Author Archives: Soccer America

WOMEN’S NEWS … No. 21 Wake Forest demonstrated that it is a legitimate national contender with Thursday’s 3-0 win over No. 5 Florida State. The Demon Deacons not only showed considerable attacking prowess from their 1-2 punch of Jill Hutchinson and Kaley Fountain but they shut down the ACC’s highest-scoring team.

Fountain, the former U.S. U-20, opened the scoring late in the first half with her eighth goal of the season, and Hutchinson finished off the Seminoles with her ninth and 10th goals of the campaign. “You have to give credit to Wake Forest,” said FSU coach Mark Krikorian.  “I thought they were the better team tonight.  They played harder than we did and they took advantage of their chances.”

The shutout was the third in a row for goalie Amanda Barasha. “With Laura [Morse] out, Amanda has had to step up in goal,” said Wake coach Tony da Luz, who earned his 199th career win. “She’s been really thorough about her preparation for all the games. She has studied and watched video of each opponent. I’m really happy with the way she’s played for us.”

— The only other Top 25 teams in action on Thursday both played to 2-2 ties: No. 17 Maryland at Virginia and No. 18 BYU at San Diego State.

* WOMEN’S TOP 25 ACTION:
Friday, Oct. 9
Big East: No. 12 Rutgers  vs. No. 9 Notre Dame (TV: Verizon FiOS, 7 pm ET)
SEC: No. 16 Georgia vs. No. 24 Mississippi (TV: FSS, 7 pm ET)
Sunday, Oct. 11
Pac-10: No. 25 Oregon vs. No. 1 Stanford
ACC: No. 17 Maryland vs. No. 6 Virginia Tech

Weekend Top 25 Schedule

SMALL COLLEGE NEWS … John Leaney, who has won 529 games in more than 20 years of coaching at Macalester College, will retire at the end of the 2009 season so he can devote more time to raising his 4-year-old son Jack. Leaney’s wife Carrie passed away from cancer three years ago.

Leaney, who will be inducted into the Macalester M Club Athletic Hall of Fame later this month, came to the Division III Minnesota school as head men’s coach in 1986 and two years later took over the women’s program. The Scots won the NCAA Division III women’s national championship in 1998 and finished second the following year. He gave up his men’s coaching duties to concentrate on the women’s team in 2006.

“Raising a four-year-old requires a great deal of energy, as does coaching a college team full time,” said Leaney. “Right now, my son is the most important thing in my life and he deserves my undivided attention.”

WOMEN’S NEWS … Three days after Coach Neil McGuire left the No. 19 Cal women’s program, concerns about who was in charge were put to rest, at least for now, when he returned to work and apologized for leaving the team and missing Sunday’s 1-1 tie with nationally ranked Santa Clara.

McGuire’s absence resulted in Kelly Lindsay, an assistant volunteer coach who had been with the Bears for only two weeks, running the show against Santa Clara. Yes, that’s the same Kelly Lindsey who took over as the interim coach of WPS champion Sky Blue FC following the departure of Ian Sawyers only to suddenly quit herself shortly before the playoffs.

According to the Daily Cal, McGuire told his Bears players Friday he was “done” after their 1-0 loss to Sacramento State — their second defeat to an unranked team in a week. Two days later, they tied ranked Santa Clara — a remarkable feat considering Cal was depleted by injuries.

“I am deeply saddened I placed my team, program and administration in this unfortunate position,” he said Monday. “I had some profoundly difficult personal issues to deal with throughout last week, and I put myself ahead of our team, which goes against our ideal of program, team, individual.”

McGuire arrived at Berkeley from Texas Tech in 2007, accepting a four-year contract worth more than $250,000 a year in salary and potential bonuses and camp income. The Scotsman attended Augusta State in Georgia and later spent time coaching at Iowa State, Arizona State, Mississippi State and Texas.

“Neil McGuire is the right coach for our program,” Cal Athletic Director Sandy Barbour said in a statement. “I felt that more than two years ago when I hired him and I feel that today.”

