Author Archives: Soccer America

WOMEN’S NEWS … Oregon women’s soccer is more than the Portland Pilots, the two-time national champions (2002 and 2005) and the top-drawing program in the country. Oregon State and Oregon both joined UP in this week’s Soccer America Women’s Top 25, giving the state of Oregon three teams in the Top 25 for the first time.

Oregon State (7-1-0) has a seven-game winning streak following its 3-1 win over Denver on Sunday. The Beavers have already surpassed their 2008 win total of six games and equaled the seven games they won in 2007. “We’ve been in the building [process] these past three years,” Melissa Peck, who scored in both games at the Oregon State Nike Invitational, told the Corvallis Gazette-Times. “To finally win some games, against some pretty good teams, it’s kind of special.” The Beavers will put their winning streak on the line on Friday when they travel to Portland.

Oregon (6-1-1) has won five games in a row and gone seven straight without a defeat. Junior Jen Stoltenberg‘s sixth of the season gave the Ducks a 1-0 win over Dartmouth on Sunday at the Oregon State tournament and earned her a place on this week’s Soccer America Women’s Team of the Week. “Our team was patient and persistent in our attack,” Oregon coach Tara Erickson said afterwards. “I think we’ve learned, from some of our previous games, how to manage the game.”

Oregon has had more success than OSU in recent years but has never advanced to the NCAA Tournament. In 2006, the Ducks went 6-1-2 in Pac-10 play and were 12-6-2 overall but did not get a bid. Oregon State’s only NCAA Tournament berth came in 1994.

* MONDAY’S RESULTS:
Campbell 1 Radford 0
New Mexico State 0 West Texas A&M 2
Seton Hall 1 Iona 0
South Carolina State 1 Wofford o (OT)
USC Upstate 1 Coastal Carolina 5

* INJURY REPORT. Senior Brittney Harrison, fourth all-time on Texas Tech’s scoring list for points and goals, was lost for the season after suffering an ACL knee injury in Friday night’s 2-1 loss to Alabama. Red Raider coach Tom Stone described Harrison, who had five goals in seven games, as “easily been the most dangerous player we’ve had.”

* RECORD BOOK. Junior Kaity Mattsson became Nicholls State’s all-time leading scorer when her goal in the Colonels’ 7-1 win over Texas Southern on Sunday gave her 18 goals in her career.

* LEADING SCORERS:
1. Morgan Marlborough, Nebraska 13
2. Rachel King, Louisiana Tech 11
3. Kelley O’Hara, Stanford 10
4. Kiersten Dallstream, Washington State 9
4. Maddy Elder, Clemson 9
(Through games played Sept. 20.)

WOMEN’S NEWS … The North Carolina attack that scored seemingly at will against UCLA (7-2) and Notre Dame (6-0) couldn’t buy a goal on Sunday. The Tar Heels piled up 40 shots but had to settle for a 0-0 tie with unranked Auburn. The result snapped the defending national champions’ 17-game winning streak and dropped them from the top spot in the Soccer America Women’s Top 25 for the first time this season.

The result at the Duke Nike Classic came two days after a very sluggish performance in a 1-0 victory over LSU. To make matters worse, North Carolina star Nikki Washington was injured early in the second half of the LSU game and didn’t play against Auburn.

The closest Carolina came to scoring against Auburn was in the 86th minute when Casey Nogueira hit the crossbar with a free kick. Goalie Amy Howard was superb for Auburn with 12 saves, including a diving stop on an Alyssa Rich shot in overtime.

North Carolina coach Anson Dorrance blamed the result on his players’ atrocious work in the final third of the field. “‘We could have taken a film of today’s game and shown you every poor finishing decision that was possible,” he said. One bright spot for North Carolina was the play of Canadian freshman Ranee Premji in her first extended appearance for the Tar Heels.

* AGGIES’ SHOCKER. Portland, who was No. 3 in last week’s rankings, had won its first seven games by a margin of 22-2, but it was upset by Texas A&M, 3-1, Friday night in front of 3,542 fans at the Aggie Soccer Stadium. Junior Whitney Hooper scored two goals for A&M, which looked great in its opening game, a 3-0 win over USC, but has since suffered losses to Purdue, California and North Carolina.

“It’s nice to be winning again,” said Aggies coach G Guerrieri. “We’ve played a very difficult schedule, but we played those difficult games to get better and they helped us win this one today. Portland is a great team.”

* STANFORD ON TOP. Stanford, which beat Colorado, 4-0, and Wisconsin, 6-0, at its Nike Invitational to improve its record to 9-0-0, took over for North Carolina as the top team in the Soccer America Women’s Top 25.

On Sunday, the Cardinal overwhelmed Wisconsin with its multi-pronged attack. Kelley O’Hara scored her 10th goal, Christen Press had a goal and two assists, and Teresa Noyola was in superb form with a pair of assists. Freshman Mariah Nogueira added two goals to become the sixth Stanford player to have a multi-goal game.

This weekend’s results

* PERFECT STARTS:
Louisiana Tech 10-0-0
Stanford 9-0-0
Boston College 8-0-0
Maryland 8-0-0
South Carolina 8-0-0
Mississippi State 8-0-0
Chattanooga 5-0-0