Soccer America Archives

WOMEN’S NEWS … One of women’s soccer’s best kept secrets is the support BYU receives. After opening with three games on the road — 0-0 tie at Hawaii and wins over West Virginia and Connecticut at the Penn State Invitational — the Cougars returned home to Provo, where they drew crowds of 3,196 and 2,292 for games Friday and Monday.

Fans certainly got their money’s worth as both games were decided in overtime. After losing to William & Mary, 1-0, BYU fell behind against Oklahoma State but rallied to beat the Cowgirls, 2-1. Freshman Carlee Payne scored the tying goal and set up sophomore Jennie Marshall for the winner in the second overtime. “Ups and downs are a part of sports,” BYU coach Jennifer Rockwood said. “But to have a young team play with composure throughout the game says a lot.”

Payne had both game-winners last week at Penn State. The goal was Marshall’s first this year. “Carlee was brilliant today,” added Rockwood, “and did a great job getting the ball to Jennie who is a great scorer.”

Monday’s results

* PERFECT STARTS
UAB 6-0-0 (Blazers are off to best start in school history)
Wake Forest 6-0-0 (Jill Hutchinson and Kaley Fountain have 14 points apiece)
Florida State 5-0-0 (Jessica Price leads the Seminoles with 15 points)
Indiana 5-0-0 (Dating back to last season, the Hoosiers have won eight games in a row)
Kansas 5-0-0 (Jayhawks open 5-0-0 for the second year in a row)
Louisiana Tech 5-0-0 (Rachel King had back-to-back hat tricks last week)
Marshall 5-0-0 (Thundering Herd opens with three 2-0 wins and two 1-0 wins)
Maryland 5-0-0 (Five-game winning streak is the Terps’ longest in a decade)
New Mexico 5-0-0 (Redshirt freshman Kelli Cornell has four shutouts in goal)
North Carolina 5-0-0 (Heels have gotten goals from 11 different players)
Portland 5-0-0 (Sophie Schmidt and Danielle Foxhoven have 11 of UP’s 16 goals)
Purdue 5-0-0 (Won Boilermaker Challenge Cup with a 6-1 win over Ball State on Monday)
Stanford 5-0-0 (Scored five goals in 26 minutes and 33 minutes in different games)
Vanderbilt 5-0-0 (Commodores also won first five matches in 2008)
… Eight teams at 4-0-0
… One team at 3-0-0
… One team at 2-0-0

* Canadian international Sophie Schmidt, who four goals in the No. 3 Portland’s 5-1 win over Columbia, is the Soccer America Women’s Player of the Week.

This week’s Soccer America Women’s Team of the Week.

MEN’S NEWS … Penn State senior Jason Yeisley‘s comeback following two knee injuries and a 20-month layoff is an amazing story.

A member of the Soccer America All-Freshman Team and MVP of the Big Ten Tournament in 2005, he suffered a knee injury and was lost for the season seven games into the 2006 season. The same thing happened in 2007, only this time he went down with a month remaining in the season — he still led the Lions in scoring and earned All-Big Ten honors.

After sitting out the 2008 season, Yeisley got a jumpstart on the 2009 campaign when the Lions traveled to Brazil in the spring for a 10-day tour during which they played four games against local competition, saw Ronaldo play for Corinthians twice and visited the Pele museum. Yeisley also played for the PDL’s Reading Rage over the summer

Yeisley returned to Penn State for a fifth year — he has to only take one English class to complete his degree in business and is taking a yoga class for fun — and has gotten off to a remarkable start. He earned Soccer America Player of the Week honors with three goals and an assist in three games for the 2-1-0 Nittany Lions.

(Yeisley chronicles the buildup to the 2009 season, including the Brazil tour, at his Penn State sports blog.)

This week‘s Soccer America Men’s Team of the Week

* Clemson is going through hard times. The Tigers are coming off their first back-to-back losing seasons, they lost long-time coach Trevor Adair, who resigned in June following his arrest for allegedly assaulting his two daughters, and they opened with a 3-1 defeat to unheralded Gardner-Webb.

