As the final weekend of regular season play approaches, the NESCAC playoffs spots are still wide open.
With the last two games of the men's basketball regular season coming up, four teams have a chance for a No. 1 seed in the NESCAC tournament, which carries with it home-court advantage throughout the playoffs. Those same four teams face off in what promises to be an exciting - and decisive - final weekend.
Amherst, Bates, and Trinity are currently in a three-way tie for first place in the conference at 6-1. Tufts sits a game behind the leaders at 5-2. All four teams will play at least two of the others this weekend. Bates goes to Amherst on Friday and Trinity on Saturday. Tufts goes to Trinity on Friday and Amherst on Saturday, leaving a myriad of possibilities wide open for the playoff
seedings.
The plot could have been even thicker if Williams, which is tied with Tufts at 5-2 and plays at Colby and Bowdoin this weekend, had not lost to both Amherst and Bates earlier in the year. Due to these losses, the Ephs mathematically cannot secure the No. 1 seed.
In the event of a tie in the standings after this weekend, which is highly likely, playoff seeding will be decided by head-to-head competition between the tied teams.
Trinity and Bates currently have the upper hand in the standings. The Bantams' Jan. 14 win over Amherst means that if Trinity takes care of business with home wins against Tufts on Friday and Bates on Saturday, it will guarantee itself the top seed with a 3-0 record against the teams in
question.
Bates is in good shape as well, because its only loss came this past Saturday here at Cousens Gym. If the Bobcats can go on the road and defeat Amherst on Friday and Trinity on Saturday, they will finish in sole possession of first place and land the top tournament seed.
If Tufts wins its weekend road games - at Trinity on Friday and at Amherst on Saturday - the Jumbos will be seeded above both those teams by virtue of its tiebreaker wins. In that event, all Tufts will need to snatch the No. 1 seed is for Bates to lose one of its two games.
Amherst's winning scenario is similar to that of the Jumbos. The Jeffs first need wins over Tufts and Bates. To avoid a head-to-head tiebreaker loss to Trinity (due to Trinity's January win over Amherst), the Jeffs will need at least one Trinity loss on the weekend.
At the bottom of the conference, ninth-place Middlebury needs wins over Bowdoin and Colby this weekend to stay alive for a playoff spot, along with some help from other bottom-feeding teams. Colby guarantees itself a berth with wins over Williams and Middlebury. A Connecticut College win over mathematically-eliminated Wesleyan secures a berth for the Camels, and a Bowdoin win against either Middlebury or Williams will punch the Polar Bears' playoff ticket.
On the women's side, Middlebury, Trinity, and Tufts can all guarantee themselves playoff spots with two wins this weekend. If Colby can defeat Williams and Middlebury, all it needs is one Trinity loss or two losses from Tufts and Middlebury to sneak into a playoff spot. At the top of the conference, Bates, Bowdoin and Williams are tied for first place, with Wesleyan only half of a game behind. The regular-season conference title on the women's side will be decided this weekend as well.
Around the NESCAC: Williams senior swimmer Lindsay Payne broke her own NESCAC record in the 200-meter breaststroke in the Ephs' meet on Saturday against Middlebury. Payne's 2:15.20 in the event broke the old record of 2:16.40, which she set last March.
Payne currently holds the conference record in the 50 and 100 breaststroke events as well, with times of 28.64 and 1:01.68, respectively, and swam the NESCAC's best 100 breaststroke time of the winter (1:02.74). Payne was a member of Williams' record-setting relay teams in the 200 freestyle, 200 medley, and 400 medley relay races.
The Ephs are making a splash on the male side as well, as senior swimmer Will Cunningham holds conference records in the 50 and 100 backstroke (23.21 and 49.24, respectively). He also holds the league's best 2005-2006 season times in those events (23.63 and 51.09, respectively), along with the 100 freestyle (47.07) and 200 backstroke (1:54.09).
The Williams (9-9-1) women's hockey team shocked Middlebury (18-1-0), traveling to Vermont and handing the Panthers their first loss of the season, 4-1. The Ephs moved up to No. 10 in the national polls with the win, while Middlebury slipped from its top perch to No. 2.
Plattsburgh (20-1-0) grabbed the No. 1 ranking in this week's poll, and tonight, the Cardinals host Middlebury in a non-conference battle between the two best teams in the nation.
Middlebury's men's hockey team (17-1-2) also lost its first game of the season, 4-3 in overtime to No. 3 Norwich (17-3-1). The loss dropped the Panthers to No. 2 in the rankings and allowed St. Norbert (19-2-2) to move up to the top spot in this week's United States College Hockey Online Div. III Poll.
