Amid the excitement of the first couple games of the new men’s hockey season and the anticipation of basketball season starting up, Northeastern students might be missing something.
The second season is almost upon us for fall sports.
Men’s soccer, women’s soccer, volleyball and field hockey have all clinched postseason berths, with seeding to be decided by their final games in the coming week.
It isn’t a shocker that any of these teams qualified in their own right with the records they’ve been sporting, but for all four major fall sports to be advancing to the playoffs is an impressive feat for Northeastern athletics and a difficult precedent for hockey and basketball to uphold.
Men’s soccer has dominated their regular season and entered their final three Colonial Athletic Conference (CAA) games with a 11-1-3 overall record and a 6-0-2 conference record. The team’s lone loss came in an out-of-conference matchup against the University of Michigan early in the season. The only things standing between the Huskies and the first overall seed in the CAA tournament are two games against George Mason University and Old Dominion University, both middle-of-the-pack teams in the CAA. Should they remain atop the conference, they will earn a first-round bye and play in the CAA semifinals Nov. 8 or 9.
Women’s soccer’s 9-9 record may indicate a team that has struggled at times. A tough non-conference schedule, including losses against No. 23 Boston University and No. 6 Boston College, hurt the team’s overall win-loss record on the season. That said, the women have played significantly better in-conference, going 7-3. They’ve made a strong push for the postseason recently, going 5-1 in their last six games, all against CAA opponents. With their win against Hofstra yesterday, they locked up fourth place in the CAA. They will host a rematch with Hofstra on Sunday in the CAA quarterfinals.
Northeastern field hockey’s season has been well-documented here in the Huntington News, but here’s the lowdown on the team: despite not having a true home field, they’ve managed to go 12-4 on the season and 4-1 in the CAA. Their four losses were each by one goal, with two coming in double overtime. With wins in their remaining two games against Drexel University (3-2 CAA) and Towson University (0-5 CAA), the women would lock up the regular season title as CAA-leading Old Dominion University is postseason and title ineligible. This would earn them a first round bye, placing them in the CAA semifinals Nov. 2.
The volleyball team has displayed similar dominance, going 17-5 on the season, 6-2 in conference, placing them second in the CAA. They have four conference games remaining on their schedule, making their postseason a little tougher to predict. But even if they were to lose their remaining four games, they should still advance to the conference tournament. Their remaining schedule pits them against Georgia State University (2-6 CAA), the College of William & Mary (3-4 CAA), James Madison University (4-3 CAA) and George Mason University (2-5 CAA), all mid-level and basement-dwelling teams in the CAA. But with four games left it’s hard to know where they’ll fall. If all goes as planned and they maintain their second seed position, they should be the product of a first round bye and find themselves in CAA semifinals in mid-November.
So what does this all mean? The next three weekends should all have some Northeastern athletics program participating in conference tournament play.
If that doesn’t get you excited, I don’t know what will.
– Dylan Lewis can be reached at [email protected]