Still, Clemson enjoys remarkable support. Its annual match with state rival South Carolina is one of the best draws in college, as evidenced by the 6,121 fans who turned out on Friday at Riggs Field. Clemson lost, 1-0, but not without trying. In the second half, Francklin Blaise hit the post, and Mike Mattson‘s header was tipped off the crossbar and out of play.

“I’m disappointed, but I’m staying positive,” said Clemson interim coach Phil Hindson. “In the first two matches, we have not scored the first goal and that is hard.” He liked how the Tigers moved the ball around during the second half against South Carolina. “Our players cannot give any more effort,” he added. “They have played reasonably well in the first two games. I know that taking this many shots that something good will happen.”

* For the second game in a row, Aaron O’Neal scored twice for No. 14 Boston University, leading the Terriers to a 3-0 win over Providence. Also on Monday, DePaul handed No. 17 Northwestern its first loss of the season when it beat its Chicago area rival, 2-1. No. 8 UC Irvine improved to 3-0-0 when it beat Cleveland State, 2-0, to win its UC Irvine College Classic.

Monday’s results

* The shocker: LIU’s 2-0 win over Santa Clara …

SMALL COLLEGE NEWS … Division II Saint Leo was forced to cancel two women’s games because five players were among 17 students confirmed to have come down with swine flu.

Saint Leo, the preseason favorite to win the Sunshine State Conference, was scheduled to open with games at West Florida against the 2008 NCAA Division II runner-up and Delta State.

It marked the second straight week the UWF women had a game canceled. The Argos’ opener against Thomas was canceled because of thunderstorms A men’s game between West Florida and St. Leo went ahead in Pensacola and the UWF won, 2-1.

WOMEN’S NEWS … North Carolina, No. 1 in the Soccer America Women’s Top 25 for the third week in a row, again scored early and often. Two weeks after it beat last year’s NCAA semifinalist UCLA, 7-2, Carolina won, 6-0, at 2008 runner-up Notre Dame.

Against the Bruins, it won only 41 seconds for Tobin Heath to score the first goal. On Friday night, sophomore forward Courtney Jones beat that, scoring after only 23 seconds.

Against UCLA, Carolina had three goals on the board after 13 minutes. In South Bend, it took slightly longer, only 20 minutes.

“It’s disappointing to come out and play like we did, especially when we had such an amazing crowd on the first night in this wonderful new stadium,” said Notre Dame coach Randy Waldrum.

The game drew a sellout crowd of 3,000 at the new Alumni Stadium.

* Besides Carolina, four other ACC teams are still perfect after three weeks: No. 4 Florida State (5-0-0), No. 5 Boston College (3-0-0), No. 10 Wake Forest (6-0-0) and No. 18 Maryland (5-0-0). The Terrapins are the big surprise, beating Santa Clara, 1-0, on sophomore Ashley Grove‘s game to extend its winning streak to five games, their longest in a decade. The key, according to Coach Brian Pensky, is the Terrapins are playing with a lot of confidence.

* With 2-1 wins over ranked Florida and Mercer, No. 12 Indiana matched its best start ever at 5-0-0. Leigh Anne Cummings won the Florida game with a golden goal, while Kelly Lawrence assisted on both goals in the comeback against Mercer. As big as the Florida win was, IU coach Mick Lyon like the Mercer victory just as much. “[Mercer] is a very good team and will win a lot of games this year.”

*TOP 25 ACTION:
Sunday, Sept. 6
No. 8 UCLA 3 (Leroux 51, Larsen 75, Lang 88) No. 7 Florida 0.

Friday, Sept. 4
No. 4 Notre Dame 0 No. 1 North Carolina 6 (Jones 1, McDonald 7, 55, Klingenberg 20, Bartok 37, Nogueira 50)
No. 3 Portland 2 (Reed 21, 44) No. 23 Colorado College 0.
No. 5 Florida State 2 (Huster 57, Lim 81) No. 10 Penn State 1 (Toney 79).
No. 16 Illinois 1 (Nweke 37)  No. 8 UCLA 2 (Leroux 4, Cheney 79).
No. 14 California 1 (Kevorkian 70) No. 13 Texas A&M 0.

