Category: Story

MEN’S NEWS … The North Carolina men made a clean sweep of preseason rankings when it was ranked No. 1 in the Soccer America Men’s Preseason Top 25.

Elmar Bolowich‘s boys are coming off a runner-up finish in the 2008 Men’s College Cup.

The Heels return six starters and all four substitutes from last year’s team that lost ACC rival Maryland, 1-0, in the final.

Billy Dworsky, UNC’s leading scorer in 2007, is back in action after redshirting in 2008, and two former first-team freshman All-Americans Michael Farfan (Cal State Fullerton) and Stephen McCarthy (Santa Clara) transferred to Chapel Hill.

The freshman class is led by South Carolina prep legend Enzo Martinez (182 goals at Northwestern High School).

— Only two other ACC teams are ranked in the Top 25 — No. 5 Wake Forest and Maryland No. 8. Both teams suffered heavy losses to the pro ranks but both welcome strong freshman classes.

— The Big East led all conferences with five teams in the Top 25: No. 3 St. John’s, No. 10 Notre Dame, No. 13 Connecticut, No. 18 South Florida and No. 23 Louisville.

— Unlike the women, where a half a dozen conferences dominated the preseason rankings, the Men’s Top 25 features teams from 13 conferences. Other conferences represented are the Big West and Big Ten with three, Pac-10 with two and the Mid-American, Missouri Valley, Horizon, Ivy, MAAC, CAA, Conference USA, America East and MPSF, all with one.

TRIVIA: Never has a school swept the men’s and women’s Division I titles in the same year. The Carolina women won and the men were second in 2008. The only year the Tar Heel men won the national championship was in 2001 when the women fell to Santa Clara in the final.

Soccer America Top 5
TEAM (2008 RECORD)
1. North Carolina (15-8-1)
2. Akron (17-2-4)
3. St. John’s (19-3-3)
4. Indiana (14-7-3)
5. Wake Forest (21-2-1)

Soccer America Men’s Preseason Top 25

Wednesday: Soccer America Men’s Preseason All-Americans

* Virginia’s preseason troubles continued as the Cavs fell to Old Dominion, 3-1, on Monday night. All the goals came in the last 15 minutes. Freshman Ahkeel Rodney evened the score after Nane Joseph put ODU ahead on a penalty kick, but the Monarchs won on late goals by Emmanuel Ambane and Yannick Smith. Virginia had lost, 1-0, to another state rival, George Mason, on Friday.

* Ethan Finlay had both goals for No. 6 Creighton in its 4-2 loss to the Kansas City Wizards on Monday. Former Bluejay standout Michael Kraus scored the game-winning goal for the MLS team.

* Steven Perry‘s goal was the difference as Notre Dame edged No. 11 Northwestern, 1-0, before 1,756 fans in South Bend.

WOMEN’S NEWS … Stanford, ranked No. 2 in the Soccer America Women’s Top 25, looked great in its game late Sunday night at Hawaii, a 6-2 win. Juniors Kelley O’Hara and Christen Press both scored two goals.

Coach Paul Ratcliffe started two freshmen on the backline — Alina Garciamendez in the middle and Rachel Quon at right back — and Courtney Verloo had a goal and two assists in her collegiate debut off the bench.

Ratcliffe: “We were just happy to get six goals. But we need to keep working on a lot of things. In the back, we still have work to do. The midfield has work to do. But, offensively, we looked strong.”

* Here is the first Soccer America Women’s Team of the Week, led by Carolina’s Casey Nogueira.

* Several records were broken or tied over the weekend:

— Senior Jessica Okoroafo set a Purdue record when she scored the first goal in the 5-0 win over Ohio and had both goals in a 2-1 victory at Butler, giving her 14 game-winning goals, one more than Lauren Sesselmann had in her career (2001-05).

— Welshwoman Shan Jones tied the Middle Tennessee school record with four goals in an 11-1 victory over Alabama A&M.