Soccer America Archives

WOMEN’S NEWS … Rain is playing havoc with college soccer in the Northeast, so the Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex outside sunny Orlando is a perfect site for 2009 MAAC Women’s Tournament, which begins Thursday and goes through Monday. Loyola (Md.), which went 9-0-0 in conference play, is the top seed in the MAAC, which consists of six teams from New York, two from New Jersey and one from Connecticut, in addition to Loyola.

“This is one of the most dynamic and special teams I have ever had the chance to work with,” says Greyhound coach Katherine Vettori. “Every player has played their role with grace and enthusiasm and every one of them has contributed to the team’s success thus far.” The leading scorer is freshman Nichole Schiro, who has eight goals and six assists.

Conference Tournament Scoreboard

* MILESTONE. Marquette coach Markus Roeders earned his 200th career victory in the Golden Eagles’ 2-0 win over St. John’s on Sunday. The win also gave Marquette its first-ever Big East American Division title. It begins tournament play on Sunday at home.

MEN’S NEWS … Teal Bunbury, the son of former Canada international Alex Bunbury, scored two goals to lead No. 1 Akron to a 3-0 win over Penn State for the Zips’ 16th win in a row. Bunbury scored in the fifth minute when he redirected Kofi Sarkodie‘s cross into the goal and the struck from 30 yards in the 24th minute. Bunbury has 14 goals, all in the last 11 games. Forward Darlington Nagbe put the game out of reach in the 62nd minute with his eighth goal of the season.

“I thought we came out flying and jumped on them early but then coasted a little,” said Akron coach Caleb Porter. “We have not played teams recently that have been able to punish us when we let our guard down, but Penn State’s that type of team. And from here on out, all the teams we play are going to be that type of team.”

* TOP 25 ACTION. The seven other Top 25 teams in action on Wednesday were perfect (two other games involving No. 6 Connecticut and No. 21 St. John’s were postponed because of bad weather):

— Alex Dixon recorded No. 3 North Carolina’s first hat trick since 2005 to highlight the Tar Heels’ 7-0 win over Stetson. The sophomore scored three times in under seven minutes.

— No. 6 South Florida extended its home unbeaten streak to 28 games — the longest such streak in the nation — with a 1-0 win over DePaul on Zak Boggs‘ free kick on the half hour.

— No. 7 UC Santa Barbara earned its seventh shutout in its last eight games with a 2-0 win over Cal State Northridge. The Gauchos remained tied for first in the Big West with Cal Poly, a 3-0 winner over UC Riverside.

— No. 9 Louisville tied a school record for wins, improving to 12-2-2 with a 3-1 win over Cincinnati. All three goals came off set pieces, beginning with Simeon Steward‘s first goal of the season.

— Freshman Andrew Wenger scored twice to lead No. 17 Duke to a 6-0 win over Presbyterian in a game originally scheduled for Tuesday.

— Amani Walker scored three goals and added an assist on Irving Garcia‘s goal to lead No. 19 UC Irvine to a 4-1 win over Cal State Fullerton.

— No. 25 UAB moves into first place in the Conference USA with a 3-0 victory over South Carolina on goals by Anthony King, Two-Boys Gumede and Babayele Sodade.

Wednesday Results

* INDIANA ENDS SKID. Indiana snapped a three-game losing streak in style with a 2-0 victory over Evansville on goals by Lee Hagedorn and Nick Blevins. The victory put the Hoosiers, who have never finished with a losing record, back over .500 at 8-7-1.  “We fought hard and stuck with a game plan,” said IU coach Mike Freitag. “Maybe in other games we over extended ourselves and made mistakes. Tonight I thought we played within ourselves and did everything we needed to be successful.

* STREAKING SEAHAWKS. One of the hottest teams in the South is UNC Wilmington, which extended its unbeaten streak to eight games with a 2-0 win at James Madison on second-half goals by juniors Tyler Wheaton and Daniel Roberts. The win, the Seahawks’ first ever in Harrisonburg, kept them tied for first place in the CAA with Northeastern, a 2-1 winner at Delaware. It was also Coach Aidan Heaney‘s 100th career win.

WOMEN’S NEWS … Down the road from top-ranked Stanford is another women’s team on a roll. San Jose State takes a 13-match undefeated streak into its WAC game against Fresno State on Friday at Spartan Stadium. A San Jose State win, coupled with a New Mexico State loss at home against Nevada, would clinch a first-ever regular-season conference crown for the first-place Spartans.

