Author Archives: Soccer America

SMALL COLLEGE NEWS … Despite a change in coaches, Messiah rolls on. The 2008 NCAA Division III champion won its first two games under Brad McCarty, who was the Falcons’ top assistant coach for the previous eight years and promoted to head coach when Dave Brandt took the Navy job. Messiah beat Gordon, 5-0, and Fredonia State, 3-0, getting seven of its eight goals in the second half.

A crowd of 1,750 packed Shoemaker Field for the opener in which Nick Thompson opened the scoring with two goals and Derek Black followed with a hat trick in a little more than 10 minutes. “Sometimes it takes a first half to wear down an opponent before you finish some opportunities,” McCarty said.

NSCAA/adidas Top 25 Rankings:
MEN:
NCAA Division II 1. Tampa, 2 Northern Kentucky, 3. Millersville
NCAA Division III 1. Messiah, 2. Stevens Tech, 3. Amherst

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

NAIA Women’s Players of the Week
Offense: Sarah Akers, Campbellsville (shutouts against Bluefield and Bryan)
Defense: Kimmia Parker, Rogers State (Jamaican international had six goals in 18-0 win over Bacone)

Offense: Abass Ayembillah, Texas-Brownsville (hat trick in the 5-1 upset over No. 16 Southern Nazarene)
Defense: Tanner Fox, Benedictine (recorded wins over Hastings and Sioux Falls)

WOMEN’S NEWS … One of the hottest women’s conferences is the SEC. It had six teams make the 2008 NCAA Tournament. More than a dozen games involving SEC teams will be televised this season. And they have been cleaning up in non-conference play.

Six SEC teams — Vanderbilt (5-0-0), South Carolina (4-0-0), Mississippi State (4-0-0), Georgia (4-0-1), Arkansas (4-0-1) and Auburn (2-0-2) — are undefeated after three weeks of play, and no team has a losing record.

The only down note so far came when Florida star Ashlee Elliott was lost for the season with an ACL injury in the Gators’ 2-1 win South Florida. The defending conference champions then traveled to the Illini Challenge Cup and lost to Indiana, 2-1, and Florida, 3-0.

* It’s long way from Long Island University’s Brooklyn campus to California, but the Blackbirds had not trouble adjusting on their trip to San Francisco for the USF odwalla Nike Classic, where they beat the host team and San Jose State by the scores of 2-0 to give them four shutout wins in four games.

The trip was a homecoming for LIU’s six Californians, four of whom started against San Jose State. Ariana Calderon, the 2008 Northeast Conference Rookie of the Year and Player of the Year, had the first goal. Also starting were senior Tasia Davis and juniors Sami Bock and Caitlin Meadows.

Tuesday’s results

* HAT TRICK HERO:
— Maggie Lupinski had three goals in 19 minutes in the second half to lead St. Joseph’s to a 5-2 comeback victory at St. Peter’s.

WOMEN’S NEWS … One of women’s soccer’s best kept secrets is the support BYU receives. After opening with three games on the road — 0-0 tie at Hawaii and wins over West Virginia and Connecticut at the Penn State Invitational — the Cougars returned home to Provo, where they drew crowds of 3,196 and 2,292 for games Friday and Monday.

Fans certainly got their money’s worth as both games were decided in overtime. After losing to William & Mary, 1-0, BYU fell behind against Oklahoma State but rallied to beat the Cowgirls, 2-1. Freshman Carlee Payne scored the tying goal and set up sophomore Jennie Marshall for the winner in the second overtime. “Ups and downs are a part of sports,” BYU coach Jennifer Rockwood said. “But to have a young team play with composure throughout the game says a lot.”

Payne had both game-winners last week at Penn State. The goal was Marshall’s first this year. “Carlee was brilliant today,” added Rockwood, “and did a great job getting the ball to Jennie who is a great scorer.”

Monday’s results

* PERFECT STARTS
UAB 6-0-0 (Blazers are off to best start in school history)
Wake Forest 6-0-0 (Jill Hutchinson and Kaley Fountain have 14 points apiece)
Florida State 5-0-0 (Jessica Price leads the Seminoles with 15 points)
Indiana 5-0-0 (Dating back to last season, the Hoosiers have won eight games in a row)
Kansas 5-0-0 (Jayhawks open 5-0-0 for the second year in a row)
Louisiana Tech 5-0-0 (Rachel King had back-to-back hat tricks last week)
Marshall 5-0-0 (Thundering Herd opens with three 2-0 wins and two 1-0 wins)
Maryland 5-0-0 (Five-game winning streak is the Terps’ longest in a decade)
New Mexico 5-0-0 (Redshirt freshman Kelli Cornell has four shutouts in goal)
North Carolina 5-0-0 (Heels have gotten goals from 11 different players)
Portland 5-0-0 (Sophie Schmidt and Danielle Foxhoven have 11 of UP’s 16 goals)
Purdue 5-0-0 (Won Boilermaker Challenge Cup with a 6-1 win over Ball State on Monday)
Stanford 5-0-0 (Scored five goals in 26 minutes and 33 minutes in different games)
Vanderbilt 5-0-0 (Commodores also won first five matches in 2008)
… Eight teams at 4-0-0
… One team at 3-0-0
… One team at 2-0-0

* Canadian international Sophie Schmidt, who four goals in the No. 3 Portland’s 5-1 win over Columbia, is the Soccer America Women’s Player of the Week.

This week’s Soccer America Women’s Team of the Week.

MEN’S NEWS … Penn State senior Jason Yeisley‘s comeback following two knee injuries and a 20-month layoff is an amazing story.

