Category: Story

WOMEN’S NEWS … It’s not too early for teams to be evaluating their chances of making the NCAA Tournament. Win their conference and they’re in. Otherwise? The following teams could be categorized as bubble teams. Based on this week’s NCAA Women’s Division I RPI index, they would just miss out on the 34 at-large berths. But there’s still three weeks to go for these teams to improve their position before the NCAA Women’s Committee gets down to work and must pick the 64-team field.

* ON THE BUBBLE:
45. Duke (6-5-4) Takes 290-minute shutout streak into Thursday’s game against Virginia.
46. Memphis (11-5-0) Wins at Top 25 teams LSU and UCF work in Tigers’ favor.
47. San Diego State (9-3-5) Unbeaten in their last 10 games.
48. St. John’s (11-4-1) Fell out of the Top 25 after loss to Big East rival Rutgers.
49. Auburn (6-7-3) Tigers’ best result was 0-0 tie with North Carolina.
50. Charlotte (13-2-1) Unbeaten Dayton is its main rival in the Atlantic-10.
51. UAB (10-5-1) Beat Mississippi and lost to three other Top 25 teams.
52. UTEP (12-4-0) Best win was 2-1 victory over Washington State.
53. Michigan State (8-2-4) Only one win (over Penn State) in five Big Ten games hurts.
56. Virginia (6-5-3) Dragged down by poor ACC play (one win in five games).
57. Pepperdine (8-5-1) Must improve on 1-1-1 conference record.
58. N.C. State (7-7-1) Lost three straight to ACC foes Carolina, BC and Wake Forest.
59. Missouri (10-4-3) Tigers lead the Big 12 standings with 5-0-2 record.

* CROWD COUNT. Portland is on course to lead all NCAA Division I women’s programs in average attendance for the fifth straight year. UP and Texas A&M are once again the only programs averaging more than 3,000 fans a game. The SEC leads all conferences with four teams averaging more than a 1,000 fans a game. The Mountain West, led by BYU, has three teams in the top 12. The surprise is first-year program New Mexico State, whose outstanding play in the WAC (4-0-1 record) has helped boost interest. The Aggies’ average attendance is 1,145 fans a game.

* AVERAGE ATTENDANCE:
1. Portland 3683
2. Texas A&M 3180
3. North Carolina 2418
4. BYU 2171
5. Georgia 1591
6. New Mexico  1523
7. Notre Dame 1443
8. Stanford 1432
9. Florida 1340
10. Colorado 1283
11. Penn State 1282
12. TCU 1248
13. New Mexico State 1145
14. Virginia 1129
15. LSU 1065
16. Santa Clara 1061
17. Tennessee 1020
18. Fresno State 1017
(Averages through games played Oct. 18.)

— Seven different players scored as Boston University (11-5-2) defeated Bryant, 7-0, at Nickerson Field. In Wednesday’s only other game, Canisius beat Cleveland State, 4-0.

MEN’S NEWS …  Indiana’s troubles continued when the No. 25 Hoosiers lost for the fourth time in the last six games, falling at No. 11 Louisville, 4-0. Indiana found itself down 1-0 in the sixth minute when Freddie Braun scored on a header off a free kick from Kenney Walker, and things went downhill from there.
 
Colin Rolfe made it 2-0 seven minutes later, and the Cardinals padded their lead in the second half thanks to a second goal from Rolfe and a goal by Mark Knight. Indiana had sophomore forward Will Bruin sent off for dissent. He will miss Sunday’s Big Ten match at No. 12 Northwestern.

Indiana fell to 7-6-1 with the loss. Five of its losses have been to teams ranked in the top 16: No. 1 Akron, No. 3 Wake Forest, No. 8 UC Santa Barbara, No. 11 Louisville and No. 16 Butler.

* WEDNESDAY’S RESULTS:
Top 25
No. 7 South Florida 1 (Mora 27) No. 18 Dartmouth 0.
No. 11 Louisville 4 (Braun 5, Rolfe 13, 56, Knight 82) No. 25 Indiana 0.
No. 13 N.C. State 2 (Zuerner 74, Sanchez 90) High Point 1 (Sloan 86).
No. 16 Butler 3 (Capito 6, Cardona 23, Gatzky 79) DePaul 1 (Lara 2).
No. 17 Tulsa 2 (Parada 10, Neil 83) SMU 3 (Soto pen. 13, Vasquez 26, Rosenbaum 63).
No. 23 Ohio State 0 No. 20 West Virginia 0.

Wednesday Results

* ATTINELLA SAVES USF. The Big East is loaded this season with top-flight goalies — most notably Josh Ford, who has eight shutouts in a row for Connecticut, and Zach Johnson, who has allowed only two goals in West Virginia’s last nine games. One of the best is Jeff Attinella, who came up big again for South Florida in the No. 7 Bulls’ 1-0 win over No. 18 Dartmouth. Midfielder Jorge Mora put USF ahead in the 27th minute, but the visitors from the Ivy League had plenty of chances. Attinella finished with eight saves, making several big stops in the second half.

* TULSA FALLS ON 70-YARD GOAL. No. 17 Tulsa had its 20-game unbeaten streak in Conference-USA regular-season play snapped when the Golden Hurricane fell at home to SMU, 3-2, in the pouring rain. “I think we started the game like we wanted to do,” Tulsa coach Tom McIntosh said.  “Our play in the backfield was poor tonight, and we gave away three easy goals.” The third came when Ryan Rosenbaum‘s clearance from 70 yards out bounced over Tulsa keeper Andy Aguilar‘s head and into the goal.