Emerald and I are coordinating work schedules and hope to have awards announced Wednesday night. We’ll also wrap up two great soccer seasons. What a year.
Thank you for all your support of Go Maroons LIVE this year. We had record listenership and also enjoyed some very kind e-mails. It was a great time and narrative for all of us.
Are you interested in full archives of the season? We have them and will be prepping DVDs to send out. Stay tuned for details coming tonight.
Keep in touch: gomaroons@gmail.com.
Second round matchup. Two VERY familiar opponents about to start. Click the Go Maroons LIVE banner in the top right to listen in.
We’re playing highlights right now. We’ll be on air about 10 minutes before kickoff with a full pregame.
In addition to today’s live audio broadcast of the Aurora game, we’re maintaining a live blog with lineups, formations, goal descriptions, and occasional zippy commentary. (Should you miss any of the game, you can check the live blog transcript to catch up.)
This year, our live blogging software also includes a scoreboard widget, which we’ll update in real time so that you can see the current score and minute at any point. And on top of all that, you can post comments, questions, and shout-outs to the liveblog; some of these we’ll share on air, and all of them will be seen by other followers of the live blog, so come in and say to hi to your fellow Maroons (or Spartans; we’re excited to hear from Aurora fans too!).
To access the live blog, follow this link. The live blog should open in a separate tab or browser window, so you may need to temporarily allow pop-ups.
The audio broadcast will begin at 10:15 a.m., CST. We’ll start live blogging ten to fifteen minutes before kick off.
All of us at GoMaroons! Live are twitching with excitement over the day’s games (the Chicago men play their first round game against Wartburg at 5 p.m., and we’re broadcasting that one too). At a time like this, it’s hard to think of a fitting end to a blog post, so I’ll defer to some wisdom riceeved from American footballer Terrell Owens: Getcha popcorn ready.
- Via @ChicagoMaroons:
All-UAA m.soccer: Laird (Rookie of the Year), Marshall (1st), Clifford (2nd), Coville (2nd), Giusto (h.m.), Manners (h.m.), Masri (h.m.)
Very pleased to see Laird winning ROY, not that we were truly surprised–he has patrolled the midfield well all season, combining physical presence with offensive energy, and it’s always nice to see an understated player getting some well-deserved accolades. As for the other mentions, Marshall’s first-team inclusion is almost a no-brainer for us, and the other players have pretty much landed where we expected. We would have liked to see Chris Giusto get some recognition for his astounding six shutouts in seven games, but he had some tough competition at the goalkeeper position in Rochester’s Mike Peacock and Carnegie’s Maks Khurgin.
All-UAA w. soccer: Bontz (1st), Gill (1st), Loh (2nd), Meyer (2nd), Benoit (h.m.), Denz (h.m.), Gormley (h.m.).
All three senior captains made the honor roll on the women’s side, and it’s no surprise there–they’ve been the backbone of this season’s roster. Also great to see Claire Denz, another understated player whose contributions transcend the scoresheet, make the honorable mentions list.
- Our expanded coverage of tomorrow’s NCAA first-round match between Chicago and Aurora will begin on air at 10:15 a.m. If you are new to our setup, you can find all the information you need in order to stream the game at the Go Maroons Live sidebar to the right of this post, or at the Go Maroons Live tab at the top of the page. You can also e-mail us at gomaroons@gmail.com with any questions or comments. We will also be providing interactive coverage through our resurrected live blog, as well as our Twitter account (@GoMaroons). Our fearless ringleader Sean has a big deadline at work, so I will be doing play-by-play, with Ryan Tryzbiak in charge of color commentary. It’s gonna be a fun one, so be sure to tune in!
- The men’s first-round match against Wartburg should go live from Wheaton at around 4:30 p.m. We’ll also have score updates from the other bracket matches (Wheaton vs. Carleton on the women’s side; Wheaton vs. Calvin on the men’s side) on Twitter.
Saturday’s win over Wash U might have been the Maroons’ third straight victory in the rivalry, but this one was exciting in an entirely different way. In 2007, Brooke Bontz’s two goals in the last 15 minutes secured a come-from-behind, 2-1 victory at Stagg Field—and a tournament bid. Last season, we traveled down to Wash U to call a magnificent connection between Claire Denz—then at outside mid—and center mid Siggy Nachtergaele with five minutes left.
This season, a mistake by first-year goalkeeper Clara Jaques at the goal-line gave Chicago a 1-0 lead. Wash U pushed back, but the Maroons found their boots two more times and secured another invitation to the tourney.
