Saturday morning will have two pools of 5 teams and two pools of 4 teams. Following each team name is the predicted record for each team, not their actual record (the teams haven't actually played yet, remember).
Pool A
Tufts (4-0)
Stonehill (2-2)
Boston University (3-1)
Olin (1-3)
Brandeis-B (0-4)
Tufts has a finals appearance at Southerns this year, and an impressive record at Vegas and should win the pool (average margin of victory I'd guess at 10 points for the day). Stonehill and BU should both have no trouble with Olin and Brandeis-B, but will probably play a tight first game which will most likely decide who moves on to play for 2nd and who moves on to play for 5th. I like BU in a one or two point victory given their history and breadth of games played this year, even though Stonehill edged them out 12-11 in a game just a few weeks ago.
Pool B
Harvard (4-0)
Bentley (3-1)
Tufts-B (2-2)
Stonehill-B (1-3)
Northeastern-B (0-4)
Harvard walks through the pool, having a bit of early trouble with Bentley, who played an impressive Sectionals last year. Bentley should beat out Tufts-B, but the B-men should put up a decent fight (13-8 or so). They have some impressive wins at Southerns, whupping an array of B-teams soundly (avg. score 13-3) and SCAD 13-9. Stonehill-B and Northeastern-B is a tossup.
Pool C
Boston College (3-0)
Northeastern (2-1)
Harvard-B (1-2)
Tufts-C (0-3)
BC has had an up and down season. Beating UCLA, North Texas, and SD State in Vegas, they had a tough time in the Yale Cup power pool, going only 1-6 on the weekend. However, their impressive wins in the early season help them beat a Will Neff-less Northeastern team fairly easily (15-7). No surprises in this pool.
Pool D
Brandeis (3-0)
MIT (2-1)
Boston College-B (0-3)
Wentworth (1-2)
In what could be the most exciting game of Saturday, Brandeis and MIT face off during their final round. Not only are they seeded 4-5, Brandeis won their Yale Cup pool 4-0 to MIT's 3-1 record. Their game went 11-7 in B-deis's favor. However, just 2 weeks earlier, MIT and Brandeis scrimmaged in Cambridge to see MIT win 15-14. I think Brandeis pulls this out, but just barely (17-16).
That's all for now. Come and check out Sectionals this weekend!
Babend
NE Open RC
