Soccer America Archives

WOMEN’S NEWS … North Carolina women’s fans are starting to get a little nervous. The Tar Heel attack that buried UCLA (7-2) and Notre Dame (6-0) earlier this season has suddenly turned into the gang that can’t shoot start. About the worst thing you can say about the ’09 Heels is they are starting to look like the ’07 Heels, whose offensive woes cost them a national championship.

Returning home Thursday night for its ACC opener after scoring only once in a pair of games at the Duke Nike Classic last weekend, No. 2 UNC didn’t score its first goal against Duke until Maria Lubrano struck in the 84th minute with her first collegiate goal, and it needed a golden goal from freshman Alyssa Rich to win, 2-1. KayAnne Gummersall had tied the score for the Blue Devils with 66 seconds left in regulation to the dismay of the 2,428 fans at Fetzer Field.

Carolina was playing without three of its senior stars. Midfielder Tobin Heath and goalie Ashlyn Harris are with the U.S. women’s national team in training, and winger Nikki Washington‘s career is over after injuring her knee against LSU a week ago. Another starter, sophomore Courtney Jones, has been bothered by a hamstring injury and only played 30 minutes off the bench. Freshman Lucy Bronze was also on national team duty, playing with England’s U-20 national team.

In other ACC action …

— No. 6 Florida State handed No. 9 Maryland its first loss of the season with a 2-1 win. Marissa Kazbour‘s first goal of the season on a header in the 35th minute broke a 1-1 tie. “Maryland is a much improved team and gave us all we could handle,” said Seminole coach Mark Krikorian. The win ended FSU’s four-game losing streak in ACC openers.

— No. 14 Virginia had its seven-game unbeaten streak snapped with a 2-1 loss at N.C. State, which won a pair of goals by Paige Dugal, the second in the 88th minute. “This is obviously a disappointing result for us,” said Cavalier coach Steve Swanson. “But is a result that we can learn some lessons from.” Virginia had a 21-4 edge in shots.

— With Maryland’s loss, No. 3 Boston College is the only unbeaten and untied ACC team. The Eagles won, 2-0, at Miami (Fla.) on first-half goals by freshman stars Kristen Mewis and Victoria DiMartino. BC puts its perfect record on the line Sunday when it travels to Florida State.

Weekend Top 25 Schedule

* RED STORM ROCKS. The surprise of the Big East has been No. 15 St. John’s, which improved to 8-1-0 with a 1-0 over No. 16 Connecticut on Amanda Pasciolla‘s golden goal. The Red Storm has never played in the NCAA Tournament but is making a strong case in 2009. It already has quality wins over USC and Indiana in addition to UConn, which it beat for only the third time in 18 meetings.

St. John’s has yet to score more than two goals in a game, but it is getting timely goals from players throughout the lineup. Pasciolla was the eighth different player in eight wins to score the winning goal. “Once again, I felt the team showed a lot of character in the game,” coach Ian Stone said. “UConn is an excellent team and tonight’s game showed that we can find a way to dig deep and grind out wins.”
 
* RIO TINTO DEBUT. The first women’s game at MLS club Real Salt Lake’s Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy featured a bizarre finish as Utah State defeated Utah, 2-1, in overtime on Thursday when Shantel Flanary‘s attempted cross deflected off a Ute defender and floated into the goal. The game drew 2,070 fans.

MEN’S NEWS … Maryland and North Carolina will meet Friday night in a rematch of their 2008 NCAA Division I championship game won by the Terrapins, but fans watching at Ludwig Field (where a record crowd is expected) or on Fox Soccer Channel (kickoff: 8 pm ET) will hardly recognize the two teams.

Maryland lost five players from its championship team to MLS — Omar Gonzalez, A.J. DeLaGarza, Rodney Wallace, Jeremy Hall and Graham Zusi — while Carolina graduated four seniors and lost freshman star Sheanon Williams, who left school and is playing for the U.S. under-20 national team in Egypt.

Maryland beat North Carolina three times in 2008, but the No. 2 Tar Heels are the slight favorites this time. They have yet to lose a game in 2009, while the No. 8 Terrapins lost their opener, 2-0, to UCLA before a Ludwig Field record crowd of 6,718.

Freshmen should play key roles in Friday’s game. Ethan White and Taylor Kemp have played well on the Maryland backline that features four news starters. South Carolina prep legend Enzo Martinez has played well for Carolina in ACC wins over N.C. State and Duke.

* PROJECTED STARTERS:
MARYLAND
Goalkeeper:
1 *Zac MacMath, SOPH. (Played for USA at 2007 Under-17 World Cup.)
Defenders:
2 Taylor Kemp, FR. (All-Development Academy pick at Real Colorado)
4 Ethan White, FR. (Product of D.C. United’s academy program)
15 Kevin Tagney, SR. (Came on as sub in 2008 championship game.)
18 Alex Lee, SOPH. (Played as a forward during freshman season)
Midfielders:
5 *Doug Rodkey, SR. (Led Terrapins with nine assists in 2008.)
8 Matt Kassel, SOPH. (Product of New York Red Bulls youth program.)
10 Drew Yates, SR. (Sparkplug off bench in 2008.)
23 Kaoru Forbess, SOPH. (Back injury slowed him down in 2008.)
Forwards:
9 *Jason Herrick, JR. (Missed the 2007 due to an injury.)
11 *Casey Townsend, SOPH. (2008 Soccer America Freshman of the Year.)