Here are your Go Maroons highlights and post-match interview:
Nov. 7, 2009: Highlights from women’s soccer 3-0 win over Wash U
Nov. 7, 2009: Interview with fourth-year central defender Kaitlin Meyer
Plenty more to come in preparation for Friday’s NCAA tournament first-round games. Stay tuned.
If you are interested in donating to Go Maroons LIVE—to cover equipment and travel costs—please visit our new “Donate” page. There, you will find an explanation of our mission to bring free coverage to hundreds of Chicago and opponents’ listeners each season. We also have detailed an operating procedure for using any donations.
We welcome your feedback on this new idea. But know that, as long as we are available to volunteer to broadcast games, we will never charge for our broadcasts. That’s been our No. 1 goal from our founding in 2005.
If you want to support soccer broadcasting, the most important thing to do is contact your athletics departments to communicate interest. We all benefit as fans of college soccer when programs add coverage. And we at Go Maroons are always happy to share our play-by-play tips and open-source, virtually free setup.
Stan Coville, Edgar Friloux, Chris Giusto—they’re three of the names you’ll hear in the highlights from the men’s soccer team’s 1-0 win over Wash U on Saturday, but make no mistake that this has been a season-long, team-wide effort to make the postseason.
Here are your Go Maroons highlights and post-match interviews from the overtime thriller:
Nov. 7, 2009: Highlights from men’s soccer 1-0 win over Wash U
Nov. 7, 2009: Interviews of Ryan Fitzgerald and head coach Scott Wiercinski
We’ll have highlights from the women’s game and an interview with central defender Kaitlin Meyer tomorrow.
And don’t forget the NCAA tournament first-round matches coming Friday. Women at 11 a.m. CT. Men at 5 p.m. We’ll have it all on Go Maroons LIVE.
It’s a pretty ideal situation for Chicago-based fans to see the Maroons in the NCAA tournament this weekend.
The women kick things off against Aurora on Friday at 11 a.m. Jordan Holliday and Ryan Tryzbiak will join Emerald Gao on the call.
We’ll then be heading to Wheaton for the men’s game against Wartburg at 5 p.m. Emerald and I will be back together for that call.
Saturday’s second-round games would be at 1 p.m. for the women and 6 p.m. for the men.
Here are the criteria for tournament assignments:
• Teams shall be geographically paired. Seeding is second in priority to proximity.
• The host site shall be no less than 500 miles from any school.
• Pitting conference opponents against each other in the first round will be avoided when possible.
I’m expecting the men to be along with some combination of Elmhurst (W 3-1), Dominican (L 1-2), Wisconsin–Whitewater (L 1-2), Wheaton, Calvin, Ohio Northern and Macalester.
PREDICTION (purely for entertainment purposes): Wheaton hosts Chicago vs. Calvin in first round. Ohio Northern and Wheaton would be the other matchup. (This would mean Dominican would host Elmhurst among others.)
The women likely will host three of Calvin (W 3-0), Aurora (W 2-0), Wisconsin–Stevens Point (W 1-0) and Wheaton (W 3-1). Other candidates are Ohio Northern and Macalester.
PREDICTION: Chicago hosts Aurora in first round. Stevens Point and Wheaton in other matchup.
It’s a simple case for the Chicago women’s soccer team. They have a strong regional win percentage bolstered by the region’s third-strongest schedule, and they have key regional wins over Wash U and Wheaton.
The Maroons will be the first team to be selected out of the Central region, with Wheaton and Ill. Wesleyan following in that order. I don’t imagine the Central will get a fourth team—Calvin has a decent case but probably too low of a regional win percentage in the national selection.
If you’re interested in seeing the Central’s credentials, click on the link below (will open in a new window):
FINAL NCAA rankings of Central Region
How to read it:
1. Chicago’s win over Wheaton earlier this year was by far their most important until the Wash U victory yesterday. That made up for the loss to Ill. Wesleyan and kept Chicago above those two teams last week.
2. Wash U and Augustana both held onto their conference leads and made this a simple picture in the region, where the top five teams will all make it.
BOTTOM LINE: I’m becoming more and more convinced that Chicago is going to host for the first two rounds. Wheaton would come to Stagg Field and probably be a second-round opponent based on seeding. I could see WIAC champion Wisconsin–Stevens Point coming to Chicago, as well.
The alternative that I see is that the Maroons head to Augustana, which is stretching the limits of travel for the first couple rounds.
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