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Match stats don't even look as close as the score indicated. Lady Zips scored in the 25th minute to take a 1-0 lead into halftime. St. Bonaventure scored in the 83rd minute to tie it up at 1-1. Lady Zips then scored in the 90th minute(less than 20 seconds left) to win 2-1 AT St. Bonaventure. They play a neutral site game vs Cornell on Sunday. Lady Zips now improve to 3-0-1.

Lady Zips improve to 2-0-1 with 4-2 win over Cleveland State. Next up is @ St. Bonaventure on Friday, and Cornell (@ St. Bonaventure) on Sunday. St. Bonaventure is 1-1-2 on season(W vs Buffalo, L @ Binghamton, T @ Canisus & T vs Oakland). Cornell is 1-0-1 on season(W vs Loyola, T vs Siena). I expect the Lady Zips to come out of this weekend with either two ties, two wins, or one tie and one win. Any loss will be disappointing this weekend. Katie George, who didn't score a single goal in her 3 previous seasons with the Lady Zips, she has had her second match(out of three) this season with two goals(4 for the season and her career now). Coach Herlihy thought she would be more suited for midfield than defender, and it's already showing results.

Akron tied Niagara 0-0 on the road. Not a bad result for the first road game with a VERY young, but talented squad. "We were up against a strong physical team and are pleased with the effort shown by the players. We couldn't have asked anymore of them," said head coach Noreen Herlihy. "Defensively we were solid and we will continue to work hard to improve each week in all facets of the game. We still have plenty of work to do but it was a decent result on the road and we can take a lot of positives from tonight." ==================================================================== Next game is Tuesday at HOME vs Cleveland State. Kick-off set for 7:00pm.

7pm @ Niagara tonight. Will be a much tougher test for the Lady Zips. Some notes from the gozips.com article: - Katie George, a senior, has played 54 games and never scored a goal as a defender. New coach Noreen Herlihy moved her to midfield and she scores two goals in the season opener. - Freshman Rachel Baughman(the one I mentioned in the offseason) assisted on two goals in her collegiate opener. - 4th all-time meeting between the Zips and the Purple Eagles(first since 2005). Niagara is 3-0-0 against the Lady Zips. - Niagara won 9 of 11 games at home last season. - Purple Eagles lost 1-0 to Michigan State to open the season. Spartans had 11 shots compared to Purple Eagles' 3 shots. - Herlihy on Niagara: "We are looking to go up there and maybe shake things up a bit. They are a quality team but we aren't going to fear anybody this year. We are going to go up to Niagara with confidence and with the mindset of getting a result on the road."

Women's Soccer up to 3:03 Volleyball up to 5:12 Football for rest of video. - Figured to post it here since the first segment is Lady Zips soccer and gives fans more of an idea on the style this team will be playing this season.

Lady Zips up 1-0 at halftime in their season opener. They look very solid right now. Controlled possession for majority of the first half, and are playing an aggressive attacking style. I'd be shocked if they finish this match with only one goal. Starters - 2 freshmen, 2 sophomores, 4 juniors, 3 seniors Annabelle Hegeman JUNIOR Rachel Eck SOPHOMORE Rachel Baughman FRESHMAN Katie George SENIOR Madison Kaser JUNIOR Jenna Anderson SENIOR Abby Gindlesberger JUNIOR Holly Ohradzansky SENIOR Shea O'Brien FRESHMAN Sydney Schipani SOPHOMORE Sarah Sivic JUNIOR Subs that played in first half - 2 freshmen, 1 junior, 1 senior Becca Gordon FRESHMAN Hannah Werth SENIOR Rachel Schirripa FRESHMAN Karin Norman JUNIOR

The UA president will announce soon that he will cut the basketball program, cut ties with MAC, and hire more of his administration buddies. In all fairness, for any of those(especially 4-5?!?!?!?!?) to transfer in a season that our depth is going to be our strength(until injuries happen) would be a dumb move. I never put much stock in that comment.

So we can pay $50,000 to put the name on the back of t-shirts for Game 6 of the NBA Finals, but not to keep any of the 215 faculty or the baseball program? Yeah, definitely makes some sense. The only question I have now is out of the people who wanted this guy as president over Tressel, how many of them still have a job at Akron? I'll take slack for saying this, but Youngstown State will surpass us in the near future. I have a relative that works at YSU and some of the stuff she is saying there is what I thought would happen here if Tressel was president. Ironically, Tressel's name is hardly brought up in same sentence with athletics at YSU even though that's what the concern was about the academic-type at Akron. Now I just wonder how many of them are left at UA with all these cuts.