This weekend’s Top 25 results and goal scorers

MEN’S NEWS … Heading into the 2009 season, Akron had several question marks. Who would replace Hermann Trophy winner Steve Zakuani, who left after his sophomore season and signed with MLS’s Seattle Sounders FC? And who would replace four-year starter Evan Bush in goal?

After the opening weekend of play, it looked like the Zips have found a replacement for Bush but finding a goalscorer to replace Zakuani will be a bit harder.

Freshman goalkeeper David Meves earned a pair of shutouts as Akron beat SMU and Tulsa by 1-0 scores to sweep the to the Radisson Tulsa Airport Classic and move into the top spot in the Soccer America Men’s Top 25.

For the time being, Akron will get its goals by committee. The Zips hit the post twice against SMU and needed a penalty kick from Blair Gavin to win on Friday. Another midfielder, Anthony Ampaipitakwong, had the goal against Tulsa.

* It was not a great week for the three ACC teams ranked in the Preseason Top 25. North Carolina had to settle for a 1-1 tie with Northern Illinois and fell to No. 2 behind Akron in this week’s rankings. Defending national champion Maryland lost to UCLA, 2-0, in its opener, while 2007 champion Wake Forest managed only four goals (one an own goal) in three games and went 2-0-1. But before you write off the ACC …

— Virginia put a horrible preseason behind it and beat Portland, 3-0, and Washington, 2-1, at the Portland Nike Invitational. Sophomore Tony Tchani, back after missing the last part of the 2008 season with a knee injury, set the tone with two goals in the first 15 minutes in the opener against Portland.

— Duke and N.C. State both won two games at the Duke/Nike Classic to move to 3-0-0. Denver, the defending MPSF champion, arrived in Durham with a No. 25 ranking, but N.C. State blew the Pioneers away, 4-0, and Duke won, 2-0, two days later.

*TOP 25 ACTION:
Sunday, Sept. 6
No. 22 Tulsa 0 No. 2 Akron 1 (Ampaipitakwong 10)
No. 3 St. John’s 2 (Wegge Gundhus 68, Becerra 90) No. 10 Notre Dame 0.
No. 4 Indiana 1 (Alexander 52) No. 5 Wake Forest 2 (own goal 13, Randolph 72)
No. 8 Maryland 2 (Herrick 5, 96) No. 7 California 1 (Salciccia 78) (OT).

Saturday, Sept. 5
No. 6 Creighton 1 (Sinovic 81) No. 20 Cal Poly 0.
No. 13 Connecticut 0 No. 24 Boston Univ. 3 (Berube 30, O’Neal 86, 90)

Friday, Sept. 4
No. 4 Indiana 0 No. 3 St. John’s 0.
No. 5 Wake Forest 1 (Norman 13) No. 10 Notre Dame 1 (Thomas pen. 77).
No. 8 Maryland 0 No. 9 UCLA 2 (Alvarado 77, Hollingshead 83).

This weekend’s Top 25 results and goal scorers

* CROWD COUNT:
— Maryland drew a record crowd of 6,718 fans at Ludwig Field on Friday night for its game against UCLA. The game had a festive atmosphere. Students wore commemorative red and black scarves to celebrate last year’s NCAA title, and the Terrapin players raced through the goal Coach Sasho Cirovski paid $10,000 and shipped from Pizza Hut Park, where they beat North Carolina in the ’08 final. The Terps have the goal from their 2005 national championship in another corner of the field.

— In a game that started Friday night and ended early Saturday morning, Bradley drew a record crowd of 2,612 for its 1-1 tie with Memphis on Fox Soccer Channel. The Busey Bank Kickoff Festival included a promotion that allowed Peoria fans to pick up a coupon for one free ticket at 19 locations.

— Other big men’s crowds included 3,920 for the first day of the adidas/IU Credit Union Classic, 3,495 for Boston University’s 3-0 win at Connecticut and 2,938 for UC Santa Barbara’s 2-0 win at West Virginia.