Weekend Preview, Part 2

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Yesterday, The MuhlBox looked at Friday’s contests at Johns Hopkins. Here’s a preview of the Saturday and Sunday events.

Football at Johns Hopkins (Saturday, 2:00)

Two of the three teams that tied for the Centennial Conference title, and two of the three teams that are off to 2-0 starts this year, square off in a key game in Baltimore.

Johns Hopkins is ranked 23rd in Division III and has outscored its three opponents 142-21. Muhlenberg, which received votes in the American Football Coaches Association poll, is coming off a dramatic comeback win against McDaniel in which it scored 27 points in the fourth quarter to win, 34-26.

Muhlenberg leads the series 23-19-1 and has won three of the last four meetings, including two at Homewood Field. Seven of the last eight meetings were decided by eight points or fewer.

Turnovers could play a big role in this game. The Mules are plus-9 in turnovers this year and picked off JHU quarterback Hewitt Tomlin four times in both 2008 and 2010.

Live audio (WMUH): http://www.muhlenberg.edu/wmuh/stream.html

Live video: http://www.hopkinssports.com/allaccess/?media=256668

Live stats: http://www.hopkinssports.com/sports/m-footbl/sched/jhop-m-footbl-sched.html and click on Gametracker

Cross Country at Dickinson Long-Short Invitational (Saturday, 11:00)

Dickinson will host the Centennial Conference Championships on a new course at Big Spring High School, and almost all the CC schools will be here to preview it. This meet will give the Mules a good indication of where they stand in the CC six weeks before the actual championship meet.

Results: http://www.motiontiming.com/node/65

Women’s Soccer at Johns Hopkins (Saturday, 7:00); at Stevenson (Sunday, 2:00)

Coming off a tie against 24th-ranked Haverford, the Mules take on another nationally ranked opponent: No. 7 Johns Hopkins, the six-time defending Centennial Conference champion. Each of the last two years, the Mules beat the Blue Jays when they were ranked in the top 10, and in 2008 Muhlenberg took No. 7 Johns Hopkins to double overtime.

Live video: http://www.hopkinssports.com/allaccess/?media=256693

Live stats: http://www.hopkinssports.com/sports/w-soccer/sched/jhop-w-soccer-sched.html and click on Gametracker

The Mules continue their weekend trip to Maryland with a game against a strong Stevenson squad on Sunday.

Live stats: http://livestats.prestosports.com/stevenson/wsoc/?e=5cuvkr0g155v7ppa

Volleyball at Johns Hopkins (Saturday, 1:00)

The Mules look to go to 2-0 in the CC for the first time since 2002. They won in five sets in their last trip to Johns Hopkins (2009).

Weekend Preview, Part 1

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It’s such a big weekend, we’re going to do the preview in two parts. Today, we’ll look at the Friday games, and tomorrow we’ll preview Saturday’s contests.

Men’s Soccer at Johns Hopkins (Friday, 7:00)

Two of the powerhouse programs in the Centennial Conference meet in what is always an important match. In the first 18 years of the CC’s existence, Hopkins had the best record (128-23-11), and Muhlenberg was second (116-34-12). The two schools combined for 13 of the CC’s first 18 championships. Both teams won their CC opener, Hopkins (3-2-2 overall) at Haverford and Muhlenberg (5-0) vs. McDaniel.

In the D3soccer.com poll, Muhlenberg is ranked ninth and Johns Hopkins is receiving votes. The NSCAA has the Blue Jays ranked 10th in the Mid-Atlantic Region, while the Mules are third in the region and 19th nationally.

Johns Hopkins holds a 14-9-4 series lead, but that only tells part of the story. Muhlenberg has never beaten Johns Hopkins at Homewood Field; in fact, the Mules haven’t scored a goal in their last four trips there. Four of the last six meetings in Baltimore ended in scoreless draws.

Muhlenberg is 5-0 for the first time since 2005, and that was also the last year the Mules defeated Johns Hopkins.

Live video: http://www.hopkinssports.com/allaccess/?media=256690

Live stats: http://www.hopkinssports.com/sports/m-soccer/sched/jhop-m-soccer-sched.html and click on Gametracker

Field Hockey at Johns Hopkins (Friday, 4:00)

Johns Hopkins is ranked 20th in Division III with a 4-2 record, and Muhlenberg is 1-5. But don’t let those numbers fool you – this is usually an intense, closely fought game. The Mules defeated the Blue Jays in overtime in 2008 and 2009 – both times when Hopkins was ranked in the top 10 in Division III. Last year, Muhlenberg played one of its best games against Johns Hopkins, losing 2-1 in the fourth straight one-goal games between the two teams.

