2009 Top Teams

Things have been light so let's start a new topic. Who do you think will be the top teams this next year?
Some of my thoughts. Florida State looks to be tough again. UCLA and USA also. The Pilots will be tough especially if we can work in some of the less experienced and new players. Notre Dame will be good again, but I think not as good as last year. Boston College may be ready to break out as they had a very good recruiting class, although it will take them time to gel. Penn State should get further than last year in the Post Season and if the new player contribute could make it to top 8 or beyond.

Don't forget Stanford, which I think will be number 2 team in the country in the end.

fan from afar -

does that mean it goes without saying that the Pilots will the number 1 team in the country in the end?

How could I miss North Carolina! They will always be in the mix...

I'm liking Portland and Stanford. Both teams look to be significantly better than last year, and both were Top 5 teams then. UNC is always a force. I'd pick these three as the top 3 teams going into the tournament (though not necessarily at the top of the RPI because of the well-documented geographical bias).

I looked at the other 4 of the top 5 teams after the 2008 season, in relation to who was graduating, and here's what I reported back then, slightly modified based on additional information:

With all of our confidence about our team next year, I was wondering how the competition would stack up. So, I checked out the other four of the top five teams. I didn't write down positions, but here's what I have:

Stanford: Started 3 frosh, 3 sophs, 3 juniors, and 2 seniors (Abegg and Falk). Their two main subs were a junior and a soph. Their big loss will be at central defender, as the two graduating seniors are their central defenders. If they can satisfactorily fill in their central defender positions, they'll be very tough.

UCLA: Started 1 frosh, 2 sophs, 4 juniors, and 4 seniors (Zerboni, DeMartino, Hardy, and Thompson). Their two main subs are a junior and a frosh. These are very key players they will be losing. (The year after, they will be losing Cheney, Lang, Wilmoth, and Cook, three of which will be very big losses.) They'll be good but I think maybe not quite as good as this year. In 2010, unless that have a lot of unseen talent on the bench or great new talent coming in, I see a drop off.

Notre Dame: Had some mixing up of starters, so I've got 12 listed. Started 3 frosh, 2 sophs, 3 juniors, and 4 seniors (Hanks, Bock, Weber, and Dew). Like UCLA, they will be losing some very key players.

North Carolina: Had some mixing up of starters, so I've got 14 listed. Started 1 frosh, 4 sophs, 6 juniors, and 3 seniors (Long, Avervbuch, and Rodenbaugh who split the GK duties with a junior). I would expect them to be very strong again next year. The year after, however, they lose Nogueira, Heath, Washington, Engen, Eveland, and their junior GK. Those are huge losses.

I think these teams all look strong next year, with the likely strongest being UNC and Stanford (if Stanford can fill their central defense roles), with Notre Dame and UCLA being slightly weaker. I haven't checked out Florida State; and I know Florida thinks they were young this year.

I'll add to this that I think Penn State will be very strong this year. And, we don't know about Santa Clara.

FANatic wrote:fan from afar -

does that mean it goes without saying that the Pilots will the number 1 team in the country in the end?

Well, of course!!

UPSF - thanks for the research. It reinforces my impressions - UCLA and Notre Dame a little weaker, UNC as good as ever, Stanford a real threat. Santa Clara could be interesting. They seem to have had good recruiting classes the past few years - maybe too young this fall?

We are losing one very good player but getting three very good players in exchange, plus everyone a year older and better and probably the top defender among new recruits coming in. We'll be much better. Even I could coach this team this fall, and we'd still be better. Well, maybe not. OK, probably not.

fan from afar wrote:
We are losing one very good player but getting three very good players in exchange, plus everyone a year older and better and probably the top defender among new recruits coming in. We'll be much better. Even I could coach this team this fall, and we'd still be better. Well, maybe not. OK, probably not.

Don't forget Kendra Chandhoke's return. She has had good moments and may be ready to blossom as the player that everyone thought she could be when she was ranked as a Top 10 recruit by Soccer Buzz. Plus Kendall Johnson.

As good as Megan was, I think this is going to be a much better team than last year's as long as they can avoid injuries.

Speaking of injuries, does anyone know anything about the injury to Olivier? She left the U23 match hobbling and didn't play against UO.

[quote="SoreKnees"]

fan from afar wrote:
Speaking of injuries, does anyone know anything about the injury to Olivier? She left the U23 match hobbling and didn't play against UO.

She had sprained her ankle in practice during the week, but was determined to give it a go. As the match went on, however, she just couldn't continue. Should not have any long-term effects.

FSU lost 4 starters: 2 defenders, 1 mid and 1 forward. Much to the dismay of many opposing coaches and fans our fearsome Finn Sanna Talonen and top goal scorer has used up her eligibility.


However, K rotated 4 forwards last year in Talonen, McCarty, Price and Pressley, all played around the same number of minutes last year so I expect little drop off in goals scored, maybe an increase due to the latter 3 having a year under their belts, all are soon to be sophomores.

At the mids we lose Sutton but return a plethora of talent in Huster, DaCosta, Short, Lim and more. We are in great shape here.

At D we lose our leader Wags and our best technical player in Schmidt. Both will be tough to replace. Last post season we were without arguably our best defender Becky Edwards, so that allowed Ella Stephen and Julie Lancos to get valuable experience. Plus we get Erin McNulty back after red shirting in order to participate in the U-20 WC with team Canada. The former All-ACC freshmen goalkeeper should only continue to get better.

We have some freshmen coming in that are expected to battle it out, especially for time on the back line. Breezy Hupp enrolled in January and saw significant action with the D in spring games and from all reports looked great.

If I were to make the pre-season soccer poll I would place us at about 8th, we have some questions marks on D, but if things progress well, as most expect we could find ourselves in the top 5 by seasons end hopefully with a great seed.

Also, a number of girls I mentioned could very well end up at other positions in the fall. This spring Pressley played front, mid and back, as did Short. While Huster played both mid and back, and Edwards also spent some time at mid.