Author Archives: Soccer America

MEN’S NEWS … Four more teams made their 2009 debut in the Soccer America Men’s Top 25. They all parlayed big wins on the road into spots in this week’s rankings:

PENN STATE. The Nittany Lions (7-3-0) remained perfect in the Big Ten with a 1-0 win at Michigan State on Sunday. They will be tested in the next month with conference games against No. 12 Northwestern and No. 15 Indiana and a non-conference match at No. 1 Akron.

UAB. The Blazers (7-2-1) extended their unbeaten streak to six games with a 1-0 win at ranked Kentucky on Sunday. A blast from 25 yards by South African midfielder Two-Boys Gumede was the difference. Two future Conference-USA opponents — South Carolina and Tulsa — have been in the Top 25 earlier this season.

CHARLOTTE. The 49ers (6-1-2) ended Wake Forest’s 46-match unbeaten streak against non-conference opponents when they shocked the Demon Deacons, 3-1, in Winston-Salem. Charlotte opens its Atlantic-10 season this weekend when it hosts George Washington and Richmond.

WEST VIRGINIA. The Mountaineers (5-2-2) won their fourth straight game with a 1-0 win over Marquette. They are tied for first place with Connecticut in the Big East’s Blue Division heading into Friday’s “Dollar Night” doubleheader with the Huskies. The men’s game will be featured on Fox Soccer Channel (live, 8 pm ET).

They upped the number of teams to have made at least one appearance in the Top 25 to 50. Only 12 teams have been in the Top 25 every week since the release of the preseason rankings in August:

* EVER-PRESENT DOZEN:
TEAM (RECORD) LAST WEEK:
1. Akron (9-0-0) 1
2. UCLA (6-1-1) 2
3. North Carolina (7-1-1) 5
4. California (7-2-0) 6
5. South Florida (7-1-1) 7
7. Wake Forest (6-2-1) 4
9. UC Santa Barbara (7-2-1) 12
10. Maryland (5-3-1) 3
11. Louisville (6-1-2) 20
12. Northwestern (5-1-3) 21
15. Indiana (5-3-1) 10
17. Boston University (7-2-2) 19

Men’s Player of the Week: Kyle Nakazawa (UCLA)
Men’s Team of the Week

* LOWE’S SENIOR CLASS FINALISTS:
Zak Boggs, South Florida
Ronnie Bouemboue, N.C. State
Richard Edgar, George Mason
Rylan Hawkins, Washington
Tennant McVea, Loyola (Md.)
Patrick Sampson, Loyola Marymount
Zack Schilawski, Wake Forest
Eric Weigman, IUPUI
Jason Yeisley, Penn State
Ben Zemanski, Akron
(Vote here.)

WOMEN’S NEWS … Virginia Tech’s 1-0 win over defending national champion North Carolina is certainly the biggest upset of the year, but it wasn’t a fluke.

Four days earlier, the Hokies had beaten No. 23 Virginia, 2-1, in Charlottesville, and their win over UNC put them into the lead in the ACC with a 4-0-0 record. It also earned them a No. 6 ranking in this week’s Soccer America Women’s Top 25.

Tech gave Carolina a scare just 46 seconds into the game when Emily Jukich scored on a bicycle kick, but the goal was called off for offside. The winning goal in the 54th minute wasn’t as pretty. Carolina keeper Ashlyn Harris was involved in a collision coming out to grab a ball, and forward Julian Johnson flicked it Hokie teammate Marika Gray, who scored into the wide-open goal.

Last year, the Hokies overcame the loss of Gray, their leading scorer, with a knee injury to make the 2008 ACC championship game — where they lost to Carolina — and earn a berth in the NCAA Tournament.

For Carolina, Sunday’s loss marked only its eighth loss in 204 ACC games. Only once in 23 years of ACC play have the Heels ever lost more than one game — they lost three times in 2000 and went on to win the national championship — and they have never lost in 57 ACC tournament games — twice they fell in the final on penalty kicks.

* UNC’S ACC LOSSES.
2009 Virginia Tech 0-1
2007 Miami (Fla.) 0-1
2005 Duke 1-2
2002 N.C. State 1-2
2000 Clemson 1-2
2000 Florida State 2-3
2000 Wake Forest 0-1
1994 Duke 2-3

* SEC THRILLER. The other team to debut in this week’s Top 25 is Mississippi (8-3-0), which overcame heavy rain and swirling winds to upset defending SEC champion Florida, 3-2, in overtime Sunday at the Ole Miss Soccer Stadium.

One of the shortest players on the field, 5-foot-1 sophomore Abbie Curran, came up with the game’s big play, heading in Danielle Johnson‘s free kick into the Florida goal to break a 2-2 tie. “When I saw Dee taking it, I had an open spot in front of me,” Curran said. “I had a good feeling.”

Ole Miss should have put the game away earlier but it hit the woodwork three times, once in the first half and twice in the second period. Despite their domination — and 13-5 shot advantage in the second half — the Rebels needed Kelsey Breathitt‘s goal in the 84th minute to send the game into overtime.

“I’m proud of the way our girls came out here and fought,” Ole Miss coach Steve Holeman said. “We could have beaten them in regulation and we were the better team in the second half. Florida had two good opportunities and they scored on those two chances in the second half. We had five or six very good scoring opportunities, but their keeper [Katie Fraine] is phenomenal. She made some big-time saves. This certainly wasn’t a game that we would have been happy with a tie.”

Weekend Results

* GAME OF THE WEEKEND:
(On Friday, UMBC got its first win in 10 games. Two days later, Vermont came back from 2-0 and 4-3 down to earn its first win in 11 games.)
Oct. 4 in Baltimore
UMBC 5 Vermont 6. Goals: Vacarino (Gazarek) 6, Vacarino 23, Sadowski (Bilardo) 36, Kell (McDonald, Edgar) 51, Purdum (Vacarino, Kell) 90; Bonfigli (Laderoute) 24, Laderoute 26, Herbst (Becker) 27, Laderoute 53, Becker (Laderoute) 67, Herbst (Becker) 68.
UMBC — Van Vlerah, Johnson, Gazarek, Sadowski, McKay, McDonald, Gitlin, Vacarino, Bilardo, McKee, Edgar. Subs: Jackson, Kopytko, Epps, Kell, Purdum.
Vermont — Bradley, Rozumalski, Hassler, Herbst, Andres, Hemphill, Milbank, Deppen, Laderoute, Becker, Bonfigli. Subs: Kelly, McGowan, Miele, Feldman, Eckenstein, Mucia, Gill, Coggins, Kwarta, Davenport.
Referee: Jason Cullum.
Att.: 203.