Division 1 Girls NCS Preview/Predictions

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>It's playoff time ladies and gentlemen. There are some interesting stories headed into this season's NCS championship. Back when I was in high school NCS was the pinnacle. There was no CIF, NorCal, and State like there is in other sports. Winning NCS was the ultimate dream. Unfortunately, my Piedmont High School team came up short all four years. Two Finals, One Semi-Final and one Quarter-Final. It still hurts to this day not getting one. There can only be one champion. Here are my predictions for this seasons bracket. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Round 1</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Game 1:</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>1 Carondelet VS 16 Ukiah </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The one seed Carondelet Cougars head into this game after a heartbreaking Double-Overtime League playoff final loss to 4-seed Amador on Saturday. Hopefully that loss will motivate them moving forward and maybe even see Amador down the road wink, wink, nod, nod. Ukiah high school who will have a long way to travel for this one are lead by Junior striker Lilliane Thies with 12 goals and 3 assists. Freshmen [player_tooltip player_id='111108' first='Allie' last='Huff'] also looks to be a threat with 11 assists and 8 goals to her name so far. The Wildcats will be attempting to be giant slayers. Unfortunately, for them I think Carondelet has two much depth and I see them winning this one. Cougars advance </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Prediction: Carondelet 4 Ukiah 0 </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Game 2:</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>8 Las Lomas VS 9 Acalanes</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Love seeing a derby in the playoffs. These two teams are very familiar with each other. Acalanes are a good side lead by a pair of Seniors Alex Salazar and [player_tooltip player_id='54236' first='Nicole' last='Nguyen'] with 17 goals and 13 assists between them this season. Together, they have provided most of the offense for the Dons this season. I see a mini upset here with the 9 seed Acalanes getting the better of the Las Lomas in this one. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Prediction: Acalanes 2 Las Lomas 1 </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Game 3: </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>4 Amador Valley VS 13 Vintage </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Finishing 3rd in the toughest league in NCS; the DAL and then going on to win the end of season tournament has the Dons feeling very confident about their chances to win this thing this year. They have momentum. And momentum can be a dangerous thing in sports. They have a balanced attack with no scorer even in double digits this season. Goals have been coming from everywhere. Their defense is stout not allowing very many goals this season. The Vintage Crushers from Napa will have a long way to travel for this game. The Crushers are lead by junior Lila Plewes with 13 goals and 6 assists. But this team has scored 70 goals so far this season so also possessing a very balanced attack. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Prediction Amador Valley 1 Vintage 0</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Game 4 </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>5 Tamalpais VS 12 Northgate </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>UPSET ALERT: Tam is lead by Sophomore [player_tooltip player_id='111336' first='Lauren' last='Willard'] who has scored 14 goals and chipped in with 13 assists for this season and Senior Addie Covey 13 goals and 10 assists. The Tamalpais Red Tailed Hawks are 13-4-6 headed into the playoffs and will be hosting Northgate. Northgate sit at 8-3-5 and will be hoping to pull off an upset here. I think Northgate pull it off and upset the Red Tailed Hawks here in this one. I believe the broncos play in a much more competitive league and have what it takes to get it done in Mill Valley on Wednesday. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Prediction: Northgate 2 - Tamalpais 2 (Northgate advances via Penalties) </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Game 5 </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>2 San Ramon Valley VS 15 Liberty </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Liberty High School actually get to host this one as they won their league and SRV did not. Road playoff games are never easy to win. However, sitting at 10-1-1 so far this season the Wolves are going to get it done here I think. They have a phenomenal roster. Some standouts are Payton Games, [player_tooltip player_id='19123' first='Ashley' last='Dodson'] and Hailey Tyacke. The Liberty Lions run ends here after a very strong 11-2-2 overall record this season. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Prediction: SRV 3 Liberty 0 </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Game 6 </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>7 Casa Grande VS 10 Monte Vista </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>UPSET ALERT: Casa Grande have a phenomenal Junior Bailey Guerrero who has scored 15 goals and added 14 assists this season that Monte Vista must account for. However, I think Monte Vista have more talent across the board and get a road victory in Petaluma come Wednesday night. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Prediction: Monte Vista 3 - Casa Grande 2 </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Game 7</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>3 Bishop O'Dowd VS 14 Windsor </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Bishop O'Dowd are loaded with talent. Junior [player_tooltip player_id='289538' first='Chloe' last='Keating'] is a Gatorade Player of Year candidate if she can lead her team to an NCS championship. She has 26 goals and 23 assists for far this season. Junior [player_tooltip player_id='111260' first='Abby' last='Forsgren'] who missed the first part of the season due to an injury is back and performing at a very high level. No less than 5 freshmen play big minutes on this team. The Dragons are dangerous. I think they get it done here against Windsor High School. The Windsor Jaguars are 9-3-5 overall and are lead by Sophomore [player_tooltip player_id='111111' first='Avery' last='North'] who has scored 9 goals and chipped in 4 assists this season. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Prediction: Bishop O'dowd 3 - Windsor 0 </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Game 8 </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>6 Redwood VS 11 Miramonte </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>UPSET ALERT: The Matadors are lead by Stanford commit Junior [player_tooltip player_id='82886' first='Sadie' last='Leal-Schuman'] who has scored 11 goals and has dropped 10 assists in 12 games played so far this season and in my opinion the best midfielder in this tournament. The Redwood Giants are lead by Senior Sarah Farese who has scored 20 goals to go along with 2 assists so far this season. The game plan would seem simple from a Miramonte perspective to me. If you stop Farese you have a very good chance of winning. She has scored 20 of the teams 36 goals so far this season and no one else has more than 3. I believe Miramonte is more balanced and get the upset in this one. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Prediction Miramonte 4 - Redwood 3</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Here is how I see it going the rest of the way after Wednesday. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>QUARTER-FINALS</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Carondelet 2 - Acalanes 0 </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Amador Valley 2 - Northgate 1 </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>SRV 2 - Monte Vista 2 (Monte Vista Advances via Pens)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Bishop O'Dowd 3 - Miramonte 3 (O'Dowd advances via Pens) </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>SEMI-FINALS </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Carondelet 2- Amador 0 </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Bishop O'Dowd 3 - Monte Vista 1</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>CHAMPIONSHIP </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Carondelet 1 Bishop O'Dowd 1 (Carondelet Wins NCS via Pens) </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->