 11-6. The top-five hitters in the Mariner batting order combined to go 10-for-23 at the plate with eight runs scored and nine RBI. USMMA hat 12 total hits in the victory.

-- Sarah Wright had three goals while Ally Bauer had two goals and two assists to lead Susquehanna women's lacrosse to a win over Lycoming. It was the second win in three matches for the Crusaders, each of which has come on the road. It was the first match of the season decided by less than four goals for Susquehanna.

-- Catholic men's tennis has moved its way to the top of the Landmark standings after a 5-4 win over the University of the District of Columbia. After dropping its first two matches of the spring the Cardinals have won two of three to follow up on its strong fall season when the team posted an unblemished 5-0 record.

3/18/2010 -- 8:27 a.m.

Morning Round-up

A full day of spring action yesterday saw some big wins, several of them coming from the Landmark's southernmost school Catholic.

-- A softball sweep for the Cardinals against Mary Washington, with Stephanie Clemente and Stacie Goddard each tossed complete-game wins combining to allow just six hits and one run over the two games.

-- Brian Flannery continued his strong early-season play as he is tied for the Landmark lead in points per game after picking up seven points in a win over Maritime (N.Y.). Two goals late in the second quarter put USMMA up for good in its 13-10 win.

-- Catholic men's lacrosse held off a feverish rally to earn a one-goal win over Marymount. Catholic led 12-7 entering the final period and held on despite being outscored 5-1 in the final frame. The one-goal win is a welcome one for Catholic which was 1-4 in one-goal contests last season.

3/17/2010 -- 8:03 a.m.

Morning Round-up

At long last the weather seems to have caught up with the spring sports season as a few days of pleasant skies are making it possible to get some games in. A quick note about statistics. When teams go on spring break trips it is often a challenge to get complete statistics until after they return. This is why you'll see gaps in a lot of the conference statistics. I expect and hope that for the most part, the conference stats will be up-to-date and complete by early next week. Until then, I'll be posting whatever I have.

-- On paper the teams most likely to contend for the Landmark men's tennis crown this season were Drew and Moravian, but Scranton's hot start suggests the Royals will have something to say about the outcome before the year is out. Scranton is 5-1, marking its best start since the 2000 season after picking up a win on Tuesday. Freshmen Joe Morra and Jonathan Russo have made an immediate impact, leading the team in singles wins.

-- USMMA softball claimed its second and third wins of the season with a convincing doubleheader sweep of Lehman. The Mariners outscored Lehman 29-6 in the two games while out-hitting their foes 21-5.

3/12/2010 -- 8:57 a.m.

Morning Round-up

Once again, I'm not really providing my normal round-up this morning as the spring break madness continued. And as spring breaks conclude for a few teams, they kick off for a few others this week. It will be another week or so before we get into the full routine.

With that said, we do have the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships taking place this weekend, with several Landmark competitors in action.

The official site will have live streaming video of the competition. Also, for the first time, with the help of NCAA Enhancement funding,  the host is able to provide archived video and photo galleries of each event and images of each student-athlete competing. Those links are at the bottom of the links on the right side of the official page. (Division III Track Videos and Division III Track Photos).

You can also follow the Championships on Twitter.

I hope to have some highlights from the Landmark Indoor Track & Field Championships up this afternoon.

3/11/2010 -- 7:44 a.m.

Morning Round-up

My apologies for not having the blog up and running the past few days. My excuse, though not a great one, is that with so many teams on spring break trips, and results coming in at all hours of the day, and with results not always coming at all until after teams return, it is tough to keep track of everything that is going on.

So as I've done before, I suggest you check out the Scoreboard page on the new Landmark site which is the first place where final scores will be posted and where you will also often get boxscores and recaps.

3/4/2010 -- 4:30 p.m.

Busy Weekend

Yes indeed, there are a lot of things happening this weekend.The spring sports are kicking into gear as we start to get some baseball and softball teams starting spring break trips, while men's and women's lacrosse also pick up steam. Speaking of that, one of my favorite features of the new Landmark website redesign is the scoreboard page, which lets you get a quick glance at all the action on a given day. Check it out here.

Along with the spring we have postseason play in men's and women's basketball, including both NCAA and ECAC competition.

With all that going on, I didn't want to lose sight of the other winter sports, some of which will be in competition, while others will await news.

This weekend the Landmark swimmers and divers who have provisionally qualified for the NCAA Championships will learn if they will be competing at the big meet. The Championships themselves will be March 17-20 in Minneapolis, Minn. You can scroll down to the post from Feb. 15 to see which swimmers qualified at the Landmark Championships, and there were some additional men's qualifying performances from USMMA at the Metropolitan Championships.

Meanwhile, as the swimmers wait to hear their fate, some Landmark indoor track & field athletes will be competing this weeken to try and improve their chances of qualifying that NCAA Championship. The qualifiers for track and field will be announced on Monday, but several teams will be in action this weekend to try and bolster performances.

I figured this would be a good time to see who is currently qualified, and where they stand.

Men's:
Timothy Layng, Moravian, Pole Vault, 4.76-meters, tied for 14th
Paul Thistle, Susquehanna, Mile, 4:13.16, 11th
Paul Thistle, Susquehanna, 5,000, 14:47.16, 18th

Women's:
Symonne Scott, Moravian, Long Jump, 5.51-meters, 18th
Micah Leonard, Moravian, Triple Jump, 11.31-meters, 20th
Anna Heim, Moravian, Pole Vault, 4.10-meters, 1st (automatic qualifier)
Rebekah Finn, Moravian, Pole Vault, 3.60-meters, tied for 18th

So that's where we stand heading into the weekend. Can anyone improve their stock? We shall see.

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3/4/2010 -- 7:40 a.m.

Morning Round-up

I'm just now noticing I inexplicably changed the title to "Morning Update" yesterday. I hope this wasn't confusing for anyone. I don't think I had my coffee yet.

Anyway, now THAT is the way to kick off the basketball postseason. The Landmark pulled out a pair of tight, upset wins to advance two teams in the ECAC postseason. We also had some lacrosse action as well.

-- Drew earned its first postseason win since the 2004-05 season by knocking of #3 seed Mt. St. Vincent 56-53. A big night from Dana Cornato and late free throws from Danielle Barber gave Drew the win, and the Rangers will now face NYU on Saturday at Stevens Tech.

-- Juniata got a big effort from its bench and a critical late hoop from Alyssia Gordon to top #1 seed Delaware Valley. It marks the second straight year Juniata has entered the ECAC South Region Championship as the #8 seed only to eliminate the top seed. Last year Juniata went on a three-game run to win the title. Last night, the team got scoring from all 10 players and did not have a single player in double figures.

-- In lacrosse action, a good start for the men's and women's teams at Catholic, which both claimed convincing wins in their openers. On the women's side two-time Landmark Player of the Year Kate Robinson wasted little time getting off to a good start as she scored five goals with two assists and two ground balls in the opener. For the Catholic men the Cardinals never trailed in their opener against Wesley and scored three of the final four goals of the contest to come away with a 11-7 win. That came despite Catholic being outshot 48-39.

-- Also opening the season with a win was Drew women's lacrosse which traveled just a bit down the road to knock off FDU-Florham by a two-goal margin. Late goals from Lyndsay Rossi and Sloane Coles helped put the game away for the Rangers.

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3/3/2010 -- 10:04 a.m.

Morning Update (and other stuff)

The late winter snow and general weather unpleasantness that has been the winter weather in this region continues to postpone and alter schedules. But we did still have one spring team in action yesterday, and it earned a big win.

-- Scranton men's lacrosse knocked of 12th-ranked Ithaca behind a seven-goal outburst to close the game. It was its first win in five chances against Ithaca, and came with Mike Rufo scoring five goals for the Crusaders.

Some other relevant news, we have game times for the Scranton and Moravian women's basketball NCAA games. Both Moravian and Scranton will play its game at 7 p.m. on Friday.

Landmark women's basketball ECAC teams get started with Drew and Juniata both playing quarterfinals.

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3/2/2010 -- 8:03 a.m.

Morning Update (Basketball Postseason Edition)

We had several updates on NCAA basketball participants yesterday, but those are not the only Landmark basketball teams that find themselves in ECAC postseason. The Drew University women's basketball team has earned a berth in the Division III Women's Metro Championship as the #7 seed. The Rangers will play a quarterfinal at home on Wednesday night at 7 p.m. In the Division III South Championship, Juniata captured the #8 seed and will try and defend its ECAC Championship title when it takes on #1 seed Delaware Valley on Wednesday evening.

On the men's side Catholic secured a bid to Division III Men's South Championship and earned a bye as the #1 seed. The Cardinals will host the semifinal and final rounds on Saturday and Sunday March 6-7, and will take on the winner of the game between #4 Pitt-Bradford and #5 Alvernia.

So let's take a complete look at the upcoming schedule of Landmark men's and women's basketball postseason games.

Men's Basketball:
Wesley vs. USMMA, March 5, 8 p.m. (NCAA)
TBD vs. Catholic, March 6, 4 p.m. (ECAC)

Women's Basketball:
Mt. St. Vincent vs. Drew, March 3, 7 p.m. (ECAC)
Juniata at Delaware Valley, March 3, 7 p.m. (ECAC)
Utica vs. Moravian , March 5, TBD (NCAA)
Scranton at Marymount (Va.), March 5, TBD (NCAA)

I will post updates on game times, and obviously will update the schedules as soon as results are in.

For the NCAA men's interactive bracket click here

For the NCAA women's interactive bracket click here

For a look at the ECAC brackets click here

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3/1/2010 -- 1:17 p.m.

NCAA Update The Sequel

For the third time in as many seasons, there will be two Landmark women's basketball teams in the NCAA Division III Tournament field.

Moravian as the conference champion earned the automatic qualifier, and will be hosting three teams for first and second-round action. The Greyhounds will face Utica in the opening round, with Farmingdale State and Gettysburg facing off in the second game in Bethlehem.

Scranton earned an at-large bid to the tournament field and will have a tough first-round test as it plays the host of the four-team site, Marymount in Arlington, Va. Lebanon Valley and Medaille are the other two teams taking part in first and second round competition at Marymount. More details to follow.

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3/1/2010 -- 11:16 a.m.

NCAA Update

For anyone who didn't catch it on the selection show (or even for those who did), USMMA men's basketball will be hosting a pod of four teams for the first and second rounds of the NCAA Championship. The Mariners will face Wesley in the opening round, while Oneonta State faces Franklin & Marshall in the other contest held at USMMA. More information to come as the day progresses.

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3/1/2010 -- 7:23 a.m.

Morning Round-up

I won't waste time this morning hashing over all the details from the Landmark Championships that took place on Saturday. You can read about the contests here, here and here.

I will simply say congratulations to the Landmark Championship teams. And for those of you who are dying to know where the basketball champions will be traveling for the NCAA Championships, the men's selection show will air live at 10 a.m. on NCAA.com while the women's show will be live at 12:30 p.m. on the same website. I will post a quick update on the blog once selections are announced, followed by a longer preview this afternoon.

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2/26/2010 -- 2:30 p.m.

Video Update Championship Edition

Not rain, nor sleet, nor snow can prevent a final Championship edition of the Landmark Conference video update. The videos previewing the Landmark Men's and Women's Basketball Championships are now available. Looking at the numbers, I think both games are going to be extremely well played and competitive. Enjoy the games, and I hope to have highlights of at least some of the action available on the website early next week.

Basketball Championship video update:

Part 1 (women)
Part 2 (men)

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2/25/2010 -- 8:55 a.m.

Morning Roundup

The fall championship season saw a fair amount of upsets and parity, but that was not the case last night in the basketball semifinals as the top seeds all protected home court and advanced to the Landmark Championship.

-- USMMA men raced out of the gates on a 19-2 run, and then held on to top Susquehanna to reach its first basketball championship game. The Mariners dominated on the glass, outrebounding the Crusaders by 13, including 12-5 in offensive rebounds. Tom Izzo scored a game high 20 points for the Mariners, while senior Bryan Majors 19 points, two assists and two steals for the Crusaders.

-- In the other semifinal Catholic once again made it close, but could not solve Scranton in falling 75-70. Eli Londo made a critical late-game block, his fifth on the game to help preserve the win, and also led the team with 18 points. R.J. Dixon led Catholic with 18 and Jason Banzhaf produced his sixth double-double of the year with 17 points and 13 rebounds.

-- It wasn't pretty, but Moravian exteded its winning streak to 19 and held off Susquehanna in one of the women's basketball semifinals to earn a spot in the Championship game for the second-straight year. One of the highest scoring teams in DIII, Moravian was limited to 52 points, its second-lowest total of the season while 32-percent from the field and committing 20 turnovers. But Susquehanna could only muster 34-percent shooting, and went 0-of-11 from three-point rannge. The two teams combined to shoot 1-for-15 from long distance in the game.

-- Scranton will play for its third-straight Landmark Championship after holding off Juniata in the other semifinal. Scranton held a 56-38 lead with just over 11 minutes left, but three triples from Juniata's Natalie Glinsky coupled with a Scranton scoring drought closed the margin to four with 3:14 on the clock. The Royals then got enough offense down the stretch to hold on for the win. Courtney Roselle notched her first career double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds, while Jen Hnatuck led Juniata 19 points.

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2/24/2010 -- 9:30 a.m.

Basketball Semifinal Video Preview

I couldn't let the basketball postseason start without a new video preview.

In two parts:

Part 1 (women's preview)

Part 2 (men's preview)

Note - In the preview of the Juniata/Scranton women's game, I accidentally said that Susquehanna won the first Landmark women's basketball title, which was incorrect.

Also note, be sure to check the various institution websites this afternoon/evening to follow the basketball semifinals via live stats, radio broadcasts or streaming video.

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2/22/2010 -- 7:56 a.m.

Morning Round-up

Plenty of action over the weekend so let's take a quick look at what went down.

-- The seeding contests in women's basketball were won by Moravian and Juniata, defeating Scranton and Susquehanna respectively to set the stage for the postseason. Moravian became the first Landmark basketball team to run the table during the regular season. The Greyhounds had four seniors score in double figures on senior night.

-- The only seeding question on the men's side was tied up in the early afternoon as USMMA shot past Drew to lock up the number one seed. While the Mariners didn't run the table, USMMA's 12 Landmark wins are a new high for men's basketball.

-- Elsewhere in men's hoops the "favorites" all won on the final day with Scranton, Catholic and Susquehanna all heading into the postseason with a win under its belt. These are the same four teams that participated in the postseason a year ago, and the same is also true on the women's side.

-- Two non-postseason teams did end on high notes with Goucher and Drew both earning wins in women's basketball. Drew actually closed the year with three-straight Landmark wins, and now will hope to earn an ECAC postseason bid. Goucher got a season-high 23 points from Elizabeth vonEnde to help push the Gophers past Catholic. Goucher has taken the season finale against the Cardinals each of the past two seasons.

-- Landmark indoor track teams had their final tuneup before this weekend's Landmark Championship, with four teams in action. Goucher's Will Evans picked up a win in the 200 for the Gophers in a meet at Dickinson. Alycia Woodruff of Susquehanna improved on her Landmark-best times in both the 800 and the mile over the weekend. Juniata's Angela Shaffer notched her best marks of the season in the 55-meter hurdles and the high jump. Symonne Scott of Moravian upped the Landmark best in the long jump and ran the second-fastest time in the 55-meter dash.

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2/19/2010 -- 11:16 a.m.

Return Of The Video Update

After missing most of the basketball season, the Landmark Video Update makes its (semi) triumphant return, previewing the final weekend of the basketball regular season. But first, a few apologies. Because of the length of the video, I had to cut out the normal introduction and conclusion. I'm sure you will will miss them terribly. Second, I apologize for the poor framing...but I figured you all didn't need to see the top of my head. Rest assured, I'm firing my camera man (wait...I'm my camera man. Well, I'll fire someone).

Anyway, without further delay, here are the video previews of the final weekend of Landmark regular season basketball action.

Men's Preview

Women's Preview

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2/19/2010 -- 8:22 a.m.

Returning To Swimming

No, I don't have a morning round-up for you today, but hopefully you'll enjoy this just as much. The Landmark Swimming & Diving Championships began one week ago, but I see no reason why that means we can't take a look at highlights.

Below you will find clips for the conclusion of several of Sunday's final races. These are up a little later than I wanted, but hopefully you will all still relish the chance to relive some of the excitement of the Championship event.

Seniors honored before the start of competition

Women's 1,650 Freestyle

Women's 100 Freestyle

Men's 200 Breaststroke

Women's 200 Breaststroke

Men's 200 Butterfly

Women's 200 Butterfly

Men's 400 Freestyle Relay

Women's 400 Freestyle Relay

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2/18/2010 -- 7:30 a.m.

Morning Round-up

Two basketball games taking place last night, once again rescheduled from the epic snowstorm of a few weeks ago, and the results solved one more piece of the postseason puzzle.

-- Catholic locked up the #3 seed for the Landmark postseason with a 90-60 win over Moravian. The 90 points marked the second-highest single game total for the Cardinals this season, and the most in a conference game. The Cardinals shot nearly 60-percent from the field, hitting 33 of 56 field goal attempts.

-- On the women's side, Moravian is now one victory away from earning the first unbeaten regular season in Landmark history as the Greyhounds knocked off Catholic. Five players in double figures in the game for Moravian, led by Amanda Brown who scored a season-high 17 coming off the bench. Catholic's Brianna Peterson had her 12th game with at least 20 points as she netted 26 off the bench.

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2/17/2010 -- 12:11 a.m.

(Early) Morning Round-up

My beloved Celtics are playing on the West Coast tonight (currently clinging to a six-point lead) so why not quickly recap the night's Landmark basketball action. Tonight featured a pair of doubleheaders rescheduled from two weekends ago.

-- Moravian swept Goucher, with Eric Weaver nailing two free throws with two seconds left for the men to earn a one-point win. Meanwhile the Greyhound women extended their win streak to 16 with a balanced offensive attack.

-- Just a little bit farther south, Scranton hit the road and took the men's and women's game from Catholic. Dan O'Connell scored 16 points off the bench for the Royals, who also held Catholic to 3-of-16 shooting from three-point range. In the women's game, the Cardinals could not overcome 30 turnovers and a 17-point, 8-rebound effort from Courtney Roselle.

So with tonight's results, the postseason field in men's and women's basketball is now set. We don't know the seeds as of yet, but the following are the participants.

Men's Basketball: USMMA, Scranton, Catholic, Susquehanna
Women's Basketball: Moravian, Scranton, Juniata, Susquehanna

On the men's side, both USMMA and Scranton are guaranteed of earning one of the top-2 seeds. The same is true of Moravian and Scranton on the women's side.

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2/15/2010 -- 5:30 p.m.

I Like My Records Broken

If nothing else, I try to be a man of my word. I realize that oftentimes I promise more posts on this blog, only to then fail to deliver once the day gets away from me. Today is a new day, however, and what better chance for self-improvement than to follow through on my promise from earlier to have "a few longer posts up over the course of the day." Not to mention there was a Championship meet this weekend, and I believe it requires a little more focus.

In this case I want to focus on all the new Landmark records that were established over the course of the past three days, and even more, to note those that coincide with NCAA qualifying times. So since the interweb is a limitless space, I'm going to just list them all. Now I realize that three years of competition makes record-breaking seem a little less noteworthy, but a record is a record. And there were a whole bunch of new ones created this weekend.

Women's Records (previous record is in parenthesis) Keep in mind these are overall Landmark records, not just Championship Meet records (though they overlap in many cases)

100-freestyle: Britt Hogstrom, Goucher 53.45 (54.82)
200-freestyle: Britt Hogrstrom, Goucher 1:58.03 (1:59.90)
500-freestyle: Devin Lessard, Susquehanna 5:08.00 (5:17.38) (NCAA B Cut)
100-backstroke: Hayley Keenan, Susquehanna 59.78 (1:00.02)
200-backstroke: Christie Savard, Susquehanna 2:05.32 (2:06.04) (NCAA B Cut)
100-butterfly: Devin Lessard, Susquehanna 59.23 (59.84)
200-butterfly: Devin Lessard, Susquehanna 2:08.61 (2:13.03 (NCAA B Cut)
200-IM: Christie Savard, Susquehanna 2:10.22 (2:11.65) (NCAA B Cut)
400-IM: Christie Savard, Susquehanna 4:34.03 (4:43.30) (NCAA B Cut)
200-free Relay: Susquehanna 1:40.27 (1:42.03)
400-medley Relay: Susquehanna 3:39.94 (4:08.56)
800-free Relay: Susquehanna 8:02.10 (8:10.37)
200-medley Relay: Scranton 1:51.01 (1:52.52)
400-medley Relay: Susquehanna 4:03.97 (4:08.56)

Note-Lisa Brooks swam 1:06.92 and 2:25.55 for NCAA B Cuts in the 100 and 200 breaststroke but did not break her own Landmark records.

Men's Records

100-backstroke: John Murphy, USMMA 52.70 (52.79) (NCAA B Cut)
200-backstroke: John Murphy, USMMA 1:54.89 (1:55.22)
1-meter dive: Nicholas Halbach, USMMA 543.45 (532.95) (NCAA A Cut)
3-meter dive: Nicholas Halbach, USMMA 595.20 (579.10) (NCAA A Cut)
400-freestyle relay: USMMA 3:08.32 (3:28.18)

Note- Colin Sullivan swam 2:07.72 for an NCAA B Cut in the 200 breaststoke but did not break the Landmark record (2:07.60)

For those counting at home, that is 19 records broken overall. There were also several more Landmark Championship meet records set. But that might just have to be another post (and yes, that is something of a promise).

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2/15/2010 -- 7:44 a.m.

Morning Round-up

All sorts of exciting things going on this past weekend, including the first championship event of the winter season. I hope to have a few longer posts up over the course of the day, so we'll do this quick-hit style this morning.

-- Let's start with swimming where the USMMA men and Scranton women each defended its title to claim a third Landmark Championship. The women's meet had the closest margin in three years with Scranton topping Susquehanna by 93 points, compared to 199.50 and 310 from 2008 and 2009 respectively. The USMMA men have steadily increased its margin of victory, going from 67 to 225 to a high of 278 this season.

-- Seven competitors earned NCAA automatic or provisional qualifying marks in a total of 13 events at the meet. Highlighting those is Nicholas Halbach who has posted automatic qualifying performances in both diving events, Christie Savard who swam three provisional qualifying times en route to earning Swimmer of the Year honors and Lisa Brooks who qualified provisional in the 100 and 200 breaststroke and will be looking to make a return appearance to the NCAA Championships.

-- On to basketball where the postseason scenarios are beginning to shape up. The USMMA men rode a strong defensive effort to pick up a key win over Catholic, a win which will help in the Mariner's push to earn the top seed. USMMA held Catholic to 49 points in the win, the Cardinals second-lowest total of the season.

-- After a three-game losing streak early in the year had the Scranton men 2-3 in conference, the Royals have proceeded to rip off seven-straight wins, the lastest coming in a sweep of Susquehanna and Juniata. The Royals head to Catholic tomorrow in a game that will be pivotal in determining postseason implications.

-- Goucher kept its postseason hopes alive with a road win over Drew, a game in which the Gophers held the Rangers to 12 first-half points, the top defensive effort in a half in program history.

-- On the women's side, two more wins apiece for Moravian and Scranton as each locked up either the one or two seed. Scranton beat Juniata in the first overtime game of the Landmark season, getting key points late from Ryan Mooney and Megan Kopecki. Both Moravian and Scranton have makeup games scheduled for midweek before their key battle next Saturday.

-- Rebecca Grimes tossed in 22 points on 50-percent shooting from the field and from three-point range as USMMA dealt Catholic's postseason hopes a tough blow. The Cardinals will need to win its final three games to earn a postseason berth, otherwise the final spot in the postseason will go to Susquehanna.

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2/12/2010 -- 11:45 a.m.

Weekend Preview

They are already swimming on Long Island, and some key basketball games are mere hours away. I've once again failed to provide charming video of myself for you all, but here are a few hundred words about this weekend's matchups. Once postseason berths start getting secured, I will try and post about them here.

Men's Basketball:
Catholic/Goucher at USMMA/Drew: Good matchups of teams trying to secure postseason bids. USMMA clinches a bid with one win, while Catholic can clinch with a bid and a Goucher loss. Goucher currently 1.5 games off the pace, can’t afford any more losses. Catholic has won 3 in a row, and is trying to secure a coveted top seed for the postseason to earn the right to host. Jason Banzhaf is just a few rebounds shy of double-double in conference play averaging 16.3 points and 9.3 boards while shooting better than 50-percent from the field. Catholic is an even 2-2 on the trip to USMMA and Drew, winning and losing once at each venue. Goucher’s postseason hopes need the team to shake off two tough losses and come away with wins over the weekend. The Gophers held Scranton to 61 points earlier this week the first time in five games the Royals were held under 70, but Goucher couldn’t come up with enough offense. Gophers continue to rely on defense ranking in the top half in the Landmark in scoring defense, second in field goal percentage defense, holding teams to less than 40-percent from field. Goucher is at its best when the team controls the defensive glass posting a 4-1 record when grabbing 25 or more defensive rebounds. USMMA enters the weekend in great position for postseason and clinches bid with win, and two wins would nearly lock up hosting a home postseason game in a venue where the team has only one loss. Mariners among stingiest defenses in the country, currently 5th in NCAA DIII in points allowed and have only allowed 70 or more in two conference games, each of team’s losses. The Mariners have also taken excellent care of the ball having only topped 20 turnovers twice in Landmark play. Drew needs sweep the game this weekend then hope for other results to have any shot at postseason. Two wins over their final three Landmark games would give Drew a new season-high for wins in Landmark play in coach Darryl Keckler’s second season at the helm. Joe Horvath has been deadly from long range in conference play, knocking down 18 of 36 three-point attempts, giving Drew a strong third scorer to complement Terrell Brown and Mike Mayes.

Juniata/Susquehanna at Scranton/Moravian: Juniata and Susquehanna hit the road with postseason goals in mind, while Scranton is trying to stay in the top half of the postseason chase. Susquehanna can clinch a berth with two wins and one loss from Goucher over the weekend, or one win and two losses for the Gophers. The Crusaders have been staying above .500 in Landmark play by coming up with at least one win from each of its Landmark weekends. Marcus Burke earned Landmark Player of the Week honors, and has been incredibly efficient from the field as he is shooting 65-percent from the field. He actually has the same number of field goals as Susquehanna leading scorer Spenser Spencer, but in 37 fewer attempts. Juniata will need to win both games this weekend and get some help to have a shot at a postseason berth. Juniata is looking for its first road wins in Landmark play this season, as the Eagles are 0-4 in conference road games. The team continues to shoot well from three-point range, leading the Landmark in three-point shooting. But Juniata is remarkably shooting better from three-point range than two-point range, hitting 39-percent from long range, but 38-percent from the field in general. For Scranton the Royals can secure a postseason bid with two wins, or one win and a loss for Goucher. Scranton is looking to earn a postseason bid for the third time, only one of two teams that can claim that distinction. The free throw line has been a key for Scranton’s success as the team has made more free throws than its opponent in eight of 10 Landmark games, and both those games were losses. And the Royals are leading the conference in free throw percentage. Moravian is trying to close out the season on a strong note and carry some momentum into the offseason. The duo of Eric Weaver and Chris Cullen are both in the top-10 in the Landmark in scoring, making them one of only four teams to have two players in the top-10 in scoring. Greyhounds will have to deal with some rust as they haven’t played a game due to the weather since January 30.

Women's Basketball:
Juniata/Susquehanna at Moravian/Scranton: Key matchups on the women’s side with these four teams currently holding the four postseason positions if the season ended today, and all four can clinch postseason spots with varying results. All four teams also riding win streaks. Susquehanna has won six in a row, and can clinch a spot with two wins, and a Catholic loss. Crusaders started the season 1-4 in Landmark play, but are now 7-4. Defense continues to carry the day for the Crusaders, who lead the Landmark in scoring defense, allowing only 53 points per game in Landmark action. Its wins during the current stretch have all been decisive, with the team posting all six wins by at least 10 points. In fact, the Crusaders have had only one Landmark game decided by less than 10 points. Juniata is also riding a six-game win streak, and could clinch a postseason spot with two wins or a win and a Catholic loss. Juniata ranks amongst the best teams in the nation in knocking down three-point shots, hitting more than seven threes per game, but the team only has two players in the top-10 in the conference in threes per game. Eagles are 3-1 in conference road games on the year and are averaging nearly 70 points per game in those contests. Juniata can shoot the three and Scranton can defend the three as the Royals rank in the top-20 in DIII in three-point field goal percentage defense. Scranton just needs one win over the weekend to secure a postseason spot and would also go a long way to clinching one of the top-2 seeds. Reigning Landmark Player of the Year Megan Kopecki continues her strong play as she leads the conference in scoring, steals and three-point field goal percentage, and is second in assists and field goal percentage. Like Susquehanna, Scranton has not played many tight games in conference, with only one being decided by less than 10 points. The same can be said of Moravian which will have to shake off the rust of a nearly half-month layoff when it puts its 13-game win streak on the line. Moravian has had only one Landmark game decided by less than 10, a five-point win at Juniata. If the Greyhounds are in a close game, their strength at the foul line should be in their favor as the team leads NCAA DIII in free throw percentage at nearly 77-percent. One win over the weekend secures a postseason bid, and two wins would assure a top-two seed.