NORTH CAROLINA
Goalkeeper:
1 *Brooks Haggerty, SR. (Has allowed only four goals in six games.)
Defenders:
4 Brett King, SOPH. (One of four 2008 appearances came in final.)
5 *Zach Loyd, SR. (Started in midfield in 2008 championship game.)
14 *Jordan Graye, SR. (Knee injury limited playing time at College Cup.)
23 Drew McKinney, SOPH. (Red-shirted in ’07 and didn’t play in ’08.)
Midfielders:
15 *Cameron Brown, JR. (Leads UNC with two game-winning goals.)
18 Kirk Urso, SOPH. (Reserve in 2008 championship game.)
19 Michael Farfan, JR. (Transferred from Cal State Fullerton)
Forwards:
3 Alex Dixon, SOPH. (One of seven former U-17 residents on UNC roster.)
10 *Billy Schuler, SOPH. (Starter in 2008 championship game.)
16 Enzo Martinez, FR. (Star on Discoveries SC U-18 national champs.)
*Starter in 2008 NCAA Division I championship game.

Weekend Top 25 Schedule

* ZIP FEVER. No. 1 Akron is selling season-ticket packages — $40 for adults, $25 for youth — to its remaining six games. The Zips drew a sellout crowd of 2,443 for their game against Indiana a week ago, and another sellout is expected for the match against Ohio State on Wednesday night.

WOMEN’S NEWS … Penn State’s 0-0 tie with Bucknell left it with a 4-4-1 record heading into Big Ten play against No. 13 Michigan State on Sunday (TV: Big Ten Network, live, 12 pm ET). It isn’t where the Nittany Lions, ranked sixth in the Soccer America Preseason Top 25 would like to be, but they have played the toughest schedule in the country.

Penn State has already beaten two Top 25 teams, No. 14 Virginia and No. 16 Connecticut, and its two other wins are over Boston University, which won the 2008 America East title, and James Madison, which reached the final 16 in the 2008 NCAA Tournament. The Lions lost to three teams in this week’s Top 25, No. 6 Florida State, No. 17 Wake Forest and No. 20 Rutgers, and the fourth loss was to West Virginia, which had been ranked every week up and until this week.

Soccer America MVP Alyssa Naeher extended her shutout streak in goal to 334 minutes, but the Nittany Lions cannot buy a goal. They had 30 shots against Bucknell but couldn’t score. The Lions would have lost but Bucknell’s Christa Matlack hit the post after she had dribbled around the sprawling Naeher.

Scoring has been the Lions’ problem. They only have 11 goals in nine games. Katie Schoepfer, who entered the season with 34 goals for Penn State, has scored only once in nine games.

Wednesday’s Results

* LOBOS REMAIN UNBEATEN. One of the hottest teams in women’s soccer is New Mexico, which matched its win total of each of the last four seasons with its eighth victory (to go along with two ties) in a 3-1 victory over Northern Colorado on Wednesday.

Sophomore Jennifer Williams has been a big factor in the Lobos’ success. Her goal 235 seconds into Wednesday’s game was her sixth gamewinner of the season. The biggest win of the season came last Sunday when the Lobos won at Texas, 1-0, thanks to — you guessed it — another Williams goal.

Coach Kit Vela was particularly impressed how her players responded after the disappointment of tying Rice, 1-1, two days earlier when they gave up a goal in the 88th minute. “They played hard for 90 minutes,” she said, “and never let down.”

MEN’S NEWS … Like North Carolina, Maryland, Duke and Virginia the day before, Wake Forest made things hard on itself in its mid-week non-conference test. Corben Bone broke a 1-1 tie in the 53rd minute to lift the No. 9 Demon Deacons to a 2-1 victory against Elon on Wednesday night. But for a couple of great saves by Wake keeper Akira Fitzgerald, the Phoenix could have tied the score.
 
— Next up for Wake Forest is another non-conference game on Saturday against No. 6 Harvard. The Crimson improved to 6-0-0 with a 1-0 win at New Hampshire on Wednesday. Freshman Brian Rogers, who had the goal against UNH, has complemented All-American Andre Akpan beautifully up front. Rogers, who had started as an eighth-grader for his high school team in Bronxville, N.Y., already has four goals and three assists.

* BACK IN GOAL. During UMBC’s 8-0-0 start, much of the attention has been focused on Andrew Bulls and Levi Houapeu, who have combined for 18 goals. But one of the unsung stars has been freshman goalie Phil Saunders. He wasn’t even the starting goalie last year at Maryland’s Perry Hall High School — the starter was Zach Kane, now at Loyola (Md.) — but Saunders’ play with the Baltimore Bays caught the attention of UMBC coach Pete Caringi. “He played the last year of high school as a back and made all-state,” Caringi told the Catonsville Times, “but we knew he was probably the best goalkeeper in the state.”

Wednesday’s Results

* HAT TRICK HERO. Justin Meram, one of the many stars from JC juggernaut Yavapai now scattered across the country, had his first hat trick in No. 18 Michigan’s 5-1 victory over Bowling Green on Wednesday night. After being blown out by Notre Dame, 5-1, on opening day, the Wolverines have been unstoppable. The triumph was their seventh straight — and fifth straight by two or more goals.