Second-year coach Jeff Leightman has turned around the Spartan women, who started 0-4-0 but have won 10 games and tied the other three since then.

* LONGEST UNBEATEN STREAKS:
17 Stanford (17-0-0)
17 Dayton (12-0-5)
13 Central Michigan (12-0-1)
13 San Jose State (10-0-3)
12 Notre Dame (11-0-1)
12 BYU (11-0-1)
12 Charlotte (11-0-1)
12 San Diego State (8-0-4)

(The San Jose State men are also on a roll. Gary St. Clair‘s team has an eight-game unbeaten streak and seven-game winning streak.)

* CANADA CALL-UPS. Penn State has reentered the Soccer America Women’s Top 25 tied at No. 25 with Oregon State, but the Nittany Lions will be without freshmen Lexi Marton and Rachel Lamarre for Thursday’s key Big Ten game against Indiana. (The Big Ten has dropped its women’s conference tournament, meaning the regular-season champion will get its automatic bid.) Marton and Lamarre will join Canada’s U-20s for a two-game series against Mexico’s U-20s in Ciudad Juarez Thursday and Saturday. Ten other U.S.-based collegians and high school junior Nicole Hill (Sereno White) are among the players Canada called up.

MEN’S NEWS … The second Men’s Division I RPI index the NCAA released Tuesday underscores the parity in men’s college soccer this year. The RPI — Ratings Percentage Index — includes teams from 14 different conferences among the top 28 teams and two major surprises. Not one of the 16 Big East teams is in the top 25, nor is any team from the Big West.

Three Big East teams are among the top nine teams in this week’s Soccer America Men’s Top 25: No. 5 Connecticut, No. 6 South Florida and No. 9 Louisville rank 30-34-44 in the RPI index. If the current RPI index were used to rank the 48 NCAA qualifiers — the top-ranked teams from the 21 conferences whose champions get automatic bids and 27 at-large teams — Louisville would not get in.

The two Big West teams in this week’s Top 25 — No. 7 UC Santa Barbara and No. 19 UC Irvine — are No. 48 and No. 38 in the RPI index. Like Louisville, UCSB falls below the 42 teams who would get in as conference champions or at-large teams.

Also of note:
— Two top 25 RPI teams — No. 7 Indiana and No. 15 Loyola Marymount — have .500 records.
— Since the Mid-American Conference does not get an automatic berth this year, Northern Illinois (No. 46) and Hartwick (No. 61) have their work cut out. Akron (15-0-0) is No. 3 in the RPI Index and a shoo-in for an NCAA Tournament bid.

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

The Ratings Percentage Index is the most important of the criteria the NCAA 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.

2009 NCAA Men’s Soccer RPI
1. Wake Forest, ACC
2. UCLA, Pac-10
3. Akron, Mid-American
4. Northwestern, Big Ten
5. San Diego, WCC
6. North Carolina, ACC
7. Indiana, Big Ten
8. North Carolina St., ACC
9. Duke, ACC
10. Princeton, Ivy
11. San Diego St., Pac-10
12. Charlotte, Atlantic 10
13. Butler, Horizon
14. Maryland, ACC
15. Loyola Marymount, WCC
16. Penn St., Big Ten
17. Stanford, Pac-10
18. Tulsa, Conference USA
19. Harvard, Ivy
20. Virginia, ACC
21. Monmouth, Northeast
22. South Carolina, Conference USA
23. Michigan St., Big Ten
24. Ohio St., Big Ten
25. American, Patriot

* TOP 25 ACTION. Corben Bone tied a career high with three assists to lead No. 2 Wake Forest to a 4-1 win over Davidson on Tuesday night. The victory extended the Demon Deacons’ unbeaten streak to eight straight games. Only two other Top 25 games were played Tuesday. No. 11 N.C. State beat Centenary, 5-0. No. 13 Butler defeated Detroit, 3-0, in a game that had been rescheduled from last weekend because several Detroit players had been diagnosed with the flu, or flu-like symptoms. Elsewhere in the South, bad weather took its toll with four games cancelled, postponed or suspended. Among them was the game between No. 17 Duke and Presbyterian.

Tuesday Results

* CORRECTION. Connecticut’s average attendance is 3,211, putting it second in the country behind only UC Santa Barbara.