Author Archives: Soccer America

WOMEN’S NEWS … Marika Gray‘s goal in the 54th minute gave unranked Virginia Tech its second upset win of the week, this time a 1-0 win over No. 2 North Carolina Sunday afternoon in Blacksburg. With the victory, the Hokies moved into first place in the ACC with a 4-0 win.

Goalie Kristin Carden was outstanding for Virginia Tech with 10 saves. Her biggest save came in the 67th minute when she denied Casey Nogueira after a scramble right near the goal line. Carden had made five saves in the Hokies’ 2-1 win at No. 16 on Thursday.

The loss was Carolina’s first ever to Virginia Tech and only its eighth ever in ACC play.

* TOP 25 UPSETS. No. 12 St. John’s, No. 15 Florida, No. 16 Ohio State and No. 25 Kansas were the other Top 25 teams to lose to unranked teams in Sunday. St. John’s’ dropped its first Big East game when it lost, 1-0, at home to Cincinnati. Ole Miss knocked off Florida, 3-2. Katie Schoepfer‘s late penalty kick gave Penn State a 2-1 win over Ohio State, while Kansas dropped a 2-1 decision to Texas, its second Big 12 loss of the weekend on the road.

— It was otherwise an afternoon for stalemates. No. 7 South Carolina, No. 8 Notre Dame, No. 9 Notre Dame, No. 12 St. John’s and No. 13 Rutgers all had to settle for ties. No. 1 Santa Clara and No. 11 California also played to a draw, tying, 1-1, at Buck Shaw Stadium.

(Click here for more Sunday women’s results.)

* TOP 25 RESULTS:
Sunday, Oct. 4
ACC: Virginia Tech 1 (Gray 54) No. 2 North Carolina 0.
No. 3 Portland 2 (Foxhoven 29, pen. 57) Washington State 1 (Dallstream 73).
ACC: No. 5 Florida State 4 (Hunter 4, Jaurena 6, McCarty 30, Price 78) Miami (Fla.) 1 (Rickers 45).
ACC: No. 6 Boston College 2 (MacNeil 62, V.DiMartino 72) N.C. State 1 (Dugal 8).
SEC: Mississippi State 1 (Wannek 71) No. 7 South Carolina 1 (Jacobs 46).
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Big East: Pittsburgh 0 No. 8 Notre Dame 0.
Big Ten: Purdue 1 (Forbes 19) No. 9 Michigan State 1 (Peterson 50).
No. 11 Santa Clara (Goynes 72) No. 10 California 1 (Morgan 42). Big East: No. 12 St. John’s 0 Cincinnati 1 (Ranson 40)
SEC: Mississippi 3  (Weatherly 61, Breathitt 84, Curran 102) No. 15 Florida 2 (Thigpen 63, Annis 78).
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Big East: South Florida 0 No. 13 Rutgers 0.
Big Ten: Penn State 2 (Nairn 38, Schoepfer pen. 75)  No. 16 Ohio State 1 (Granberg 85).
(Buckeye  Courtney Jenkins missed a penalty kick.)
Big East: No. 17 Connecticut 2 (Ruutu 38, Busque 77) Georgetown 1 (Jordan 76).
ACC: Clemson 0 No. 18 Wake Forest 3 (Feger 41, 40, Fountain 63).
SEC: Auburn 0 No. 20 LSU 2 (Rutledge 20, Clarke 51).
(Tigers are 4-0-0 in SEC play.)
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SEC: Vanderbilt 0 No. 21 Georgia 3 (Farley 33, Simpson 64, Hooker 78)
ACC: Duke 0 No. 22 Maryland 4 (Hubka 11, Dreska 24, Spencer 38, Ayinde 90).
Big 12: Texas 2 (Rivera 67, Doniak 78) No. 25 Kansas 1 (Noble 59).
(Longhorns are on a four-match unbeaten streak.)

Saturday, Oct. 3
Weber State 0 No. 14 Oregon 1 (Kuhns 108) (OT).
Mountain West: No. 25 BYU 2 (Anderson 2, Ringwood 100) Utah 1 (Isleib 35) (OT).

[COLLEGE] No. 8 Notre Dame extended its NCAA record conference unbeaten streak to 56 games when it rallied to win at Big East rival West Virginia, 3-2, on Taylor Knaack‘s goal 41 seconds into overtime. No. 9 Michigan lost for the first time in 10 games when it fell at Big Ten rival Indiana, 1-0, on Carly Samp‘s goal with 21 seconds left in regulation. For all the Friday action and the weekend Top 25 schedule …

MEN’S NEWS … The Stanford’s women’s 11-0-0 start has overshadowed the Cardinal men’s remarkable turnaround. It takes a 6-1-0 record into Pac-10 play, which begins Friday when it travels to Berkeley to face archrival Cal.

Stanford, ranked No. 17 this week, has already matched its output of only 14 goals last season when it finished 4-11-3 — quite a feat when you consider that the Cardinal’s best attacker, Bobby Warshaw, was moved to center back.

Stanford, which hasn’t qualified for the NCAA Tournament since 2002 when it lost to UCLA, 1-0, in the final, has been bolstered by the return of sixth-year senior Evan Morgan and fifth-year senior T.J. Novak, who were injured early last season.

* RECORD CROWD? UC Santa Barbara’s emergence as a national power has created several intersectional rivalries. The Gauchos will host Indiana on Friday in a rematch of their 2004 NCAA Division I final the Hoosiers won penalty kicks.

The match will be broadcast live on Fox Soccer Channel (11 p.m. ET/8 p.m. PT), and UCSB will be shooting for a regular-season record crowd. The school record at Harder Stadium is 9,749, set last November when the Gauchos hosted Cal Poly. The national record is 22,512 for the 1980 Bronze Boot game between Saint Louis and reigning national champion SIU-Edwardsville at Busch Stadium.

Weekend Top 25 Schedule

* LIBERTY ROLLS. One of the most dominant teams in the country has been Liberty, who began the week ranked first in scoring (3.2 goals per game) and third in defense (0.33 goals per game). The Flames head into Big South action at Coastal Carolina on Saturday with a 5-1-1 and shutout streak of 346 minutes.

A trio of sophomores — Darren Amoo and Phillip Aseweh from Ghana and Timothy Bullock from nearby Forest, Va. — have combined for 14 goals in seven games. None was much of a factor or part of the team last season. Amoo started four games before suffering a season-ending injuries. Bullock made only four appearances off the bench, while Aseweh played at Virginia Tech.

(Click here to hear Coach Jeff Alder talk about Liberty’s successful start.)