Author Archives: Paul Kennedy

This is quickly becoming the year of the freshman. The women’s ranks have seen an influx of high-scoring forwards, led by Sarah Hagen of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, who leads all freshmen with 11 goals.

Without a winning season in three years under head coach Chris Norris following the retirement of longtime coach Al Albert, William & Mary has enjoyed a breakout start to the 2008 season. ALSO: Streaking Maryland, another Tony Tchani double for Virginia, Brown win over Boston College and a spectacular NAIA performance.

Ingrid Wells, the “Little General” who earned All-American honors as a freshman for Georgetown, is sitting out the 2008 season to play for the USA in the Under-20 Women’s World Cup in Chile later this fall, but that hasn’t stopped the Hoyas from getting off to a 6-0-2 start.

St. John’s was unranked when the 2008 season began but has moved up to the No. 6 spot in this week’s Soccer America Top 25. The young Red Storm have been led by a fifth-year senior starting full-time for the first time at the Division I level.

On a night when Rutgers retired the No. 10 jersey of former Scarlet Knight standout and U.S. Olympic gold-medalist Carli Lloyd, it crushed Big East rival Villanova to improve to 7-1-0 for the season.

If there were any doubts about who is the top team in men’s soccer, Wake Forest put them to rest Sunday when it won the battle of the last two national champions with a 6-2 win at UC Santa Barbara. ALSO: O’Brien White ends scoring slump.

Top-ranked women’s team Notre Dame, which improved to 8-0-0 with its 3-1 win at Big Ten powerhouse Penn State on Sunday, was playing without Coach Randy Waldrum, who was not in attendance at Sunday’s game due to a death in his family. ALSO: Six teams lose perfect records, and UCLA sets shutout record.

Howard, one of the great names in college soccer, is a program in big trouble. Its head coach was replaced after being arrested earlier in the year in a youth sex sting. And it is off to an 0-6-1 start with losses as bad as 9-1 and 8-0. ALSO: UC Santa Barbara-Evansville goalfest.

James Madison beat No. 16 Penn State 1-0 before a school-record crowd of 1,829 fans — more than double the previous high — and a national television audience Thursday evening at the JMU Soccer Complex. ALSO: N.C. State, the only unbeaten and untied ACC team, makes a comeback … West Virginia freshman Erica Henderson stole the show in the Mountaineers’ Big East opener.

Loyola (Md.) and Appalachian State both went into action with perfect records, but both suffered blemishes that left only four unbeaten and untied teams in the NCAA Division I men’s ranks.

Colorado College, the sole women’s soccer-only Division I program in the country, moved into the Soccer America Women’s Top 25 at No. 23 thanks to its 6-0-1 start. The Tigers, who have twice reached the NCAA Division I championship game, will have a better idea of their chances in 2008 after a road trip to Big Ten powers  Illinois and Purdue this weekend.

Winner of back-to-back Pac-10 titles, California can make a strong case for being the best men’s program on the West Coast. Despite the losses of four players to MLS clubs in the last three SuperDrafts, Cal is ranked No. 5 in this week’s Soccer America Men’s Top 25 with a 3-0-2 record heading into the Stanford Nike Classic, where it will face Drake and Creighton.

Miami (Fla.) lost for the first time this season after seven wins when it fell to BYU, 1-0, at home on Tuesday night. ALSO: After a slow start, Missouri is looking like it could be a Big 12 contender.

No. 1 Wake Forest, the defending national champion, is one of six Division I men’s teams that are still perfect after three weeks. Drake, Western Illinois, Evansville, Loyola (Md.) and Appalachian State will all face big tests soon.

Many of women’s soccer’s top players will take a week-long break from the college game to attend an Under-20 Women’s World Cup training camp beginning Sunday in Sunrise, Fla. Their absence later in the fall could have a big impact on the race for the 2008 national championship.

In the early going, the only suspense has been who will be No. 2 behind defending champion Wake Forest. SMU is the latest to claim the No. 2 spot after moving up three spots thanks to a pair of wins at its Prego’s Express Italian Invitational.

In his 32 years at Brown, Phil Pincince has enjoyed considerable success — 12 Ivy League titles, including nine in a row (1982-90) — but he has never had a weekend quite like the Bears had at the UConn Classic. First, Brown beat Big Ten powerhouse Penn State, 1-0, in overtime, then it tied No. 1 UCLA, 0-0.