Cavaliers snubbed by NCAA tournament

by Paul Moser sports editor

For a team that goes 20 games without a loss, one would think that they had little to worry about as far as getting a shot at the championship tournament.

The Cavaliers soccer team found out two Sundays ago that they were not going to compete in the NCAA playoffs despite finishing the season with 20 straight wins.

Two Sundays ago, senior soccer player Don Eadie got the news from the brackets posted on the Internet. He explained his demeanor as "shocked."

Shocked with good cause.

The last time the Cabrini men's soccer team had tasted defeat it was over 3 months ago on September 5th against RandolphMacon College. However, this snub was bigger than any loss they had the whole season.

Since then, the surge of victories has been nothing less than spectacular.

The Cavaliers have won 20 consecutive games, which is the second-longest streak in Division ill.

However, as the players and the coaches found out, it was not enough to get them over the hump and into the NCAA tournament.

Cabrini Athletic Director John Dzik said that Les Pollman, athletic director of Dickinson and head of the men's soccer ranking committee for the NCAA mid- Atlantic region, said to him over the phone on the Monday after the brackets for the tournament were put on the Internet that he did not put Cabrini in based on the strength of their schedule.

Pollman felt that Cabrini had a weak schedule.

Pollman felt he could not compare Cabrini to any of the other teams because they had not played any of the teams in the tournament.

Dzik felt differently.

"At 20-1 and as a conference champ, we deserve to be in that tournament," he said.

According to Dzik, even if he was to call those teams up today to put them on the schedule for next season, they would not comply with the request.

According to Dzik, a lot of the politics involved in Division ill soccer is an "old boys network."

Dzik feels that members of that network will not want to play a new school like Cabrini and give them a shot at playing in that network.

Senior Wayne Brown agreed "Its a big fraternity of soccer schools and we're not a member," he said.

However, according to Dzik, there is hope. In January there will be a legislation proposed by the presidents of Division ill schools that Dzik explained as, "the most important vote for the Pennsylvania Athletic Conference on the table since the conference started."

It is a proposal to give automatic bids to the NCAA tournament to teams that win a conference that is over two years old and has seven teams in their conference.

If the legislation is passed, then that means any team that wins the PAC in a sport will automatically go to the NCAA tournament.

Dzik said that it is important for the teams to go to the tournaments even if they don't win right away to see what the other levels of competition are. You can not be the best until you have played the best.

If the Cabrini College soccer team had played under these rules there would have been no question as to whether they would be allowed in the NCAA tournament.

Now, however, since Cabrini is relatively pretty new to the NCAA they can be voted out of the tournament no matter what their record is and what conference they win as long as the pollsters don't think they deserve to be in the tournament.

Until this legislation is passed it appears Cabrini will still have to fight the old boys network.