Live stats: http://www.hopkinssports.com/sports/w-fieldh/sched/jhop-w-fieldh-sched.html and click on Gametracker

9 or 19?

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Two Division III men’s soccer polls came out yesterday. In the one released by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America, Muhlenberg was ranked No. 19, and in the one released by D3soccer.com, the Mules were No. 9.

How could there be such a difference? One reason is that it’s still early in the season, and it takes a little while for the teams to sort themselves out. Another is that the two polls are conducted in very different manners, both with their quirks.

The NSCAA poll sticks very closely to the regions. This makes sense because Division III competition is regional in nature, and there are few inter-regional games during the season from which to form a basis of comparison. Teams are ranked 1-10 in each of the eight regions, and in general the top teams in each region are 1-8 in the poll, the second teams are 9-16, etc.

There are some exceptions: The No. 2 in the Mid-Atlantic on the women’s side, Johns Hopkins, is ranked No. 7 nationally, ahead of two regional No. 1s. By the way, the Mule women’s soccer team plays at Johns Hopkins on Saturday night.

The down side of this system is pretty obvious – teams jump around wildly in the national poll based on their regional ranking. Four teams that were ranked below the Mules last week are ahead of them this week, not because voters suddenly think they’re better, but because they moved up to No. 2 in their regions. As long as it is No. 3 in the Mid-Atlantic, Muhlenberg won’t be able to move up much past No. 15 or so.

The D3soccer.com poll works more like a national poll. And with national polls, it’s sometimes hard to break in, but then once you’re in it can take a while to fall out.

Muhlenberg was ranked 15th in the preseason poll, which was based in large part on last year’s final poll. Since the preseason poll, teams ahead of Muhlenberg have suffered losses that caused them to drop, while the Mules have inched up from 15 to 12 to 9 with their five straight wins to start the season.

This poll is not without its oddities. When a team loses, voters are often inclined to move it down only so many spots. Here’s an example from the women’s poll: Last week, Rochester was ranked 13th and Union received votes. Union beat Rochester, 2-1, but this week Rochester (5-1, No. 16) is still ranked ahead of Union (6-0, No. 17). The NSCAA poll has it more in the way you’d expect based on that result: Union is No. 2 in the region and No. 11 nationally, while Rochester is No. 3 and No. 18.

So are the Mules really No. 9 or No. 19, or none of the above? Only time will tell. Two things are for sure, though: the polls are fun to watch, and it’s better to be in them than out of them!

Past Meets Present

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Homecoming is a time for all generations of the Muhlenberg family to come together, and that certainly was the case last Friday.

While on campus for her 50th Reunion, Louise (Niebaum) Bogan met with current members of the Mule field hockey team on Friday morning, showed them a slide show, and then attended their game on Friday night.

Louise Niebaum was a member of the 1959 and 1960 field hockey teams – the first two at Muhlenberg. The 1959 team won all four of its games without giving up a goal. The next year, Muhlenberg again went undefeated, with a record of 5-0-1. 

The program did not lose a game until its fifth season of existence and helped establish the winning tradition of Muhlenberg field hockey. In 52 seasons of play entering this season, the Mules had a winning percentage of .605.

Click the link below to view the slideshow. Of particular note in the old pictures are the hairstyles (of course), the uniforms, the sticks and the cars around the field (Muhlenberg played its first games on what is now the site of Trexler Library). Things have changed quite a bit in the last 50 years!

Field Hockey slide show

Athletes of the Week

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For contests between September 12 and September 18

Female Athlete of the Week – Nicolette Miller, Women’s Soccer

Miller scored the first three goals in Muhlenberg’s 4-0 win over McDaniel on Saturday. It was the second hat trick of the senior forward’s career; she became just the sixth player in program history to record multiple hat tricks. Miller leads the Mules with four goals and nine points this season; she currently ranks in the top 10 in school history in every offensive statistical category.

 

Male Athlete of the Week – Dan Deighan, Football

Deighan threw for a career-high 282 yards, including 226 in the fourth quarter alone, to help engineer Muhlenberg’s dramatic 34-26 come-from-behind win over McDaniel. He connected on a 26-yard pass on a fake punt that eventually led to a touchdown on the first drive of the final quarter and added a pair of 40-yard touchdown passes to help the Mules erase a 19-point deficit in the final 15 minutes. It was their largest comeback since 1980.