Exactly what I was going to say. As a coach at the high school level, the JV level players are just as important, if not more important, during the practices when you go over scouting reports, repetition, and just fine-tuning your varsity team for their game(s), it would be extremely beneficial for your JV level players to be as close to your opponent as they can get in practice. So the more talented your bench and walk-ons are in your program, the better your program will be ready for game speed with what your opponent will throw at you.

I know it's not Barber, but Allie Plybon, sister of Lady Zips basketball athlete Hannah Plybon, reached 11'6. Ties her school record. https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10153225444283582&set=vb.229531723581&type=2&theater

Rooman, not sure but part of that low attendance for Toledo may have been because two of their high school girls basketball teams were in Columbus late last week/weekend for the state semifinals/championship. Both Toledo Rogers and Toledo Notre Dame Academy made it to the state championship game and lost. Apparently they haven't had a girls basketball state champion in some time over there, and since they had two teams, I heard a lot of people traveled down there(I saw a lot of them when I went down there). If someone wants to block me for this, that's fine. But how come my high school alma mater can put more people in the seats than the Lady Zips? This wasn't even the best team in my high school's girls basketball program history. Maybe top 5, but not even top 2. Lady Zips just had the two best seasons in their program history BACK TO BACK. I'm not going to suffocate everyone with relentless videos, but look at these two videos. Why can't the normal Akron fans get into a game like these people? Why do the students have to start or do everything? By the way, #14 is going to be playing basketball at Youngstown State next season.

I will be a couple miles from this game, but I will be at the Jerome Schottenstein Center for the OHSAA Girls Basketball State Tournament. My high school alma mater made it to the Final Four in Division II(game is 3pm on Friday), and I know a couple of the coaches in that program. Traffic is going to be rough those few days. I'll be hoping for a Buffalo upset. Buffalo 72 WVU 68

I figured to start this since this may be the last game of Sina King's career, If not and they win it, we will be playing either Missouri or Northern Iowa. We beat Northern Iowa 82-73 back in November on that Tuesday morning(Education Day). Here's the bracket. Mid-American Conference has the most schools out of any conference in the WNIT(6). http://www.womensnit.com/bracket.html Here's hoping for an Akron-Youngstown State WNIT Championship

Exactly, Balsy. I was worried about this one. I wish them the best of luck. Whoever wins the Ball State-Eastern Michigan game will be the team I'm rooting for in the MAC Championship game. I've lost teammates close to me during a season before, and it's something that you either pack it in or you rise and dedicate the season to your lost teammate(s). Obviously, Eastern Michigan has been playing incredible in the past month or so. I hope they make it to the NCAA tourney and do some damage. Brady Sallee does an amazing job wherever he goes, and he runs the Ball State program the right way. As for the Lady Zips, I think they will go to the WNIT. The MAC usually gets anywhere from 2-5 teams in the WNIT. This is a tough loss, but with a young team and the mission and purpose that Eastern Michigan was playing with, this result didn't really shock me. Hopefully this will be a teaching moment for them, and they work even harder in the offseason. Just hoping Coach Kest is still here. With Mack taking the AD job at Missouri, I'm now a little worried about her leaving for that program.

I finally took my first loss in my predictions, and it was a big one. Buffalo beats Western Michigan 63-60. Lady Zips will be starting in about 10-15 minutes. Game should be on 1350 AM for those that can't make it up before the men's game tonight.

2nd round is in the books. Here's the matchups for tomorrow: #5 Western Michigan vs #4 Buffalo, Noon ET #6 Eastern Michigan vs #3 Akron, 2:30 ET Hope the men's win tonight, and people show up earlier tomorrow to support the women's team if possible. By the way, my predictions are now 6-0

Schedule updated. 4-0 so far in my picks

Last post for me in this thread. Just wanted to say congratulations to the Lady Zips on their first EVER win at Bowling Green yesterday. Hopefully we can get a little winning streak going at the Stroh.

