Soccer America Archives

SMALL COLLEGE NEWS … For the fourth straight week, there is a new No. 1 in the NSCAA/adidas NCAA Division II men’s rankings.  Playing a man down for most of the game and without its top two players, No. 1 Lynn fell to Tampa, 2-1, in double overtime. Cal State Los Angeles took over as the new No. 1. The Golden Eagles improved to 11-0-1 with a 2-1 win over Cal Poly Pomona thanks to a goal from Jason Swope with less than 12 minutes remaining.

Cal State Dominguez was the Men’s Division II No. 1 in the preseason rankings. It was followed in the top spot by Tampa and Northern Kentucky before Lynn claimed the No. 1 berth. There has been no change at the top of the Women’s Division II (Seattle Pacific) and Men’s and Women’s Division III rankings (Messiah is first in both).

MEN’S RANKINGS:
NCAA Division II 1. Cal State Los Angeles, 2. Lees-McRae, 3. Tampa
NCAA Division III 1. Messiah, 2. Ohio Wesleyan, 3. Christopher Newport

WOMEN’S RANKINGS:
NCAA Division II 1. Seattle Pacific, 2. West Florida, 3. Saint Rose
NCAA Division III 1. Messiah, 2. Puget Sound, 3. Williams

NAIA PLAYERS OF THE WEEK:
MEN:
Offense: Mustafa Celik, Holy Names (tallied hat tricks in wins over Bethany, Calif., 7-1 and Cal State-Maritime, 4-0).
Defense: Hide Ozawa, Simon Fraser (notched shutout wins over Trinity Western, 2-0, and Seattle, 1-0).

WOMEN:
Offense: Mia Persson, Lindsey Wilson (scored five goals and added one assist in 12-0 victory over Campbellsville and scored one goal in 3-1 victory over No. 5 William Carey).
Defense: Bailey Lynn, Rogers State (posted back-to-back shutouts against Wayland Baptist, 4-0, and Oklahoma City, 1-0).

WOMEN’S NEWS … What’s the biggest transition from high school to college? For soccer players, who must jump right into the life of the student-athlete, the transition can be particularly challenging. CalBears.com asked seven freshmen on the No. 19 California women’s team for their thoughts on transitioning into college.

Lauren Battung: “Overall discipline with sleep, scheduling, organization and physical health. Also, having to go to many places throughout the day without a car.”
Rachel Clark: “Time management. Now we have practice every day along with a major increase in reading for our classes, and I still want to maintain a social life.”
Amanda Glass: “I would have to say time management. It is so easy to get caught up in the whole social aspect, but you have to remember that school is a major priority.”
Amanda Groves: “Managing my time here. There is so much to do socially, academically and athletically that it’s been challenging to decide when to do everything!”
Betsy Hassett: “It’s a whole different country and environment to experience.”
Lauren Hein: “Everyone here is so smart, confident and on a path towards something great!”
Samantha Walker: “It is just more time consuming, and you have to be more disciplined.”

(Click here for more of the interviews with the Cal freshmen.)

— In Tuesday’s only Division I action, Katherine Sheeleigh scored two goals to lead Harvard to a 4-1 win over visiting Fairfield.

* LEADING SCORERS:
PLAYER, SCHOOL GOALS
1. Morgan Marlborough, Nebraska 16
2. Kelley O’Hara, Stanford 12
– Whitney Palmer, Oklahoma 12
4. Kiersten Dallstream, Washington State 11
– Jessica Fuccello, Penn 11
– Sydney Leroux, UCLA 11
– Rochelle VanBuskirk, UC Davis 11
– Danielle Foxhoven, Portland 11
– Sylvia Kowalski, Canisius 11
– Victoria DiMartino, Boston College 11
– Katie Bethke, Minnesota 11
– Sarah Hagen, Milwaukee 11
– Rachel King, Louisiana Tech 11
(Statistics are through games played Oct. 4.)

MEN’S NEWS … Englishman James Belshaw has quickly earned the reputation as one of the top young goalies in college soccer, but the Duke freshman could do nothing in the face of a Davidson onslaught. The streaking Wildcats scored twice in the first eight minutes and went on to beat the No. 6 Blue Devils, 4-1, on Tuesday night in front of 1,487 fans in Alumni Stadium.

Trinidadian Yannick Pilgrim scored two goals, and Southern Conference scoring leader Charlie Reiter and freshman Brian McGue each had one for Davidson.  “Yannick showed his class again tonight,” said Davidson coach Matt Spear. “He is just dynamite. His pace and his finishing are surreal. He had one of those games where you just couldn’t catch him.”