Like Father, Like Son

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If Mark Bisbing remembers the game as if it was yesterday, there’s a good reason – the game yesterday was very similar.

In 1980, Bisbing was a freshman center on the Muhlenberg football team that pulled off a comeback for the ages. Playing their first home game of the season a week after winning at Franklin & Marahall, the Mules trailed Johns Hopkins 38-14 entering the fourth quarter. They scored 27 points in the last 11 minutes, including the winning touchdown on an untimed down after time expired, for a 41-38 win.

Yesterday, Muhlenberg (in its home opener a week after winning at F&M) again stunned a visiting team from Maryland by scoring 27 points in the fourth quarter. This time the victim was McDaniel, which took a 26-7 lead early in the second quarter and seemed to be in complete control, only to fall 34-26.

Garrett Bisbing

Mark Bisbing’s son, Garrett Bisbing, is the current Mules’ starting right guard and blocked an extra point in yesterday’s game.

“You can play for many years without going through a game like that,” said Mark. “That I got to play in a game like that, and now have Garrett play in a game like that – that’s pretty neat.”

Muhlenberg has scored more than 27 points in a quarter on five occasions since the 1980 game, but not in the fourth quarter. The last comeback from more than two touchdowns came in 2007, when the Mules trailed Dickinson 17-0 before winning 29-24, but in that game they had closed the gap to 17-16 by halftime.

How do the two epic comebacks compare? The circumstances in the 1980 game made that comeback a little more improbable. Muhlenberg recovered two onside kicks during the rally and got the benefit of two penalty calls on the final drive, one a personal foul after a fourth-down sack and the other a pass interference call in the end zone on the last play.

“I’ve heard that story a few times,” said Garrett, a junior. “I have a friend who goes to Hopkins. He was over at my house this summer and my dad was telling us about the 1980 game. Jim Margraff, the Hopkins coach, was their quarterback then.”

On the other hand, yesterday’s comeback seemed to come out of nowhere.

“Yesterday’s comeback stunned me because of the sheer way we stunk up the joint in the first three quarters,” said Mark, who was the third-string center in 1980 but got to play the whole fourth quarter after the two players ahead of him suffered injuries. “I didn’t think we had it in us.”

“I was trying to stay positive, thinking, we just have to score,” said Garrett. “Everything about it was just unbelievable.”

Mark watched the game from the stands with his mother  and a teammate from the 1980 team. As the comeback unfolded, both turned to him at various times, independently of each other, and said “this is just like Hopkins in 1980.”

The 1980 football team was the last coached by Frank Marino, and this was the first home football game for Muhlenberg since his passing in January. It was also the first football game at Scotty Wood Stadium since “Frank Marino Field” was added to the scoreboard.

“Frank would have been going nuts,” said Mark. “He would have loved it.”

If it happened twice, it could happen a third time, right? So if it’s the year 2042, and you’re on a visiting team that has a big lead on Muhlenberg after three quarters, and if the Mules have a lineman named Bisbing … let’s just say you can plan on a long bus ride home.

Saturday Trivia

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At last night’s volleyball match, some Muhlenberg students sang “Happy Birthday” to Davi Gordon in between the first and second sets. “Happy Birthday” is the most played and sung song in the United States. What is the second-most played song? A hint: Its lyrics were written by someone who was born in Carroll County, which is also home to McDaniel, the Mules’ opponent this Homecoming weekend.

Homecoming Weekend Preview

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It doesn’t get much better than this – Homecoming weekend, fall in the air, and lots of great matchups at Muhlenberg.

Football vs. McDaniel (Saturday, 2:00)

The actual game may not be as marquee as the matchup between Green Terror back Joe Rollins and the Mule defense. Rollins rushed for 311 yards against Moravian last week, and Muhlenberg has allowed only 1.9 yards per carry through two games. This is the only Centennial Conference game this week between two teams that won their league openers.

Live stats: http://www.muhlenberg.edu/sports/livestats/xlive.htm

Live video: http://www.livestream.com/muhlenberg

Live audio (WMUH): http://www.muhlenberg.edu/wmuh/stream.html

Volleyball vs. McDaniel (Friday, 7:00)

McDaniel is 0-7 this year, Muhlenberg is 2-8, and it doesn’t matter: At the end of this match, one of them will be in first place in the CC with a 1-0 record.