Catholic/Goucher at Drew/USMMA: Four teams looking to turn around recent woes including one that still maintains a shot at the postseason will face off in these matchups. Catholic can still fight its way into the postseason if it gets some help from other teams, but the Cardinals will need to snap their current slide and shake off rust from not having played since January 30. The inside duo of Jenny McGann and Jill Woerner have provided a nice complement to Landmark leading scorer Brianna Peterson, as both of the pair rank in the top-10 in field goal percentage and one of the two is also top-10 in scoring, rebounding and blocks. Goucher is trying to earn its first Landmark road wins of the season on this trip, and its tough defense will lock up with some of the other toughest defenses in the conference. Goucher’s setback against Scranton earlier in the week featured some history, with senior Amber Smith becoming the ninth player in the history of the program to go over 1,000 career points. She finished with eight points in the game, and is currently seventh in scoring, third in rebounding, third in steals and fifth in blocks in the conference. Drew will try and finish the conference season strong with three-straight home games, and earning two wins would guarantee a winning record for the season. Finding offense remains the key for the Rangers as the team is 6-1 when it hits the 65-point mark in a game. Some of that scoring can come from outside, where the Rangers have knocked down the third-most three pointers in conference competition, burying 57 in 11 games. The Rangers also share the ball, ranking fourth in assists, but have had issues with turnovers. In the three Landmark games they’ve been under 20 turnovers, the Rangers are 2-1. USMMA has been able to capture two non-conference wins in February, but hasn’t had it translate to Landmark action, despite a close game at Juniata last weekend. The Mariners limited a foe to just 19 points in a non-conference win this week, the third lowest point total allowed since Landmark play began. Emily Meehan scored 16 points in the win, while Rebecca Grimes added 12. Grimes has been extremely consistent in Landmark play, ranking fourth in scoring while knocking down a Landmark best 24 three pointers and shooting better than 38-percent from three-point range.

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2/11/2010 -- 3:06 p.m.

Basketball Odds & Ends

It's been quiet here in blog land...a mini vacation for your faithful blogger and then some snow washing out much competition. But I'm back now, and hopefully better than ever. At some point I'll provide some thoughts on the Swimming & Diving Championships (you can read a longer preview here) but for now, I wanted to do a quick hit post on some NCAA basketball tidbits. Namely, updates on NCAA Regional Rankings and NCAA Stat leaders.

With that unnecessarily long lead-in, the NCAA released its second Regional Rankings for men's and women's basketball earlier this week. And three Landmark teams found their way into the rankings.

On the men's side, conference leaders USMMA currently sit in second in the Atlantic Region. The Mariners are 17-4 in-region and 18-4 overall on the year.

In women's action, the two teams atop the standings are both in good position in the Mid-Atlantic Region. Moravian holds the top spot in the region with an overal mark of 18-2 and a 17-2 in-region record, while Scranton is fifth in the region with its 15-3 regional record and 17-3 overall.

Meanwhile the NCAA statistics report also includes several Landmark teams and individuals.

For the men there are several teams in the top-20 in Division III
USMMA men are fifth in Division III in scoring defense and are 11th in scoring margin. The Mariners are also in the top-20 in three-point field goals made sitting in 18th. Finally, Scranton holds a spot in the top-20 in free-throw percentage with a mark of 76%. The only individual in the top-20 is Juniata's Jeff Berkey, whose 45% shooting from three-point range is eighth in the nation.

On the women's side Moravian's impressive season has the Greyhounds in the top-10 in several categories. The team is first in free throw percentage, second in scoring offense, 12th in scoring margin, 14th in won-lost percentage, fifth in blocked shots per game and 11th in turnover margin. Juniata and Scranton each are also in the top-20 with Juniata ranking second in three-point field goals per game, and Scranton ranked 13th in field-goal percentage defense. Two individuals have found themselves in the top-20 as Drew's Danielle Barber is 12th in assists per game, and USMMA's Rebecca Grimes is 14th in three-point field goal percentage.

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2/4/2010 -- 10:13 a.m.

Weekend Preview

Many apologies again for being unable to give you pictures of my smiling face with a video preview, but time simply didn't allow it. But I would not let a weekend of basketball go by without inundating you with many, many words on the upcoming basketball games.

Men's Basketball:
Scranton/Moravian at Goucher/Catholic: Scranton and Moravian both hit the road, and each is trying to find some road success after collecting most of its conference wins at home. The Scranton at Catholic matchup features two teams trying to stay in postseason position with the Cardinals currently tied for the Landmark lead and the Royals in third. Scranton will try to match its home success on the road as the team is 5-0 in home Landmark games, 1-3 on the road. The Royals feature arguably the most potent inside/outside punch in the Landmark with the pair of Zach Ashworth and Eli Londo 1st and 4th in conference in scoring at 23.5 and 14.5 points in conference play. For Moravian, the team is trying to snap six-game Landmark losing skid, having dropped last three series. Despite the struggles the Greyhounds keep playing defense, limited Drew to 54 points and held USMMA to 72, its third lowest total in Landmark play. Moravian is fourth in field goal percentage defense a total which is helped by Blake English who is third in Landmark contest in blocks. Goucher split its road trip last week locking themselves into fifth in the standings which keeps them in the postseason hunt. The Gophers have won opening game of Landmark weekends in three of four series this year. Gophers are relying on balanced offense with three players averaging between 11.9 and 8.4 points in conference games. Catholic is rolling along after a road trip sweep last weekend, wins that improved it to 7-2 in the Landmark. Jason Banzhaf earned Player of Week recognition for the 2nd time this year by posting back-to-back double-double. His four double-doubles on the year are fourth in conference and all four have come in conference games. Cardinals are just 4-7 against the Moravian/Scranton combination, including 1-5 record against Scranton.

Drew/USMMA at Susquehanna/Juniata: The other conference leader USMMA also hits the road as does recently hot Drew with big games at Susquehanna and Juniata. The USMMA at Susquehanna contest is a rematch of Landmark semifinal from last year, won by Susquehanna. Mariners went 1-1 on the road last weekend, but have been dominant in conference games overall with a 16.7 point margin of victory, and the Mariners are first in both scoring offense and scoring defense. The team leads in scoring despite ranking in the bottom half of the conference in field-goal percentage. Team is helped by best turnover margin and accurate long-range shooting led by Chad Ray who is shooting a remarkable 62-percent from 3-point range in Landmark games. It was an historic recent stretch of success for Drew, going 1-1 last week in Landmark games, and put together the second three-game win streak in nine seasons. The Rangers beat local rival Montclair State for the first time since 1945, and earned a win at Moravian for the first time since 1998. Though the team is the lowest scoring in conference it has had some strong individual scoring performances of late with a 20-plus point scorer in last three. Mike Mayes had 28 and 21 points in games last week, and Joe Horvath had 27 against Moravian. Susquehanna will try to regain home mojo after suffering its first ever home Landmark regular season loss, but the Crusaders are still 6-1 at home on the year. Team got two huge performances from Marcus Burke who dominated on the boards to the tune of a 12 rebound game and a 18 rebound 19-point game. The 18-rebound game, has helped team move to 4th in Landmark rebounding, and 3rd in offensive rebounds. Juniata is in near must-win mode as the Eagles are in the midst of four-game slide, including two losses at home last weekend. Juniata will need to rediscover its offense, after ranking among conference leaders in scoring for most of the year the team has averaged 53 points during current streak. Juniata has still been accurate from three-point range, shooting 39-percent in Landmark action, tops in conference. Juniata has three players shooting better than 40-percent from deep in Landmark competition.

Women's Basketball:
Moravian/Scranton at Catholic/Goucher: The two top teams in the conference hit the road trying to secure postseason berths while Goucher/Catholic try and continue a push to the postseason. Moravian can clinch a postseason berth with win over Catholic and are riding 13-game win streak. Remarkable offensive balance has been the story in conference play, with the team scoring 83.2 points per game and six players averaging between 11.1 and 9.2 points per game. Reigning Landmark Player of Week Alexandra Blair currently ranks in the top-12 in scoring, rebounding, field-goal percentage, and blocked shots in conference play. Scranton swept a series last weekend and is still unbeaten in Landmark play in games played after Christmas, now 38-0 including postseason wins. Royals are getting it done with defense, holding opponent to 34-percent shooting and forcing more than 20 turnovers per game, and leading 1.02 assist/turnover ratio. Scranton has the 2nd and 3rd ranked players in conference assists in Megan Kopecki and Ryan Mooney. Catholic trying to turn things around after opening conference play 4-0 and now sitting 4-5. Its first Landmark loss was a two-point setback to Drew since then the losses have all by at least 22 points. The Cardinals have seen a downtick in their defense as in 12 wins they’ve limited foes to 32 percent shooting, compared to 39 percent in their losses. Catholic has been strong at home, 8-3 overall, 4-1 in Landmark. Goucher trying to find ways to pull out tight games as the team keeps playing low scoring games but has been unable to pull out victories. Gophers have held five of nine Landmark foes under 60 points, have not been able to take advantage. Goucher is forcing the third-most turnovers in Landmark games helped by Amber Smith and Kiara Doughty who both in top-10 in Landmark in steals per game.

USMMA/Drew at Juniata/Susquehanna: These matchups feature two teams trying to get back on the winning track hitting the road to face two teams riding four-game conference win streaks. The current win streaks for Juniata and Susquehanna began with road trips to face these two teams. USMMA’s one Landmark win came on the road, and the team will look to fight its way back into postseason contention. The Mariners have had consistent production from the inside/outside duo of Rebecca Grimes and Janay Weathers. Grimes is fourth in scoring in Landmark games, while Weathers has been the top rebounder in the conference and added another 18 boards in a midweek non-conference win. Drew gets a chance to move up the standings with games against the two teams directly ahead of it. Drew has also earned both its conference wins in road games, boasting a 2-3 Landmark road record. The Rangers have maintained an efficient offense with the team ranking fourth in the conference with 13 assists per game, led by Danielle Barber whose 6.33 assists per game is tops in the conference, and would be a Landmark single-season record if she can maintain the pace. Susquehanna has reeled off four-straight Landmark wins on the strength of stifling defense. The Crusaders have held their last five opponents to 60 points or fewer, and are surrendering just 55 points in Landmark contests. Susquehanna has a perfect 5-0 record against Drew, but is below .500 against USMMA in Landmark action. Juniata is also riding a four-game Landmark win streak, which is its longest streak of the season. Prior to the current stretch the Eagles had not put together more than two consecutive wins. Juniata excelled offensively in the non-conference season, but has turned up the defense in conference play allowing four fewer points per game during Landmark play compared to non-conference play. Juniata is 8-1 in Landmark play against Drew and USMMA, which matches its best record against any Landmark travel partner pair.

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2/1/2010 -- 7:53 a.m.

Morning Round-up

Happy February everyone. In the Landmark the new month suggests that we are beginning to wind down the regular season for our winter sports, and believe it or not (and based on the weather this past weekend, I choose to not believe it) spring sports are just around the corner. Let's take a look at some of the highlights from this weekend.

-- I'm not sure what more there is to say about the Moravian and Scranton women's basketball teams, as both swept two-game series to remain in position atop the standings. One week after setting a Landmark record for points, the Greyhounds topped it with a 108-point effort in a win over Drew. Meanwhile Scranton maintained its remarkable run of never losing a Landmark game in the months of January and February.

-- Elsewhere the home teams dominated the women's schedule, with the four home teams all collecting two wins, and thus moving into the top four spots in the standings. For Juniata Jen Hnatuck passed the 600 rebound mark for her career, while Susquehanna used a pair of stellar defensive efforts to win.

-- Catholic moved into a tie atop the men's basketball standings by sweeping its pair of road games. Three straight road wins for the Cardinals have moved them to 7-2 and a tie with USMMA. Jason Banzhaf put together back-to-back double-doubles in wins over Susquehanna and Juniata.

-- Scranton continued to defend its home court by winning a pair of home games. The Royals are 10-2 at home overall on the year, and 5-0 in Landmark competition.

-- Susquehanna's Marcus Burke matched his earlier single-season high by grabbing 18 rebounds in a win over Goucher. Don't worry, I'll be revisiting my single-game high meaningless predictions soon.

-- Landmark swim teams concluded their regular seasons and will now start resting up in preparation for the Landmark Championships Feb. 12-14. Juniata picked up the first win of Lauren O'Donnell's career by defeating Hood as part of a tri-meet. Meanwhile the Scranton women completed its fourth undefeated regular season in program history by defeating Drew.

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1/28/2010 -- 5:11 p.m.

Basketball Weekend Preview

My sincere apologies for yet another lengthy written preview. I'm sure you all are just devastated to not have the chance to watch me stiffly try and preview games on camera, but I still haven't solved our technology difficulties. I hope to have some new video content for you next week, but until then, I hope you all will accept this overly wordy written previews for this weeekend's Landmark basketball action.

Men's Basketball:
Catholic/Goucher at Juniata/Susquehanna: Catholic and Goucher are both on the road for the second straight weekend while Juniata and Susquehanna return home after road trips last weekend. Catholic came away with a split last week and currently sits in second in the conference standings. The central Pennsylvania teams had been tough for the Cardinals prior to this season, as they were 2-6 overall against Juniata and Susquehanna. The Cardinals rank in the top half of the conference team stats in virtually every category, while junior Jason Banzhaf is third in scoring and second in rebounding. Goucher topped both Juniata and Susquehanna earlier this season, giving it two of its three Landmark wins, and its first Landmark win ever against the Crusaders. The Gophers continue to play tough defense, holding foes to 41-percent shooting for the season, the third-best total in the conference, and in Landmark play that number drops to 38-percent. Susquehanna is 4-3 in the conference and earned one road win last weekend to stay in the top half of the standings. In its win over Drew last week, senior Bryan Majors became the Susquehanna career leader in steals with 231. His 106 steals since Landmark play began is also the conference career record, by a sizeable margin. The return home for Juniata is a welcome one as the Eagles are 3-0 in Landmark home games, and 0-4 on the road in conference. The primary difference has been on the offensive end where Juniata is scoring 67 points per game in home conference games and 56 on the road in conference.

Drew/USMMA at Moravian/Scranton: Some intriguing games as the conference leader faces some tough road tests. USMMA has been rolling in conference play, as the team’s nearly 20-point scoring margin in conference action is tops in the Landmark. It’s been just as much about defense for the Mariners who have allowed only 55.4 points per game in their seven Landmark games, and has allowed opponents to shoot just 38-percent from the field. But the Mariners are playing just their second set of road games this year, where historically USMMA is 9-7 in two-plus years of Landmark play. Drew is also playing its best basketball of the season, having won three of its last four games, including a Landmark win over Juniata and a midweek overtime win over Montclair State. Mike Mayes scored a career-high 28 in the win over Montclair, while Kyle Joyce has been hot from long-range for the Rangers, going 8-of-13 from distance in the last three games. The Rangers will try and make some team history as they are a combined 0-10 against Scranton and Moravian since Landmark play began. Scranton boasts probably the hottest individual scorer in the conference as he is averaging more than 24 points per game in Landmark action, compared to 17 in non-conference games. The Royals got two much-needed wins last weekend, moving them into a tie for third. Eli Londo has seen his production explode in his senior season as he raised his scoring, and rebounding averages from 6.6/3.3in his junior year to 13.2/7.0 in his senior season. This is a big weekend for Moravian which needs to start making a move in the standings if it has any designs on a postseason berth. The good news for the Greyhounds is that they are 7-3 in Landmark games against Drew and USMMA and has not dropped a conference game against either team at home. Shooting efficiency has not been a problem for Moravian in conference outings as the team ranks third in field goal percentage and second in free throw percentage in Landmark games, but the Greyhounds have limited those offensive chances with turnovers as they’ve committed the most turnovers in Landmark competition.

Women's Basketball:
Drew/USMMA at Moravian/Scranton: Two teams coming off tough home stands in Drew and USMMA face the tough task of facing nationally-ranked foes Scranton and Moravian on the road. USMMA earned a nice non-conference win during the week to get back in the win column, knocking off rival Coast Guard. Rebecca Grimes had 25 points in the win, the fifth time she’s topped 20 points this season. USMMA has not beaten Scranton in Landmark play, but is one of only two teams with a winning Landmark record against Moravian. Drew sits at 2-5 in the Landmark standings after dropping two games last weekend. Finding the offense may be the key for Drew after being held to 55 and 53 points this past weekend. The Rangers are 6-0 on the season when they score 63 points or more and are 9-2 when they hold opponents to 65 points or fewer. The Rangers are scoring the nearly same number of points in Landmark games, but have allowed almost 14 more points per game. Offense has not been a problem for Moravian which enters the game on an 11-game winning streak and has scored 70 or more points in all 11 wins, while topping 80 seven times, and going over 90 three times. The Greyhounds are currently 8th in NCAA Division III in scoring average. While balanced play has been a key for Moravian, Kirsty Stearns is averaging 11.1 points, 7.6 rebounds and 1.86 blocks per game in Landmark action, which all rank in the top-10. Scranton had its win streak snapped against 16th-ranked Messiah in midweek, but the Royals have still won six straight Landmark games to sit in second in the standings. Defense has been a staple for Scranton in its previous two Landmark title runs, and the Royals once again lead the conference in scoring defense, allowing under 60 points per game both for the year and in Landmark games. Junior Megan Kopecki has spearheaded that defense with 18 steals in seven Landmark games, while Ryan Mooney has added 15 steals in seven contests.

Goucher/Catholic at Juniata/Susquehanna: Big games for all four teams as three of the four are right in the middle of the conference standings, and the other can’t afford to fall too far off the pace. After a 4-0 start to the conference year, Catholic has dropped two straight, but two of those four wins came against Juniata and Susquehanna. However the team has struggled on the road in previous years, going 5-11 overall on the road in Landmark games. In the team’s four Landmark wins it has allowed 53 points per game, compared to 81 in the three losses. At 1-6 in the conference Goucher needs to find some wins quickly to get back into the postseason chase. Goucher’s scoring defense ranks second in Landmark playing allowing only 58 points per game, but the team is scoring just 52 points. The Gophers need to find ways to pull out close Landmark games as three of their losses have been by 10 or fewer points, and two of them by five or fewer, including a five-point loss to Susquehanna. Susquehanna brings momentum into the weekend after a sweep of USMMA and Drew on the road last weekend. The Crusaders may be able to take advantage of their strength on the glass as they have a +4 rebounding margin in the conference, and both Jessica Zigarelli and Samantha Cartwright rank in the top-10 in rebounding in conference games. The Crusaders have outrebounded their foes in all three of their Landmark wins. Juniata has been even better on the glass after also collecting a road trip sweep last weekend to move to 4-2 in conference play. When they aren’t hitting the boards Juniata is hitting from three-point range as the team’s 8.1 made three pointers per game ranks second in NCAA Division III. Juniata has three players shooting 33-percent or better from deep, and six players who are knocking down better than one three pointer per game.

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1/28/2010 -- 12:02 a.m.

Late Night Round-Up

Once again mixing up my format, and going with a quick recap of the day's action before heading to bed. Just trying to keep all my blog readers on their toes. Two games this evening, and one win.

-- A career night from Mike Mayes helped the Drew men's basketball team knock off Montclair State in overtime in non-conference action. Mayes scored a career-high 28 points, including a free throw in the final seconds to send the game to overtime. The loss was the first home non-conference loss suffered by Montclair State on the season, and gave Drew three wins in its last four contests.

-- The other game of the night featured a battle of nationally-ranked teams as Scranton women's hoops fell to 14th-ranked Messiah. The loss snapped Scranton's 10-game win streak, and came despite the first career double-double from Tayler Pallotta.

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1/27/2010 -- 12:35 a.m.

(Early) Morning Round-up

I'm up late enjoying some Australian Open tennis, so what better time to check in with the results from a night of non-conference hoops.

-- It was a night of snapped losing streaks as both the Moravian men and USMMA women ended losing skids. The Mariner women bounced back after dropping two Landmark games over the weekend and dealt rival Coast Guard 67-63, while Moravian halted a four-game slide with a road win over Kean. Rebecca Grimes scored 25 points to help the Mariners overcome a 25-point difference at the foul line to earn the victory. Meanwhile, Moravian came out on top despite shooting 3-of-19 from three-point range. Moravian was 3-of-19 on three-point shots, and 17-of-30 on two-point attempts, and forced Kean into 26 turnovers.

-- Meanwhile, ho hum, the Moravian women picked up their 11th-straight win, piling up 97 points in a win over Alvernia. It was the eighth time this season the Greyhounds have scored at least 80 points, and the third time they've gone over 90. The three 90-point games ties the Landmark record set by the Greyhounds last year, and the mark for 80-plus point games was also Moravian from last season when the team scored 80 or more 10 times.

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1/26/2010 -- 12:52 p.m.

Broken Records

Among my various jobs here in the Landmark office (other than providing remarkably entertaining blog posts) is as the Landmark record keeping. This has been a slightly more difficult task than I anticipated, mostly because there are a lot of moving parts (lots of games, lots of teams, lots of schools). But that hasn't kept me from trying, and hopefully soon there will be some record books available on-line to view.

In the meantime, as I've been preparing the programs for the Swimming & Diving and Indoor Track & Field Championships, I've come across a few Landmark records that were broken during the regular season. I expect there will be quite a few more broken records at those Championship events, yet I wanted to make sure to recognize those that have been topped during the regular season.

Three of the records belong to Susquehanna's Christie Savard, who has established new Landmark records in the 100 backstroke (1:00.02), the 200 IM (2:11.65) and also broke her own Landmark record in the 200 backstroke (2:06.04). The other swimming record breaker is also a member of the Susquehanna women's team as freshman Devin Lessard established a new top time in the 200 Butterfly (2:13.03).

There are still several weeks left in the indoor track & field season before the Championship meet, but that hasn't stopped three competitors from setting new records. Moravian freshman Micah Leonard wasted no time in making her mark on the conference as she broke the existing record in the triple jump in her first meet (11.16-meters). Her teammated Travis King set a new record in the men's triple jump this past weekend at the Susquehanna Orange & Maroon Classic (13.85-meters). That was not the only record broken at the meet as senior Paul Thistle topped his own mark in the mile which he set in the first season of Landmark competition (4:20.82).

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1/26/2010 -- 7:29 a.m.

Morning Round-up

One team in action on a Monday night and it was the conference-leading Mariners of USMMA who shot a blistering 61-percent from the field in the second half to turn an 11-point halftime edge into a 30-point victory over CCNY. While shooting 46-percent for the game themselves, USMMA held the home team to 29-percent shooting and forced 16 turnovers. Matt Hueber provided his conference-leading eighth double-double of the year with 12 points and 12 rebounds.

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1/25/2009 -- 7:51 a.m.

Morning Round-up

All sorts of things happening this weekend as we reach the halfway point of the conference basketball season, swimming & diving hits the home stretch, and indoor track & field ramps up heading into the conference meet. Here's a quick look at some of the highlights.

-- Milestones aplenty for Moravian women's basketball as the Greyhounds swept two Landmark games to improve to 7-0 in conference, had seniors Kate Harrison and Kirsty Stearns both reach the 1,000-point mark for their careers, and established a new Landmark single-game record with 98 points in a win over Catholic. Busy weekend.

-- The other conference leader also claimed convincing wins as the USMMA men's team protected home court with lopsided wins over Juniata and Susquehanna. The Mariners have one loss at home all season, and in their four home conference games are winning by an average of 22.5 points.

-- Scranton men's and women's hoops picked up two wins apiece, and also had several career days. In a win over Catholic both Zach Ashworth and Eli Londo notched career highs in points (and Londo also made one of my single-game high predictions moot by blocking eight shots), and then Megan Kopecki followed with a career-high performance in a win over Goucher.

-- With Goucher and Catholic earning wins on the road, and Drew claiming a home win over Juniata, the Landmark men's basketball standings tightened up a bit over the weekend. Seven of the eight teams now have at least two wins, and it should be quite a battle heading down the home stretch.

-- In swimming action Susquehanna enjoyed a productive senior day, besting Drew and King's to cap its home schedule. Christie Savard was part of four fastest times on the day while also setting a school record in the 500. Both Crusader teams have eight victories on the season heading into the Landmark Championships.

-- The Scranton swim teams swept Misericordia by comfortable margins. Marc Dezii, Laura Wieland and Carolyn Gillespie were all two event winners for the Royals.

-- Three Landmark teams competed at the Orange & Maroon Classic held at Susquehanna. Paul Thistle showed he enjoys his home track by besting 54 athletes to win the 1-mile race. The Crusader's Caitlin Anderson added a second-place finish in the weight throw. Juniata got two second-place finishes from Angela Shaffer in the high jump and 55-meter hurdles, while Ryan Baird was second in the pole vault. Eric Woodruff, Timothy Layng and Travis King all won events for the Moravian men at the meet while on the women's side Anna Heim, Symonne Scott and Brittany Moses also all captured event victories.

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1/22/2009 -- 12:43 p.m.

Let Us Not Ignore The Swimmers

After writing many, many words about basketball yesterday afternoon, I thought I should make sure the swimmers get their due today. Six of the seven Landmark teams will be in dual or tri-meet competition this weekend in what will be the ultimate, or penultimate competition prior to the Landmark Championships, which take place Feb. 12-14 at USMMA.

Rather than look specifically at the meets this weekend, I wanted to provide a (very) brief preview of the Championships with less than a month to go. Please note that this is not supposed to be all encompassing, but rather some quick hit thoughts on the Championship. A more detailed preview will come out in the weeks ahead.

-- The preseason polls predicted that last year's team champions (USMMA men; Scranton women) would defend their titles. So far, there has been little to suggest they won't enter the meet as the favorites. The Scranton women are unbeaten in dual meets, while USMMA has lost just once and holds the majority of the top times during the regular season.

-- The likliest challengers to each team may reside in Selinsgrove where both the Susquehanna men and women look strong. Christie Savard holds several of the fastest times in a variety of events, while the same can be said for Chadd Lee on the men's side.

-- Defending event champions Britt Hogstrom of Goucher and Lisa Brooks of Catholic have had strong seasons, and will look to become three-time event champions at the meet this season. Hogstrom's push could be particularly challenging as the field in the sprints looks very deep.

-- Georgi Shalamanov of Goucher had a strong meet last season, and looks poised for an even more productive one this season. His name is scattered throughout the Top Times list in a variety of events and could earn significant points for the Gophers.

-- Drew, USMMA and Juniata have finished fifth, sixth and seventh, in that order, in the women's championships the previous two seasons, but all three seem improved particularly in terms of depth this season. I'm not quite sure if that will translate to a change in the standings this year, but it wouldn't shock me. Casey Moore has stood out for the Mariners this year, with Kati Eggert proving valuable for Drew and Lindsay Cooper looking like the biggest contributor for Juniata.

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1/21/2009 -- 5:35 p.m.

Weekend Preview

Still experiencing some technical difficulties here in the Landmark Office, so for another week you will have to deal with a way too long written preview for the upcoming weekend of Landmark basketball. After this weekend's set of games, we will officially be halfway through the conference season, and as someone once said (I can't remember who said this) for some of these teams, it's getting late early. I also mentioned in an early blog post this year, just about all the Landmark teams are now providing either live stats, live audio, or live video for basketball games. I'm not going to dig up all the links for you, but if you're trying to follow your favorite team, I suggest checking the host website at game time.

