Category: Story

MEN’S NEWS … Akron achieved one of the most impressive results in its 14-0-0 season when it traveled to Ann Arbor to face the University of Michigan and returned home with a 5-1 win. The Zips had never won in Ann Arbor, but they made quick work of the Wolverines, going up 3-0 at the half with three goals in five minutes.

Darlington Nagbe recorded the first hat trick of his career to fuel the Zips. He also assisted on fellow sophomore Teal Bunbury‘s opening goal in the 31st minute, his team-leading 11th goal of the year. Michael Nanchoff added his fifth goal of the season in the second half.

“We knew this would be more of an open soccer game and I thought our attacking group was electric today,” said Akron coach Caleb Porter. “We still can learn some lessons from this game even with such a lopsided result. The nice thing is this team continues to elevate their performance in relation to their potential and because of that they are growing while winning.”

Tuesday Results

* TOP 25 ACTION. Eight other Top 25 teams were in action on Tuesday, and seven were victorious …

— Senior Zack Schilawski scored a pair of goals to lead No. 3 Wake Forest to a 3-0 victory at South Carolina. The Deacons ran their road record to a perfect 7-0 on the year.

— Jason Herrick continued his  hot streak with two goals in No. 5 Maryland’s 3-1 win over Seton Hall. He opened the scoring in the 32nd minute with his third straight game-winner.

— Stephane Diop and Max Wasserman scored their first collegiate goals as No. 6 Connecticut defeated Yale, 2-0 for its eighth consecutive shutout.

— No. 8 Harvard prevailed at Providence, 2-1, on a penalty kick by star Andre Akpan with 14 seconds left in regulation that capped a wild ending. Desmond Mitchell put the Crimson ahead in the 88th minute, Marc Cintron equalized for the Friars with only 27 seconds remaining in regulation. Just 13 seconds later, Harvard was awarded a penalty kick, and Akpan scored his team-best ninth goal of the year.

— Junior Matt Eliason scored his Big Ten-leading 11th goal in the 84th minute to give No. 12 Northwestern a 1-0 win over Loyola (Ill.).

— No. 12 Virginia shut out Howard, 2-0, on goals by Will Bates and Tony Tchani to improve its non-conference record to 7-0-1.

— No. 24 Brown had to settle for a 1-1 tie with St. John’s, the Red Storm’s eighth tie in 14 games.

— Ryan Finley, Cole Grossman and Christopher Tweed-Kent each scored in No. 24 Duke’s 3-0 win over Navy that gave Coach John Kerr his 100th career victory.

WOMEN’S NEWS … Stanford, No. 1 in this week’s Soccer America Women’s Top 25, is now top-ranked in the second NCAA Women’s Division I RPI index released this fall. North Carolina, which fell from No. 1 to No. 2, is one of six ACC teams in the top 15.

The biggest climber of the teams in the initial index’s top 25 was Notre Dame, which moved from No. 23 to No. 10. Four teams weren’t in the initial index’s top 25: No. 18 Ohio State, No. 20 Mississippi, No. 24 California and No. 25 Arizona State.

The RPI — Ratings Percentage Index — is the most important of the criteria it uses to determine the 64-team field for the NCAA Division I Women’s Tournament. The RPI is a mathematical formula designed to objectively compare results and strength of schedule.

* WOMEN’S RPI (TOP 25)
1. Stanford,  Pac-10
2. North Carolina,  ACC
3. Portland, WCC
4. UCF, Conference USA
5. Florida State, ACC
6. UCLA,  Pac-10
7. Wake Forest, ACC
8. Boston College, ACC
9. Georgia, SEC
10. Notre Dame, Big East
11. Maryland, ACC
12. South Carolina, SEC
13. Santa Clara, WCC
14. USC, Pac-10
15. Virginia Tech, ACC
16. Florida, SEC
17. Penn State, Big Ten
18. Ohio State, Big Ten
19. Connecticut, Big East
20. Mississippi, SEC
21. LSU, SEC
22. Washington State,  Pac-10
23. Texas A&M, Big 12
24. California,  Pac-10
25. Arizona State, Pac-10

* TUESDAY’S RESULTS:
Ivy
Yale 2 Harvard 3

Non-Conference
Dartmouth 3 Vermont 0
Missouri-St. Louis 0 SIU-Edwardsville 4

SMALL COLLEGE NEWS … There are only seven unbeaten and untied NCAA Division II and III teams left in the NSCAA/adidas rankings: No. 1 Lees-McRae (10-0-0) and No. 3 Drury (12-0-0) in Men’s Division II, No. 1 West Florida (12-0-0) and No. 2 Saint Rose (13-0-0) in Women’s Division II and No. 1 Williams (11-0-0), No. 4 Trinity (Texas) (11-0-0) and No. 7 Concordia-Moorhead (14-0-0) in Women’s Division III.

MEN’S NEWS … After a slow start, UIC is coming on. The Flames won back-to-back 1-0 games against ranked Ohio State and Horizon League rival Wisconsin-Milwaukee to improve to 5-4-4. Both goals came off corner kicks by Mike Giffin. “We’re battling things this year,” said UIC coach John Trask. “That’s who we are right now.”