A member of the Soccer America All-Freshman Team and MVP of the Big Ten Tournament in 2005, he suffered a knee injury and was lost for the season seven games into the 2006 season. The same thing happened in 2007, only this time he went down with a month remaining in the season — he still led the Lions in scoring and earned All-Big Ten honors.

After sitting out the 2008 season, Yeisley got a jumpstart on the 2009 campaign when the Lions traveled to Brazil in the spring for a 10-day tour during which they played four games against local competition, saw Ronaldo play for Corinthians twice and visited the Pele museum. Yeisley also played for the PDL’s Reading Rage over the summer

Yeisley returned to Penn State for a fifth year — he has to only take one English class to complete his degree in business and is taking a yoga class for fun — and has gotten off to a remarkable start. He earned Soccer America Player of the Week honors with three goals and an assist in three games for the 2-1-0 Nittany Lions.

(Yeisley chronicles the buildup to the 2009 season, including the Brazil tour, at his Penn State sports blog.)

This week‘s Soccer America Men’s Team of the Week

* Clemson is going through hard times. The Tigers are coming off their first back-to-back losing seasons, they lost long-time coach Trevor Adair, who resigned in June following his arrest for allegedly assaulting his two daughters, and they opened with a 3-1 defeat to unheralded Gardner-Webb.

Still, Clemson enjoys remarkable support. Its annual match with state rival South Carolina is one of the best draws in college, as evidenced by the 6,121 fans who turned out on Friday at Riggs Field. Clemson lost, 1-0, but not without trying. In the second half, Francklin Blaise hit the post, and Mike Mattson‘s header was tipped off the crossbar and out of play.

“I’m disappointed, but I’m staying positive,” said Clemson interim coach Phil Hindson. “In the first two matches, we have not scored the first goal and that is hard.” He liked how the Tigers moved the ball around during the second half against South Carolina. “Our players cannot give any more effort,” he added. “They have played reasonably well in the first two games. I know that taking this many shots that something good will happen.”

* For the second game in a row, Aaron O’Neal scored twice for No. 14 Boston University, leading the Terriers to a 3-0 win over Providence. Also on Monday, DePaul handed No. 17 Northwestern its first loss of the season when it beat its Chicago area rival, 2-1. No. 8 UC Irvine improved to 3-0-0 when it beat Cleveland State, 2-0, to win its UC Irvine College Classic.

Monday’s results

* The shocker: LIU’s 2-0 win over Santa Clara …

SMALL COLLEGE NEWS … Division II Saint Leo was forced to cancel two women’s games because five players were among 17 students confirmed to have come down with swine flu.

Saint Leo, the preseason favorite to win the Sunshine State Conference, was scheduled to open with games at West Florida against the 2008 NCAA Division II runner-up and Delta State.

It marked the second straight week the UWF women had a game canceled. The Argos’ opener against Thomas was canceled because of thunderstorms A men’s game between West Florida and St. Leo went ahead in Pensacola and the UWF won, 2-1.

WOMEN’S NEWS … North Carolina, No. 1 in the Soccer America Women’s Top 25 for the third week in a row, again scored early and often. Two weeks after it beat last year’s NCAA semifinalist UCLA, 7-2, Carolina won, 6-0, at 2008 runner-up Notre Dame.

Against the Bruins, it won only 41 seconds for Tobin Heath to score the first goal. On Friday night, sophomore forward Courtney Jones beat that, scoring after only 23 seconds.

Against UCLA, Carolina had three goals on the board after 13 minutes. In South Bend, it took slightly longer, only 20 minutes.

“It’s disappointing to come out and play like we did, especially when we had such an amazing crowd on the first night in this wonderful new stadium,” said Notre Dame coach Randy Waldrum.

The game drew a sellout crowd of 3,000 at the new Alumni Stadium.

* Besides Carolina, four other ACC teams are still perfect after three weeks: No. 4 Florida State (5-0-0), No. 5 Boston College (3-0-0), No. 10 Wake Forest (6-0-0) and No. 18 Maryland (5-0-0). The Terrapins are the big surprise, beating Santa Clara, 1-0, on sophomore Ashley Grove‘s game to extend its winning streak to five games, their longest in a decade. The key, according to Coach Brian Pensky, is the Terrapins are playing with a lot of confidence.

* With 2-1 wins over ranked Florida and Mercer, No. 12 Indiana matched its best start ever at 5-0-0. Leigh Anne Cummings won the Florida game with a golden goal, while Kelly Lawrence assisted on both goals in the comeback against Mercer. As big as the Florida win was, IU coach Mick Lyon like the Mercer victory just as much. “[Mercer] is a very good team and will win a lot of games this year.”

*TOP 25 ACTION:
Sunday, Sept. 6
No. 8 UCLA 3 (Leroux 51, Larsen 75, Lang 88) No. 7 Florida 0.

Friday, Sept. 4
No. 4 Notre Dame 0 No. 1 North Carolina 6 (Jones 1, McDonald 7, 55, Klingenberg 20, Bartok 37, Nogueira 50)
No. 3 Portland 2 (Reed 21, 44) No. 23 Colorado College 0.
No. 5 Florida State 2 (Huster 57, Lim 81) No. 10 Penn State 1 (Toney 79).
No. 16 Illinois 1 (Nweke 37)  No. 8 UCLA 2 (Leroux 4, Cheney 79).
No. 14 California 1 (Kevorkian 70) No. 13 Texas A&M 0.

This weekend’s Top 25 results and goal scorers