Women's Basketball:

Juniata/Susquehanna at Drew/USMMA: A key weekend series for all four teams as each finds itself at least one game under .500 and can’t afford to fall too far off the pace with half the season left. Susquehanna and Juniata both were both swept last weekend, while Drew came away with one win from the weekend. Juniata holds a 7-1 record against these two Landmark foes, with the only loss an overtime setback at Drew last season. The Eagles are the second-highest scoring team in the conference, and behind the Landmark leader in double-doubles Jen Hnatuck, the team is also first in rebounding margin. Susquehanna is trying to put a stop to a three-game losing skid in which finding offense has been the difficulty as the team has been held to 55 points or fewer in each of the three losses. Helping that offense is the team’s ability to get to the offensive glass, where the Crusaders rank second in Landmark play. The Crusaders have split the four previous games on this Landmark trip, winning and losing once at each venue. Drew’s Danielle Barber made some history and helped the Rangers earn a critical win last week as her buzzer-beater at Catholic capped the Landmark’s first triple-double. The sophomore ranks in the top-15 in the Landmark in virtually every category, and is either first or second in the conference in points, assists and steals. The action this weekend will be just the sixth and seventh home games for the Rangers, who are 3-2 in their own gym. USMMA picked up a midweek win to stop a three-game slide and bring some momentum into this contest. Janay Weathers nabbed a double-double with 19 points and 11 rebounds, the fifth time in the last six games she has pulled down at least 10 rebounds. Sixty-one points has been a magic number for the Mariners this year with the team posting a 6-1 record when they hold foes to 61 points or fewer.

Goucher/Catholic at Moravian/Scranton: There are three Landmark teams with conference records above .500, and all three will be in action in this series of games. Scranton and Catholic are both sitting at 4-1 while Moravian is a perfect 5-0 in Landmark play and Goucher secured its first Landmark win last weekend. The Gophers are looking for their first Landmark win over Moravian or Scranton but have continued to play stifling defense in Landmark play. The Gophers held Drew to 50 points in their conference win, marking the eighth time this season they’ve held an opponent to 60 points or fewer. The Gophers harassed the Rangers into 35 turnovers in the contest. Catholic was a Drew buzzer beater away from making this trip with an unblemished conference record, but the Cardinals have still won five of six after a win this week. The road will be a bit unfamiliar to the team, as this will be just their third and fourth true road games of the year, though they are 4-1 in road or neutral games. Defense has also been a key for the Cardinals as they have the stingiest defense in Landmark play, allowing only 55.6 points per game, with freshman Jill Woerner ranking fourth in steals. Scranton seems to be in the midst of its usual conference surge with the Royals riding an eight-game winning streak. Scranton has been relying on bench scoring after suffering some injury woes and saw its bench score at least 24 points in each of the last three wins, including 42 points in a win over Juniata. Moravian will play its first home Landmark game of the season on Friday, and will do so with an eight-game win streak on the line. The Greyhounds are 7-1 against the combination of Catholic and Goucher, but last season suffered their first conference loss of the year against Catholic. Moravian showed remarkable balance in its two Landmark wins last weekend as five different players averaged between 12.5 and 10.5 points per game over the two-game sweep. Moravian has won its Landmark games by an average of nearly 20 points per game.

Men's Basketball:

Catholic/Goucher at Scranton/Moravian: The host teams are badly in need of victories as both were swept in road trips last weekend, while Goucher also came away empty in two games and Catholic swept a pair of contests. The Catholic at Scranton contest is a rematch of a thrilling Landmark semifinal last season, in which Scranton rallied late to prevail in overtime and eventually earn the Landmark title. This weekend will be just the fifth and sixth true road games of the season for the Cardinals, who are 9-1 at home, but just 2-2 in road games and 1-1 in neutral sites. Goucher was unable to follow up on its two wins from the previous weekend but will try and rebound this week. The Gophers have the fourth ranked defense in the conference, and bumps up to third in the Landmark in conference games. Trae Lindsay anchors that defense as he has turned away nine shots in Landmark play to rank second in blocks per game. Moravian will play its first Landmark home game of the season after opening with five on the road. Three of its four wins have been at home, which suggests it can still make a charge towards the postseason. Chris Cullen has emerged over the past few weeks for the Greyhounds as he is averaging 15 points and eight rebounds in Landmark competition. Scranton looks to snap a three-game losing skid. The two road losses last week marked just the second time the Royals have dropped both games of the Landmark road trip. Scranton has been unable to cool off opponents shooting as the team ranks eighth in opponent field-goal percentage, with foes hitting 46-percent from the floor, compared to 43-percent for the season as a whole.

Juniata/Susquehann at Drew/USMMA: The central Pennsylvania teams make the long trip East to tangle with Drew and USMMA. All four teams come in with some momentum as USMMA and Drew both earned one road win last weekend, while Susquehanna and Juniata each went 2-0 and are above .500 in the standings. With back-to-back home weekends following this one, wins for either road team would bolster its postseason chances. Juniata has been on fire from long range all season, and it has picked up in Landmark play with the team burying 46-percent of its long-range attempts. Jeff Berkey leads the Landmark in three-point shooting, and is third in scoring in Landmark games. The road should be familiar for Susquehanna, which has played 11 of its 16 games either on the road or at neutral sites, and are 4-6 in those games. The Crusaders have fared well against Drew and USMMA, with a record of 6-3 against them, and they entered this season as the only Landmark team with a winning record against USMMA. The Mariners, meanwhile have won nine of 10 and bounced back from a loss to Catholic with a win over Goucher. Beginning last season, USMMA has gone 9-1 in its last 10 Landmark home games, including a perfect 3-0 record this season. The team has outscored its opponents by almost 20 points in its nine home games this season, shooting 44-percent from the field in the process. Drew picked up its first Landmark win of the year last weekend, and captured a non-conference win in midweek to earn its fourth win. Drew has wins over both Juniata and Susquehanna in its home gym over the past two seasons, and has three of its four wins at home this year. The duo of Terrell Brown and Mike Mayes are handling most of the scoring for the Rangers as the pair is averaging 27 points per game in Landmark play, more than half of Drew’s 51 points per game.

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1/21/2009 -- 7:28 a.m.

Morning Round-up

Only one game on the schedule last night, and it was a win for the Landmark (giving the conference four straight non-conference wins).

USMMA fought past NY City Tech to earn a 71-65 win. The leading rebounder in th Landmark Janay Weathers grabbed 11 boards and scored 19 points for the double-double as USMMA shot 45-percent from the field. The Mariners boast a solid 5-3 record in non-conference games. The Mariners have been strong in non-conference action since the Landmark began, as their 5-3 mark this season gives them a non-conference record of 20-11 over two-plus seasons.

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1/20/2009 -- 5:13 p.m.

Meaningless Predictions

In my blog this morning, I mentioned that Scranton's Sarah Gage was two rebounds shy of the Landmark single-game rebounding high for this season. For no other reason than the fact that I've spent most of my afternoon typing up track & field and swimming rosters, I thought it would be fun to list a few of the single-game highs from hoops this season, and then predict whether or not they will be bested over the coming month. In an even more futile attempt to predict things, if I do believe the mark will be topped, I'll say who I think will top it. So let's play our game! By the way, you can find this info here and here.

Men's Basketball:
Points: 37, Spenser Spencer of Susquehanna. The way he has been scoring of late, I think Zach Ashworth of Scranton will top this before the year is out.
Rebounds: 17, Marcus Burke of Susquehanna. USMMA seems to get a lot of rebounds, so I'm going with their top rebounder Matt Hueber to reach 18.
Assists: 10, Bryan Majors of Susquehanna. I think this one is safe. No double-digit assist games coming up.
Three Pointers Made: 7, Jeff Berkey of Juniata. Seven is a lot, and I don't see anyone getting to eight. But I do smell another seven coming...so I'm going to push.
Steals: 7, Cody Otto of Catholic. I think this one is safe as well.
Blocks: 7, Lucas Levenson of Drew. That is also a bunch, but Trae Lindsay of Goucher has blocked one or more in the last six games, including four against Drew. I think he doubles that and gets to eight.

Women's Basketball:
Points: 36, Brianna Peterson of Catholic. Too much of a premium on defense in the conference season for anyone to best this number.
Rebounds: 17, Katarina Owunna of Catholic. Also a big number, but keep an eye on Jen Hnatuck from Juniata. She's second in the Landmark in rebounding and leads the conference in double-doubles. I think she has one big rebound game in her.
Assists: 11, Ryan Mooney of Scranton. I can see someone getting to 10 (in fact, Drew's Danielle Barber did it just this past Sunday) but my crystal ball doesn't go to 11.
Three Pointers Made: 7, Rebecca Grimes of USMMA. My instinct was to push again here, but I'm going with Scranton's Jennifer King. She's hit 28 on the year, and the Royals have played only one home conference game. The comforts of home will get her to eight.
Steals: 7, Brooke Piccillo of USMMA. I'm wimping out and saying someone will match this, but not beat it. In fact, I'm going to say that Piccillo herself will match it, just so I take a bit of a stand.
Blocks: 6, Jill Woerner of Catholic. The freshman swatted six shots against Stevenson, and I think it will be one of the legacies of a fine first season for her. This one won't be topped.

So there you have it, completely unnecessary predictions that likely won't come true. And if I'm wrong, feel free to mock me. Though I must also point out, these are for entertainment only as the NCAA and the Landmark have strict rules on wagering.

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1/20/2009 -- 7:39 a.m.

Morning Round-up

Three non-conference games, three non-conference wins for Landmark basketball teams last night. Which leaves lots of good things to blog about this morning.

-- Sarah Gage came off the bench to post her first career double-double with 15 points and 15 rebounds. Those 15 rebounds are two shy of the Landmark single-game high (and are approximately 13 more than my single-game high). Playing only three reserves, the Royals got 25 points from those three players to help in the win over Baruch.

-- Drew men's hoops picked up its second win in three games, dispatching Vaughn 80-58. It was the first 80-point scoring night of the season for the Rangers, and just the third time this year the group has topped 75 points. They did it by shooting a season-best 53-percent from the floor.

-- Catholic women's basketball also enjoyed a season-high as the Cardinals poured in 91 points to handle Trinity (D.C.). Though Cathlic has the leading scorer in the Landmark, the team is third in points per game, and fifth in scoring in Landmark games. Last night's 91 point outburst topped its previous high for points by 13.

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1/18/2009 -- 3:14 p.m.

Home Records

Fairly often, this job will surprise me. As I write the weekly press release every Sunday and Monday, I do my best to find interesting information about each team, in particular I look for things that might not be readily available, or that are helpful in explaining a teams' success. I will be the first to admit, I don't always hit the mark as it's challenging to keep track of what programs at eight different institutions are doing. As such, as I'm researching, I will often find facts that surprise me. This morning was certainly one of those times, when after a little bit of digging, I realized that the Susquehanna men's basketball team has yet to lose a Landmark regular-season game at home.

Maybe this isn't quite as earth-shattering as it seems to me, and it's possible that I was just reacting to my joy and finding (what seemed to me to be) a genuinely interesting tidbit. Yet as you can guess, it sparked my curiosity to see if other Landmark teams in other sports have similarly unblemished home conference records. So as to not burn out on research, I'm going to start with the fall season, and then move on to others tomorrow. I'm also starting with winter sports with the caveat that I will do swimming & diving tomorrow, because that is a bit harder to check.

Women's Basketball: None. Moravian was a perfect 7-0 last season, and actually has not played a Landmark home game yet this season. Scranton was also 7-0 at home last year, but lost once in 2007-08 and is 0-1 at home in Landmark action this year.

Men's Basketball: None (other than Susquehanna). Scranton was a perfect 7-0 last year, and is 1-0 this year, but the Royals dropped two games at home in 2007-08. USMMA is 3-0 this year, and were 6-1 a year ago, proving they are also tough at home.

Men's Soccer: Drew men's soccer has also proved to be tough to beat at home during the regular season. The Rangers are 10-0 in Landmark regular season games played in Madison.

Field Hockey: Catholic field hockey has protected its home field to the tune of a 9-0 record in Landmark home regular season contests.

Women's Soccer: Since I asked the question as whether a team has gone unbeaten at home, we will include Moravian women's soccer which is 8-0-1 in Landmark home regular season games.

The research suggests it isn't quite as rare as I might have thought, but it's also worth noting that basketball plays twice as many conference games as the other sports listed. It's also interesting to note that of the teams listed, only Moravian women's soccer has used that unblemished record to claim a Landmark Championship, which the team did in 2008. And in fact, each of the other teams listed have all lost postseason Landmark contests on their home field, with the exception of Moravian.

 

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1/18/2009 -- 7:38 a.m.

Morning Round-up

It's been another inexcusable delay in my blogging, but I'm back once again, and ready to provide information and maybe the occasional insight as the winter sports season plows forward. There was a lot happening this weekend, and I'll try and briefly sum it up.

-- Dealing with nationally-ranked Scranton and Moravian in back-to-back games has proved to be a difficult task as the two teams swept another Landmark weekend to stay near the top of the standings. The teams defeated Susquehanna and Juniata over the weekend and Moravian remains the only unbeaten Landmark team, while Scranton has still never lost to a Landmark opponent not named Moravian.

-- In men's hoops, the home teams fared much better as Catholic, Juniata and Susquehanna all went 2-0 over the weekend on their home courts. Through 20 games this season, the home team is 15-5 in Landmark men's basketball action.

-- The conference had another player reach the 1,000-point mark over the weekend, with Scranton's Zach Ashworth earning that honor against Susquehanna. He scored 28 in a losing effort, including going a perfect 12-for-12 from the foul line.

-- Drew's Danielle Barber turned in arguably the best all-around game in Landmark history as she posted the first triple-double in conference history, and also nailed a buzzer-beating three to push Drew past Catholic. The sophomore scored 21 points along with 10 rebounds and 10 assists. She also picked up four steals.

-- There was also plenty of swimming action over the weekend, including the Goucher women's team sweeping Drew and USMMA to close the regular season at .500 in dual meets. Senionr Britt Hogstrom won a pair of individual events in her final regualar-season meet.

-- Elsewhere, Scranton continued to roll as the Royal women remained unbeaten and the men won 10 of 11 events to win on the road at Catholic. Freshman Andrew Urban touched the wall first in a pair of events for the Royals.

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1/13/2010 -- 8:04 a.m.

Morning Round-up

I apologize for the erratic blogging over the past few days, it's been a bit hectic here in the Landmark Conference. I hope to provide a little recap of the Landmark SAAC meeting that took place over the past two days. But first, a recap of the only basketball game on the schedule last evening.

-- Catholic upended Carnegie Mellon in men's hoops to rebound from a loss on Saturday. The Cardinals hit just one three pointer in the contest but hit 50-percent from the field and had three players score in double figures. Chris Kearney posted his first double-double of the season with 15 points and 12 rebounds.

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1/11/2010 -- 7:50 a.m.

Morning Round-up

Plenty of things to talk about following a busy weekend of competition.

-- Three Landmark basketball teams remain unbeaten in Landmark play. On the women's side, a late hoop from Jenny McGann pushed Catholic past Juniata, and then the Cardinals topped Susquehanna to move to 3-0. Moravian went on the road and beat USMMA and Drew to remain unbeaten in the Landmark with a 3-0 record. And in men's action USMMA defeated Moravian and Scranton to move to 3-0.

-- Spenser Spencer led a strong bench effort for the Susquehanna men's team to post a win over Catholic. He scored 17 points in 14 minutes off the bench, helping the Crusader bench outscore Catholic's reserves 50-30.

-- Shane Yambor earned a double-double against Juniata and Kyle Gladden posted one against Susquehanna as Goucher was one of two teams on the men's side to win both its games over the weekend.

-- The Moravian women continued their stellar offensive play in Landmark action. The Greyhounds 84 and 86 points in their two wins, and are averaging 81 points per game and shooting 44-percent from the field in Landmark play.

-- Megan Kopecki of Scranton became the third Landmark player to pass the 1,000-point mark for their career this season as she scored a game-high 21 points to lead Scranton past Drew. She is the 25th 1,000-point scorer in Scranton history.

-- Moravian Head Coach Jim Walker earned his 400th career win when the Greyhounds topped the Rangers on Saturday. Walker is the winnningest coach among the eight Landmark teams.

-- In swiming action, the USMMA men and the Scranton women came out on top in a dual meet between the two programs that have claimed each of the Landmark Swimming & Diving Championships. Frank Vita had a pair of first-place finishes for the Mariners and the team opened the day by setting two new pool records in the first two events. For the women, Scranton improved to 8-0 in dual meet action this season by placing first in the first eight events on the day Lauren Wieland had two of the first-place finishes.

-- Finally, indoor track and field teams also kicked off second semester action with a few teams in action. Paul Thistle and Casey Hess each established new school records for Susquehanna, while Christ Litz placed first in the pole vault in the Division II/III category at the Delaware Invitationa.

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1/8/2010 -- 9:39 a.m.

Basketball Weekend Preview

Sadly, technical difficulties prevented me from bringing back another edition of the Landmark video update (and really a shame, because I think I'm having a good hair day). But I couldn't let the first full weekend of basketball Landmark play go by without some sort of preview. To get you ready for the weekend's action, I proudly present a brief preview of the contests taking place over the next two days. One point of clarification, because each team plays a pair of games over the weekend, I didn't preview the specific games. Rather I gave some general info.

Women's Basketball:
Moravian/Scranton at Drew/USMMA: Should be excellent matchups as all four teams boast records of .500 or better. Weekend opens with Scranton playing at Drew, while Moravian will take on USMMA. After a rough patch in early December, Scranton looks to be back on track with three-straight wins, two of them over nationally-ranked opponents. Scranton junior Megan Kopecki is likely to become the third Landmark basketball player to reach 1,000 career points this season, as she enters the weekend with 997 career points. Scranton has not lost to either USMMA or Drew in Landmark play. Moravian, currently ranked 18th in Division III, has reeled off four-straight victories coming into the weekend. It’s been about the offense for the Greyhounds of late, as they’ve scored 74 points or more in each of the four, including a 92-point outburst. Moravian is currently the highest-scoring team in the conference. Moravian will face a team that has been one of its toughest opponents on Friday as USMMA is one of two Landmark teams with a winning record against the Greyhounds, with a mark of 3-1. After a four-game slide in November and December, USMMA has won two straight to level its record at 4-4. The Mariner defense, keyed by 2008 Defensive Player of the Year Brooke Picillo, is second in the conference in steals and has a positive turnover margin on the season. Drew is off to the best start in program history, as it opened the season 9-0 before suffering its first loss this past week. Defense has been the key as the Rangers have held foes to 55.8 points and 33% shooting per game. The contests this weekend should prove a challenge to Drew’s fast start as the team has yet to earn a win against either team since Landmark play began.

Juniata/Susquehanna at Catholic/Goucher: Juniata and Susquehanna make the trip to DC and Baltimore to face Catholic and Goucher. The weekend opens with Juniata playing at Catholic, and Goucher hosting Susquehanna. It’s been a back-and-forth season thus far for the Crusaders who have a 6-6 record and have no winning or losing streak longer than three games. Jessica Zigarelli has broken out as a primary scorer for the Crusaders, as she has posted double-digit scoring performances in each of the team’s last seven games. Juniata has also had a bit of an up-and-down start to the year, but has won three of its last four, including a pair of wins last weekend. Defense could well be the key for the Eagles on the trip as the team has won every game this year in which it has held foes to 65 points or fewer, and has lost when a team has gone over. Juniata has fared well on the southern Landmark trip, with a combined 8-0 record against Catholic and Goucher. That will be tested against a Catholic team that has been red-hot lately, as the team had won seven straight games before a loss on Monday. Catholic’s Brianna Peterson leads the Landmark in scoring and three-point field goals, and has scored more than 20 points in each of Catholic’s last three games. She also had a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds in Catholic’s Landmark-opening win over Goucher. The Gophers earned two wins in back-to-back games prior to Christmas, the team then dropped a pair of games on a trip to Arizona prior to New Year’s. When Goucher can find its offense it’s been able to come away with victories, as the team boasts the stingiest defense in the conference, allowing just 55.5 points per game. The team is 4-1 this season when it’s been able to top 55 points in a contest. Goucher comes into the weekend looking for its first Landmark win over Juniata and Susquehanna.

Men's Basketball:
Juniata/Susquehanna at Catholic/Goucher: The weekend of competition will open with Catholic hosting Juniata and Susquehanna at Goucher. Juniata and Catholic are both 1-0 in conference play while Goucher and Susquehanna are both looking for its first Landmark win. Susquehanna has won five of seven coming into weekend, but the Crusaders have struggled a little on road with a record of 2-5. The team has two players who recently put up big performances with Spenser Spencer scoring 37 points and Marcus Burke grabbing 17 rebounds in a win over Penn Tech. Both totals are Landmark highs this season. Juniata has two wins in its last six games, though one of the wins was a conference victory. Eagles have been deadly from three-point range on the year, shooting a Landmark best 38-percent, but are coming off a 1-13 performance from deep in a loss to Grove City. The Juniata vs. Catholic matchup has two coaches involved in milestone chases as Juniata’s Greg Curley could become Juniata’s all-time winningest coach with two wins this weekend, and Catholic’s Steve Howes became the 5th Catholic coach, and the fastest, to reach 100 career wins last weekend. Cardinals are riding a five-game win streak heading into play this weekend, and have outscored opponents by an average of 13.2 points during stretch. Guard R.J. Dixon was named the Landmark Player of the Week this past Monday and has been a key component for the Cardinals as he ranks in the top-10 in the conference in assists, steals, assist turnover ratio, free throw percentage and is just outside top-20 in scoring. Goucher reached the finals of a tournament at Marymount last week by topping the hosts, avenging a big loss from earlier in the season. Goucher is all about getting to the offensive glass, as the team ranks first in offensive rebounding, led by Kyle Gladden who is 5th in conference in rebounding. He put together a 15-board game earlier in the year, which ranks as the second-highest single-game total in the conference this season.

Scranton/Moravian at Drew/USMMA: Scranton and Moravian are on the road to deal with USMMA and Drew, with Scranton playing at Drew on Friday, and Moravian facing USMMA. USMMA and Scranton both look to stay unbeaten in the Landmark, while Moravian and Drew trying to break into win column. Scranton snapped 3-game losing streak with a win last weekend, but the team had been struggling to find offense of late as the Royals were held to less than 60 points in two of those setbacks. Scranton got one of best all-around games of season from Travis Farrell in that victory as he produced 26 points, 11 rebounds, 7 assists, 3 steals, 2 blocks. Moravian reached finals of its own tournament, and nearly pulled off comeback win in final, and then picked up midweek win. Despite ranking third in conference in blocked shots, the Moravian defense has allowed highest field goal percentage on the season and will likely need to be stingier if they want to make a run in Landmark competition. Drew is trying to snap a four-game losing skid overall this weekend but has some history against them as Moravian and Scranton only two teams Drew has not beaten in Landmark play. Terrell Brown has been doing it all for Rangers this year and is having one of the best all-around years in the conference as he is fifth in scoring, third in rebounds and is second in offensive rebounds. Both of Drew’s two wins this year have come at home. USMMA is the hottest team in the conference right now, entering play this weekend with seven-consecutive wins. It’s been all about balance offensively for the Mariners as the team doesn’t have a single player in the top-10 in the conference in scoring, but has four players who rank between 11th and 16th in the conference in points per game.

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1/6/2010 -- 7:45 a.m.

Morning Round-up

Three teams in action and a pair of wins last night for Landmark teams.

-- Scranton women's basketball opened 2010 with its third-straight win, besting Albright 56-48. Junior guard Megan Kopecki is now three points shy of 1,000 for her career after scoring a game-high 19. She would be the third Landmark basketball player to reach that mark this season.

-- Moravian battled past Arcadia 50-46 to give the team two wins in its last three games. Three Greyhounds combined to score 46 of the team's 56 points, led by Eric Weaver who netted a season-high 26 points. It was Weaver's second 20-plus point performance in the team's last three games.

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1/5/2010 -- 7:40 a.m.

Morning Round-up

A fairly quiet Monday had three teams in action, with one coming away with a victory. And it was a team that has still yet to suffer a loss in the 2009-10 season.

-- Drew women's basketball improved to 9-0 with a comeback win over Mount Holyoke as part of a tournament in Florida. Drew used a 14-1 run late in the second half to put the game away. The Rangers have already established the longest winning streak to open a season for a Landmark basketball team. The previous best starts came last season, as both Drew and Susquehanna opened the women's basketball campaigns 6-0. On the men's side, both Catholic and Scranton opened the 2008-09 season by winning its first four games.

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1/4/2010 -- 7:49 a.m.

Morning Round-up

The New Year is off to a busy start after a full weekend of non-conference basketball action. All eight Landmark men's basketball teams were in action over the weekend, while half of the the women's teams were competing. Here's a quick look at some of the highlights.

-- Moravian reached the finals of its Starters Classic in men's and women's action, with the women claiming the title and the men falling in the Championship game. It was the sixth win for Moravian in the nine-year history of the event.

-- Also picking up a tournament title was the USMMA men's team, which may be the hottest team in the conference at the moment as the team won twice at its tourney to improve to 9-2. Ryan Samuel was named tournament MVP and Tom Izzo scored four of his 14 points in overtime to help the Mariners earn the win.

-- Juniata women's basketball had its close game come in the semifinals of its holiday tournament, when the team needed a late three from Kelly Rotan to seal the win before coming up with a decisive win in the final the next day. It was the second and third wins at home for Juniata on the year, after the team started 1-2 on its home floor.

-- RJ Dixon earned MVP honors as Catholic protected its home court with a win in its own holiday tournament. As opposed to the Juniata women, the Cardinals have been unbeatable at home, posting a 5-0 record in DC, including four wins as part of their current five-game winning streak.

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12/28/2009 -- 8:38 a.m.

Morning Round-up

My silly alarm clock did not perform its lone duty this morning, so we're getting to the blog post a few minutes late. And it is a shame, because after a four-day hiatus, we have some good news to report from the games last evening.

-- USMMA improved to a Landmark-best 6-2 with a four-point win over Ursinus. Richard Roach had his first double-double of the season with 16 points and 13 rebounds. It was the sixth double-double for a Mariner player this season.

-- Juniata snapped a two-game losing streak by holding off a second-half rally to defeat Lynchburg. It was the Eagles' fourth win at a road or neutral site this season, while the team is just 1-2 in its home gym.

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12/24/2009 -- 1:53 p.m.

Happy Holidays

A belated birthday celebration for yours truly, and some ugly weather that canceled a lot of the final basketball action pre-Christmas led to a few days of blog silence.

With very little to report, I will simply say a safe and merry Christmas and a wonderful Holiday season to all of you from the Landmark Conference, and hope to see you back here very soon.

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12/17/2009 -- 7:46 a.m.

Morning Round-up/Looking Back (Part 5)

There were exactly no basketball teams in action last night, so I figured for the morning round-up I would conclude my "looking back" feature. Once again, I asked these questions at the start of the season, and now we are looking back and seeing how those questions were answered. The question is in bold the answer is below.

Can any teams challenge Susquehanna for the cross country titles? The Crusaders claimed the men's and women's titles last season and have been favored to repeat in both this season. There are a number of All-Conference performers back in in both genders, 11 back on the men's side and 10 for the women. But will there be enough improvement from any team to push the defending Champions?

The answer to this is a little bit of yes, and a little bit of no. The Susquehanna men's team rolled to its third-consecutive Landmark title, becoming the first team to earn Landmark titles for a third time. In fact, we may not see a more dominating performance this season than the Susquehanna men's cross country team at the Championship meet as the team placed seven runners in the top 11 spot.

However on the women's side, Scranton turned in one of its best performance of the season and claimed its first ever women's cross country championship. A tight pack with finishers 6-8 helped the team and then a key finish at 16th helped them come out of the pack and earn the win by seven points.

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12/16/2009 -- 7:32 a.m.

Morning Round-up

Two games, one win for Landmark basketball teams last night, with USMMA knocking off previously unbeaten Cabrini for its fifth win of the year. Ryan Samuel was a perfect 10-of-10 at the foul line and the Mariners shot 51-percent from the field in the victory. The Mariners also hit a season-best 47-percent of their three-point attempts in the game.

No games on the schedule tonight, so you will likely have to go without a morning round-up tomorrow morning. I hope to get a few other posts up today.

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12/15/2009 -- 9:38 a.m.

Morning Round-up

Not much to recap from last evening with only one Landmark team in action. And that result was not a positive one for the Landmark as Scranton women's basketball suffered a loss to Kean in a battle of nationally-ranked teams. The Royals will try and rebound this weekend when they face off with two more ranked teams as part of a trip to Las Vegas.

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12/14/2009 -- 8:37 a.m.