Unranked Davidson improved to 9-1-0 with its seventh straight win. “I went into this game thinking we could win because the guys have played so well and have come so far already this season,” said Spear. “They just believe that their way, their system, and their patterns are working so precisely, and so sharply, that they can win every single game.”

* GAME OF THE DAY:
Oct. 6 in Davidson, N.C.
Davidson 4 Duke 1. Goals: McGue (Reiter) 3, Pilgrim (Bostwick) 9, Reiter (Zipin) 57, Pilgrim 77; Thomas (Grossman) 25.
Davidson — Sanders, Shannon, Macnamara, Bostwick, Page, Millard, Caskey, Zipin, McGue, Pilgrim, Reiter. Subs: Goldsberry, Roark, Hayes, Hambleton, Bracken, DiLallo, Ramsay, Smith, Turner, Paras, Boulding, Simms, Shelton.
Duke — Belshaw, Ibeagha, Sih, Wenger, Molinar, McDaniel, Grossman, Bienenfeld, Thomas, Harrison, Finley. Subs: D.Tweed-Kent, Ruffing, C.Tweed-Kent, Brown, Lewis, Trnka-Amrhein.
Referee: Alex Prus.
Att.: 1,487.

* HUSKIES BREAK OUT. Connecticut is showing signs of breaking out of a season-long scoring slump. Sophomore Tony Cascio scored two goals and added two assists and freshman Carlos Alvarez had his first career goal to go along with two assists in the No. 13 Huskies’  4-0 win over Providence Tuesday night at Morrone Stadium. The four goals were the most of the season for UConn, which had scored only nine goals in its first nine games. What’s saved the Huskies is their defense. The victory was their fourth shutout win in a row.

* TUESDAY’S TOP 25 ACTION:
No. 3 North Carolina 1 (Schuler 75) Liberty 0.
Davidson 4 (McGue 3, Pilgrim 9, 77, Reiter 57) No. 6 Duke 1 (Thomas 25).
UNC Greensboro 0 No. 7 Wake Forest 3 (Schilawski 7, da Luz 32, Bone 82).
No. 10 Maryland 1 (Forbess 26) Loyola (Ill.) 0.
Big East: No. 13 Connecticut 4 (Alvarez 7, Ponce 19, Cascio 21, 60) Providence 0.
No. 25 N.C. State 2 (Sanchez 64, Zuerne 90) Wofford 0.
Big East: Pittsburgh 0 No. 25 West Virginia 0.

Tuesday Results

* DETROIT SHAKEUP. Midway through his 18th season at Detroit, Morris Lupenec resigned, handing the reigns of the program over to assistant coach Nick Deren. A day later, the Titans beat visiting Buffalo, 3-1, to give Deren the win in his debut and snap an eight-game winless streak. Sophomore Sam Seppo broke open Tuesday’s game with two second-half goals. “It felt so good to score today,” said Seppo. “I felt like I got a monkey off my back because I have been missing finishes this season.”

* LEADING SCORERS:
PLAYER, SCHOOL GOALS
1. Andrew Bulls, UMBC 13
2. JC Banks, Green Bay 10
3. Chris Cutshaw, Bradley 9
– Matthew Skonicki, Winthrop 9
– Andrew Wiedeman, California 9
5. Saeed Sulemana Baba, Western Mich. 8
– Andy Stadler, George Washington  8
– Giovanni Destasio, Iona 8
– Matt Eliason, Northwestern 8
– Mauro Fuzetti, Michigan 8
– Levi Houapeu, UMBC 8
(Statistics are through games played Oct. 4.)

MEN’S NEWS … Four more teams made their 2009 debut in the Soccer America Men’s Top 25. They all parlayed big wins on the road into spots in this week’s rankings:

PENN STATE. The Nittany Lions (7-3-0) remained perfect in the Big Ten with a 1-0 win at Michigan State on Sunday. They will be tested in the next month with conference games against No. 12 Northwestern and No. 15 Indiana and a non-conference match at No. 1 Akron.

UAB. The Blazers (7-2-1) extended their unbeaten streak to six games with a 1-0 win at ranked Kentucky on Sunday. A blast from 25 yards by South African midfielder Two-Boys Gumede was the difference. Two future Conference-USA opponents — South Carolina and Tulsa — have been in the Top 25 earlier this season.

CHARLOTTE. The 49ers (6-1-2) ended Wake Forest’s 46-match unbeaten streak against non-conference opponents when they shocked the Demon Deacons, 3-1, in Winston-Salem. Charlotte opens its Atlantic-10 season this weekend when it hosts George Washington and Richmond.

