LSJU hosts the M WP tournament, for the second straight year, starting on Friday! I think LSJU has hosted eight or nine times before, and has won the title once at Avery, in 2001 (and I was among the lucky attendees and it was awesome).
If form holds, the semi-finals on Saturday afternoon will be top seed USC vs. Fordham, and LSJU vs. Ucla. The Bruins have Ryder Dodd, the nation's best collegian, but they haven't always played to their high talent level lately. USC also has a very good roster, and LSJU is 0-7 this season vs. USC/Ucla, but all of the games have been close. I think LSJU may have led each of those 7 games at some point.
The x-factors for Stanford are the fantastic goalie West Temkin (transferred from Princeton in 2023) and the Europeans, super soph Balogh and the grad transfer from Ucla, Di Martire. They have both had outstanding seasons so far. The 2-meter, Alex Georghe, has been very good too. He is from Bucharest. So yes, many of our key players are foreign born. If memory serves, the 2001 LSJU championship team was entirely American and I can still hear the "U-S-A" cheers from echoing at Avery (USC in contrast had several foreign born players even back then).
So LSJU can certainly beat Ucla (assuming LSJU beats a rising UCDavis team and Ucla tops Princeton on Friday) and then let's see what happens vs. USC in the final. The NCAA in all its wisdom is charging $ 40 per day or $ 80 for the full tournament, the highest ticket prices ever. But no matter, Let's Go Card!!
If form holds, the semi-finals on Saturday afternoon will be top seed USC vs. Fordham, and LSJU vs. Ucla. The Bruins have Ryder Dodd, the nation's best collegian, but they haven't always played to their high talent level lately. USC also has a very good roster, and LSJU is 0-7 this season vs. USC/Ucla, but all of the games have been close. I think LSJU may have led each of those 7 games at some point.
The x-factors for Stanford are the fantastic goalie West Temkin (transferred from Princeton in 2023) and the Europeans, super soph Balogh and the grad transfer from Ucla, Di Martire. They have both had outstanding seasons so far. The 2-meter, Alex Georghe, has been very good too. He is from Bucharest. So yes, many of our key players are foreign born. If memory serves, the 2001 LSJU championship team was entirely American and I can still hear the "U-S-A" cheers from echoing at Avery (USC in contrast had several foreign born players even back then).
So LSJU can certainly beat Ucla (assuming LSJU beats a rising UCDavis team and Ucla tops Princeton on Friday) and then let's see what happens vs. USC in the final. The NCAA in all its wisdom is charging $ 40 per day or $ 80 for the full tournament, the highest ticket prices ever. But no matter, Let's Go Card!!