The win over Ohio State was remarkable given the long list of absentees. Starters Robert Younger, Ian Sarachan, Matt Spiess and Ivan Stanisavljevic were out with injuries and Charlie Trout was suspended for the game. On top of that, center back Zach Tierney was injured in the first half and had to leave the game. Ohio State’s Joshua Breto was red carded for his foul on Tierney, a transfer from New Mexico.

The Flames are one of four teams in the top 12 in Soccer America’s preseason rankings who are not in this week’s Top 25. The others are St. John’s, Creighton and Notre Dame.

* MEN’S TOP 25 SCHEDULE:
Tuesday, Oct. 20
Michigan vs. No. 1 Akron
South Carolina vs. No. 3 Wake Forest
No. 5 Maryland vs. Seton Hall
Yale vs. No. 6 Connecticut
Providence vs. No. 9 Harvard
No. 12 Northwestern vs. Loyola (Ill.)
No. 15 Virginia vs. Howard
St. John’s vs. No. 22 Brown
No. 24 Duke vs. Navy

* SPARTANS END SKID. UNC Greensboro’s 3-1 over Gardner-Webb on Saturday ended the Spartans’ three-game losing streak and marked the return of long-time coach Michael Parker, who had been suspended from coaching at UNCG’s previous game, a 3-0 loss to Duke. Assistant coach Justin Maullin ran the team in Parker’s absence. Witnesses say that Parker launched a verbal assault at players and a coach at UNCG’s Southern Conference game against College of Charleston.

* LEADING SCORERS:
1. Andrew Bulls, UMBC 15
2. Matthew Skonicki, Winthrop 11
3. Issa Tall, Adelphi 11
4. JC Banks, Green Bay 11
5. Saeed Sulemana Baba, Western Mich. 10
5. Teal Bunbury, Akron 10
5. Matt Eliason, Northwestern 10
5. Levi Houapeu, UMBC 10
5. Andrew Wiedeman, California 10
5. Conor O’Brien, Bucknell 10
(Statistics through games played Oct. 18.)

Men’s Player of the Week: Austin da Luz (Wake Forest)
Team of the Week

WOMEN’S NEWS …. Central Michigan, which has the longest NCAA Division I women’s shutout streak in more than a decade, can clinch its first Mid-American regular-season title with one more victory. The Chippewas (13-3-0 overall and 8-0-0 in the MAC) have won 11 games in a row, all by shutout. Its the fifth longest shutout streak in NCAA history and the longest since Santa Clara set a record with 16 straight shutouts in 1998.

“Everyone focuses on defending as well as they can every second they are on the field,” CMU coach Tom Anagnost said. “That mentality has gotten us to where we are. Offensively, I feel we can be a little more dangerous than we have been in the last few matches in creating and finishing more opportunities.” The Chippewas, who host Bowling Green and second-place Toledo Sunday, have won their last three games by 1-0 margins. Their only losses were to Big Ten teams Indiana, Michigan and Michigan State.

* TAR HEEL HONORED. North Carolina graduate Yael Averbuch was named the recipient of the 2009 Patterson Medal, the most prestigious award presented to student-athletes at the University of North Carolina, along with Tyler Hansbrough, ACC basketball’s all-time leading scorer, and baseball star Dustin Ackley.

Averbuch, who is now with WPS champion Sky Blue FC, helped the Tar Heels win the 2008 NCAA Division I title. She won four ACC titles and two NCAA crowns in her career. She is the 11th women’s soccer player to win the award. Other winners included Shannon Higgins (1990), Kristine Lilly (1993) Mia Hamm (1994), Tisha Venturini (1995), Debbie Keller (1997), Cindy Parlow (1999), Lorrie Fair (2000), Meredith Florance (2001), Catherine Reddick (2004) and Heather O’Reilly (2007).

* LEADING SCORERS:
1. Morgan Marlborough, Nebraska  21
2. Sarah Hagen, Milwaukee 19
3. Kelley O’Hara, Stanford 17
4. Jessica Fuccello, Penn 16
5. Danielle Foxhoven, Portland  15
5. Britany Curry, Texas St. 15
5. Whitney Palmer, Oklahoma 15
8. Christen Press, Stanford 14
9. Kiersten Dallstream, Washington St. 12
9. Sydney Leroux, UCLA 12
9. Tiffany McCarty, Florida St.  12
9. Rochelle VanBuskirk, UC Davis 12
9. Sylvia Kowalski, Canisius 12
9. Marky Boyce, Charleston So.12
9. Corky Julien, James Madison 12
9. Dawn Ward, Texas Tech 12

Women’s Player of the Week: Sarah Hagen (Wisconsin-Milwaukee)
Team of the Week

JUNIOR COLLEGE NEWS … Arnaldo Salazar, considered one of the top junior college prospects in California, was in serious condition at Memorial Hospital in Santa Rosa, Calif., with a broken neck and two broken arms suffered in a car crash that took place Saturday and killed a friend.

“He’s probably one of the most gifted players in this area, if not the most gifted,” Santa Rosa Junior College coach Marty Kinahan told the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. “One of the big boys, Stanford, Cal. He would have gotten a scholarship.” Salazar played for the NPSL’s Sonoma County Sol and at Santa Rosa JC in 2008. He was rehabilitating a hip injury this fall and concentrating on his studies.

The accident took place on Highway 101 early Saturday. It killed Sonoma State University student Maribel Raya Medina and also injured two other students.