Category: College Soccer Reporter

Ghanaian Eric Frimpong, a member of UC Santa Barbara’s 2006 national championship team, faces up to eight years in prison after being convicted Monday of raping a student 10 months ago.

College Soccer Reporter will return in January.

[SOCCER AMERICA AWARDS] Mike Garrett, the USC Athletic director, set the bar high for his new women’s soccer coach, and Ali Khosroshahin, the 2007 Soccer America Women’s Coach of the Year, responded with a national championship.

[SOCCER AMERICA AWARDS] Sanna Talonen , who entered Florida State this fall as the most accomplished European import into the college game since fellow Finn Anne Makinen, had a sensational first season with the Seminoles and is the 2007 Soccer America Freshman of the Year.

[SOCCER AMERICA AWARDS] National champion USC had three players named to the 2007 Soccer America Women’s All-Freshman teams — Kasey Johnson on the first team and Megan Ohai and Ashli Sandoval on the second team. For all the All-Freshman selections …

John Kerr, Jr., who starred on Duke’s 1986 Division I championship team, has been named the Blue Devils’ new men’s head coach, replacing the retiring John Rennie.

[SOCCER AMERICA AWARDS] Lauren Cheney‘s year began with her earning her first cap for the USA in January and it ended with her being named the 2007 Soccer America Women’s Player of the Year.

[SOCCER AMERICA AWARDS] For the first time since introducing the MVP awards in 1976, Soccer America has selected first and second teams. The 2007 first team features five holdovers from the 2006 MVP selections: Yael Averbuch (North Carolina), Kerri Hanks (Notre Dame), Stephanie Lopez (Portland), Kasey Moore (Texas) and Ashlee Pistorius (Texas A&M). For all the MVPs …

Paul Kennedy on the Men’s College Cup hero
If you never heard of Marcus Tracy before this weekend, you’ll certainly hear about him now that he put on one of best individual performances ever at a Men’s College Cup.

Wake Forest coach Jay Vidovich praised the maturity of his players to be able to come back from a goal down in the Men’s College Cup final. Ohio State players were confident going into halftime that they could hold on to their 1-0 lead, but the Buckeyes were undone by a couple of bad mistakes.

All the results and goal scorers from the first week of the NCAA Division I Men’s Tournament when UMass knocked off top-seed BC to the College Cup in Cary. N.C., where a hometown kid scored the winning goal in the final.

Boston College (Reuben Ayarna and Alejandro Bedoya), California (Stefan Frei and Andrew Jacobson), Connecticut (Hermann Trophy finalist O’Brian White and Julian James) and Ohio State (Eric Brunner and Xavier Balc) each had two players named to the 2007 NSCAA/adidas NCAA Men’s Division I All-America first team. For all the All-Americans …

Connecticut (Brittany Taylor and Meghan Schnur), North Carolina (Yael Averbuch and Tobin Heath), Notre Dame (Brittany Bock and Kerri Hanks) and Virginia (Nikki Krzysik and Becky Sauerbrunn) each had two players named to the 2007 NSCAA/adidas NCAA Men’s Division I All-America first team. For all the All-Americans …

Saint Louis and Wake Forest led all teams with five and four selection, respectively, on the 2007 NSCAA/adidas NCAA Division I Men’s all-regional first teams. For all the all-regional selections …

The Men’s College Cup finalists arrived in Cary Wednesday and talked to the media on Thursday. Here’s what the coaches and players had to say on the eve of the semifinals …

Paul Kennedy on the Men’s College Cup
The Atlantic Coast Conference has produced five national champions — in chronological order, Maryland, Clemson, Duke, Virginia and North Carolina. It has a 50-50 chance of producing a sixth on Sunday.

[WAKE FOREST PREVIEW] Wake Forest is not only the sole returnee from last year’s Men’s College Cup, but it is the favorite to win its first national championship.

[VIRGINIA TECH PREVIEW] The Hokies have had a varsity soccer program for 36 years, but only recently have they become national powers. This is the third straight year Virginia Tech is in the NCAA Tournament and the first time it is at the Men’s College Cup.

The Men’s College Cup will be broadcast on ESPN2 and ESPNU. For information on this weekend’s television coverage …

[MASSACHUSETTS PREVIEW] Without a lot of scholarship money to offer, Massachusetts coach Sam Koch likes to recruit players with a passion for the game. Players who don’t mind training outdoors in the middle of the Amherst winter. Qualities have been big factors in the Minutemen’s unexpected ride to the Men’s College Cup.

[OHIO STATE PREVIEW] From last year’s disappointment of not being invited to the NCAA Tournament was born the motivation to succeed in 2007.

The Men’s College Cup returns to SAS Soccer Park in Cary, N.C., for the second time. For information on tickets to this weekend’s College Cup and television coverage …

Three players each from Men’s College Cup finalists Wake Forest (Brian Edwards, Julian Valentin and Pat Phelan) and Ohio State (Casey Latchem, Eric Brunner and Xavier Balc) head the initial list of 54 players invited to the 2008 adidas MLS Player Combine, which will be held Jan. 11-15 at Lockhart Stadium in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.

Paul Kennedy on the Men’s College Cup
You have to go back to 1996, the first college season of the MLS era, to find an NCAA Division I Men’s Tournament semifinal involving two teams making their final four debuts. Neither Ohio State nor Massachusetts was ranked in Soccer America’s Top 25 preseason rankings. Our bad. No one has come forward with an Ohio State-UMass semifinal on his or her bracket sheet. Anyone?