* WEDNESDAY’S ACTION:
Non-Conference
Long Beach State 0 San Diego 0
Illinois State 5 SIU-Edwardsville 1
(Jessica Carlson ties Illinois State record for most goals in a game with three.)

SMALL COLLEGE NEWS … For the fourth straight week, there is a new No. 1 in the NSCAA/adidas NCAA Division II men’s rankings.  Playing a man down for most of the game and without its top two players, No. 1 Lynn fell to Tampa, 2-1, in double overtime. Cal State Los Angeles took over as the new No. 1. The Golden Eagles improved to 11-0-1 with a 2-1 win over Cal Poly Pomona thanks to a goal from Jason Swope with less than 12 minutes remaining.

Cal State Dominguez was the Men’s Division II No. 1 in the preseason rankings. It was followed in the top spot by Tampa and Northern Kentucky before Lynn claimed the No. 1 berth. There has been no change at the top of the Women’s Division II (Seattle Pacific) and Men’s and Women’s Division III rankings (Messiah is first in both).

MEN’S RANKINGS:
NCAA Division II 1. Cal State Los Angeles, 2. Lees-McRae, 3. Tampa
NCAA Division III 1. Messiah, 2. Ohio Wesleyan, 3. Christopher Newport

WOMEN’S RANKINGS:
NCAA Division II 1. Seattle Pacific, 2. West Florida, 3. Saint Rose
NCAA Division III 1. Messiah, 2. Puget Sound, 3. Williams

NAIA PLAYERS OF THE WEEK:
MEN:
Offense: Mustafa Celik, Holy Names (tallied hat tricks in wins over Bethany, Calif., 7-1 and Cal State-Maritime, 4-0).
Defense: Hide Ozawa, Simon Fraser (notched shutout wins over Trinity Western, 2-0, and Seattle, 1-0).

WOMEN:
Offense: Mia Persson, Lindsey Wilson (scored five goals and added one assist in 12-0 victory over Campbellsville and scored one goal in 3-1 victory over No. 5 William Carey).
Defense: Bailey Lynn, Rogers State (posted back-to-back shutouts against Wayland Baptist, 4-0, and Oklahoma City, 1-0).

WOMEN’S NEWS … What’s the biggest transition from high school to college? For soccer players, who must jump right into the life of the student-athlete, the transition can be particularly challenging. CalBears.com asked seven freshmen on the No. 19 California women’s team for their thoughts on transitioning into college.

Lauren Battung: “Overall discipline with sleep, scheduling, organization and physical health. Also, having to go to many places throughout the day without a car.”
Rachel Clark: “Time management. Now we have practice every day along with a major increase in reading for our classes, and I still want to maintain a social life.”
Amanda Glass: “I would have to say time management. It is so easy to get caught up in the whole social aspect, but you have to remember that school is a major priority.”
Amanda Groves: “Managing my time here. There is so much to do socially, academically and athletically that it’s been challenging to decide when to do everything!”
Betsy Hassett: “It’s a whole different country and environment to experience.”
Lauren Hein: “Everyone here is so smart, confident and on a path towards something great!”
Samantha Walker: “It is just more time consuming, and you have to be more disciplined.”

(Click here for more of the interviews with the Cal freshmen.)

— In Tuesday’s only Division I action, Katherine Sheeleigh scored two goals to lead Harvard to a 4-1 win over visiting Fairfield.

* LEADING SCORERS:
PLAYER, SCHOOL GOALS
1. Morgan Marlborough, Nebraska 16
2. Kelley O’Hara, Stanford 12
– Whitney Palmer, Oklahoma 12
4. Kiersten Dallstream, Washington State 11
– Jessica Fuccello, Penn 11
– Sydney Leroux, UCLA 11
– Rochelle VanBuskirk, UC Davis 11
– Danielle Foxhoven, Portland 11
– Sylvia Kowalski, Canisius 11
– Victoria DiMartino, Boston College 11
– Katie Bethke, Minnesota 11
– Sarah Hagen, Milwaukee 11
– Rachel King, Louisiana Tech 11
(Statistics are through games played Oct. 4.)