Category: College Soccer Reporter

Top-ranked Santa Clara needed overtime to beat No. 15 Rutgers, 2-1, and then rallied to edge No. 23 Missouri by the same score at the Stanford Invitational. Rutgers was one of six Top 25 women’s teams to fall from the unbeaten ranks. For the complete Women’s Top 25 weekend results and goalscorers …

Notre Dame’s 43-game unbeaten streak at home ended Sunday when Sasa Jackson‘s goal 79 seconds into overtime gave Oklahoma State a 2-1 win. Defensive breakdowns have cost the Irish dearly — they have given up 13 goals in their last four games — as their record fell to 2-3-1.

Stanford and Portland moved up one spot to No. 2 and No. 3 in the Soccer America Women’s Top 25 for games played through Sunday, Sept. 16. Moving into the Top 25 for the first time this season were Washington State at No. 11, William & Mary at  No. 24 and San Diego at No. 25. For the complete Women’s Top 25 ..

It was a rough weekend for teams in the Top 10. Indiana  and SMU both lost twice in tournament action, while ACC powers Duke and Maryland both suffered shutout losses. For the complete Men’s Top 25 weekend results and goalscorers …

Wake Forest and Connecticut remained 1-2 in the Soccer America Men’s Top 25. Ivy League teams Harvard and Brown (both unbeaten and untied) moved into the Top 10. For the complete Men’s Top 25 …

Defending NCAA Division I women’s champion North Carolina has now lost twice in its first six games — the earliest it has lost as many as two games in its history. On opening day, it was South Carolina that upset the Tar Heels. Sunday’s upset winner was William & Mary, which prevailed, 1-0, on a late goal at the VCU/Ewing Sports Invitational at Richmond, Va.

Parity has come to men’s soccer in the Midwest, where Creighton and Saint Louis knocked off then-No. 3 Indiana 48 hours apart at the Saint Louis/Nike Soccer Classic. SLU’s 2-1 win on Saturday night before 3,864 fans gave it a share of the tournament title with Creighton, which had beaten Indiana by the same score on Thursday.

Conference play begins for Top 10 teams Connecticut and Notre Dame (Big East) and Maryland (ACC). Meanwhile, there are three ACC-Big East clashes on tap for the weekend: Wake Forest-Louisville, Duke-West Virginia, Virginia-St. John’s. For the complete Men’s Top 25 weekend schedules …

Creighton just may have the best men’s team in the Midwest this season. The Bluejays knocked off No. 3 Indiana on Thursday night, 2-1, at the Saint Louis/Nike Classic. Tim Walters, son of the former Indiana star of the same name, and Tim Bohnenkamp scored, as the Bluejays (3-0-2) dominated the match at Hermann Stadium.

[THURSDAY ACTION] Elliot Bradbrook scored from close range in the 82nd minute to give host Akron a 2-1 win over UIC. Junior Dylan Sheehan and freshman Jon Okafor each scored goals in No. 16 Brown’s 2-1 comeback win over Maine.

[FRIDAY NIGHT UPDATE] No. 1 Santa Clara needed overtime to beat No. 15 Rutgers, 3-2, at the Stanford Inivitational. Rutgers was one of five Top 25 women’s teams to fall from the unbeaten ranks. For the complete Women’s Top 25 weekend schedules …

Old Dominion’s chances of defending its CAA women’s title suffered a blow when senior forward Katie Watson was lost for the 2007 season after she underwent surgery to correct a soft tissue problem. Watson, who led Old Dominion to its first-ever CAA title and first NCAA Tournament bid last season, has not played in 2007.

Corben Bone, who lived up to his billing as one of the country’s top newcomers with two goals for No. 1 Wake Forest against Akron and one goal against Bradley, is the only freshman on the Soccer America Men’s Team of the Week for game played Sept. 4-9.

Villanova goalkeeper Jason Friel is the Soccer America Men’s Player of the Week for games played Sept. 4-9. Friel posted 10 saves as the Wildcats upset then-No. 2 Duke, 1-0, on Friday night. Six of the saves came in the second half when the Blue Devils threw everything at Friel in an attempt to recover from a first-half deficit.

Midfielder Brittany Klein and defender Courtney Lewis, who were instrumental in No. 1 Santa Clara’s 7-1 demolition of Notre Dame, were two of the standouts named to the Soccer America Women’s Team of the Week for games played Sept. 4-9.

Purdue senior Shauna Stapleton, whose three-goal performance over the weekend included the winning goal in a 1-0 victory over then-No. 1 Portland, is the Soccer America Women’s Player of the Week for games played Sept. 4-9.

[TV WATCH] No. 21 Virginia Tech (3-1-0) visits Tulsa (3-1-0) Friday in the first men’s game the NSCAA College Game of the Week on Fox Soccer Channel.

[MIDWEEK ACTION] Visiting North Carolina, ranked No. 2 in the Soccer America Women’s Top 25, got goals from by sophomore striker Whitney Engen and reserves Mandy Moraca and Sterling Smith to beat UNC Greensboro, 3-0, before a crowd of 2,844. For all the news on the other ranked women’s teams in action on Tuesday and Wednesday …

Red-hot Connecticut continued its fine start to the 2007 men’s season with a 2-0 win over CAA power Hofstra on Wednesday night. The No. 2 ranked Huskies feature one of the most versatile attacks in the country. In the only midweek game involving a Top 25 men’s team, No. 11 Harvard won, 2-0, at Vermont on Tuesday.

We apologize that due to technological problems outside our control, there was no College Soccer Reporter on Wednesday. Soccer America’s weekly awards that usually appear in Wednesday’s College Reporter are listed elsewhere in today’s College Reporter.

Purdue’s 1-0 win over top-ranked women’s team Portland was all the more remarkable, considering the Boilermakers played the last 34 minutes with 10 players after defender Zarinah Blockton received a red card and was ejected for punching Portland’s Rachael Rapinoe in the face after they scuffled. For more on another women’s college shocker …

The second weekend of the regular season saw Creighton set a school record for the largest men’s soccer crowd for its showdown with UCLA. Maryland (men) and North Carolina (women) also drew large crowds.

No men’s conference can match the Big Ten in terms of success over the first two weekends of the season. The five teams in the Soccer America Top 25 — No. 3 Indiana, No. 14 Ohio State, No. 17 Northwestern, No. 19 Michigan and No. 20 Wisconsin — are a combined 16-1-3. Add to that unranked Michigan State, which is 4-0-0, and you have six of the seven Big Ten teams off to flying starts. Not bad for a conference that only sent two teams to the NCAA Tournament in 2006!