ESPN analyst Quint Kessenich, a former All-American goalkeeper at Johns Hopkins, offered his perspective for an article advancing Saturday night's showdown between No. 2 Syracuse and No. 8 Johns Hopkins at Homewood Field. He also shared his thoughts on the season thus far.
Question: What player or team has exceeded your preseason expectations?
Quint Kessenich: "There's three really surprising unbeatens right now. Robert Morris, which is an independent, was 9-7 last year, and they've gotten off to a great start. They're scoring a lot of goals, averaging about 16 goals a game. I think Lafayette is a huge surprise with their coach Terry Mangan. All of a sudden, they're a favorite in the Patriot League. I felt the Patriot League would be a little down this year, but I still thought Bucknell might be the team to beat there, but Lafayette beat Navy last weekend, and that's a huge win for that Lafayette program. It's the best start in program history. And Yale is off to a good start in the Ivy League. They're undefeated also, which is a surprise on the positive side."
Q: What player or team has underwhelmed you?
QK: "Albany is off to a horrendous start. Towson's schedule is just brutal. It goes from hard to impossible. But on any given Saturday, we're seeing crazy results, and if you win your one-goal games, that's a big deal."
Q: Can you envision a scenario similar to the NCAA basketball tournament where the mid-major conferences are battling with the power conferences for at-large bids?
QK: "The ACC is 17-1 out of conference. You have three undefeateds in that league [in Virginia, North Carolina and Maryland]. They're going to start knocking each other off. A good conference this year appears to be the CAA [Colonial Athletic Association] with Hofstra and Drexel making the playoffs. I don't think the America East can get more than one bid, and then it's the usual suspects."
Q: What team from a mid-major conference will surprise people?
QK: "I've got Hofstra ranked sixth in the nation. They're as good as anybody offensively. Drexel beat Notre Dame last week, and Stony Brook is another team from a small conference that has the offense to play. They lost to Virginia earlier, but they're in that tier somewhere between [Nos.] 6 and 12, and they're just a couple games away from finding themselves at championship weekend. But Hofstra's got a shot. I said it in the preview show that Hofstra could go 12-1. If you look at their schedule, they'll be favored in the remainder of their games, and they've got a shot to reel off a lot of wins in a row."
Q: Is it fair to say that Virginia and Syracuse are in the top tier and everyone else is fighting for No. 3?
QK: "Not at all. I really think that North Carolina, if they played Syracuse today, would probably be right there with them. Carolina's defense is the best I've seen this year, and they've got the best offensive player in the country in Billy Bitter. So North Carolina's got to be in that mix right now, and I've seen all those teams play personally. I really struggled to put Syracuse at No. 2 this week and Carolina at 3. That's one I gave a lot of thought to. Carolina's extremely good this year. They're a very talented team."