MEN’S NEWS … Penn State senior Jason Yeisley‘s comeback following two knee injuries and a 20-month layoff is an amazing story.

A member of the Soccer America All-Freshman Team and MVP of the Big Ten Tournament in 2005, he suffered a knee injury and was lost for the season seven games into the 2006 season. The same thing happened in 2007, only this time he went down with a month remaining in the season — he still led the Lions in scoring and earned All-Big Ten honors.

After sitting out the 2008 season, Yeisley got a jumpstart on the 2009 campaign when the Lions traveled to Brazil in the spring for a 10-day tour during which they played four games against local competition, saw Ronaldo play for Corinthians twice and visited the Pele museum. Yeisley also played for the PDL’s Reading Rage over the summer

Yeisley returned to Penn State for a fifth year — he has to only take one English class to complete his degree in business and is taking a yoga class for fun — and has gotten off to a remarkable start. He earned Soccer America Player of the Week honors with three goals and an assist in three games for the 2-1-0 Nittany Lions.

(Yeisley chronicles the buildup to the 2009 season, including the Brazil tour, at his Penn State sports blog.)

This week‘s Soccer America Men’s Team of the Week

* Clemson is going through hard times. The Tigers are coming off their first back-to-back losing seasons, they lost long-time coach Trevor Adair, who resigned in June following his arrest for allegedly assaulting his two daughters, and they opened with a 3-1 defeat to unheralded Gardner-Webb.

Still, Clemson enjoys remarkable support. Its annual match with state rival South Carolina is one of the best draws in college, as evidenced by the 6,121 fans who turned out on Friday at Riggs Field. Clemson lost, 1-0, but not without trying. In the second half, Francklin Blaise hit the post, and Mike Mattson‘s header was tipped off the crossbar and out of play.

“I’m disappointed, but I’m staying positive,” said Clemson interim coach Phil Hindson. “In the first two matches, we have not scored the first goal and that is hard.” He liked how the Tigers moved the ball around during the second half against South Carolina. “Our players cannot give any more effort,” he added. “They have played reasonably well in the first two games. I know that taking this many shots that something good will happen.”

* For the second game in a row, Aaron O’Neal scored twice for No. 14 Boston University, leading the Terriers to a 3-0 win over Providence. Also on Monday, DePaul handed No. 17 Northwestern its first loss of the season when it beat its Chicago area rival, 2-1. No. 8 UC Irvine improved to 3-0-0 when it beat Cleveland State, 2-0, to win its UC Irvine College Classic.

* Monday’s shocker: LIU’s 2-0 win over Santa Clara at UC Irvine.

Monday’s results