Morning Round-up

Landmark teams had a reasonably full weekend of action, with five teams in action in both men's and women's hoops. Here are some highlights.

-- After a two-game hiccup that included a loss to Juniata, Susquehanna men's basketball has rebounded with three-straight wins, two of them this weekend as the team claimed a tournament at King's. The title came with the Crusaders knocking off nationally-ranked Richard Stockton in the Championship game. It was the second win for a Landmark team over a nationally-ranked foe on the week, as Catholic took care of a top-25 team earlier in the week.

-- Drew continued to find ways to win as the Rangers' women's team moved its record to 8-0. The start is the best in Drew women's basketball history, and is also the best start to a season for a women's basketball team in Landmark history. The previous record for most wins to start a season was six, which was established by Susquehanna, and Drew last season. The Rangers do still have a ways to go to match the longest winning streak in Landmark play, that record is 19-straight wins, established by Scranton last season.

-- Speaking of streaks, USMMA women's hoops stopped a four-game skid with a win over the Apprentice School. Big night for freshman Roshenda Josephs who had one of the best games of her young career scoring 12 points while grabbing eight rebounds, collecting four steals and passing out three assists (I'm blatantly stealing from my own weekly release here...so don't be upset if you read this info twice).

-- Also enjoying a little run on the women's side is Goucher, which has pulled to within a game of .500 with back-to-back wins. Elizabeth von Ende put together a remarkable run to close out a win over Salisbury as she scored all of her team-high 20 points in the final 4:29 of the contest.

-- The USMMA men's basketball team also earned a win, and quietly is off to an excellent start with a record of 4-2. Matt Hueber grabbed 13 rebounds in the game, and added 12 points, which was the fifth time in six games he's had at least 10 rebounds and also marked his fifth double-double.

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12/11/2009 -- 5:15 p.m.

Looking Back (Part 4)

No morning round-up today after a night free of competition, so instead I'm doing a late afternoon post. And I thought I'd take the opportunity to try round 4 of my looking back series. Question from the fall is below in bold the conclusion follows.

Will men's soccer continue to be one of the most competitive Landmark sports? Six points separated the top-four teams in the 2007 standings, and just three points separated three teams in 2008. Both Championships matches also feaured four different teams. Will there be just as many changes in the 2009 season?

This one is a bit tougher to answer, as it was kind of a vague question to begin with. But the men's soccer season did once again see a fair bit of parity, though the race wasn't quite as congested as in previous years. The postseason did see its third different champion in three seasons, the balance was again demonstrated as both the number-one and number-two seeds were upset in the semifinals. That kept alive a fairly surprising trend in which the top seed in the Landmark men's soccer postseason has yet to win a match. So I would conclude that in the affirmative, men's soccer continues to be one of the most topsy-turvy and competitive Landmark sports.

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12/10/2009 -- 11:22 a.m.

Landmark Teams Making A Difference Vol. 2

Last week I did a post about some of the Landmark teams doing their part with some charitable activities. As I expected there have been more examples of this as we move through the month of December, and each time I read about one I'm going to post part of the info here on the blog.

Today's good deed comes from the Susquehanna SAAC:

The Susquehanna University Student-Athlete Advisory Committee is conducting its annual "Crusaders Care" canned goods drive at Susquehanna's women's basketball game against Montclair State University at SU's Orlando W. Houts Gymnasium on Saturday, Dec. 12, at 2 p.m. Free admission is available for all fans that day who bring a canned good or other dry, non-perishable food item to the admissions table."

You can see the entire release here and if you were planning to attend the game, I hope you will participate.

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12/10/2009 -- 7:59 a.m.

Morning Round-up

Sorry folks, but this is going to be a slightly abridged morning round-up. I just wrote a rather lengthy one, only to have the computer lose all the info. So I'm not sure I have the energy to go through it all again. But here's a quick look at the action from last night.

-- A nice win for the Catholic men's basketball team as the Cardinals upset 21st-ranked DeSales in Washington. A 14-3 run midway through the second half put Catholic in front, and then sharp free throw shooting carried the team to the win as the team knocked down 13 freebies in the final five minutes.

-- Defense has been the difference in the Goucher women's basketball team's three wins this season, that was the case last night as the Gophers limited Hood to 37 points in a 55-37 win. In its three victories this year Goucher has allowed 19, 34 and now 37 points.

-- Drew women's basketball is off to the best start in program history after the team battled past Staten Island on the road last evening. A Brenda Kramer three in the final minute helped Drew hold off the hosts and improve to 7-0 for the first time in program history.

-- Bryan Majors had a rare double-double for Susquehanna last evening as the Crusaders downed Misericordia. He posted just the third double-double in Landmark history in the points-assists categories, scoring 21 points and passing out 10 assists. The previous two examples of this sort of double-double came from USMMA's Ryan Samuel against Cabrini last season, and from Majors himself in a game against Scranton last year.

-- Finally I was remiss in not mentioning a Drew swimming victory from Tuesday night as part of yesterday's morning round-up. The Rangers won a meet against their local rivals, topping FDU-Florham and St. Elizabeth. The Ranger men placed first in each event at the meet, the first time the team has earned that distinction this season.

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12/9/2009 -- 3:51 p.m.

Looking Back (Part 3)

Here we go again. I continue to try and see how the questions I posed in the early season answered themselves over the course of the year. As previously, the question is in bold the conclusions are below.

How will the new coaches fare? Five new coaches will be at the reigns of Landmark programs this fall, and each will try and make their mark in year one. Kelly Armes has been named interim head coach of the Scranton volleyball team and will try and keep the Royals near the top of the standings after the team finished second in the standings last season. Also in volleyball Allyson Ramey takes over the USMMA program and the team will look to move up the standings. Another first-time head coach is Bob Koppenol who assumes the duties for the Drew men's and women's cross country teams. Finally in men's soccer Todd Ervin looks to help Moravian earn its first Landmark postseason berth in his first season at the helm.

Obviously this is the longest question, and probably the trickiest one to sum up. It's also clear that I'm not good at math, as there were four new coaches, not five as I said in the question. Anyway, let's see how they fared.

--Kelly Armes had a tough task at Scranton with a young team that lost nearly its entire starting lineup. The team battled to an 8-19 record, and suffered through a long losing streak late in the year, but the Royals did close the year winning three of their last five and have a young roster with some promise for the future.

--Elsewhere in volleyball Allyson Ramey had a positive start to her career at USMMA. The Mariners finished a match below .500 at 14-15 but the team won its first Landmark match in three seasons, and qualified for the postseason.

--Bob Koppenol's first year at Drew also saw some improvement as the men's team improved by one spot in the conference standings while the women showed steady improvement throught the year, and were hurt when their top runner had to drop out of the Landmark Championship meet. There seems to be reason to expect continued improvement in the coming years with larger rosters for both teams.

--Finally in men's soccer Todd Ervin guided Moravian to a 4-11-2 record, with two of those wins coming in Landmark play. The team remained competitive in Landmark play throughout the season, and seems likely to remain in the mix for postseason berths over the coming years.

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12/9/2009 -- 9:30 a.m.

Morning Round-up

I wanted to do a round-up because I try and do one every day, but there was only one game last night, and it went against the Landmark team.

So I'll take the opportunity to do a quick recap of non-conference results. Led by Drew and Scranton on the women's side, which are both 5-0 in non-conference play, Landmark women's teams are 30-15 in non-conference action. On the men's side Landmark teams are just one game under .500 with a mark of 21-22 in non-conference play.

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12/8/2009 -- 11:47 a.m.

Looking Back (Part 2)

As seems to often be the case, I had the best of intentions with my "looking back" series, only to then get myself derailed. But I'm sticking with it and I guarantee I will eventually make it through all of my fall questions. Think of it as an early holiday present for my blog readers...you know these posts are coming, you just don't know exactly when.

Just a quick reminder of what I'm doing. In one of my first blog posts, I posed a series of questions about the fall sports season. Now that the season is complete, I'm looking back to see how they were answered. The question is in bold below, followed by the answer.

The first two years of Landmark play have seen a fare amount of parity, but in women's soccer the same four teams have earned postseason berths in each of the first two years. Can Drew, Susquehanna or Goucher break the postseason monopoly?

This one is pretty easy to answer. While Catholic and Scranton each made return appearances to the postseason, both Drew and Susquehanna crashed the postseason party. After earning seven points in its first two Landmark seasons, Drew nearly doubled that total and finished in a tie atop the standings. Susquehanna relied on a stingy defense and winning close matches to place third in the standings with 12 points.

So after three seasons, six of the seven Landmark women's soccer programs have earned a postseason berth. It is also one of only three Landmark fall sports that has had three different schools win the championship in three seasons.

 

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12/8/2009 -- 7:32 a.m.

Morning Round-up

Only three games on tap last night, and just one victory for the Landmark. Let's take a quick look at the results.

-- Jessica Zigarelli and Samantha Cartwright each set career highs with 17 and 16 points respectively as Susquehanna topped Lycoming. The Crusaders never trailed in the game and used a 12-2 spurt midway through the second half to help put the contest away. On a side note, Susquehanna has added some audio video to the postgame recaps on its website, which you should check out if you get a chance.

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12/7/2009 -- 7:52 a.m.

Morning Round-up

The final weekend of the first semester with a full slate of games is complete, and there is plenty to digest. Let's quickly recap some of the highlights.

-- We had history early in the week from Catholic's women's basketball team, then the men followed suit as Jason Banzhaf passed the 1,000-point mark for his career in a win over Goucher. He becomes the first 1,000-point scorer who played all his games as a member of the Landmark.

-- For the third time in as many seasons, the Moravian women's basketball team found a way to knock off Scranton in the team's Landmark season opener. Each of the previous two years, Scranton has rebounded by winning the remaining Landmark games on its schedule and winning the conference title. We'll follow how it plays out this year.

-- Speaking of winning all the games on its schedule, Drew women's basketball is the lone undefeated team in the Landmark right now as the Rangers improved to 6-0 with a win over USMMA. Drew is more than halfway to its victory total from all of last season and sophomore Danielle Barber has emerged as an all-around standout for the team after a solid freshman season.

-- Last year's Landmark Player of the Year Joel Patch averaged a double-double for the season. It's early, but USMMA's Matt Hueber is currently doing the same as his 11-point, 11-rebound game in a win over Drew has him averaging in double figures in both categories.

-- Elsewhere for USMMA the Mariners enjoyed a strong early-season swimming test as the team placed 5th among 11 teams on the men's side at the ECAC Division III Swimming & Diving Championships. Defending NCAA Champion Nicholas Halbach won both diving events including setting a new ECAC record.

-- It was also the start of indoor track & field season as four team opened up their campaigns. There were some strong performances throughout the various competitions, and be sure to check out the "statistics" link on the indoor track & field page which will feature all of the results a little bit later today.

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12/4/2009 -- 11:19 a.m.

Landmark Video Update

The first Landmark Video update of the winter sports season is now available for viewing. We've got previews of the first Landmark men's and women's basketball action of the season as teams face off against their travel partners on Saturday. With teams playing a full home-and-home schedule as part of Landmark play in basketball, one game tends to not have a huge impact on the standings. But it certainly is fun to have some conference games to talk about. I hope you enjoy the updates.

Women's basketball weekend preview

Men's basketball weekend preview

I also wanted to pass along some links that will help fans keep up with the action this weekend if they are unable to be at the games in person. Catholic will be providing live video for all its home basketball games this season, you can find those links by reading this story. You can listen live to the radio calls of the games between Moravian and Scranton or follow the live stats. Juniata often provides live stats for its home games, though the link is not yet available, so just check out their athletics page when the games start. And USMMA will provide live video of its doubleheader with Drew, you can find that at by clicking on this link.

Enjoy the games.

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12/3/2009 -- 10:29 a.m.

Looking Back (Part 1)

With relatively light in-season schedule this time of year, I spend a decent amount of my day trying to update records and record books for the just-completed fall season. And while there are still awards and honors to be released for the fall, the competition portion of the season is over. As I do this updating and I look through various records you will probably get several posts like this one, where I comment on different things that pique my curiosity.

Today I thought it would be fun to look back at one of my first blog posts where I posed some questions about the upcoming fall season. Now that the seasons are done, I wanted to take a look and see how those questions were answered. The original questions are in bold my answers are normal print.

Actually, now that I look at this, I think I may break these into several different posts. I'm going to just look at one question per post. Why not stretch this out a bit? So here we go.

Will there be another surprise team in field hockey? In 2007 Goucher improved on its previous record and claimed the fourth spot for the Landmark postseason. In 2008 Susquehanna jumped from the last spot in the conference standings to a 5-1 record and the second seed. Will there be a similar improvement this season, and if so, who will it be?

The easy answer to this one is "no." There were a few minor difference from the preseason poll in how the standings shook out, but I don't think there were any real surprises. Goucher got off to a great non-conference start but was unable to break through in conference play. Juniata was picked second and managed to make it through the year without a conference loss. Susquehanna was slightly below .500 in non-conference action, but again found its stride in conference action. The closest to a surprise might have been Moravian which was picked sixth in the preseason poll, and finished in a tie for 4th, missing out on the conference postseason due to tiebreakers. But the team grabbed just one more conference win than the previous year.

If there was a sport with surprises this fall it was probably women's soccer which saw both Susquehanna and Drew vault into the thick of the postseaso race. Neither team had finished higher than fifth in the Landmark standings in the first two years, but the Rangers and Crusaders were 2nd and 3rd respectively in 2009. Both also posted new program-bests for Landmark wins in a season.

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12/3/2009 -- 7:46 a.m.

Morning Round-up

Another light slate of games last night, with just three on the schedule. Both of the wins came in lovely downtown Scranton.

-- The Scranton men's and women's teams picked up non-conference victories in final tuneups for their Landmark showdowns against Moravian this coming weekend. The Royal men shot nearly 64-percent from the field in the second half to help put away Penn State-Hazleton, while the Lady Royals pulled out a win over Stevens Institute in part by going 17-of-18 from the free throw line. The Scranton women remain unbeaten heading into the matchup with Moravian while the men are 5-2 overall and are 4-1 at home.

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12/2/2009 -- 4:35 p.m.

Landmark Teams Making A Difference

Throughout the year I've made an effort to post stories on the Landmark website about various charitable events or causes which have been taken up by Landmark teams over the course of the fall. I don't always catch all of these stories as I generall just try and find them on our respective institutions websites, but I've done my best to highlight the all the wonderful things our student-athletes are doing on and off the field. Since I happened to receive two of these stories today, I thought I'd combine them into one blog post. With the holidays approaching it is a nice time to see that Landmark athletes are contributing not just on the field and in the classroom.

-- The University of Scranton men's lacrosse team is closing in on a worthwhile goal-to help those in need during the upcoming holiday season. To date, the Royals have raised over $4,000 towards a goal of $5000 for their "Christmas in Uganda" fund-raising project.  This program, in conjunction with Fields of Growth International, a non-profit organization founded by Scranton head men's lacrosse coach Kevin Dugan, sponsors community development projects at a resettlement area in southwest Uganda. All money raised will fund projects such as social entrepreneurism, education, healthcare, AIDS and malaria awareness, as well as introducing the sport of lacrosse to disadvantaged children. Please click here to read the full release on the Scranton website.

-- The Drew The Men's and Women's Tennis Teams are conducting a fund-raising tennis clinic on Sunday, December 6th from 2-5pm. All proceeds will go to the St. Hubert’s Animal Welfare Center. Clinic will take place on the indoor courts inside the Simon Forum. Clinic is open to junior players ages 5-16 and the cost is $25. Anyone who wishes to register can e-mail Drew tennis coach Jeff Brandes at jbrandes@drew.edu to get a registration form.

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12/2/2009 -- 7:30 a.m.

Morning Round-up

As we gradually inch towards the conference season (basketball conference openers on Saturday!) we had another pretty quiet night of non-conference basketball action. Just four games, and a pair of wins, though one of them featured some Landmark history.

-- There have been several players (I will have to do some research to discover just how many) who have scored their 1,000th point since Landmark play began, but Catholic's Brianna Peterson became the first to score all 1,000 as part of the Landmark Conference as she helped Catholic top Washington Adventist last night. Peterson got the history out of the way early, converting two early layups in the win. I mentioned early in the year that for at least a few years, the Landmark record books are going to be dominated by players who were freshmen when the Landmark first began competing. Peterson is just such a player, and she seems likely to have many of the Landmark scoring records under her name for at least a few seasons.

-- In other action Drew picked up its second win of the year by holding off a Berkeley rally to claim a 77-66 win. Terrell Brown scored in double figures for the fourth time in five games, and also pulled down eight rebounds giving him six or more boards in all five Rangers' contests.

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12/1/2009 -- 7:32 a.m.

Morning Round-up

Wow, that's a poor job by me. More than a week without any blog updates is unacceptable. Sure the holiday had something to do with it, but we're going to try and get things back on track today. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, and now we are all ready for the final month of action for 2009.

-- Two wins for Landmark men's basketball teams last night. Moravian got a strong all-around game from Chris Cullen who scored a career-best 24 points while adding six rebounds, two blocks, an assist, and a steal as the Greyhounds downed Swarthmore for the team's first win. It was just the second home game of the year for Moravian which opened the season with four road, or neutral site games.

-- Juniata bounced back from a tough loss over the weekend to improve to 4-2 with a win over Penn State-Wilkes-Barre. After two low-scoring affairs last week, Juniata's offense kicked back into gear as the team scored 78 points, the third time in six games the Eagles have had 78 or more points as the team leads the Landmark in scoring.

We should be back with some more blog updates today, now that I'm back in the swing of things.

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11/23/2009 --7:44 a.m.

Morning Round-up

We had a busy weekend of conference basketball action as teams concluded the first full week of the 2009-10 season. Here's a look at some of the highlights.

-- As I suggested last week, we did have several teams come away with tournament championships. The most surprising early-season team might be the Drew women who were picked to finish seventh in the Landmark preseason poll but have opened the year 4-0. Balanced offense and defense have been the keys for the Rangers, who are limiting teams to 28-percent shooting.

-- Also claiming a tournament win on the women's side were Scranton and Susquehanna. The Royals downed 10th-ranked Muhlenberg to earn a title, while Susquehanna handled Shenandoah to capture its own tournament. As normal for the winning team, each also had the tournament MVP.

-- Juniata and Susquehanna were both also tournament winners on the men's side, with each collecting wins to earn its own tourney titles. Juniata needed overtime to get past Grove City, rallying from a seven-point deficit with five minutes left to earn the win. Susquehanna handled Elizabethtown to earn its title, in a game in which Susquehanna never trailed.

-- All told, after a full week of play, seven of the eight Landmark women's basketball teams have winning records, while on the men's side five of the eight teams have .500 marks or better.

-- Elsewhere this weekend, Scranton swimming showed it is not ready to lose its place near the top of the Landmark standings as the team knocked off fellow conference championship contender Susquehanna in dual-meet action. The Susquehanna men were unbeaten entering the meet, while the women had just one loss. The two-time defending Landmark Champion Scranton women's team remained unbeaten in dual-meet competition with the win.

-- Juniata volleyball's quest for a third NCAA National Championship stalled just two sets away from the title as the Eagles fell to Washington (Mo.) 3-1 in the Championship match. It marked the sixth time Juniata has reached the Championship match and failed to come away with the win.

-- In other NCAA competition, four Landmark runners all performed very well at the NCAA Championships in Ohio. Scranton's Chris Wasnetsky narrowly missed earning All-America status, while Susquehanna's Casey Hess earned the top finish ever for a Susquehanna women's runner. Click here for additional information.

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11/19/2009 -- 2:17 p.m.

Fall Deep Thoughts

Well, probably not that deep. I was mostly just flashing back to the Deep Thoughts sketches from Saturday Night Live.

For some reason, we're having some technically difficulties with the upcoming events feature on the homepage, but the one remaining team in NCAA competition returns to the court this afternoon as Juniata volleyball takes on Trinity (Texas) in the quarterfinals at 5:30. Live stats, video and other goodies are available.

I have all sorts of things I want to talk about with the fall season rattling around in my head, but I'll stick with my NCAA theme for the moment and say the other folks in action at the NCAA this weekend will be four runners at the NCAA Cross Country Championships. Last year Susquehanna's Alycia Woodruff was the top female finisher as she placed 75th, while Chris Wasnetsky broke the top-100 with a 96th-place finish. Both those efforts represent the best a Landmark runner has done at the NCAA meet.

After the strong performances at the NCAA Regionals, I'm anticipating we may see a few higher finishes from Landmark runners this time around.

Some more fall thoughts coming a little bit later in the day.

11/19/2009 --7:56 a.m.

Morning Round-up

Another good night of Landmark non-conference hoops action as four teams took to the court, and all four captured victories.

-- Coaches both within and outside the Landmark have a pretty high opinion of the Moravian women's basketball team, as the Greyhounds are ranked in the top-25 in the Division III Coaches poll and were picked to finish second in the Landmark. The Greyhounds did a little last night to justify those rankings as the team went on the road and knocked off nationally-ranked The College of New Jersey. Moravian's early-season schedule features several tough outings, including two more against nationally-ranked teams before the holiday break.

-- Drew picked up two big wins over its nearby rival, topping FDU-Florham 51-46 in women's action and then claiming a 77-72 overtime win on the men's side. These two campuses are about a mile apart in Madison, and in front of a packed gym, the Rangers earned two solid wins. Defense did the job for the Drew women who shot just 18-of-61 from the field but forced their opponent into 23 turnovers to earn the win. On the men's side Terrell Brown scored 19 points and grabbed nine rebounds, including the tying layup in the final 10 seconds to send the game into OT, and then added four more points in the overtime to help claim the win.

-- I mentioned yesterday we seemed to be getting at least one double-double every night in the Landmark this season and it came to fruition again last evening as Goucher's Elizabeth von Ende scored 13 points and added 10 rebounds in Goucher's lopsides win over Notre Dame (Md.). The Gophers shot a robust 47-percent from the field for the game, while holding Notre Dame to 13-percent shooting and forcing 32 turnovers.

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11/18/2009 -- 7:52 a.m.

Morning Round-up

Four games, three wins for Landmark basketball teams last night which is certainly an acceptable percentage as conference teams navigate their way through the non-conference schedule.

-- Maybe it's my imagination, but it seems like we're already way ahead of the double-double pace the conference has enjoyed over the first two years, particularly in women's basketball. Catholic's Katarina Owunna grabbed a Landmark single-game record 17 rebounds while also scoring 13 points as the Cardinals outlasted St. Mary's 74-71.

-- Meanwhile USMMA's Janay Weathers had 10 points and 11 rebounds for the double-double in the Mariner's season-opening win. Add to that the fact that Scranton and Goucher each had a player collect a points and rebounds double-double and there have already been four such performances in nine Landmark games.

-- On the men's side Scranton put together a balanced offensive attack to collect a 73-64 win over Kean in its season opener. Making his first career start for the Royals, Matt Swaback scored 13 points while adding four rebounds and a pair of steals. Scranton lost some key pieces from last year's Landmark Championship team and is going to need some new faces to step up if the team is to earn its third Landmark title in as many seasons.

Coming up later today on the Landmark website we should have a release recognizing the six Landmark field hockey players who earned All-Region honors earlier this week, along with those cross country athletes that also were honored as All-Region performers.

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11/17/2009 -- 7:36 a.m.

Morning Round-up

A quiet night in Landmark land as two basketball games were the entire slate of competition.

-- The Catholic men's basketball team nearly came away with the first Landmark basketball tournament title of the season but eventually fell to host York (Pa.) in overtime of the White Rose City Classic. The Cardinals trailed by as many as nine in the second half but eventually took a lead by four on consecutive hoops from Jason Banzhaf with less than two minutes to go. But York tied the score with two free throws with two seconds remaining, and then outscored the Cardinals 11-5 in overtime to earn the win.

Though Catholic could not pull off the tourney win I believe with a busy weekend schedule of non-conference tournaments in the coming weeks, I expect a few Landmark teams will bring home tournament hardware.

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11/16/2009 -- 7 :49 a.m.

Morning Round-up

I apologize for the lack of posts over the past few days, it was a hectic period with All-Conference Teams, various postseason tournament and the basketball seasons getting underway. With all that said, let's try and do a quick recap of what has gone down lately.

-- Landmark teams collect three wins and four losses in NCAA play, as some strong play was not enough to earn wins for the Landmark in field hockey or men's and women's soccer. Juniata volleyball, however, played some tough matches but pushed its way through to the quarterfinals, where the Eagles will face Trinity (Texas). Juniata topped Trinity in San Antonio 3-0 the last weekend of the regular season.

-- Drew men's soccer bounced back from its loss in the Landmark postseason by claiming the ECAC Metro Championship with a thrilling 2-1 win over Farmingdale. The Rangers scored both goals in the final 10 minutes to overcome a 1-0 deficit, this coming after the team picked up an overtime win in the semifinals.

-- In other NCAA Championship action, strong showings from the Landmark cross country teams as the conference will have four runners competing at the NCAA Championships next weekend. Chris Wasnetsky, Paul Thistle and Matthew Bailey will represent the Landmark on the men's side, while Casey Hess will run for the Landmark women. The Susquehanna men's team and Scranton women's team each posted top-10 team finishes at the NCAA Regionals this past weekend.

-- Lest we forget with all the postseason action, Landmark swim teams are cruising along a few weeks into the season. The Scranton women swept a pair of Landmark foes with two wins in a tri-meet in Huntingdon, while the Susquehanna men's team remained unbeaten in dual-meet competition with a win over Dickinson. The Catholic women's team also enjoyed a strong victory, with a comfortable 125-70 win over Howard.

-- Finally, basketball season tipped off with six women's teams in action and five men's teams competing Sunday night. The Landmark favorites in women's action both picked up big wins, while Drew and Juniata were also both impressive in their openers. On the men's side, USMMA bested rival Coast Guard for the first time in four seasons, while Catholic earned a matchup against former conference rival York with a solid win over St. Vincent in the White Rose City Classic.

I'll have more on hoops and some other fall thoughts over the next few days.

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11/12/2009 -- 7:59 a.m.

Postseason Update

Three Landmark teams in postseason action last night, with one team earning a victory. Catholic field hockey went on the road and knocked off Kean 3-1. The Cardinals will move on to play second-seed Montclair State at 5:30 on Saturday at Montclair State.

Tough losses for Juniata field hockey and Moravian women's soccer yesterday. Juniata, after only twice this season allowing more than two goals in a match gave up a goal in the first 28 seconds and despite battling back fell to Lynchburg 5-3 in wet conditions Wednesday afternoon.

Meanwhile, Moravian women's soccer went to overtime for the third time in its last four matches, eventually falling 3-2 to Stevenson in double-overtime. Arielle Caldas had both goals for the Greyhounds, who finished the year with a record of 8-8-2.

Postseason action resumes tonight as Juniata volleyball begins its quest for a third national title as the Eagles host Cabrini as part of the Mid-Atlantic Regional hosted by Juniata.

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11/10/2009 -- 7:57 a.m.

Landmark In The Postseason

Okay, an update on yesterday's post. Hopefully you read the full story about all the NCAA matchups, etc. But there are also some ECAC postseason schedules to report. And I can be a bit more detailed in match times, etc.

First let's talk about the ECAC The Landmark has three teams competing in the various ECAC postseason tournaments. The highest seed is Drew men's soccer which earned the number-two seed for the Metro Region Championship, and will play Richard Stockton at host site Rutgers-Newark on Saturday in the semifinals. Elsewhere, the Catholic field hockey team is the sixth-seed in the Mid-Atlantic Championship, and will face off with third-seed Kean Wednesday evening. Finally, the Moravian women's soccer team drew the seventh-seed and plays at second-seed Stevenson on Wednesday. Should Moravian and Catholic win, they will move on to play in the semifinal/final rounds at a site to be determined after the conclusion of the opening round.

So here is the full schedule of Landmark postseason matches (first match only). For full brackets for the NCAA Tournament check out you can go here and for full looks at the ECAC Championships you can go here.

Field Hockey:
Juniata at Lynchburg, Nov. 11, 5 p.m. (NCAA)
Catholic at Kean, Nov. 11, 7:30 p.m. (ECAC)

Women's Soccer:
Moravian at Stevenson, Nov. 11, 2 p.m. (ECAC)
Lynchburg vs. Catholic (at Washington & Lee), Nov. 14, 1:30 p.m. (NCAA)

Volleyball:
Cabrini at Juniata, Nov. 12, 8 p.m. (NCAA)

Men's Soccer:
Lynchburg vs. Catholic (at Christopher Newport), Nov. 14, 5 p.m. (NCAA)
USMMA at Swarthmore, Nov. 14, 7:30 p.m. (NCAA)
Richard Stockton vs. Drew (at Rutgers-Newark), Nov. 14, 4 p.m. (ECAC)

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11/9/2009 -- 11:38 a.m.