My picks: Western Michigan over Bowling Green Central Michigan over Northern Illinois Eastern Michigan over Can't State Toledo over Miami(OH) Western Michigan over Central Michigan Eastern Michigan over Toledo Western Michigan over Buffalo Akron over Eastern Michigan Western Michigan over Ohio Ball State over Akron Ball State over Western Michigan

First Round - March 9th, 2015-Campus Sites Western Michigan 65, Bowling Green 42 Central Michigan 49, Northern Illinois 44 Eastern Michigan 70, Can't State 52 Toledo 62, Miami(OH) 47 Second Round - March 11th, 2015-Quicken Loans Arena Western Michigan 81, Central Michigan 68 Eastern Michigan 74, Toledo 57 Quarterfinals - March 12th, 2015-Quicken Loans Arena Buffalo 63, Western Michigan 60 Eastern Michigan vs #3 Akron, 2:30pm ET Semifinals - March 13th, 2015-Quicken Loans Arena Buffalo vs #1 Ohio, 12:00pm ET EMU/UA winner vs #2 Ball State, 2:30pm ET Championship - March 14th, 2015-Quicken Loans Arena TBD, 1:00pm ET

Yes, we do differ on this. I think part of it is how young these kids are that are coming off the bench. They have to get used to taking on different roles. They were so used to starting and being the nucleus of their high school program, that they're not sure how to take a "back seat" without feeling that they're stepping "out of their role". Playing time plays a huge factor in how a player may gel on the court.I think this team has had three great recruiting classes in a row now. Scipio, Ricketts and Plybon I believe will elevate their game over the next two seasons. McMahan, Hung, Sefcik, Ball, and Burry is the class that give them another season and they will be even better. Piper and Walker may take some time, but I can see them making a limited impact as freshmen as well. It's not like the men's program where players that come into the program stay the same or slightly improved(or worse) throughout their career at Akron. Coach Kest and staff gets these players to improve not only each season, but in practice too. When Cassell, Luburgh, Young, and King came to Akron, they didn't have the hype as they did when they graduated from Akron. Same with Tecca and Ruper. Same with Murphy as well. Give it time. As long as Coach Kest is at the lead, no way are these players not progressing. Sometimes you have to regress in order to progress even further, and hopefully that's the cause of the bench play right now. Also, I don't think even with bench play at average production would we have the top seed locked up. I think we could have been the 2 seed, but not the 1 seed. Ohio has been just too good this conference season. Let's see who steps up in the MAC tourney. Two seasons ago, Luburgh played outstanding in the tournament. Last year, Anita Brown stepped up. So who will it be this year? A freshmen, sophomore, or junior? That's what I'm excited to see.

I understand the league itself has been down this season, but to lose Cassell, Guyton, Luburgh, Tecca, and Young when they had the #3 seed, and still have the #3 seed this season?!!??!!?! That would be a successful season in my eyes. I feel the WNIT is not a long shot, or at least a trip to the WBI again. They will be in the postseason again. This is starting to sound like a broken record, but another great recruiting class coming in. It's only two players, but they're top notch. Our bench is so deep, I think they may start losing some to transferring out for more playing times. Scipio, Ricketts, and a couple others would be starters or one of the first ones off the bench on most teams in the MAC. Instead, they're in the second, sometimes third unit right now on the team. This is the breakdown right now after this season: PG - McMahan(SO), Barilla(SR), Scipio(JR), Flowers(SO) Wing - Brown(SR), Ricketts(JR), Piper(FR) Wing - Plybon(JR), Hung(SO), Sefcik(R-FR) Forward - Gibson(SR), Ball(SO), Walker(FR), Simone(JR) Center - Nunan(SR), Burry(SO), Dunnigan(SR) *A couple more interesting facts. It's nice to see them break the most home victories in a season record two seasons in a row. Hopefully next year will be three Also, Lilli Piper will not only play for Coach Kest and the women's basketball program, but she will also play for Coach Jones and the softball program as well. That's how great of an athlete she is.

A win @ Bowling Green, and we're a #3 seed for the third consecutive season. Hopefully what we did in the previous two tourneys as a #3 seed happens again. That #3 seed means a lot since if we get past our first tournament opponent, we get #2 seed Ball State instead of #1 seed Ohio.

How I see the seeding for MAC tourney working out: 1 Ohio 16-2 2 Ball State 13-5 3 Akron 12-6 4 Western Michigan 11-7 5 Buffalo 11-7 6 Toledo 10-8 7 Eastern Michigan 10-8 8 Northern Illinois 8-10 9 Central Michigan 8-10 10 Miami(OH) 4-14 11 Can't State 4-14 12 Bowling Green 2-16