Welcome to the PSAC Insighter
November 14
Welcome to the newest feature of the new psacsports.org, "PSAC Insighter," the official blog of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference. This is just one of several new features that we are providing on our new website, which launched at the end of August. It is still a work in progress, so keep your eyes open in the months to come for new features.
Exactly what will this blog will entail in the months and hopefully years to come? Well, this is our first time in keeping an official blog for the PSAC, so being that we're new at this, there's nothing really specific that we can say it will entail, or how often it will be updated, or who will be making the blog entries, etc. We're just going to try to have a little fun with this and use it as a way to reach out to all of our fans, student-athletes, coaches, staff, alumni and all others interested in PSAC sports in a bit of a different way than the traditional forms of media coverage that we get. Things that may only get a few sentences in the local newspaper or things that aren't really worthy of a formal press releases but are still worthy of being mentioned will have a big place here. What exactly it will be, no one knows right now, so be sure to check the PSAC Insighter each time you log on to psacsports.org.
If there is ever a good time to start a blog, this weekend would be it. We are in the middle of what many in our profession call the "crossover" season, not to be confused with the "crossover" games that pit PSAC East teams against those in the PSAC West. No, the crossover season is when the end of the fall sports seasons, such as football, soccer, volleyball, field hockey, etc., overlap with the beginning of the winter sports seasons. It is a hectic time for those of us in this profession and needless to say, there aren't many days off at this time of year, but can be fun and rewarding, especially if our teams are doing well and in the PSAC, we have a lot of teams in the postseason right now in fall sports, while the start of the basketball season for most teams is this weekend. As a result, there should be plenty to talk (and post) about.
To start off, West Chester has an extremely busy weekend this weekend as the Golden Rams will host Southern Connecticut in a first round NCAA playoff game in football. The Golden Rams are also hosting an NCAA women's soccer first/second rounds. The ladies will receive a first round bye and play either East Stroudsburg or West Virginia Wesleyan in the second round on Sunday. Clear in the other corner of the state, in Erie PSAC Tournament champion Mercyhurst will host a pair of fellow PSAC teams in another first/second round part of the bracket as they will play the winner of Friday's Slippery Rock-Bloomsburg match. In men's soccer, East Stroudsburg, Slippery Rock, California (Pa.) and Millersville will all gather at Millersville on Friday and Sunday for the men's NCAA soccer tournament first and second rounds.
That's only the beginning. The PSAC Volleyball Tournament will be contested at California this weekend, with the top-seeded Vulcans hosting Mercyhurst, Lock Haven and Shippensburg. It has been a busy week for the folks at Cal, as their men's basketball squad opened their season by participating in the 2K Sports College vs. Cancer Classic and taking on Division I Southern Illinois and giving the Salukis, one of the top mid-major Division I programs in the country, all they could handle. The Vulcans should be a force in the tough PSAC West this year, with the always solid Edinboro always in contention, not to mention the preseason favorite, league newcomer Gannon. Thankfully for the staff at Cal, their football team received a first round bye in the NCAA playoffs and will not play at home until next weekend when they host the winner of the AIC-Seton Hill game.
It's a busy and exciting time of the year in the PSAC and in college sports in general. Thanks for checking out the new official blog of the PSAC. We hope you'll continue to do so.