The Landmark vs. Lynchburg

Apparently the NCAA Committees were just dying to see how the Landmark Champions stack up against Lynchburg. Juniata field hockey and both the Catholic men's and women's soccer teams will face Lynchburg in its respective first-round NCAA matchups. USMMA men's soccer plays at regional host Swarthmore, and Juniata volleyball faces Cabrini as regional host.

More info later in the day as I sort out match dates and times. I just thought the Lynchburg thing was odd enough that I wanted to comment.

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11/9/2009 -- 8:08 a.m.

Morning Round-up (non-recap edition)

Championships are complete, and now it's time for the brackets to be revealed. Rather than recap the stories you have all probably seen, I thought I'd provide a quick look at what we know regarding the NCAA Tournament field.

Four teams, Juniata field hockey, Catholic men's soccer, Catholic women's soccer and Juniata volleyball earned the Landmark's first automatic qualification with Championships this past weekend. Today we will find out where all these teams are going, and who they are playing. We will also discover whether any of the Landmark schools that didn't claim Championships will earn a coveted at-large bid.

In fact, the good news is already in for one sport. The USMMA men's soccer team has been awarded one of the 17 at-large berths for men's soccer, giving the Landmark two teams in that tournament field for the second-straight season.

I will update some preliminary information on the NCAA selections as soon as I have them here on the blog, and then you can expect a full release with NCAA info later in the day.

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11/6/2009 -- 9:45 a.m.

Landmark Championship Video Update

After almost exactly two months of competition, we arrive at Championship Saturday. Four Landmark Conference teams will earn the first NCAA automatic bids in the three-year history of the conference. If the competitiveness of the midweek semifinals are any indication, it should be a great weekend of action.

To get you ready for it, here is another Landmark Video Update.

And just in case you didn't see it elsewhere on the website, here is the full Championship schedule

Volleyball (at Juniata):
Semifinal #1: #4 Goucher at #1 Juniata, 11 a.m.
Semifinal #2: #3 Catholic vs. #2 Susquehanna, 1:30 p.m.
Championship: Semifinal winners, 7 p.m.

Field Hockey (at Juniata):
Championship: #3 Susquehanna at #1 Juniata, 2 p.m.

Women's Soccer (at Catholic):
Championship: #3 Susquehanna at #1 Catholic, 11 a.m.

Men's Soccer (at Catholic):
Championship: #4 Scranton at #3 Catholic, 2 p.m.

Enjoy the matches, folks. And let's all remember that sportsmanship and positive fan-behavior is one of the core principles of the Landmark Conference.

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11/5/2009 -- 7: 47 a.m.

Morning Round-up Postseason Edition

Well that was certainly exciting. Eight Landmark postseason contests in one day, and all sorts of surprising results, close contests and just about everything else you can imagine. Of the eight matches, four of them ended with the higher seed prevailing, which means there were four "upsets" among the results. I put "upsets" in quotation marks because when you're talking about a four-team postseason, I don't think it's all that shocking when a #4 seed defeats a #1. Either way, Washington, D.C. and Huntingdon, Pa. will play host to all the Landmark Championship action on Saturday. Let's see how we got there.

-- Catholic women's soccer continued its recent trend of stirring second-half comebacks as the Cardinals outlasted Scranton 3-2, rallying from a 2-1 second-half deficit. The win was Catholic's 16th of the season, a new Landmark single-season high for women's soccer, and came with Michelle Spadaro netting the winner in the 67th minute.

-- While one women's soccer semifinal saw five goals scored, 110 minutes of action saw neither team find the net in the match between Susquehanna and Drew, with the Crusaders eventually earning the right to play in the finals on penalty kicks. Defense has been the calling card for the Crusaders, and so fittingly it is what carried them to the finals as Alyssa Kemmerer stopped eight shots for Susquehanna's fifth shutout of a Landmark opponent.

-- I remarked in my previews on Tuesday that there might be no hotter teams entering the postseason than the Scranton and Catholic men's soccer teams, and each proved me prophetic as both teams went on the road and knocked off higher seeded teams. Catholic earns the right to host the Landmark final with a 3-1 victory over USMMA. The Cardinals bounced back from an early deficit before striking for three goals in the second half. It was the sixth multi-goal match of the year for the Cardinals against a Landmark foe.

-- Meanwhile Scranton continued the curse of the #1 seed as the Royals outlasted Drew 3-2 in double overtime. It doesn't have too many years of history behind it, but through three Landmark seasons, the #1 seed in men's soccer has yet to survive its semifinal match. On this night the teams traded goals, with Jeff Bochicchio scoring the tying goal in the 83rd minute, then adding the winner in the 104th minute. It was Scranton's fifth overtime match of the season, and the Royals have yet to lose.

-- One top seed that looked the part on Wednesday was the Juniata field hockey team, which scored in the opening minutes and never looked back en route to a 4-1 win over visiting Drew. The two-time defending Landmark Champions got a goal at the 3:28 mark from Sam Smith, then added one more in the first half and two more in the second before a late Drew penalty stroke made the score 4-1. Juniata has been held to fewer than two goals just three times on the season.

-- The other semifinal had a bit more defense as Susquehanna held off a late Catholic charge to upend the higher-ranked team 2-1. With the visitors leading 2-0 late, Catholic scored with less than five minutes remaining, and then earned a corner with time running out, but Susquehanna's Erin Ferguson made two key saves in the final seconds to preserve the lead and give the Crusaders the win.

-- Finally volleyball was the one sport which seemed immune to the upset madness as the higher seeds held serve (so to speak) in quarterfinal play. Catholic got 37 assists from Michaela Carroll and hit .323 in knocking off #6 seed USMMA. The Mariners' senior standout Jesselyn LaValley had 16 kills, 11 digs and four blocks while hitting .406 in what was likely her final match.

-- In the other quarterfinal Goucher took care of Moravian 3-0 on its home court behind 17 kills from Megan Smith. The Gophers raced out to a 7-1 lead in the first set and despite a closer second set, never really looked back. Their defense limited Moravian to a .114 hitting percentage. Mary King managed nine kills and seven blocks for 14 points for the Greyhounds.

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11/3/2009 -- 8:15 p.m.

Semi(Quarter)final Wednesday Preview

I was hoping to make this another edition of the Landmark video update, but the day (and now night) got away from me. But no fear devoted blog readers, there you will not go home empty handed. I've included some brief previews of all Wednesday's contests, so hopefully you all will be prepared for an exciting day of action. And since there is no morning round-up tomorrow, you might get even more previews then. For now, this will have to suffice.

Field Hockey:

#4 Drew at #1 Juniata: The two top offenses in conference get together in this one as drew has 60 goals and Juniata has 50 on the year. Juniata won the regular-season matchup 2-1 at Drew. All the scoring came in first 41 minutes of the contest and then the defenses held on. These two teams met in the 2007 postseason with Juniata winning 2-0 en route to first Landmark title. After getting off to a 2-0 conference start, Drew has lost 4-straight in conference, three by a one-goal margin. With the two highest-scoring offenses it’s not surprising that the match will feature several of leading offensive players in the Landmark. Juniata’s Paula Price and Kim Amrod are first and second respectively in the Landmark in points and the next three in that category are from Drew as Liz Law, Meghan Howlett and Nicole DiBattista hold that distinction.

#3 Susquehanna at #2Catholic: Catholic is making its 3rd straight postseason appearance while Susquehanna is in postseason play for the 2nd time. These teams met in first week of the conference season with Catholic rolling to an 8-1 win. Susquehanna has rebounded by losing just one Landmark match since then. Catholic is 3-0 in the series and the previous meetings were all one-goal affairs prior to the 8-1 win this year. Catholic’s Meredith Chandler had hat-trick in the win, in which Catholic scored eight goals on just 13 shots. Chandler is one of seven Cardinals with at least three goals this year. Reigning Landmark Defensive Player of the Week Erin Ferguson has been in good form in goal for Susquehanna with only three goals allowed in last six matches, including a shutout of Drew this past weekend.

Men's Soccer:

#4 Scranton at #1 Drew: This is another rematch from the 2007 postseason as the two teams met in the championship match when Drew won title. Rangers are 3-0-1 against Scranton since the start of Landmark play after a 1-0 win this season, in what was a physical match with nine yellow cards. Scranton may enter the postseason with the most momentum in the conference, winning last three conference games by scoring nine goals and allowing one. The duo of Michael Drew and Ray Straccia have been leading that Scranton attack and will be a handful for the Rangers’ defense. That defense is the foundation for Drew as it has 13 shutouts in 18 matches this season. The question might be can team continue to get enough offense, or if the defense falters, can the Rangers win a high-scoring contest. Last year’s Landmark Offensive Player of the Year Greg Zizik has returned to form after an early season injury as he has scored three goals in last four matches.

#3 Catholic at #4 USMMA: If it’s not Scranton that brings the most momentum into the postseason it’s probably Catholic which boasts 4-straight Landmark wins, including the only win over Drew. USMMA may have to shake off some rust as the Mariners haven’t played since Oct. 24 when they pulled out a late 2-1 win over Goucher. USMMA won the regular-season meeting between these two teams 1-0 at Kings Point. USMMA is 0-1 in postseason as host after falling as the top seed in 2007, while Catholic knocked off higher seed last year with an upset of the top seed. Match will feature two of the premiere offensive players in conference in Catholic’s Matt Brady and USMMA’s Clint Foster who currently rank first and second respectively in goals and points. With those offensive stars it would be easy to overlook two goaltenders who have excelled all season as Catholic’s Quinn Daly and USMMA’s Gary Poulin are 2nd and 3rd respectively in the Landmark in goals against average.

Women's Soccer:

#4 Scranton at #1 Catholic: Catholic earned #1 seed with thrilling OT win over Moravian this past weekend, while Scranton won its own thrillers to earn spot, scoring late goals to beat Juniata and Goucher in its final two contests. Scranton is the only team to beat Catholic in Landmark play this season, and is also the only team to shutout the Cardinals this season. Catholic had been 3-0 against Royals prior to meeting this year. Catholic boasts an explosive offense which has scored at least three goals in all four of its Landmark victories. The Cardinals also have three shutouts, led by senior defender Helene Nicoletti. Scranton has been playing postseason games for the last few weeks, as any loss would have eliminated them from postseason consideration over its last three contests. Led by goalkeeper Caitlin Byrne, Scranton has allowed the second-fewest goals in Landmark competition.

#3 Susquehanna at #2 Drew: Battle of two teams that have to be considered slight surprises to be in the postseason as the Rangers were picked fifth and Susquehanna was sixth in the Landmark preseason poll. Both teams are making their first Landmark postseason appearances. Contest is a rematch of this past Saturday’s match, which Drew won in Madison by a 1-0 score on a goal from Emily Weida while holding the Crusaders to just one shot. Defense has been the story to Susquehanna’s success in the second part of the year as after a 2-6-2 start to the season, the team has gone 5-1-1 in October with all five wins coming via shutouts. Alyssa Kemmerer in her first year as a starter set a new program-record for shutouts in a season. Expect a low-scoring match between these two tough defensive teams.

Volleyball:

#6 USMMA at #3 Catholic: USMMA making its first Landmark postseason appearance travels to Washington, D.C. to face a Catholic team that is in the postseason for the third-straight year, but is looking for its first Landmark postseason win. The Mariners should be comfortable on the Catholic court, as it is where the team picked up its first-ever Landmark win. If USMMA can get hot with the serve, they lead the conference in aces, they could pull off the upset. Catholic will try to shake off the bad feeling from an 0-4 weekend and get back to the form that gave them seven-straight wins prior to the weekend. Freshman libero Kristina Purcell will be a key factor with her passing in trying to neutralize that USMMA serving, and she also sparks the Catholic defense as she is third in the Landmark in digs per set.

#5 Moravian at #4 Goucher: A rematch of one of the best regular season matches of the season as Goucher earned the fourth seed by rallying from a 2-0 deficit to beat Moravian 3-2. Moravian’s Mary King is the reigning Landmark Player of the Week after a big weekend and she helps Moravian rank fourth in the conference in blocks, as she is the conference block leader. She will try and slow Goucher’s offense which has been clicking with four-consecutive wins and the team has hit nearly .200 in those four matches with an average of 11 kills per set. Megan Smith has led that charge as the Landmark points per set leaders has averaged six kills per set during this four-match run.

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11/3/2009 -- 9:46 a.m.

Semifinal Wednesday

The game times are set for Semifinal (and Quarterfinal) Wednesday. You can find these elsewhere on the website, but I thought I'd put them all in one spot.

Field Hockey
#4 Drew at #1 Juniata, 2:30 p.m.
#3 Susquehanna at #2 Catholic, 3:00 p.m.

Men's Soccer
#4 Scranton at #1 Drew, 7 p.m.
#3 Catholic at #2 USMMA, 7 p.m.

Women's Soccer
#4 Scranton at #1 Catholic, 12:00 p.m.
#3 Susquehanna at #2 Drew, 4:30 p.m.

Volleyball
#6 USMMA at #3 Catholic, 7:00 p.m.
#5 Moravian at #4 Goucher, 7:00 p.m.

Should be a fun day (and night) of action. Look for previews in the coming days.

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11/3/2009 -- 7:06 a.m.

Cross Country Championships Video

I intended to have this up late last evening, but technology conspired against me. Either way, you've read about it, now see what it looked like as Scranton and Susquehanna won the 2009 Landmark Women's and Men's Cross Country Championships respectively. Quick note, I apologize for not being able to identify more runners by name, unlike many other sports, they don't wear uniform numbers. And I didn't have the information regarding corresponding bib numbers.

Women's Race Recap

Men's Race Recap

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11/2/2009 -- 8:27 a.m.

Morning Round-up

My apologies for the relatively long radio silence on blog posts, it was a busy few days. Seemingly just as quickly as it arrived, the fall sports regular season is over. Now it's time for the pressure of postseason, as Landmark postseason play begins on Wednesday with six semifinals and a pair of quarterfinals. It will all then wrap up on Saturday with the Landmark earning its first-ever NCAA automatic tournament bids. Before we start looking ahead, however, we should look back at the previous weekend.

-- While some sports were determining which teams will compete for the postseason, the Landmark cross country teams were crowning champions as the Scranton women and the Susquehanna men both earned team titles. For the Royals' women it was the first conference championship in the program's history, as the team put four runners in the top-7, including Landmark Female Newcomer of the Year Kathleen Druther, to earn the title. Casey Hess of Susquehanna was the winner on the women's side as she ran a superb time of 23:34, which was more than two minutes faster than the winning time at the Catholic Invitational a month earlier. The Crusader men dominated the field en route to their third-consecutive title, as three-time Male Outstanding Performer Paul Thistle placed first, leading five Crusaders in the top-9. Hopefully the Landmark runners can continue their strong performances at the NCAA Regionals in two weeks, and send another group of runners to the NCAA Championships.

-- There was more drama in Washington, D.C. on Sunday as the women's soccer postseason was sorted out by the results from the match between Moravian and Catholic. The home team rallied from a two-goal deficit, finally winning on a Kelly Donnelly overtime goal to earn the number-one seed for the first time. It was a tough loss for Moravian, but congratulations are in order for both teams for playing, what from all the reports I received, was an incredibly spirited and hard-fought match.

-- The final questions in men's soccer were sorted out on Saturday with Drew picking up its sixth Landmark shutout 2-0 over Susquehanna to secure the top seed, and Scranton taking care of Goucher to secure the fourth seed. Those two teams will meet in semifinal action on Wednesday, in a rematch of the 2007 Landmark Championship. Drew's defense has been the stingiest in the conference, while Scranton keeper Brandon Dombrowski leads the Landmark in saves.

-- Drew claimed the final spot in the field hockey postseason despite a loss on Saturday as the team has the fourth seed and will travel to Juniata. Field hockey is one sport that has not had the same four teams qualify for the postseason in any of the three years of Landmark competition.

-- Several of the Landmark volleyball teams will head into the postseason with significant momentum. Susquehanna and Goucher each have winning streaks of at least four matches heading into the postseason, while Catholic was on a eight-match streak before three set-backs this past weekend. We'll get into full previews later in the week, but I'm expecting a barn burner in 4/5 matchup between Goucher and Moravian. Goucher earned the right to host that match with a 3-2 win over the Greyhounds at the first Landmark round-robin, and the two teams appear to be very evenly matched.

Check back (hopefully) later today for some highlights from the Landmark Cross Country Championships.

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10/29/2009 -- 11:17 p.m.

Morning (Evening) Round-up

Only one victory to report from Thursday's action, so a very brief round-up.

 -- Susquehanna volleyball won its fourth-straight match, dispatching Penn State-Altoona 3-0. Lindsey Jankiewicz had 12 kills while Jess Cicioni had nine kills and four blocks.

This brings me to a point I've been meaning to talk about for awhile about volleyball stats. I'm not sure how familiar everyone is with a lot of the new, or more popular statistics that have become more common in recent years. Foremost amongst them is on-base percentage. The proponents of on-base percentage point out that the reason it's so important, is that it shows precisely how good a hitter is at not making outs. When making outs are the least effective thing a hitter can do.

This long interlude leads me to make the observation that I think the statistic points is underrecognized in volleyball. And I'm guilty myself. Points have long been the most popular stat in international volleyball, but collegiate volleyball seems to have focused on other numbers, kills, assists, digs, blocks etc. But the more I've thought about it, I am starting to warm up to points. And the reason is much like the value of on-base percentage. The goal of volleyball is to score points. How do teams win matches? By scoring more points than their opponents. So at its heart, scoring points is the most important thing a player can do. So I think it should really be the first stat we look at.

Obviously, points are not perfect. That stat will always undervalue setters. And this is not to say that defensive specialists and liberos aren't valuable, or that digs is not an important stat. I just think points is too often seen as an outlying unimportant stat. I would like to change that.

Hopefully, I've made my point.

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10/29/2009 -- 8:11 p.m.

Final Fall Weekend Video Update

I don't know about you, but it's a little bittersweet to finish the final regular season video update. I hope you've enjoyed them during the fall, just as some additional information each weekend. I'll be on the road heading to the Landmark Cross Country Championships for much of the work day tomorrow, so we're getting these up a little bit earlier. I hope my previews can live up to what should be an exciting final weekend of regular season competition.

Field hockey preview

Men's soccer preview

Women's soccer preview

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10/29/2009 -- 7:35 a.m.

Morning Round-up

Only two teams in action last night, as some unpleasant weather in the mid-Atlantic region postponed some other matches. Then we head into the weekend with a whole lot on the line.

-- Catholic picked up its 23rd win of the season, knocking off Gallaudet 3-1. The win came over a Gallaudet team that beat the Cardinals 3-2 earlier in the season, so Catholic seems ready for next week's Landmark postseason to begin. Alex Min-Tun accounted for 14 points in the win, including a match-high five aces.

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10/28/2009 -- 7:56 a.m.

Morning Round-up

Three non-conference victories for Landmark foes last evening as teams wrap up the 2009 season.

-- Scranton field hockey pulled a game within .500 by battling to a 1-0 victory over Vassar. The Royals were out-shot and out-cornered in the contest, but were able to come away with the victory thanks to a late first-half Liz Carugan goal.

-- Consecutive shutouts for Catholic gave the Cardinals a 1-0 win over Wesley, the team's third-straight win, and fourth-consecutive match in which it has held opponents to one goal or fewer.

-- Susquehanna field hockey also has a winning streak in place heading down the stretch run, as the Crusaders topped Neumann for a fourth-straight victory. Susquehanna has scored 18 goals while conceding three during this current winning streak.

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10/27/2009 -- 7:46 a.m.

Morning Round-up

Not much to cover from last night as we had just two Landmark matches, and two victories in decisive fashion for Catholic.

-- Cardinals women's soccer rolled past Trinity (D.C.) by a 7-0 score. Kelly Donnelly scored twice, and five other players found the back of the net at least once for Catholic in its final tuneup before the key regular-season finale against Moravian.

-- Meanwhile the Catholic volleyball team went on the road and picked up a 3-0 win over Hood, for the Cardinals' sixth-consecutive win. That stretch is one short of its season long winning streak.

More to come later today including an update on postseason berths.

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10/26/2009 -- 7:36 a.m.

Morning Round-up

Certainly a lot to recap from the second-to-last regular season weekend of the fall season. I plan on doing a post later today that at least attempts to clear up some of the murky postseason scenarios, but until then, here are some of the highlights of the weekend.

-- Catholic men's soccer becomes the first Landmark team to solve the puzzle of Drew's defense this season, and clinches a postseason berth with a 2-0 win. Early goals for Catholic in both its Landmark wins last week as it scored in the first four minutes against both Drew and Goucher.

-- A late goal from Erin Unterstein helped keep the Scranton women's soccer team's hopes alive as the team pulled out a 2-1 win over Juniata. Heading into the weekend the Royals knew anything less than a win in their final two matches would eliminate them from the postseason. They've managed to survive step one.

-- An overtime goal from Ally Bradley has greatly impacted the field hockey postseason race as Susquehanna outlasted Moravian in overtime. The win secured a spot for the Crusaders, who for the second year in a row bounced back from a slow non-conference start to the season to emerge in conference play. Meanwhile Moravian still has work to do to claim the program's first field hockey postseason berth.

-- Goucher volleyball earned a 3-0 win over Delaware Valley to move to 15-11, insuring the program a winning record for the second time in three seasons. The Gophers will host a postseason match next week, and have closed the season with a strong stretch of play, winning seven of nine matches down the stretch.

-- A hard-fought draw between Drew and Catholic in women's soccer has created a three-way tie for second place in the standings, with Scranton looming just three points back. At last count, there are 15 different scenarios that could come into play on the final weekend. Should be a fun last day of competition.

-- While the four other fall sports wrap up regular season play this week, the Landmark cross country programs will have their championship meet this Saturday at Catholic. We'll have a full preview of the event a little later in the week, but four teams were in action in tuneups this weekend. Susquehanna ran in a non-scored tri-meet against Bloomsburg and Bucknell, while both Drew and Moravian competed at the Pete Nevins East Stroudsburg Invitational (with a very strong 5th place finish among 11 teams for the Drew women). And the Goucher cross country team competed in one of my favorite events of the season, as the men and women combined for a mixed entry relay in a dual meet against York. I like unique competitions and this certainly fits the bill.

10/23/2009 -- 10:25 a.m.

Weekend Preview Video Updates

To steal a line from Fox baseball broadcasts, "this time it matter." Well, the reality is that all conference games matter, even the ones in the first weekend. They all count in the standings. These ones late in the year just seem a bit more important, because the stakes are much clearer. Postseason bids, and the chance at NCAA Tournament play that comes with them, are on the line.

As best I can, I've provided a glimpse of what each team has on the line with its field hockey, men's soccer and women's soccer matches this weekend with another round of Landmark video updates. Once teams start clinching berths and seeds, you can follow it here on the Landmark blog, as well as on the Championship pages for each sport. I for one am excited to see how everything shakes out over the next two weeks.

Field Hockey weekend preview

Men's Soccer weekend preview

Women's Soccer weekend preview

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10/23/2009 -- 7:43 a.m.

Morning Round-up

I don't believe we've had too many nights like this in the Landmark over the course of the season. Four volleyball teams in non-conference action, four victories. A clean sweep for the Landmark as teams hit the home stretch.

-- One of the sweetest wins came at Scranton where the Royals halted an 11-match losing skid with a 3-0 triumph over Muhlenberg. It's been a tough season for the Royals who have an extremely young team, and had a coaching change prior to the season. But on senior night, playing for the final time on her home floor, Marie Newkirk posted eight kills and nine digs to help Scranton to the win. Jenell McFadden had her third straight double-double with 14 kills and 18 digs.

-- Also stopping a slide was Moravian which bested Misericordia 3-1 on the road. The Greyhounds had dropped four straight prior to the win. Katie Moquete was one digs shy of a double-double as she produced a match-high 15 kills and nine digs. The Greyhounds were 4-11 in either road or neutral matches prior to the contest.

-- Seventeen kills and six aces from Lindsey Jankiewicz helped Susquehanna move to 10 matches over .500 as the team swept Lebanon Valley. It was the 10th time this season she has produced at least 20 points in a match. Keep an eye out later today for a post in which I offer my argument for the value of paying more attention to points as a stat in volleyball. I'm sure you will all be riveted.

-- Goucher got past Lancaster Bible as the Gophers try to bring some momentum towards their home quarterfinal in two weeks. The win was just the third true road win for the Gophers this season, with all three coming within the last three weeks, including the pivotal 3-2 win over Moravian at the first Landmark round-robin which gave Goucher the right to host the quarterfinal match.

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10/22/2009 -- 2:01 a.m.

Morning Round-up

Midweek competition is over in conference play, and the postseason picture is beginning to take shape. Be sure to check back in later in the week when I break down some of the postseason scenarios for the coming weekend. But for now, a recap of Wednesday night's action.

-- A three-way tie for second place in the women's soccer standings after Wednesday's competition. Catholic and Susquehanna both earned wins to reach nine points, while Drew already was at the nine-point mark. Catholic scored all of its goals in the second half after a scoreless first 45 minutes to defeat Goucher 3-0. Meanwhile Susquehanna's Alyssa Kemmerer picked up her fifth shutout in her last six matches as the Crusaders blanked Juniata. Her seven shutouts on the year are the fourth-highest single-season total in Landmark history.

-- The other Landmark midweek match ended in a tie, with Moravian and Scranton finishing at 1-1. Moravian will still have a chance to clinch a postseason berth with a win on Saturday. Scranton will need to win its last two matches and get some help to find its way into the postseason mix.

-- One goal was all it took for Drew to put an end to the USMMA men's soccer team's 14-match winning streak. Greg Zizik had the lone tally and Drew kept USMMA off the scoreboard to earn its fifth shutout in Landmark play.

-- Elsewhere the Scranton field hockey team captured its third win in four matches by topping Muhlenberg 1-0. Tara Winter scored her first career goal to give the Royals the winning margin. Deirdre Rocklein stopped six shots for her third shutout of the year.

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10/21/2009 -- 4:41 p.m.

More Soccer

Yesterday I wrote way more than I intended about the men's soccer midweek matchups (and I apologize for my error, as the USMMA/Drew match is actually taking place this evening). Tonight the women get their time to shine with some key midweek matches which will play a large role in determining who will compete in the Landmark postseason. Let's take a look at tonight's matchups.

Moravian at Scranton: This matchup features the first two Landmark women's soccer champions. Moravian is the only unbeaten team in conference play, and can clinch a postseason berth with a victory. However it seems like more of a "must-win" for Scranton which started 0-2 in conference play before downing Catholic last weekend. Can Scranton's offense, which has scored just two goals in three Landmark matches break through against Moravian goalkeeper Sarah Halpin and a defense that has allowed just one goal in conference play?

Catholic at Goucher: The Cardinals make the short trip up I-95 to visit Goucher and try to rebound from a loss to Scranton this past weekend, which was only the team's second loss on the year (and the first time it has been shutout). Goucher has played three tight contests but is looking for its first Landmark victory. Both of Catholic's losses have come on the road this season, though the team is 2-0 in Landmark play against Goucher. Prior to the shutout at Scranton, Catholic's offense had been red hot, scoring three or more goals in five of its last six. The Gopher defense had allowed only one goal in two of its Landmark matches.

Juniata at Susquehanna: Juniata tries to pull itself back into postseason contention while the Crusaders look to reach nine points in the standings for the first time in the brief history of the Landmark. Susquehanna is not guaranteed a postseason spot with a win, but nine points has been good enough to earn one of the four bids in the previous two Landmark seasons. Juniata is unbeaten in the two previous Landmark meetings between the two teams, with a win and a tie. Juniata's defense will try and regroup after allowing four goals in each of its past two Landmark contests, while its offense will try to solve goalkeeper Alyssa Kemmerer who has not surrendered a goal in consecutive Landmark matches.

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10/21/2009 -- 7:34 a.m.

Morning Round-up

Plenty of action to recap from last night, including three conference men's soccer clashes.

While no teams locked up postseason berths last night, a few teams took a big step in earning a coveted spot with their efforts last night. Meanwhile, in four non-conference matches in field hockey and volleyball, the Landmark went 4-0.