Live video: http://www.livestream.com/muhlenberg

Field Hockey vs. McDaniel (Friday, 7:00)

Fresh off their first win of the season, the Mules try to make it two in a row against 3-0 McDaniel.

Live stats: http://www.muhlenberg.edu/sports/fhlive/xlive.htm

Cross Country at Falcon Classic (Saturday, 10:00)

The closest thing the Mules have to a home meet will be run at nearby Cedar Crest College. The regionally ranked women take off at 10, followed by the men’s race at 11.

Men’s Soccer vs. McDaniel (Saturday, 4:00)

Undefeated Muhlenberg, 4-0 for the first time since 2005, is ranked 12th in Division III by D3soccer.com. McDaniel is 1-2-1 and has not beaten the Mules since 2001.

Live stats: http://www.muhlenberg.edu/sports/msoclive/xlive.htm

Live video (second half only): http://www.livestream.com/muhlenberg

Women’s Soccer vs. McDaniel (Saturday, 7:00)

Muhlenberg (3-2) opens CC play against a team to which it has not lost since 2003.

Live stats: http://www.muhlenberg.edu/sports/wsoclive/xlive.htm

Live video: http://www.livestream.com/muhlenberg

Freshman Seminar

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Talk about a daunting task. With just four college games under their belts, the freshmen on the Muhlenberg women’s soccer team were thrown into the fire with a game against the No. 1 team in the country, Messiah.

Touhey

And while last night’s result may not have been what the Mules had hoped for, it was an eye-opening experience for freshman Colleen Touhey, who has started all five games of her college career.

“It was such a faster pace,” she said. “Everyone is at a higher level; there’s no break for you. Every mistake you make is capitalized on, so you have to be sure with the ball at all times.”

Touhey’s classmate, Audrey Zamchiow, agreed that the tempo was a major step, or two or three, up from her high school games. But she also felt like the upperclassmen helped get the team ready as best as they could.

“It was a lot more intense, but the older girls really helped me adjust and prepare for what this game would be like,” Zamichow said. “I could still definitely tell the big difference compared to playing in high school, but I think it would have been a lot more shocking if they hadn’t helped us.”

Zamichow

The main thing both Touhey and Zamichow took away from playing the three-time national champion Falcons was a game plan for what the Mules need to do to be successful.

Touhey said the team has been working on playing faster, but playing against the No. 1 team in Division III showed her just how important it is to avoid and limit mistakes.

She was still very optimistic in spite of the loss, and said she feels the team can only grow better after facing such quality competition.

“Playing a game like this, although we lost, is good because we see what we need to do if we want to become a really good team,” she said. “There are so many things we can learn from this game, and now we have all season to make it happen.”

NCAA stats

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There’s a new way to keep close tabs on not just the Muhlenberg teams, but all Division III teams in football, soccer and field hockey.

Starting this week, box scores for all Division III contests in those sports will be available on the NCAA website. The NCAA has been doing this with Division I football for several years and started with Division III last year. Soccer and field hockey were added this year, with volleyball to come in the future.

Here are the links:

Football: http://web1.ncaa.org/mfb/mainpage.jsp?year=2011

Men’s soccer: http://web1.ncaa.org/stats/StatsSrv/rankings?sportCode=MSO

Women’s soccer: http://web1.ncaa.org/stats/StatsSrv/rankings?sportCode=WSO

Field hockey: http://web1.ncaa.org/stats/StatsSrv/rankings?sportCode=WFH

The football page is set up a little differently, but for the other three, click on “Click here for box scores and complete team and individual statistics.” Although it is listed on the Division I line, you can get to all three divisions from there. Select III from the drop-down menu where I appears, and you get a list of all schools that play the sport. Click on any school, and you can see their links to cumulative stats and game boxes. Click on a player name in the roster to see season and career stats.

If you want to check up on upcoming opponents, this is an alternative to going to their school websites. And if nothing else, it’s a great way to kill some time poring over stats.

The NCAA continues to provide weekly rankings in these sports, as well as volleyball (http://web1.ncaa.org/stats/StatsSrv/rankings?sportCode=WVB). Although it is way too early to put any stock in national statistical rankings, it is interesting to note that the Muhlenberg football team is 28th in Division III in rushing defense after two games, and Joe Rollins of McDaniel, who will be visiting Scotty Wood Stadium on Saturday, is the second-leading rusher in the division.