WEST VIRGINIA. The Mountaineers (5-2-2) won their fourth straight game with a 1-0 win over Marquette. They are tied for first place with Connecticut in the Big East’s Blue Division heading into Friday’s “Dollar Night” doubleheader with the Huskies. The men’s game will be featured on Fox Soccer Channel (live, 8 pm ET).

They upped the number of teams to have made at least one appearance in the Top 25 to 50. Only 12 teams have been in the Top 25 every week since the release of the preseason rankings in August:

* EVER-PRESENT DOZEN:
TEAM (RECORD) LAST WEEK:
1. Akron (9-0-0) 1
2. UCLA (6-1-1) 2
3. North Carolina (7-1-1) 5
4. California (7-2-0) 6
5. South Florida (7-1-1) 7
7. Wake Forest (6-2-1) 4
9. UC Santa Barbara (7-2-1) 12
10. Maryland (5-3-1) 3
11. Louisville (6-1-2) 20
12. Northwestern (5-1-3) 21
15. Indiana (5-3-1) 10
17. Boston University (7-2-2) 19

Men’s Player of the Week: Kyle Nakazawa (UCLA)
Men’s Team of the Week

* LOWE’S SENIOR CLASS FINALISTS:
Zak Boggs, South Florida
Ronnie Bouemboue, N.C. State
Richard Edgar, George Mason
Rylan Hawkins, Washington
Tennant McVea, Loyola (Md.)
Patrick Sampson, Loyola Marymount
Zack Schilawski, Wake Forest
Eric Weigman, IUPUI
Jason Yeisley, Penn State
Ben Zemanski, Akron
(Vote here.)

WOMEN’S NEWS … North Carolina, third in this week’s Soccer America Women’s Top 25 following Sunday’s 1-0 loss at Virginia Tech, and top-ranked Stanford, are 1-2 in the first NCAA Women’s Division I RPI index the NCAA released this fall.

(Click here for the complete women’s RPI.)

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.

The ACC leads all conferences with four teams in the RPI top 10 — Carolina, No. 3 Florida State, No. 7 Virginia Tech and No. 9 Boston College — and the Pac-10 leads with seven teams in the RPI top 25. The surprise is UCF at No. 5.

* Women’s RPI (Top 25)
1. North Carolina
2. Stanford
3. Florida State
4. Portland
5. UCF
6. South Carolina
7. Virginia Tech
8. UCLA
9. Boston College
10. Arizona State
11. Connecticut
12. Georgia
13. Santa Clara
14. LSU
15. Texas A&M
16. Wake Forest
17. USC
18. Oregon
19. Florida
20. Maryland
21. Oregon State
22. Washington State
23. Notre Dame
24. Penn State
25. UAB
(Rankings as of Oct. 4.)

* TAYLOR REGAINS FORM. One of the key factors in No. 1 Stanford’s 6-2 demolition of Santa Clara on the road Thursday was the play of sophomore Lindsay Taylor. The 2008 Soccer America Freshman of the Year has been slowed by a virus, but she showed against the Broncos she is regaining her form, providing two killer passes for the third and fourth goals scored by Teresa Noyola and Kelley O’Hara. “Every day that I’m getting in practice, I feel like I’m getting better during the games,” Taylor said afterwards. “Every day my fitness is getting back up.”

Women’s Player of the Week: Nikki Marshall (Colorado)
Women’s Team of the Week

* LOWE’S SENIOR CLASS FINALISTS:
Elizabeth Betterbed, Army
Kelsey Davis, Portland
Kristi Eveland, North Carolina
Theresa Ferraina, Loyola (Md.)
Lauren Lopez, UNC Greensboro
Blakely Mattern, South Carolina
Lizzy Nichols, Harvard
Kelley O’Hara, Stanford
Emily Peterson, Texas A&M
Myra Sack, Dartmouth
(Vote here.)

* HEATH GETS CALL-UP. For the second time this fall, North Carolina will be without senior Tobin Heath, The Olympic gold-medalist will join the U.S. women’s national team for its friendly against Germany Oct. 29 in Augsburg. The match will come on the tail end of an eight-day training camp in Germany. Heath, Carolina keeper Ashlyn Harris and UCLA’s Lauren Cheney recently attended the women’s camp at the Home Depot Center.

* MONDAY’S RESULTS:
Atlantic Sun
Stetson 1 Florida Gulf Coast 2

Big South
High Point 1 College of Charleston 2
Liberty 3 Coastal Carolina 0

Non-Conference
Lehigh 1 Columbia 1
(Ashlin Yahr earns visiting Lions tie with her team-best sixth goal of season.)
Princeton 1 American 0
Yale 3 Central Conn. State 2
(Becky Brown leads Yale with two goals.)