-- Scranton leaped over its rival Moravian in the standings to move into fourth place with a 4-0 victory. The match was tied 0-0 for most of the contest, before the Royals erupted with four goals in a seven-minute span in the second half to secure the win. Now in that fourth position, Scranton controls its own fate the rest of the way.

-- Catholic also has its fate in its hands after battling to a 2-1 win over Goucher in men's soccer. Goucher outshot the Cardinals for the match, but Quinn Daly came up big in net with six saves for the Cardinals, giving them 10 points in the standings heading into a big matchup with Drew on Sunday.

-- Also pulling out a one-goal win over a rival was Susquehanna, which claimed a 2-1 win. Late heroics from goalkeeper Pat Horan, and two goals from Jim Robertiello proved to be the difference for the Crusaders, who kept their postseason hopes alive with the win. Susquehanna now sits in a tie with Moravian for fifth place in the standings, one point behind Scranton. Those two teams will meet on Saturday in a critical matchup.

-- Elsewhere there were late heroics aplenty in field hockey as both Drew and Juniata collected overtime wins. Drew got a goal from Elizabeth Law three minutes into the added session, her second overtime winner of the year, to defeat Vassar by a 3-2 score. Drew twice came back from one-goal deficits to claim the win. It was Kim Amrod who had the game-winning honors for Juniata as she found the cage in the 7th overtime minute to give the Eagles their 13th win of the season. Not counting conference matches, Landmark mark field hockey teams are 11-4 in overtime matches this season. And three of the four losses have come on penalty strokes.

-- Susquehanna and Juniata were both winners in volleyball as the top two seeds for the Landmark postseason remained hot. Juniata has won 12-straight matches after downing tough DII foe California (Pa.). While Susquehanna has won 12 of its past 14 matches after dispatching Muhlenberg 3-0. The Crusaders have enjoyed a remarkable midseason turnaround as the team started the year losing its first five matches and had a record of 2-8 before rampaging through its next 20 matches to currently hold a record of 20-11.

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10/20/2009 -- 1:16 p.m.

Big Night Of Soccer

No, I'm not talking about today's Liverpool/Lyon Champions League match which I will be watching around 10 this evening. Rather I am talking about tonight's midweek travel partner contests in Landmark men's soccer. With just a few weeks left in the regular season, these results should help start to clear up the postseason picture. A preview of the women's midweek matches will come tomorrow. And while I'm sure everyone will be disappointed that there is no full-scale video preview, hopefully you'll be satisfied with some quick thoughts.

Moravian at Scranton: Moravian will try and prove it can win a conference road match as the Greyhounds are 2-0 at home, 0-2 on the road in conference play. Scranton earned a draw with Catholic over the weekend and is winless in its last three matches. A loss would not end the postseason hopes for either team, but it would make life difficult as it would be behind its opponent in the standings and have a tie-breaker against it. A matchup to watch could be Moravian attacker Taylor Molinaro, who has a goal in two of Moravian's last three conference matches, against Scranton keeper Brandon Dombrowski who is among the conference leaders in saves.

Catholic at Goucher: The Gophers are trying to regain the form they had early in the season as they welcome Catholic which sits in third place in the Landmark standings after its draw with Scranton. A loss would eliminate Goucher from postseason contention, while Catholic is trying to keep pace with the teams at the top of the table in hopes of qualifying for the postseason and earning home matches. The teams have split the previous two meetings, with each winning on its home field. Goucher has a winning record at home on the year with a mark of 4-3-1, while Catholic is 4-2-1 on the road. After missing some significant playing time, Catholic striker Matt Brady regained his scoring touch with a goal against Scranton this past weekend. Brady and Goucher's Evan Rosse are two of the top-5 goal scorers in the conference this year.

Juniata at Susquehanna: Two teams with three points in the standings, and that badly need a win if they have hopes of reaching the postseason. Susquehanna has won both meetings between the two rivals since 2007, including a 5-4 shootout in Huntingdon last year. After scoring five goals in its first three Landmark matches, Juniata has been shutout in its last two Landmark matches. Susquehanna claimed its first Landmark win two weekends ago, before falling in overtime this past weekend. Joey Stellato has emerged as an offensive force for the Crusaders, and based on the numbers this could be a match with some offensive fireworks as the two teams rank near the bottom of the conference in goals allowed.

Drew at USMMA: This match features the only two unbeaten teams in Landmark action, and a win for either would have postseason implications. Drew can clinch a postseason berth if it can come up with a road win, while a victory for USMMA would give the Mariners the number-one seed in the postseason. The intriguing matchup seems to be Drew's defense, which has yet to allow a goal in four Landmark matches, facing off agains the USMMA offense which leads the conference in goals per match. The Mariners enter the match with a 14-match winning streak, and midfielder Clint Foster has had at least one point in 10-straight matches. Drew meanwhile has posted 11 shutouts on the year.

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10/19/2009 -- 8:57 a.m.

Morning Round-up

Plenty to round-up this morning, including the conclusion of the volleyball conference regular season. Let's get right to some of the highlights.

-- The final Landmark round-robin took place at Catholic over the weekend. The host Cardinals matched Juniata with a perfect 3-0 record over the two-day event and the postseason pairings are now set. Click here to see the full postseason schedule. Among the notable performances turned in over the event was USMMA's Jesselyn LaValley posting a triple-double in her team's first Landmark victory, a 3-2 win over Scranton. Catholic also became just the second team to record an unbeaten record as the host of a Landmark round-robin.

-- Elsewhere, two other teams locked up Landmark postseason bids. On the strength of a 2-1 victory over Drew, Juniata's field hockey team clinched both a postseason spot, and the number-one seed for the Landmark postseason. In men's soccer, USMMA has also insured it will compete in the conference postseason after outlasting Susquehanna 2-1 in overtime. The Mariners can lock up the number-one seed with a win this week against Drew.

-- The women's soccer postseason race looks like it will come down to the wire as six of the seven teams all have at least three points in the standings. Drew may be the hottest team at present as the Rangers are unbeaten in their last four matches. After losing their Landmark opener 3-0 to Moravian, Drew has reeled off three-straight wins, outscoring opponents 9-1 in those three matches.

-- Rough weekend for home teams in men's soccer, as only Moravian came up with a victory on its home field. Scranton was able to earn a draw against Catholic, while Drew and USMMA both captured road wins. It was nearly the same in field hockey as road teams picked up wins in two of the three matches. Juniata and Moravian both captured wins on opponents soil.

-- Amid the fall sport seasons winding down, the 2009-10 swimming & diving season got underway. Catholic took part in a unique two-day meet against Division I rivals within Washington, D.C. The meet began in Catholic's pool on Friday and then continued at American University's pool on Saturday. NCAA-qualifier Lisa Brooks picked up right where she left off last year as she bested swimmers from American and George Washington to win the 100 breaststroke. Juniata also got its season underway in a tri-meet with Mansfield and Cabrini. Sophomore Evan Beatty earned Juniata's lone first-place finish on the day as she won the 1,000-freestyle. She also added a runner-up finish in the 500 free.

Player of the Week results will be announced shortly.

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10/16/2009 -- 11:10 A.M

Volleyball Round-Robin Preview

Well, there was just a bit too much info for me to put into video form (the more content, the more I screw up, the more takes...etc). With that being the case, hopefully this traditional written preview of the final Landmark volleyball round-robin is enough to satisfy.

After playing 11 matches two weekends ago, the Landmark Conference volleyball regular season concludes with 10 matches over two day at Catholic University in Washington, D.C. This marks the final chance for Landmark teams to qualify and solidify positioning for the Landmark postseason.

Keep in mind that because of its unique regular season, Landmark volleyball is the one postseason that features six teams qualifying. The top two seeds earn byes to the semifinals, while the third-through-six seeds play quarterfinals on Wednesday Nov. 4. While the other Landmark sports will go through the final weeks competing for postseason spots, volleyball will have its postseason pairings all sorted out.

Here is a quick look at the seven teams as they head into the weekend.

Juniata went 3-0 during the first Landmark weekend and currently boast a 20-2 record. A key match this weekend will come when they square off against Susquehanna in a rematch of the 2008 Landmark Championship, and it could be a battle for the top seed in the postseason this year. Juniata made a bit of history last weekend when Head Coach Larry Bock earned his 1,200th win as head coach of the Juniata women’s program. He is the winningest volleyball coach in NCAA history.

Susquehanna was the only other team to make it through the opening Landmark weekend unscathed, but the team has a tough set of matches in the second go-round this weekend. The Crusaders will face off with Juniata, and then battle the only two other teams with winning Landmark records in Goucher and Moravian. Keep an eye on freshman libero Kelly O’Brien who has made quite an impact on the team’s defense in her first season as she is fourth in NCAA Division III in digs per set.

The Gophers of Goucher earned a big win in their last match of the first round-robin, topping Moravian in five sets which moved them to 2-1 and gave them the tie-breaker over the Greyhounds. The team will face Susquehanna, host Catholic and Scranton this weekend, and seems to be in good position to earn the right to host one of the quarterfinal matches. Goucher has carried the momentum out of that win as the team has gone 2-0 since the round-robin. The team boasts the third-best defense in the Landmark in terms of opponents hitting percentage, and much of that comes from the fact that the Gophers lead the Landmark in digs per set.

Like Goucher, Moravian is 2-1 following the opening Landmark weekend, which positions them for a possible run at one of the top three spots in the conference standings. The Greyhounds have finished fourth in the Landmark with a 3-3 record each of the previous two years. Topping three wins this year will be a tough order as the Greyhounds have to deal with conference leaders Juniata and Susquehanna this weekend, as well as facing the host team. Junior Mary King currently ranks in the top-10 in the conference in points per set, thanks mostly to her conference-leading 83 blocks.

Catholic finished 1-2 at the first round-robin, and now will have the benefit of playing on its home court. The Cardinals have also already tangled with the top two teams in the standings, which could put them in position to make a run up the standings. Freshman Claudia Jean has emerged as an attacking force for the Cardinals as she is sixth in the Landmark in kills per set, and she has been particularly strong of late as she had a career-high 19 kills in the team’s most recent match.

Scranton hopes a return to Landmark action will snap the team’s recent slide as the Royals enter the weekend in the midst of an eight-match losing streak. Scranton will have to deal with Juniata in its opener, and then faces USMMA and Goucher in its final two matches. Jenell McFadden is coming off one of her best efforts of her freshmen campaign as she recorded her fourth double-double of the season with a season-high 21 kills and 14 digs in a match against Lycoming. Four of Scranton’s seven regular starters this year are freshmen or sophomores.

USMMA enters the weekend looking for its first Landmark win after dropping four contests at the first round-robin at Moravian. The Mariners were the only team to play four times in the opening weekend, so they have just two matches this time as they will face off with host Catholic and Scranton. The Mariners have won three of five matches since the round-robin, including a 3-0 win over Lehman on Thursday night. If the team is going to collect a way and possibly reach the postseason, it will likely come off its serving as the team leads the Landmark in aces per set.

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10/16/2009 -- 10:30 A.M.

Weekend Preview-Video Update

As we roll steadily through the month of October, we have another key weekend of Landmark Conference action. Along with the normal slate of field hockey, women's soccer and men's soccer we also have the conclusion of the volleyball regular season. Add to that some very unpleasant weather in the mid-atlantic region, and there should be plenty of exciting things happening this weekend.

Here are the Landmark video update previews for field hockey, men's soccer and women's soccer. A non-video preview of the volleyball round-robin will be coming shortly.

Field Hockey preview

Men's Soccer preview

Women's Soccer preview

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10/16/2009 -- 7:42 A.M.

Morning Round-up

Very light night of competition last evening, made even lighter by the lovely weather that is rolling through the mid-atlantic region right now. Be sure to keep your eyes on the Landmark schedule pages throughout the weekend to see if there are any postponements or changes. But as for last night here are the highlights.

-- USMMA will take some positive feeling into the Landmark round-robin after a 3-0 sweep of Lehman brought the Mariners back to .500 on the year. Since going 0-4 at the first round-robin, the team has picked up three wins in four chances. The Mariners hope that good feeling can help them earn their first Landmark win, and with it, a possible shot at the Landmark postseason.

Check back later today for previews of all the weekend's Landmark action.

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10/15/2009 -- 5:32 P.M.

Confirming My Hypothesis

In various places, whether in press releases, on this blog, on video updates or elsewhere, I have on occasion mentioned that the sport of men's soccer has been one of the most competitive in the Landmark since competition began in the fall of 2007. What I meant by that was certainly not to suggest that the men's soccer athletes were somehow competing harder, or that the level of play was better. It was merely my way of saying that it seemed that week in and week out, men's soccer had a lot of close results, with lots of different teams winning.

But after saying (or thinking, I can't remmeber if I actually said it) that theory recently, it made me wonder whether or not it was actually true. Were there really more close games in men's soccer than in other Landmark sports, at least other fall sports? There was only one way to find out.

I looked at all the Landmark regular season results for men's soccer, women's soccer, and field hockey from the first two seasons, and the 2009 season thus far. And I counted up the number of "close" results, by my definition a match that was decided by one goal or ended in a tie. I also tallied the number of overtime matches. And then to be fair, I divided the results by the total number of matches played in that sport, because with one more team, men's soccer plays 28 Landmark matches compared to 21 for women's soccer and field hockey.

The results are as follows:

Field Hockey:
48% of matches decided by 1 goal or ending in a tie , 15% of matches go to overtime

Men's Soccer:
61% of matches decided by 1 goal or ending in a tie, 25% of matches go to overtime

Women's Soccer:
31% of matches decided by 1 goal or ending in a tie, 14% of matches go to overtime

So with an admittedly small sample size, this data suggests I haven't been way off base in suggesting that men's soccer has been a particularly competitive Landmark sport. I also was able to see where I might have developed this impression in the first place, as in the first season of Landmark action, 20 of the 28 men's soccer matches fell into my "close" category.

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10/15/2009 -- 8:11 A.M.

Morning Round-up

Quite a bit more action last night than the previous evening, and the busy night featured some exciting action.

-- Everyone was working overtime in Scranton where the Royals' women's soccer and field hockey teams both earned overtime wins. The field hockey squad was outshot by Montclair State but got 11 saves from Deirdre Rocklein and the winning goal from Elizabeth Carugan to claim the win. In women's soccer Eileen Sodano came off the bench to score the tying goal in the 78th minute and then knocked in the match-winner in the 98th minute. Scranton continues to perform well in non-conference action as the team is 10-1-1 against non-conference foes, but is 0-2 in the Landmark.

-- Sarah Stebbins scored twice to give the Juniata women's soccer team a much-needed win. The Eagles had dropped four straight coming into the match, and had been shutout in three of those contests. It was just the team's third multi-goal match of the year.

-- Multi-goal matches have not been a problem for the USMMA men's soccer team which picked up its 13th-straight win (and 13th overall) with a 5-0 blanking of CCNY. Five different players found the back of the net for the Mariners. This was the eighth win in the streak where the Mariners won by at least two goals.

-- A team that also finds itself on a streak is the Susquehanna men's soccer team which is unbeaten in its last three matches after a 2-1 win over Franklin & Marshall. Despite a record below .500 Susquehanna is 3-1 on its home turf, and three of its final four Landmark matches will be at home. Including a critical matchup with USMMA this weekend.

-- With all the offensive explosions we've seen in field hockey this year it's easy to overlook players who are putting up some solid numbers. Drew's Meghan Howlett has been scoring and providing assists throughout the year, but has been overshadowed by her higher-scoring teammates. Howlett stepped into the forefront last night as she scored three of Drew's five goals as the Rangers blitzed Richard Stockton 5-0. The Rangers have scored at least two goals in each of their victories and have had at least three goals in nine of the contests. Next up, a huge matchup against conference-leading Juniata.

-- Two other teams narrowly missed wins last night as Drew men's soccer earned a 1-1 draw with Muhlenberg, and the Goucher field hockey team fell on penalty strokes against Stevenson. Micki Manheimer made four saves in the run of play and stopped five penalty strokes in the shootout but it wasn't enough for the Gophers. Drew comes away with its fifth tie of the season it was was its sixth overtime match.

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10/14/2009 -- 10:33 A.M.

Morning Round-up

More like a midmoring round-up today, as I'm a little late to get to this. But once again its mostly because there wasn't much to recap from last evening. Three teams in action in total and two volleyball teams earning wins.

-- Another double-double (19 kills, 19 digs) from Megan Smith helped Goucher knock off Stevenson for the second time this season. The win was the fourth-straight for the Gophers, giving them two winning streaks this season of at least four matches.

-- Juniata extended its volleyball win streak by dispatching Division II Clarion 3-0. It was the Eagles' second venture outside of Division III, as the team took on Division I Princeton earlier in the season. The Eagles have one more non-DIII test on the horizon, as they play Division II California (Pa.) early next week.

A busier night for non-conference action this evening, so tomorrow's morning roundup should be a bit meatier.

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10/13/2009 -- 7:09 P.M.

Landmark Rankings Update

Tuesday is generally rankings day amongst the various coaches associations that provide national and regional rankings, so I thought I'd give a quick update of where Landmark teams currently stand.

-- The only two teams that hold spots in national coaches polls at the moment both reside at Juniata. The Eagles' women's volleyball team is currently second in the AVCA Division III poll with its 19-2 record, while the Juniata field hockey team is up one spot to 17th in the NFHCA Division III poll after winning two conference matches last week.

-- In men's soccer there are two teams currently holding spots in the regional rankings. USMMA's 12-1 start has the Mariners sitting in 5th in the Middle Atlantic rankings, while the Catholic men's soccer squad is three spots behind at eighth.

-- Women's soccer also has a pair of teams in the rankings. This time its Catholic that is the highest among Landmark schools as the Cardinals match USMMA's position with a fifth-place ranking. Scranton is 10th in the regional coaches poll on the strength of its strong non-conference record.

-- Finally in cross country, there are two teams in the rankings on the women's side of things. Susquehanna is currently sixth in the Mideast Region, while Catholic is eighth in the South/Southeast Region. On the men's side, Susquehanna is the Landmark's only representative as the Crusaders are seventh in the Mideast Region.

The NCAA Regional Rankings, which provide a slightly clearer picture (or at least a guess) about possible NCAA Tournament bids have not yet been released for the fall season. You can expect a blog post once they are released.

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10/13/2009 -- 7:43 A.M.

Morning Round-up

Pretty quiet day yesterday, with just three teams in action.

-- Catholic field hockey shook off its tough loss to Juniata and earned a 3-1 win over Misericordia. Three different Cardinals scored in the match and the Cardinals continue to feature a balanced offense as 11 different players have scored for them this year, including seven with at least two goals. Meredith Chandler scored her team-high ninth goal in the win.

-- Juniata men's soccer halted a four-match losing slide with a 2-0 shutout of Hood. It was the team's second shutout of the season and came with the Eagles outshooting the visitors 29-3. And since I know you're asking the most shots by a Landmark men's soccer team in a single match this season is 46, which came when Drew defeated York (N.Y.).

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10/12/2009 -- 5:34 P.M.

Scoreless Streaks

I mentioned there could be a post sometime today about Landmark-record scoreless streaks...and like magic, here it is. Remember, this was prompted by a discusion of the Susquehanna women's soccer team, which is currently riding a 402-minute streak without allowing a goal (including a pair of Landmark shutouts). But is that the longest Landmark women's soccer streak? Read on. (For all of these streaks I rounded to the nearest minute).

-- The answer to that question is no. Susquehanna still has some work to do to catch the women's soccer team from Scranton, which earlier this year put together a stretch of 465 minutes without conceding a goal.

-- The men's soccer streak for longest stretch without a goal came in 2007 as Drew roared to both the Landmark Championship and reached the ECAC final. The Rangers allowed a goal to Susquehanna late in the year in a 3-2 win, and then went six matches without allowing another score, before finally giving one up in the ECAC Championship. That stretch totalled 662 minutes without being score upon, an included a pair of double-overtime victories.

-- The field hockey record also dates back to 2007 when the eventual conference champions Juniata went 418 minutes without an opponent finding the cage. That stretch was part of an eight-match winning streak for the Eagles and saw them earn four-straight shutouts.

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10/12/2009 -- 8:20 A.M.

Morning Round-up

Three weeks remaining in the Landmark regular season and for the most part the postseason picture is as clear as mud. There is obviously still plenty of time left in the season, but if you were to ask me today the favorites to earn postseason bids, I'm not sure I could answer. But let's take a look at some of the highlights of a busy weekend that got us to this point.

-- USMMA men's soccer continues to win as the Mariners topped Moravian for their 12th-straight victory. It was the team's second 3-1 win in Landmark play, and they've scored nine goals in four matches.

-- Field conditions moved the field hockey championship rematch to Selinsgrove, but the trip didn't slow down Juniata which captured its ninth-straight win by topping Catholic. Elizabeth Law scored twice for the Eagles who at 4-0 have the upperhand in earning the top-seed for the postseason.

-- In other field hockey action Scranton earned a critical win over Drew to save its postseason hopes, at least for one week. As I mentioned in the video update last Friday, for some reason the Drew/Scranton field hockey result has been a part of the postseason tie-breakers each of the first two Landmark seasons. That will be something to keep an eye on.

-- Catholic joined Moravian as the only remaining unbeaten teams in women's soccer with a comfortable 4-0 win over Juniata. After suffering its first loss last week, the Cardinals have gone 3-0, outscoring opponents 11-1.

-- Susquehanna women's soccer kept its shutout streak going with a 1-0 victory over Goucher. I'm thinking later today you may see a blog post about scoreless streaks, so keep an eye on that.

-- We had two Landmark coaching milestones over the weekend. Juniata volleyball coach Larry Bock earned his 1,200th career win as the Eagles went 4-0 at the Christopher Newport Invitational. Bock is the winningest volleyball coach in NCAA history. Meanwhile, with his team's 4-1 win over Goucher, Susquehanna men's soccer coach Jim Findlay earned his 100th career win. And probably more importantly for him, the win pushed Susquehanna right back into the mix for a postseason spot.

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10/9/2009 -- 2:41 P.M.

Video Updates

After a week hiatus (and really a weak hiatus as well) we're back at it with another installment of the Landmark video updates. I preview the full slate of conference play in men's soccer, field hockey and women's soccer. Should be an excellent weekend of action, with some very competitive contests. Not sure my on-camera skills match the quality of the play we will see this weekend, but hopefully they will get the fans ready for the action. Click below to view the updates.

Field hockey preview

Men's soccer preview

Women's soccer preview

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10/9/2009 -- 7:38 A.M.

Morning Round-up

A typically quiet Thursday night leads to a pretty short morning round-up. Just two matches last evening with one win and one loss for Landmark teams.

-- USMMA women's volleyball bested Rutgers-Newark 3-0. After going 0-4 at the Landmark round-robin, the Mariners have won two straight and are back above .500 at 10-9. That gives them a very solid 10-5 record in non-conference competition. Jessica Tyack had eight kills and three blocks for the Mariners.

I hope to have the latest video update installment posted sometime this afternoon, and would like to get a few more posts up as well. Stay tuned.

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10/8/2009 -- 8:16 A.M.

Morning Round-up

Well that was certainly a busy night. Along with a large slate of non-conference matches, it was travel-partner night for the Landmark field hockey teams. Some highlights include:

-- Close Landmark field hockey matches. The early portion of the Landmark field hockey schedule has seen quite a few lopsided scores. But Wednesday there were two tight one-goal matches, and a competitive 2-0 decision. Catholic outlasted Goucher 1-0 in overtime, while Moravian got past Scranton 2-1 on a late penalty stroke.

-- Meanwhile Drew was not in conference play, but was downing 15th-ranked Stevens Institute in overtime. The Rangers trailed 2-0 before rallying and winning on an overtime goal from Elizabeth Law.

-- The Moravian and Scranton women's soccer teams both earned one-goal wins, Moravian's coming in overtime. Diana Feldman headed in the winning goal for Moravian, her first goal of the season. Chelsea Paskman had the winner for Scranton, which was her 10th career goal.

-- Goucher men's soccer broke a five-match winless streak while overcoming a 1-0 second-half deficit to post a 3-1 win over Lancaster Bible. The three goals were the most Goucher had scored in six matches.

-- The hits also kept coming for USMMA which extended its winning streak to 11 matches with a 1-0 win over William Paterson. USMMA's defense has been stellar the last three matches, as it has now recorded three-consecutive shutouts.

-- Goucher earned a 3-0 women's volleyball win over Hood to carry the momentum from its strong finish at the Landmark round-robin . Megan Smith topped 20 digs for the seventh time this season for Goucher.

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10/7/2009 -- 7:46 A.M.

Morning Round-up

4-0 was the popular score of the night as three Landmark soccer teams all earned victories by that margin. No field hockey matches last night, but Landmark soccer teams went 3-1-1.

-- Catholic men's soccer bounced back from a tough loss this weekend by dispatching Washington (Md.) 4-0. With their 9-2 record, surprisingly this was only the second time this season the Cardinals have scored more than three goals in a match. Six of their nine wins have come in matches where the team has scored exactly two goals.

-- Susquehanna women's soccer maintained the momentum from its win over Scranton this past weekend by blanking Penn College 4-0. Crusader keeper Alyssa Kemmerer has now gone almost exactly 300 minutes since last allowing a goal.

-- Catholic's women's soccer team also captured a 4-0 win, taking care of Hood 4-0. The Cardinals put the match to rest early, scoring three times in the first 19 minutes of the match. Unlike the Catholic men's team, offensive explosions is not new for the Cardinal women, as this was the team's seventh match with at least three goals.

-- In volleyball, after a tough weekend at the Landmark round-robin USMMA righted the ship (no pun intended) and downed Farmingdale 3-1 behind 13 kills, seven aces and five blocks from Jess LaValley. The Mariners will try and find a rhythm over the next to weeks before going after that first Landmark win at the second round-robin Oct. 17-18.

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10/6/2009 -- 1:35 P.M.

Volleyball Round-Robin Highlights

The first weekend of Landmark volleyball action this past weekend featured some memorable play. As we continue to try and bring some new things to the website, listed below are some brief clips from the second day of action.

A quick note, several of the teams over the course of the two-day event wore pink uniforms or accessories in an effort to raise awareness and money for cancer research. This snippet from the Moravian website explains the program, which several of the teams took part in over the two days.

"Moravian will be raising money for Ginnie Rohn, a former Greyhound volleyball player and Moravian graduate, who was recently diagnosed with cancer. She is also a team and volleyball coach at Liberty High School. The Greyhounds will be accepting pledges per dig in the match or flat donations. Moravian is currently averaging 13 digs per set, and a total of 36 to 70 digs per match depending on the number of sets played. Pink "Dig for a Cure" t-shirts as well."

Along with Moravian's efforts, donations were made all weekend from Landmark fans.

Remember, for those of you new to the blog, you can always find the Landmark blog link on the bottom left side of the Landmark homepage.

Now, for some highlights:

The first match on Sunday, Susquehanna fends off a Scranton rally in set three to earn the win.

Moravian bounces back from a dropped set to top USMMA 3-1.

Juniata completes a 3-0 sweep of USMMA by finishing set #3.

Goucher rallies from a two-set deficit to earn a 3-2 win over Moravian.

Catholic concludes the weekend by finishing off a win over Scranton. (Note, I incorrectly note in the video that Catholic is 2-1, rather than 1-2.

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10/6/2009 -- 7:35 A.M.

Morning Round-up

A very successful evening for the Landmark Conference as all three teams in action picked up non-conference wins.

-- Scranton played a wild match with Rowan, with several goals being called off because of penalties, and Scranton converting one goal from the penalty spot, all leading eventually to a 2-1 double-overtime win. The Royals are now 2-0-1 in overtime and 6-1-1 in one-goal wins.

-- Speaking of one-goal wins, Drew traveled about half a mile down the road and picked up another shutout in downing FDU-Florham. The Rangers have not allowed more than two goals in any matches this season, and have a team goals against average of 0.25.

-- After spending several sentences yesterday talking about hat-tricks in field hockey, Moravian's Kayla Carson made me look very smart (which is not easy to do) as she scored three times in the second half to give the Greyhounds a 4-2 win over Washington College (Md.). It was the first hat-trick of her career. The match was a willd affair with all six goals coming in a 15-minute span in the second half.

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10/5/2009 -- 3:28 P.M.

Magic Numbers

Okay, so maybe these numbers aren't REALLY magic. And no, this isn't a subtle way to mention postseason baseball, teams clinching playoff berths, or the unstoppable Boston Red Sox.

No, this post is about some numbers that have jumped out at me as I was writing my Weekly Release this weekend. You may notice that there are places with many ties where I don't list individuals. That is simply because I can't fit them all into the release because of space constraints. Those nameless tied competitors is what inspired this little post. I will now try and bring some of those names to light.

-- Four goals, men's soccer. Four players are currently tied for fifth with this number, three behind the current leaders. Blake Ritchey and Taylor Molinaro for Moravian, Julien Greco from Goucher and Juniata's Andrew Steffen. Interestingly, USMMA, the leading scoring team in the conference only has one player in the top-9.

-- Three assists, women's soccer. There is acurrently a large logjam in the conference statleaders with three assists. Seven players have reached that mark (I'm not going to list them all...go here if you're curious). I'm always slightly surprised that assist totals aren't higher over the course of the year. The single-season Landmark record of 10 assists set by Chelsea Paskman last season seems very breakable, and yet at least through three years the totals seem to hover in single digits. I'm patiently waiting for the breakthrough playmaker to put that record well out of reach.

-- Three goals (in a game), field hockey. After seeing that Juniata's Kim Amrod struck for a hat-trick this past weekend, it made me think that there have been far more field hockey hat-tricks this year than previous years. This thought then sent me to the record books, and it turns out I was right (sort of). There have been six hat-tricks scored in field hockey this season. That matches the total of three-goal performances from the first Landmark season, 2007 (though there was also a five-goal effort that year, which bumps the number to seven). But with still nearly a month of the season left, the offensive performers in the conference are definitely on a record-setting pace.

-- 22:00. Okay, that's not a number exactly. But I didn't realize until I was writing up the Player of the Week selections this morning that Susquehanna sophomore Casey Hess had run the fastest women's 6K time in Landmark history this past weekend. The previous record was 22:13.48 which Hess' teammate Alycia Woodruff turned in at the NCAA Division III Championships last year. Now who is to say Hess can go faster, but it would certainly be fun to see a runner break that 22 minute mark. With the NCAA Regionals returning to the same course in a little over a month, she may get another shot.

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10/5/2009 -- 9:13 A.M.

Morning Round-up

Certainly a lot to cover over a busy weekend of play, including the first Landmark volleyball action of the season. I will get a bit more in-depth with some of these sports over the weekend, but here are some quick hits.

-- Scranton and Susquehanna played a pair of thrillers. In field hockey, the teams play a thrilling back-and-forth affair which the Crusaders eventually win on an overtime score from Andrea Fiori. In women's soccer, Scranton controls play and out-shoots Susquehanna 36-9, but can't get one past Alyssa Kemmerer before Abby Montgomery gives the Crusaders the win in the second overtime period. Some exciting stuff provided by these two programs.

-- We'll have a more complete volleyball round-up a little later, but two matches stood out over the two days. The tourney opened with Susquehanna pulling out a five-set victory over Catholic, in a match that could determine which team gets a bye into the Landmark semifinals. And in another match that may have a large impact on postseason seeding, Goucher rallied from two sets down to post a stirring comeback win over host Moravian on Sunday. Goucher and Susquehanna will meet at the next round-robin, which takes place in two weekends at Catholic.

-- Another one-goal win for USMMA as the Mariners get past Catholic thanks to a goal from Connor Pratt. The Mariners made the most of their limited chances, as neither team threatened goal very often, as the two keepers were forced to make just three saves. It's early, but it seems like there is a chance these two teams could get another shot at each other in the postseason.

-- Shutouts, shutouts and more shutouts. Three of the men's soccer matches over the weekend saw one team get kept off the scoreboard, and all three women's contests saw the losing team blanked. Should be some tough calls for soccer defensive players of the week when the selections are made later this morning.

-- Goals were less difficult to find in field hockey. Drew and Juniata both put five goals home in their matches, while Scranton and Susquehanna combined for seven scores in their thriller. Eighteen goals is the current Landmark record for most goals scored in conference play during a field hockey season (Catholic scored 18 in both 2007 and 2008). Through two matches, Juniata has already knocked in 10 goals.

-- Let's not forget the cross country performers who turned in some strong performances over the weekend. Goucher's Joe Negreann won the Catholic Inviational on the men's side, while Juniata's Laura Rupprecht crossed the line first for the women on the course where the Landmark Championships will be held in less than a month. The Catholic women staked their claim as a threat to earn the title on their home course as they bested four other teams (three Landmark teams) to earn the win. Juniata picked up the men's title against a field of three other Landmark teams.

-- Also in cross country action, in what might bode well for Landmark runners' chances to qualify for the NCAA Championships, some of the fastest times of the year were turned in by performers at the Paul Short Invitational. On the same course which will be used for the NCAA Mid-East Regional, Susquehanna's Casey Hess continued her strong sophomore season, posting a Landmark-best time of 22:01 over the 6K course. Paul Thistle improved his best 8K time of the season by nearly two minutes as he ran 25:25, which ranks as the second-fastest Landmark time of the year. Several of the fastest 10 times in the Landmark were turned in on the course in Bethlehem over the weekend. You can see for youself right here.

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10/2/2009 -- 3:47 P.M.

Volleyball's Turn

All the other Landmark fall sports have had their fun and got their conference seasons started, now it's volleyball's turn. The first Landmark volleyball round-robin takes place at Moravian Saturday and Sunday. Click here for a complete weekend schedule.

Eleven matches taking place over the course of two days hosted by Moravian. With just two weekends encompassing all conference play, a lot riding on competition over the competition in earning postseason berths and seeding.

Here is a quick preview of each team and some thoughts on how the weekend might play out.

Juniata is a perfect 12-0 in Landmark play over two seasons, and is currently ranked second in the AVCA Division III poll. The Eagles lost to Division I Princeton early in the week but the team has just one loss to DIII teams. A match to watch on day one of the round-robin is Juniata taking on Catholic in final session on that day, which is a matchup of the teams with the two best records in the conference.

The Cardinals are enjoying a bounce-back season after an eight-win season a year ago they have 13 wins this season. Team was 5-1 in 2007 in Landmark play and fell to 2-4 last year. Freshman Katie Chelfas has made a big impact in her first year as she is 2nd on the team in both kills and digs. Catholic will have to play through a tough schedule in opening round-robin as they face Juniata, Susquehanna, Scranton, three teams finished at top of standings last year.

USMMA has put together strong non-conference season thus far getting off to an 8-5 start after winning just nine matches in last year. The Mariners have a veteran team with seven experienced upperclassmen who have been through the round-robin experience before. The team has a tough schedule, facing host Moravian along with Juniata and Susquehanna as they look for first Landmark win under first-year head coach Allyson Ramey.

After slow start, last year’s Landmark runner-up Susquehanna comes into round-robin on a surge. The Crusaders opened the year 2-8, but have now won eight of nine, to move above .500. Reigning Player of Week Lindsey Jankiewicz strong all-around performer while freshman Kelly O’Brien has quickly settled into the lineup as she is among league leader in digs. Susquehanna will look to get off to strong start with two matches on day one of the event.

Goucher sits right at .500 through the first three weeks of non-conference play. With a veteran team hopes this is year the Gophers can break into top half of conference standings. Team has finished fifth and sixth in standings first two seasons and seems to maybe be on the verge of moving into the top half. They do enter the round-robin in a bit of a slump with two wins in last eight after 6-2 start. Count on All-Conference Megan Smith, first in kills/g to try and provide a spark. They face a tough road over the weekend, opening again Juniata and facing host Moravian.

Host Moravian will play three times on its own floor, taking on Scranton, USMMA, Goucher over the two-day event. The Greyhounds are one match below .500 on the year and have won their last two matches. The Greyhounds have been consistent in Landmark play over two years, finishing fourth with 3-3 records each of past two years. Team is led by middle hitter Mary King who is among the league leaders in blocks. If the Greyhounds hold serve on their home court they could improve on that 3-3 record with one win at the second round-robin.

Scranton enters the event with a 5-9 record, in what looks like something of rebuilding year for Royals. Team has been near the top of Landmark standings in first two seasons, finishing second and third in 2008 and 2007 respectively. Interim head coach Kelly Armes features a team with seven freshmen who will get their first taste of conference play this weekend. Defensive specialist Marissa Every quickly established herself as a force at her position as she is among Landmark leaders in digs, while classmate Jenell McFadden leads team in kills.

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10/2/2009 -- 11:33 A.M.

Weekend Preview (Non-volleyball edition)

I'll have a volleyball specific preview coming up a little bit later. And unfortunately timing prevents me from creating and posting my fourth installments of the Landmark video update. So instead I spruced up the scripts that I use for those videos, and turned them into slightly longer previews of the weekend's matches.

Women’s Soccer:

Juniata at Moravian: Two teams both trying to move to 2-0 in conference play after victories in their openers. Juniata pulled out 1-0 win over Goucher, Moravian behind Arielle Caldas hat-trick won 3-0. These two teams met twice last season, with Moravian winning both meetings, including in the Landmark semifinals. Moravian is unbeaten in home conference games since conference inception, including postseason. While Juniata’s offense has been inconsistent the defense has been stout, allowing four goals in last six matches.

Goucher at Drew: Opposite spectrum from the first game listed this one features two teams that don’t want to fall to 0-2 in conference. Goucher came exceedingly close to earning its first conference win falling 1-0 to Juniata, while Drew was bested by Moravian. After some strong offensive play early in the year offense has slowed for Drew as the team has found two goals in last four matches, all defeats. Goucher hopes to keep the momentum going from a from midweek win, but may have to rely on untested goalie, Regan Foy, who came on for the injured starter, but made five saves to earn the win. Match figures to be a low-scoring affair.

Susquehanna at Scranton: Scranton is the last team to start conference play after having a bye in the conference schedule last weekend, the Royals host Susquehanna which fell 3-0 to Catholic in its opener. Scranton has won both the previous meetings between the two teams, both by 2-0 scores. Scranton defense, led by Caitlin Byrne in goal, will try to keep recent form in which it has two goals allowed in last six matches. Susquehanna hopes it can find a spark from Samantha Evans who leads the team with three goals goals. As part of the match, players from both teams, as well as the men’s teams will be taking part in the “Red Card Cancer” program. The players will wear special t-shirts during warm-ups and there will also be t-shirts for sale, and donations to the American Cancer Society will be accepted.

Field Hockey:

Drew at Goucher: Differing results for these two teams in week one as Drew earned a comfortable win over Moravian, while Goucher fell to Juniata. These two teams have split their matches in the two previous seasons. Goucher earned first-ever field hockey conference win with a 1-0 over Drew in 2007, while Drew bounced back with a win last season. Drew’s Elizabeth Law is on a roll after scoring the match-winner in a 2-1 non-conference win for Drew during the week and scoring once against Moravian. Goucher is looking for one win to get them back on track as they’ve dropped five straight after starting the year 4-1. They have already matched their win total from 2008 season, and still have seven regular-season matched remaining.

Scranton at Susquehanna: This matchup features two postseason teams from last season. It’s the conference opener for Scranton, while Susquehanna looks to avoid going to 0-2 after a loss to Catholic in its opener. Teams have split their two meetings in the first to Landmark seasons. Susquehanna’s Andrea Fiori may have found her goal scoring touch as she had two goals in a win this week, including the overtime winner, and also scored against Catholic. Scranton’s defense led by Deirdre Rocklein in goal has been strong, and the Royals played #18 Stevens nearly even last weekend. That defense will try to slow down the Crusader offense to earn a win.

Moravian at Juniata: Speaking of slowing down offense Moravian is going to have that task when it travels to play Juniata. Juniata won its last six games, averaging 4 goals per game, including five goals in first conference win. Paula Price has eight goals in her last six matches. Moravian will try and avoid 0-2 start after its 4-1 loss to Drew last weekend. Moravian looking to find some breakthrough offense as the team suffered its second loss this season when outshooting its opponent earlier in the week. The Greyhounds expect to get solid play goalie Maura Acox, who is third in the conference in saves.

Men’s Soccer:

Catholic at USMMA: This match features two teams firing on all cylinders as USMMA has won 9 straight matches and is 2-0 in conference while Catholic has won six in a row and is 8-1 overall, 1-0 conference. Team’s played a tight one-goal match last year with Matt Brady scoring a late winner, his second of the match. Clint Foster has been on a tear for USMMA as he’s registered 14 points in last five matches. Tim McAneny was the surprising goal scorer for the Cardinals in their opening win over Susquehanna, which were his first two goals of year. Two has been the magic number for Catholic as they’ve scored exactly two goals in six of eight victories.

Goucher at Drew: Goucher was just a few minutes away from at least draw in its conference opener before falling in OT 2-1 at Juniata. Drew continued to show its lockdown defense, beating Moravian 1-0. The Rangers are already just one shy of their 2008 shutout total, and sit five from Landmark record of 12 shutouts in 2007. The offense Drew has had has been balanced as nine goals have come from eight different players. Goucher had a 2-2 draw in non-conference action following last weekend’s tight loss. The Gophers are tied for second in the Landmark in scoring and have not been shutout this year. But the team has been held to just one goal in three of last four in current four-match winless streak. Drew has won each of the two meetings in Landmark play.

Juniata at Moravian: These two squads played 0-0 draw to open Landmark play last year, which came after a two-goal Juniata win in 2007. Greyhounds will try to avoid an 0-2 start after one-goal loss Drew in the opener, while Juniata looks to build on overtime win. Both teams suffered midweek non-conference lossesin which they were held without goals. Juniata defense has been sturdy of late allowed one goal exactly in last three matches. The team is 5-1 this season when they’ve allowed one or fewer goals. Moravian will look from offensive punch from Taylor Molinaro who is the last Greyhound to score after netting two in win against Kings.

Susquehanna at Scranton: For Susquehanna it is the second week in a row with a postseason rematch from a year ago as these teams met in Landmark semifinals with Susquehanna winning 2-1 on a penalty kick in OT. This year both teams try to avoid 0-2 conference starts as Susquehanna fell 2-1 to Catholic and Scranton dropped a 3-1 decision to USMMA in week one. Scranton rebounded from that loss with a 3-2 win over Vassar, which featured two goals from freshman Kevin Romanouskas. It was the fifth one-goal win for Royals, who have had eight of their nine matches decided by one goal or less (including one tie). Speaking of late penalties, Susquehanna lost on one in non-conference action during the week. Head Coach Jim Findlay comes into the match looking for win 100 in his career. The Crusaders are trying to find some offense as they have scored the 3rd fewest goals in the conference in 2009.

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10/2/2009 -- 7:45 A.M.

Morning Roundup

Just a few contests Thursday night prior to a busy weekend of conference play. USMMA women's volleyball blanked Staten Island, giving the team three wins in its last four matches which should give the Mariners carry some momentum into the Landmark round-robin this weekend.

Speaking of that round-robin, I hope to have some previews of that, and other Landmark action here on the blog later today.

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10/1/2009 -- 4:25 P.M.

Other Contenders

Earlier in my Morning Roundup post I brazenly suggested that "there might not be a player on a bigger role right now than USMMA's Clint Foster." That statement was made with some knowledge behind it (he did win Men's Soccer Player of the Week honors on Monday) and with some understanding of his recent success.

However, any blogger worth his salt (or even a mediocre blogger such as myself) would conduct a follow-up post offering other suggestions of players whose recent play challenges the title bestowed upon Mr. Foster. As I cited his five-game total in that post, in coming up with contenders I only looked at their previous five games. And I limited it to one player per sport. And the nominees are (drumroll please):

-- In field hockey, Paula Price of Juniata. Catholic's Meredith Chandler made a strong case after her conference hat-trick this past weekend, but Price has been a model of production over the last few weeks. In the past five games she has scored six goals and added three assists, good for 15 points. She has scored in four of the five matches, and has had at least one point in all five. It should also be noted Juniata is 5-0 in those contests.

-- Because we can't be all about offense here, our women's soccer contender is Scranton goalkeeper Caitlin Byrne. In her past five outings she has allowed jsut two goals over 410 minutes, for a 0.44 goals against average. She has made 23 saves over that time, including 11 in her last contest. She has one shutout to her credit in the stretch and has not allowed more than one goal in any. Honorable mention to Moravian's Arielle Caldas whose back-to-back hat-trick efforts last week earned her Offensive Player of the Week honors.

-- As for volleyball there were two very strong candidates (and I extended the criteria to seven matches for them, because they play more frequently. It's my game, I'll change the rules if I want). But the choice Susquehanna's Lindsey Jankiewicz who was the Player of the Week this past Monday for good reason. Over the last seven matches she's averaging nearly five points per set, with 89 kills, 17 aces, and 21 blocks. Keep an eye on both her and USMMA's Jesselyn LaValley at this weekend's Landmark Round-Robin as they both try and keep up their recent torrid play.

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10/1/2009 --7:50 A.M.

Morning Roundup

A happy October to all my blog followers out there. I'm not sure about where you are, the weather has certainly turned fall-like, and as the calendar flips another month it means we have almost exactly one month left in the regular season. September closed with a few Landmark teams in non-conference action. A few of the highlights:

-- There may not be a player on a bigger roll right now than USMMA's Clint Foster who scored both goals in his team's 2-0 win over Manhattanville. The reigning Landmark Men's Soccer Offensive Player of the Week now has 14 points in his team's last five matches. The Mariners continue to roll along, as they extended their winning streak to nine. Their conference matchup with Catholic this weeked should be a thriller.

-- Also scoring twice yesterday was Scranton freshman Kevin Romanauskas who helped the Royals claim  a tight 3-2 win over Vassar. A nice bounce-back victory for the team after a tough conference loss this past weekend.

-- Last year it seemed Susquehanna's Andrea Fiori was knocking in at least a goal per game. She got back to that pattern Wednesday as she scored twice, including the match winner in overtime, as Susquehanna topped Elmira. The Crusaders have played three of the nine field hockey matches that have gone to overtime this year.

-- It also went to overtime but there was no winner as Susquehanna women's soccer team posted a scoreless 0-0 draw against Wilkes. It was the first 0-0 result in Landmark women's soccer play this year, while there have been five of them in Landmark men's soccer.

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9/30/2009 -- 7:56 A.M.

Morning Roundup

After a brief respite yesterday (there were only a few Landmark teams in action, and unfortunately none of them came away with wins) we had a busy night of non-conference play on Tuesday, including some very strong results.

-- Three volleyball teams (Goucher, USMMA and Moravian) picked up wins in what will be their final tuneups before the first Landmark round-robin this coming weekend at Moravian. Volleyball is unique within this conference in that all of the conference play is contained within two weekends. So those three teams have to feel good that all seems to be in order as the round-robin weekend approaches.

-- Goucher women's soccer earned a solid 3-1 win over Gallaudet to get back in the win column after two-straight losses. Regan Foy came off the bench to make five saves in her collegiate debut, and Sisley Pumilia scored twice for the Gophers.

-- Meanwhile the two hottest women's soccer teams both went without wins. After opening the season with nine-straight wins Catholic suffered a 4-2 set-back to St. Mary's. The four goals are more than the team had conceded in its previous nine matches combined. Also last night, Scranton, which had won seven-straight matches earned a 1-1 tie with Oneonta State. Caitlin Byrne made 11 saves in net for the Royals.

-- Drew field hockey pulled out a thrilling win, collecting a late goal from Elizabeth Law with just two minutes remaining and Lauren Fasano made a clutch late save to preserve a 2-1 win over Ramapo. After dropping two consecutive matches, the Rangers have bounced back with two straight wins.

-- The Catholic men's soccer team collected its fourth shutout win of the year, shutting out St. Mary's (Md.) 2-0. Tom O'Leary, making his second start of the year, made four saves in goal to earn his first shutout of the season.

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9/28/2009 -- 10:26 A.M.

Morning Roundup

Now we are off and running with the first full weekend of Landmark action under our belts. Some excellent games and performances over the course of the weekend. I won't try to recap everything (I encourage all fans to check out institution's websites to get full stories of the conference action) but here are a few games, players and performances that stood out.

-- Soccer teams on a roll. The Catholic women's soccer team remained unbeaten with a 3-0 win over Susquehanna. The Cardinals are now 9-0 and have obliterated the Landmark record for best start to a season. Meanwhile, Scranton is in the midst of a seven-match winning streak after earning two non-conference wins. Not to get ahead of myself, as there are several matches still to be played, but the Oct. 17 meeting between those two teams should be very fun to watch. Also rolling along is the USMMA men's team, which dropped its first match of the season and hasn't lost since as the team has reeled off eight wins, including a pair of Landmark victories. The latest came against Scranton by a 3-1 score, and the eight-match winning streak is the longest in Landmark men's soccer history.

-- Hat's off. Moravian women's soccer player Arielle Caldas and Catholic field hockey player Meredith Chandler both collected hat-tricks in their Landmark openers. Caldas struck for all three of her team's goals in a 3-0 win over Drew, and Chandler helped spark an eight-goal outburst for the Cardinals in a win over Susquehanna.

-- One-goal wins. Three of the four men's soccer matches over the weekend were decided by one goal, with Juniata, Drew and Catholic all pulling out tight wins. Juniata's came in overtime, while Drew posted yet another shutout. Juniata added a one-goal victory in women's soccer, making four contests in total that were decided by one goal.

-- All-Tournament honorees. Susquehanna's Lindsey Jankiewicz and Catholic's Katie Chefalas both earned All-Tournament honors as their volleyball teams finished in the top half of invitationals.

-- Fleet feet. It seems all Scranton's Chris Wasnetsky does is win as the junior placed first in his third invitational this weekend to highlight some outstanding cross country performances. Whether it was tough fields, fast courses or optimal conditions, several teams turned in the fastest times of the season over the weekend. The USMMA men's team posted several of the best 8K times on the year, as did the Goucher men's team. The same can be said for the Drew women's team which saw more than a minute improvement for its top runners at the 6K distance.

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9/25/2009 -- 3:30 P.M.

And Elsewhere...

They won't be in conference competition this week, but lest we forget there will be volleyball and cross country teams in action this weekend. I'll take a quick look at some of the things to look for.

-- Catholic, Susquehanna, Scranton and Goucher will all be a part of tournaments where they will taking on some tough regional competition. Each team has a chance to prove itself as a contender within the region, and get a final tuneup before the first Landmark round-robin next weekend.

-- Non-conference play has been good to the volleyball teams in the conference. As a group, the eight teams boast a record of 54-30, for a winning percentage of .643.

-- In cross country, five teams will be in action. Goucher and Catholic will measure against each other as they compete against some of their former conference mates at the York Invitational.

-- Juniata faces off with two of the top teams in the region as part of a tri-meet with Gettysburg and Messiah.

-- Drew and USMMA will be taking on some eastern teams in invitationals at Richard Stockton and Connecticut College. Both teams are off to sneaky good starts and are trying to build on the early-seasons success.

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9/25/2009 -- 12:07 P.M.

Video Updates Volume 3

Well, I've talked about it all week, and now it's here. The first full weekend of Landmark play (no, I'm not forgetting that USMMA and Juniata played a very exciting men's soccer match last weekend. I'm just thinking of that as the appetizer. This weekend is the main course).

To celebrate we have another installment of the Landmark video updates. These are a little bit different as the excitement of conference play starting up inspired me to do previews rather than recaps. I also did one for each sport.

Field Hockey video update

Men's Soccer video update

Women's Soccer video update

For those Landmark volleyball and cross country fans, please do not think I'm ignoring your sports. I'll have a more traditional blog post on those sports coming up later in the day. I just wanted the videos to focus on the start of conference play.

And a head's up for those who are just finding the blog for the first time. The blog link is always available on the leftside navigation of the Landmark homepage underneath the Confere Info links.

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9/24/2009 -- 4:11 P.M.

Things I'm Keeping An Eye On

As I've now mention on numerous occasions there will be a full slate of conference matches this weekend. I thought I'd take a quick moment to highlight a few of the contests that caught my eye. This in no way suggests that these matches are more important than the others. These were just ones that jumped out at me from among the conference contests this weekend.

-- Drew at Moravian, women's soccer. The Greyhounds have been strong in the regular season the past two seasons, and are the defending conference champs. But this team has considerably different players from last year's team. After an up-and-down start to the year, they seem to be hitting their stride. Drew boasts a young team for which many of its players will be getting their first taste of conference action. But that young group has had some strong results against a tough non-conferene schedule in the early going.

-- Catholic at Susquehanna, men's soccer. USMMA at Scranton also has some intrigue, but it's tough to ignore a rematch of last year's highly-competitive Landmark Championship match. Susquehanna will try and get the same result it earned last year when it picked up a 1-0 win in the Championship. Catholic, which is off to a stellar start to the year, wants to keep that strong play going into the conference season and get some payback for last year's final. Should be a match with plenty of emotion.

-- Juniata at Goucher, field hockey. Coming off a rough 2008 campaign, Goucher roared out of the gates in 2009, winning four of its first five matches. But things haven't gone as well in the last week or so. Now comes an early-season conference test against two-time Landmark Champions Juniata, who boast a four-match winning streak and an explosive offense. Should be a good measuring stick match for each team. A lower scoring match would seem to favor the Gophers, while a shootout could be a boon for Juniata.

 

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9/24/2009 --7:38 A.M.

Morning Roundup

I assume I'm not the only one who is excited for this weekend. After a heavy schedule of non-conference contests last night, teams will have a few days to prepare for a full schedule of Landmark matches this weekend. As I've mentioned throughout the year, Landmark competition is a completely new season this year, with an automatic bid to the champion now on the line. Teams that were disappointed with their early-season results can now be reborn during conference play. And teams that were happy with how things went in the early year want to keep that momentum going.

We'll look ahead to this weekend over the next few days, but for now, here are some highlights from last night's activity:

-- Long winning streaks were kept intact as both the Catholic and Scranton women's soccer teams pulled out wins. The Cardinals held off Stevenson 3-2 while Scranton got the only goal in the first half to collect a 1-0 win over Delaware Valley. It was the third one-goal win for Catholic on the year and the fourth for Scranton, all of which have been by 1-0 scores.

-- It was a good night for Landmark field hockey teams as well, with Juniata, Catholic and Scranton all collecting victories. Reigning Landmark Defensive Player of the Week Deirdre Rocklein made 14 saves for Scranton in a shutout win. Catholic defeated Mary Washington in dramatic fashion as an overtime penalty stroke from Kathryn Morris provided the difference in a 2-1 win. Paula Price had a goal and an assist for Juniata, the fourth-straight game in which she has produced at least one point. Juniata is 4-0 in those matches.

-- Merchant Marine collected a very strong win over NYU in men's soccer, topping the Violets 2-0. USMMA's two goals came within 69 seconds of each other late in the first half. Clint Foster scored the first and assisted on the second, while the Mariner defense limited NYU to just six shots in the match.

-- The Drew men's soccer team also downed a regional rival as Sharif Elzein's goal proved to be the difference in a 1-0 win over Elizabethtown. The senior has scored four goals in his career, all game winners. It was another shutout for keeper Jeff Rogers, who now has five shutouts on the season.

-- Juniata volleyball continued to roll, sweeping past 21st-ranked Haverford 3-0. The Eagles hit .305 as a team in the match and got a 10-kill, four-block performance from senior Paige Johnston.

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9/23/2009 -- 11:50 P.M.

Landmark Stat Leaders

One part of my job as Assistant Commissioner is collecting all the statistics from our Landmark institutions and passing them along to the NCAA so that they can be collected for record books and national statistics rankings.

Last week marked the first week of the NCAA stat reports, and for those who simply can't get enough information about NCAA records, and specifically how the Landmark fares amongst the national leaders, I encourage you to check out this website. There is all sorts of fun stuff to be found there.

After now two weeks of reporting, here are a few highlights from the Landmark.

-- Catholic's women's soccer team is tied for 4th in Division III in team goals against average with a mark of 0.143

-- The Drew field hockey team is 13th in goals per game with 4.33. Meanwhile Drew's Elizabeth Law is averaging one assist per game, which ranks seventh in DIII.

-- The Drew men's soccer team has goalie Jeff Rogers ranking seventh with his 0.306 goals against average, and as a team the Rangers are seventh in shutout percentage with a mark of 0.71.

-- Catholic's Matt Brady is 12th in Division III in goals per game with an average of 1.17.

-- In volleyball, Goucher's Megan Smith is averaging 4.33 kills per set, the 13th best total in Division III.

-- And the Juniata volleyball team is sixth among Division III schools with a .291 hitting percentage.

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9/23/2009 -- 7:31 A.M.

Morning Roundup

A successful night of non-conference action as Landmark teams get final tuneups in before the Landmark season gets completely underway this weekend.

-- Two men's soccer teams got back on the winning track as Juniata outlasted Lycoming 2-1 and Moravian topped King's (Pa.) by a 2-0 score. Aaron Bray had the winning goal for Juniata which bounced back from a tough Landmark-opening loss this past weekend. Moravian's Tim Dollarton had his second shutout in four matches since becoming the starting keeper, and Taylor Molinaro scored both goals.

-- Juniata women's soccer also snapped a two-match slide with a 2-0 win over Penn State-Harrisburg. The Eagles controlled play, out-shooting the home team 22-10.

-- The Landmark had a clean sweep of volleyball wins Tuesday night as Scranton, USMMA and Goucher all collected wins. Five of the seven Landmark volleyball teams (including both USMMA and Goucher) are sitting with records better than .500, while Scranton's 3-1 win over Oneonta State left them just one match below the .500 mark with a record of 5-6.

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9/22/2009 --11:19 A.M.

Morning Recap (Sort of)

Not a traditional morning recap today, because there were no games yesterday. I think the day off was probably well-deserved for the Landmark student-athletes and coaches.

I have a few posts in mind for today, but I wanted to say that I'm planning something a little different for the Landmark video update this week. It probably won't be appearing until tomorrow, as for this week I'm going to focus on previewing the kickoff of full Landmark competition this upcoming weekend. So keep your eyes out for that tomorrow.

That is my brief update for now. Back later with some more thoughts.

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9/21/2009 -- 9:31 A.M.

Weekend Recap

This past weekend marked the last of primarily non-conference action before Landmark play begins in full this coming weekend. As such, here are some quick thoughts on this past weekend's action and the general status of things before conference play kicks off.

-- There was one conference match over the weekend as USMMA outlasted Juniata in men's soccer action by a 2-1 score. Andrew MacKenzie had the winning goal in the match, and after losing its opener, USMMA has ripped off six-straight wins. I've said since the start of the season that men's soccer has consistently featured very tight matches every week, and if the opener is any indication, that trend will continue in 2009.

-- One question as conference play begins is whether or not Catholic can carry over its non-conference success into Landmark play. Led by its women's soccer team which is still unbeaten with a 7-0 record, the Cardinals at at, or near the top of the standings in nearly every fall sport. We'll have to wait and see if this trend continues.

-- The Scranton soccer teams have also come out of the gate quickly, as the two teams combined have a record of 11-2. The women's soccer team has relied on a stingy defense in the early season, but this past week the team erupted for 11 goals in its two victories.

-- The Juniata field hockey team has also been on an offensive tear of late, as the Eagles won their third-straight match over the weekend. Juniata collected four goals in the win, and have had at least three goals in each of its five victories.

-- There could be some excellent battles shaping up in cross country during the coming weeks. This past weekend the Susquehanna justified their preseason favorite status by winning the Misericordia Cougar Classic. However Scranton junior Chris Wasnetsky was the top individual Landmark finisher on the men's side as he finished ahead of two-time defending Landmark Champion Paul Thistle. Those two runners have been first and second in each of the Landmark Championships and that will be a fun competition to watch as the season progresses heading into the Landmark meet on Oct. 31 (and also keep an eye on Juniata's Matt Bailey who holds the fastest 8K time of the season thus far).

Landmark Players of the Week will be announced later today, and keep an eye open for more Landmark video updates over the next day or so.

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9/18/2009 -- 5:01 P.M.

Off And Running

I was checking out the Landmark cross country schedules this morning, and realized that this could be a fun weekend in gathering at least a brief glimpse of the landscape within the conference. More than any other sport, it's very tough to gauge where all the cross country teams stand in comparison to each other, often up until the Landmark Championships.

It is easy enough to compare times from similar distances (which you can do here) but that doesn't take into account the difficulty of the course, course conditions, quality of the competition, etc.

That is why I'm excited to see what takes place this weekend. All eight Landmark teams will be in action this weekend, and several of them will be competing at the same places. Goucher, Juniata and USMMA will be in Carlisle, Pa. for the Dickinson Long/Short Invitational, while Scranton, Susquehanna, Drew and Moravian will be running at the Misericordia Cougar Classic. Also in action will be Catholic which will take on a tough field of its regional foes at the Guilford Cross Country Carnival. For the first time this season we will get a chance to judge Landmark teams against each other.

I'm certainly not suggestion that we will know who is going to walk (or run) away with the Landmark Championships after this weekend. I'm simply saying this weekend will give a slightly clearer picture than we have right now. And I'm excited to see that picture start coming in to focus.

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9/18/2009 -- 4:16 P.M.

Landmark In The Polls

We're now a few weeks into the season, so I thought a nice Friday read could be a quick recap of where Landmark teams currently sit in both National and Regional coaches polls. It's important to remember that since these polls are done by coaches associations and not the NCAA (NCAA Regional Rankings will be released a little later in the season) they have no bearing on NCAA selection. But they can be interesting to follow throughout the year.

The top ranked team is in women's volleyball where Juniata has assumed the top spot in the latest American Volleyball Coaches Association DIII poll. (Complete poll can be found here). The Eagles are 9-0 and knocked off previously top-ranked Emory last weekend. That new number-one ranking will be tested this weekend Juniata takes on the team's ranked 6th, 7th and 18th in the poll at the Teri Clemons Invitational hosted by Washington (Mo.)

Moving on to regional rankings, the Landmark has two teams holding spots in the National Soccer Coaches Association women's regional rankings. Catholic, and its unblemished 5-0 record is currently fifth in the Mid-Atlantic Regional Rankings, while Scranton (5-1) is ninth in the regional poll.

On the men's side Scranton, which is off to its best start since the 1996 season with a 4-1 record is currently part of a three-way tie for sixth in the polling.
(Links to the NSCAA Regional Rankings have not yet been found).

Three Landmark cross country programs are represented in the U.S. Track & Field/Cross Country Coaches Association regional polls.

On the women's side, Susquehanna is hodling down the ninth spot in the Mideast region, while Catholic is ninth in the South/Southeast Region. (Complete rankings can be found here).

Susquehanna is also representing the conference in the men's regional rankings with the Crusaders matching the women's team with the ninth position in the voting. (Complete rankings can be found here).

The National Field Hockey Coaches Association does not do regional rankings (at least that I could locate) and no Landmark teams have thus far burst into the top-20 national rankings. Something to monitor as the season progresses.

 

 

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9/18/2009 -- 7:35 A.M.

Morning Roundup

I apologize for the lack of posts recently. I'm new to this blogging thing, and have discovered that coming up with topics can be a bit challenging. But trust me, I will keep working at it, and hopefully will be bringing you more info as the year progresses.

As for last night's action, only one victory for Landmark teams, so this roundup will be pretty brief.

-- Juniata field hockey won for the third time in its last four matches, topping York (Pa.) 4-1. The Eagles have scored at least three goals in each of their wins. A season ago, when the team went 9-12 they had only five matches all season in which they scored at least three goals. The offense seems to be clicking.

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9/17/2009 -- 8:19 A.M.

Morning Roundup (Sort of)

I'm eschewing my normal morning roundup and encouraing all the blog readers to head over to NCAA.org to read some (or all) of the excellent pieces celebrating the life and impact of NCAA President Dr. Myles Brand, who passed away yesterday.

I'm not going to overreach and attempt to write some sweeping missive about the importance of college athletics and Dr. Brand's legacy. For starters, I'm ill-equipped to do so, and I think it would probably end up sounding insincere.

I do just want to say that while the NCAA as a whole is certainly not perfect (I can think of no organization that large that is) I believe when it comes to the NCAA the good massively outweighs the bad. And I believe much of the good has been as a result of Dr. Brand's influence.

In the end, I think it's enough to say that during his life Dr. Brand made an impact on a huge number of people, be it student-athletes, coaches or others involved in college athletics. And I can't think of a much better thing to say about someone than that they positively impacted the lives of so many.

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9/16/2009 -- 8:10 A.M.

Morning Roundup

A fairly full midweek night of competition last evening, with some high-scoring affairs, particularly in men's and women's soccer. Some highlights:

-- Landmark volleyball teams posting a perfect 4-0 record in non-conference matches. Moravian and Goucher swept to 3-0 victories over Gwynedd-Mercy and Maryland Bible respectively. Catholic needed four sets to get past Washington (Md.) while USMMA earned its second win of the season by battling past Old Westbury 3-2. The Mariners trailed two sets to one, before rallying to win the last two sets.

-- Big night of goals in Madison, N.J. as the Drew men's and women's soccer teams combined for 11 scores in a pair of shutout wins. After five scoreless matches, the Drew men finally broke through with six tallies in a 6-0 win over York (N.Y.). Meanwhile the women's soccer team cruised past Medgar Evers by a 5-0 margin. The 11 goals were scored by 11 different players.

-- The Scranton women's soccer team enjoyed an offensive assault of its own as the Royals also put a six-spot on the scoreboard in a win over King's. While getting off to a 4-1 start before last night's match, the Royals had earned three 1-0 victories before erupting for six scores. Caila Zappala did the most damage, coming off the bench to score twice in the win.

-- Freshman goalkeeper Pat Horan earned his first collegiate victory in stylish fashion as Susquehanna blanked Misericordia 1-0 in men's soccer. Horan recorded three saves to earn the shutout win, the first shutout of the season for Susquehanna, and Jim Robertiello provided all the offense in the match with his third goal of the season.

-- Finally, it took overtime to get it done, but Moravian earned a 1-0 field hockey victory over Arcadia last evening. Julie Bisci knocked in her own rebound for her third goal of the year just over five minutes into the overtime session for the win, which evened the Greyhounds' record at 3-3. It was the third overtime win for a Landmark field hockey team this season.

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9/15/2009 -- 1:15 P.M.

Landmark Video Update Volume 2

Another week of competition complete, and as a result, here is the second installment of the Landmark video update series. As I mentioned last week, these will continue to be something of a work in progress. But hopefully they will at least provide some interesting info, despite my lackluster presentation.

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9/15/2009 -- 7:46 A.M

Annnnnnnd We're Back

After a brief time I'm away it brings me great joy to get back to my morning blogging. With no competitions on Monday, it is still my prerogative to look back at the results from this past weekend and attempt to summarize. I should add that it's obviously too early in the season to reach any kind of conclusions about how a team might fare throughout the year, but here are a few things that have stood out to me over the first two full weeks of competition.

-- Catholic has followed up last fall's strong performance with some outstanding starts. Last fall, the Cardinals reached the Championship match in men's and women's soccer as well as field hockey, but came up short in all three. This year the teams seem intent on making up for those close calls. The Catholic women's soccer (5-0) and field hockey (3-0) teams are both unbeaten, and its men's soccer team has dropped just one match. Throw in a resurgent volleyball team which has bounced back after a rough 2008 year to start the season 6-2, and a strong opening performance from its cross country team, and things are looking up for the Cardinals.

-- In a sport that is not used to high-scoring performances, the Landmark field hockey season has seen goals being scored at a pretty fast pace. Drew established a new Landmark single-match record when it knocked in 10 goals against Sweet Briar this past weekend. It was the 15th time this season that a Landmark team had scored at least three goals in a match. It will be interesting to see if this offensive explosion carries over into conference play.

-- The early results suggest that it should be another highly competitive men's soccer season once conference play gets underway. Seven of the eight Landmark teams have winning percentages of .400 or better, and five of the eight are better than .500. Among those above .500 are Goucher and Juniata who were picked to finish sixth and eighth respectively in the preseason poll, and are a combined 7-2.

-- Speaking of men's soccer the odd start to the season continued for the Drew men's soccer team which has now played four scoreless draws in five matches. Goalkeeper Jeff Rogers still has not yet allowed a goal, and the Rangers have not yet found the back of the net themselves. The four ties for Drew already matches the most ties recorded by a Landmark team in the conference's brief history (Scranton tied four matches in 2008).

-- All of the new Head Coaches for fall Landmark sports have now gotten into the win column. Scranton volleyball coach Kelly Armes earned her first win as Scranton downed local rival Marywood 3-1. The Royals then went on to finish 3-1 at their own invitational over the weekend. And after a pair of ties and a one-goal loss, Moravian men's soccer coach Todd Ervin got his first victory as the Greyhounds blanked Haverford 1-0.

-- Two more victories over ranked opponents for Landmark teams. First the Susquehanna field hockey team got a much-needed victory as the Crusaders upset 20th-ranked William Paterson 2-1 in overtime. Allison Bradley scored the winning goal. And in volleyball, Juniata which is currently ranked secod in the country, defeated Emory University which held the top spot in the poll and is the defending NCAA Champion. If Juniata takes Emory's top spot in the poll (the new poll is released later today) it will mark the sixth time in the last seven seasons that the Eagles have spent at least one week ranked first in Division III.

That's it for the wrapup, I expect to be back with some more thoughts later today.

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9/9/2009 -- 10:35 P.M.

A Brief Blogging Respite

While I'm under no illusions that I could hold my own with the finest athletes the Landmark Conference has to offer, I do on occasion pretend that I still have a shred of speed left in my legs. This weekend will be one of the times when I pretend as I'll be spending my time competing in this.

For Landmark Conference fans this means that there will be no blog updates, and limited updates of the Landmark website in general until Sunday evening. The scoreboards, results and standings for each sport will continue to be up-to-date, but if you're searching for Landmark news over the next few days, you may have to exhibit some patience. Or you can always check the sites for each of the institutions and hopefully find what you're looking for.

I apologize for the inconvenience, and promise to be back at it next week.

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9/9/2009 -- 3:08 P.M.

In Case You Were Curious

The 7-1 record in non-conference matches from last night got me wondering about Landmark non-conference records from previous years. And when I begin to wonder, research is sure to follow. The question became, which fall sport had the best non-conference record from the fall of 2008?

The answer is men's soccer, in which Landmark teams posted combined record of 52-30-5 (.626 winning percentage) in 2008. (Note, for the purpose of this research, I counted Landmark postseason matches as Conference matches, though that is not generally how they are recorded). Based on this, it makes some sense that two Landmark men's soccer teams earned NCAA bids last year.

The runner up in terms of winning percentage what volleyball, where Landmark programs went 104-82 (.559).

Women's soccer followed with a record of 42-33-9 (.554) and field hockey was fourth with a 37-52 non-conference record (.416).

I also calculated which institution combined for the best non-conference record in the fall of '08, but not surprisingly volleyball seemed to skew those numbers by a large margin, as that sport features far more non-conference matches.

You might now ask why this information is important? Well, it's not, at least not really. But I do think it's interesting. And it could become even more important this season. With the Landmark Champions now earning automatic qualification, the question will become whether or not the conference can earn multiple berths in the NCAA Tournament. And that fact will depend, at least partly, on a team's success in non-conference play. Meaning that all of these contests being played in the coming weeks matter.

And at the very least it gives me things to write about until conference play begins.

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9/9/2009 -- 8:05 A.M.

Morning Roundup

Quite a night of non-conference action as Landmark teams went 7-1 including perfect records in men's soccer, women's soccer and volleyball. Among the highlights.

-- Scranton interim volleyball coach Kelly Armes earned her first career victory with a 3-1 win over crosstown rival Marywood. Jenell McFadden posted a .296 hitting percentage with nine kills and three aces to help the Royals earn the win.

-- Susquehanna men's and women's soccer both earned victories with the men outlasting King's 3-2 and the women's team blanking Penn State-Harrisburg 2-0. A big night for Susquehanna junior Jim Robertiello as he scored a goal and assisted on the other two scores.

-- An exciting night of playing in Huntingdon, Pa. as the Juniata men's and women's soccer teams won consecutive 2-1 matches in overtime. Shannon Pierce produced the game winner in the women's match and Luke Waddell gave the men's team the win in double OT.

-- Goucher senior Megan Smith tied the school record for kills in a four-set match as she knocked out 29 kills and added an impressive 22 digs as the Gophers outlast McDaniel 3-1. Smith has recorded double-doubles in each of Goucher's four matches and is averaging 4.17 kills and 4.61 digs per set.

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9/8/2009 -- 2:46 P.M.

World Premiere

This blog was amongst the new additions/innovations that I hope to incorporate into the website this year. Granted, I'm only about five years late on adding a blog, but that is beside the point. The point is, there are a few other (hopefully) interesting wrinkles that I'll be experimenting with throughout the year.

The first of which can be found by clicking here.

It is the first Landmark weekly video update, a feature which I hope to provide throughout the season. Devoted fans of the blog will note that a lot of the information is a repeat of things that have been mentioned here. My goal for the future is that the videos can provide even greater detail and insight. I also apologize for some of the jumps in the editing as I'm still learning to use the technology. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy it.

Correction: I realized as I was doing that video and the blog post this morning, that Catholic's women's soccer team should have been included in Monday's post about Tournament winners, rather than in the follow up post (as their win over Virginia Wesleyan was part of a tournament). I will always do my best to not make factual errors in this forum, but when I do, I will also make every effort either to point out the correction or just go ahead and fix it in the original post.

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9/8/2009 -- 8:29 A.M.

News, Notes, Etc.

I meant to post this information yesterday, but the day got away from me. Those of you familiar with the Landmark know that we normally announce the Players of the Week on Mondays, generally around noon. With the holiday yesterday, the Player of the Week selection was pushed back to today. So those of you dying to see who will receive the first Player of the Week honors of the new year will not have to wait much longer...I'd expect to see them around 11:30 or so this morning.

Some other notes from the opening weekend that I wasn't able to get to yesterday.

-- Because they weren't competing for tournament championships the Landmark cross country teams didn't fit neatly into my morning recap yesterday. That doesn't mean there weren't some excellent performances in the opening weekend. On the men's side, Scranton's Chris Wasnetsky and Susquehanna's Luke Trama both were the top individual finishers in their respective races. Also, keep an eye on the USMMA men's team this season. The Mariners had a history of competing for conference championships in their previous conference, and though it's hard to compare distances, courses, etc. but against a field of Division I teams the team seemed to hold its own.

-- For the women's cross country, last year's Landmark individual runner-up Casey Hess got off to a fast start with the fastest 5K time of the weekend, and Juniata senior Laura Rupprecht seems intent on having a strong final season as she ran a time more than 20 seconds faster than her best time at the 5K distance last season. In the early going it also appears that Goucher, Drew and USMMA all have improved performance and depth this season, which should make for an even more competitive conference meet (Oct. 31 at Catholic).

-- I'm not sure if it's a record, as I haven't had the opportunity to do much historical digging, but I have to believe there aren't many collegiate soccer teams that have opened a season with three straight scoreless draws the way the 2009 Drew men's soccer team has. Junior keeper Jeff Rogers has not allowed a goal in 330 minutes of action and the Rangers have fired off 42 shots in three matches but have been unable to find the back of the net. This is definitely something I'll be keeping an eye on as the season moves forward.

-- The Catholic women's soccer team made some history over the weekend, posting the program's first win over a nationally-ranked foe. The Cardinals downed Virginia Wesleyan (ranked 12th in the NSCAA poll) with a penalty kick from Diana Spadaro providing the only score in the match. Unless I've missed something (certainly possible) the only other Landmark team with a win over a nationally-ranked foe so-far this year is the Juniata volleyball team, which downed 23rd-ranked Eastern as part of its 4-0 start.

-- Finally, another sport season opened play this past weekend as the defending Landmark Champion Moravian women's tennis team picked up a pair of victories. It seems easy to overlook the fact that both men's and women's tennis compete in official matches as part of both the fall and spring seasons (though the Championships are in the spring) but these matches definitely count. And the Greyhounds are off to a good start, downing Bryn Mawr 8-1 and topping Ramapo 6-3.

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9/7/2009 -- 9:37 A.M.

Tourney Talk

The first full weekend of fall sports competition is highlighted by kickoff tournaments, usually featuring four teams. So instead of my normal all-around wrapup, we'll highlight those teams that came away with tournament championships over the opening weekend.

-- The USMMA men's soccer team routed St. Joseph's of Long Island by a 4-0 score to win St. Joseph's tournament. Its toughest test came on day one when the team outlast Plattsburgh State 2-1. A header from Rusty Denson was the decisive score.

-- It actually wasn't a tournament win, but Catholic's field hockey team was the last to take the field but swept its way to a perfect 2-0 weekend with a pair of 3-0 wins. They outshot their opponents 25-6.

-- Drew's field hockey team did pick up a tournament win as the Rangers went 2-0 as part of its Fall Fest. Drew bested Western Connecticut 3-1 to claim the title after downing Southern Maine 4-1 in the opener. After talking about the fast starts last week, Drew has now matched that best-ever field hockey start as they are 3-0.

-- Two tournament wins came from Juniata as the volleyball team which posted four wins at its own ASICS Invitational while the field hockey team won a pair of contests to take the Stevens Invitational Title. Paula Price had the winning overtime goal in the opening game win over King's. Meanwhile the volleyball team dropped just one set en route to claiming its own title. Drew Barnhart knocked out 37 kills with 10 serve aces over the course of the weekend.

 

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9/4/2009 -- 1:58 P.M.

Fast Starts

For one reason or another this morning I started thinking about fast starts to a season. With the weekend coming up most teams will have at least two, if not three or four games under their belts by the time I sit down in my office chair Monday morning. And obviously, every team's goal is to go as many games as possible before picking up that first loss.

That is the sort of thought that quickly spawns a research project and a blog post. After a quick search, I discovered which teams hold the record for going the longest without a loss to start a season since the inception of the conference.

Men's Soccer: This answer actually varies depending on how the question is asked. Is it most wins to start a season, or most matches without a loss? The answer for most wins belongs to the 2008 Susquehanna team, which won its first four contests before suffering its first defeat. If we accept ties into the equation, the 2008 Drew team takes the honor with five matches without a loss. The Rangers won their first two matches, earned a 1-1 draw, and then won two more. For what it's worth, Susquehanna won the conference title in 2008 and Drew finished atop the Landmark regular-season standings. Both teams also qualified for the NCAA Tournament.

Field Hockey: Somewhat surprisingly, there haven't been many lengthy runs to start Landmark field hockey campaigns. The honor of the longest streak goes to Drew, which won its first three contests of the first Landmark season in 2007. The Rangers actually won five of their first six, and eventually finished the year with an 11-9 record.

Women's Soccer: After falling in the Landmark semifinals in 2007, the Juniata women's soccer team burst out of the game with five victories to start the 2008 season. The Eagles scored at least two goals in each of those matches, before suffering a 1-0 set-back in their sixth match. Juniata finished 9-6-1 on the year.

Volleyball: The volleyball standard for wins to start a year also belongs to Juniata. A veteran team in 2008, the Eagles won their first 12 matches of the season and were actually 19-1 after 20 matches. The team eventually reached the NCAA Semifinals and finished with a record of 35-5.

Will any of the current unbeaten teams challenge these marks and establish records of their own? We'll have a better answer to that once we hit Labor Day, but it's something to keep an eye on.

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9/4/2009 -- 8:42 A.M.

Morning Roundup

Very light night of Landmark action with just three teams in competition.

-- The lone victory of the night came from Scranton field hockey as the Royals picked up a 1-0 win. Deirdre Rocklein posted the first shutout of her career with two saves. Scranton fired off 23 shots in the match.

Will be back later today with some thoughts on the first full weekend of action which kicks off tonight.

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9/3/2009 -- 8:28 A.M.

Morning Roundup

A relatively light night of action on the second day of competition for 2009. Some of the highlights include:

-- A two-goal, two-defensive save performance from Drew's Nicole DiBattista in the Rangers' season-opening win over SUNY-New Paltz. A quick check of the Landmark records shows that she is the first Landmark field hockey player with at least two goals and two defensive saves in the same match. The closest anyone came to this feat was Scranton's Beth McLaughlin who had a pair of defensive saves and one goal in a match against Juniata in 2007. DiBattista herself had one goal and one defensive save in a win against Juniata last season.

-- Goucher men's soccer opened the season with a 1-0 non-conference road win over Hood. The Gophers were strong away from home last year in non-conference play as the team boasted a solid 3-1 record in road non-conference matches. All three victories were by one-goal margins.

-- I admit, I love a good rivalry contest, particularly when there is a trophy at stake. So Susquehanna's 2-2 women's soccer draw with Lycoming is nice sight to see. Susquehanna and Lycoming compete for the River Derby Cup. Susquehanna has had possession of the Cup since its inception three years ago, and held onto it this year with the tie.

-- Winning by a shutout has been the popular method of victory for Landmark women's soccer teams so-far this season, as all three of the victories earned by Landmark teams have come in a shutout. Catholic was the third as the Cardinals blanked McDaniel 1-0, with a goal from Kelly Donnelly providing the difference. It's far too early to get a sense for whether the shutouts will match the total of 47 clean sheets turned in by Landmark teams last season.

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9/2/2009 -- 8:36 A.M.

Morning Roundup

Some quick hits on the highlights of the first day of the 2009-10 season.

-- Goucher's Sara Spadanuta produced the first hat-trick of the early season as she scored three goals in the Gophers' 5-0 field hockey win over Bryn Mawr.

-- Drew women's soccer produced the most offense on the day as the Rangers downed College of Staten Island 6-0. Unlike the three-goal effort from Spadanuta, Drew had one goal from six different players and had eight players with at least one point.

-- Shutouts for both the Scranton soccer teams as the women's team blanks William Paterson 1-0, and the men's squad locked down Lebanon Valley 3-0. Four saves apiece for goalies Caitlin Byrne and Brandon Dombrowski.

-- Two Landmark coaches made their collegiate coaching debuts last night. USMMA women's volleyball coach Allyson Ramey now holds a 1-0 career record after the Mariners topped York (N.Y.) 3-0 behind 10 serve aces from Jess LaValley. Moravian's new men's soccer Coach Todd Ervin starts his tenure with a tie as the Greyhounds played 110 scoreless minutes in a 0-0 draw with Ursinus.

-- It's certainly early, but Catholic men's soccer player Matt Brady got his senior year off to a flying start by scoring two goals in Catholic's 3-1 win over Marymount. Brady scored twice in the second half to break a 1-1 deadlock and lead the Cardinals to the win.

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9/1/2009 --11:10 A.M.

Opening Day

The day is finally here. Landmark athletes last competed on May 23 at the NCAA Track & Field Championships. And now the 2009-10 year kicks off with 20 teams in action on September 1.

Like previous yearrs, the year will get started with non-conference play before Landmark play heats up in late September. But this year there will be even more on the line as for the first time the winners of Landmark Championships will earn automatic bids to the NCAA Tournament.

With that in mind, here are some some questions for each of the Landmark fall sports.

-- Will there be another surprise team in field hockey? In 2007 Goucher improved on its previous record and claimed the fourth spot for the Landmark postseason. In 2008 Susquehanna jumped from the last spot in the conference standings to a 5-1 record and the second seed. Will there be a similar improvement this season, and if so, who will it be?

-- The first two years of Landmark play have seen a fare amount of parity, but in women's soccer the same four teams have earned postseason berths in each of the first two years. Can Drew, Susquehanna or Goucher break the postseason monopoly?

-- How will the new coaches fare? Five new coaches will be at the reigns of Landmark programs this fall, and each will try and make their mark in year one. Kelly Armes has been named interim head coach of the Scranton volleyball team and will try and keep the Royals near the top of the standings after the team finished second in the standings last season. Also in volleyball Allyson Ramey takes over the USMMA program and the team will look to move up the standings. Another first-time head coach is Bob Koppenol who assumes the duties for the Drew men's and women's cross country teams. Finally in men's soccer Todd Ervin looks to help Moravian earn its first Landmark postseason berth in his first season at the helm.

-- Will men's soccer continue to be one of the most competitive Landmark sports? Six points separated the top-four teams in the 2007 standings, and just three points separated three teams in 2008. Both Championships matches also feaured four different teams. Will there be just as many changes in the 2009 season?

-- Can any teams challenge Susquehanna for the cross country titles? The Crusaders claimed the men's and women's titles last season and have been favored to repeat in both this season. There are a number of All-Conference performers back in in both genders, 11 back on the men's side and 10 for the women. But will there be enough improvement from any team to push the defending Champions?

These are just some of the questions that will be asked and eventually answered over the next few months. Finding out the answers should provide lots of exciting moments.

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8/24/2009 -- 2:35 P.M.

Welcome

Welcome to the Landmark Conference blog. As Assistant Commissioner I'll be updating this blog periodically throughout the year. Rather than full detailed press releases, this will be a place for smaller tidbits, quick updates and lots of other information about the Landmark Conference.

I hope all Landmark fans will check in throughout the season for all the fun of Landmark Conference play. To follow the blog regularly, look for the link on the left side of the Landmark homepage.