Tag: college men

Paul Kennedy continues the Men’s Elite 8 Countdown
Everyone knows about Notre Dame star Joseph Lapira, the Ragin’ Cajun who parlayed a breakout season last year into a callup from the Irish national team last spring. But the Louisianan is only a part of an outstanding senior class that led the Fighting Irish back to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament, where they face Wake Forest Saturday.

Paul Kennedy recaps the stunning developments
1-4-6-9-14-16. It reads like the numbers on a lottery ticket. No, those are the seeds who fell Wednesday in the second round of the NCAA Division I Men’s Tournament.

Bradley heads to Indiana as the decided underdog against the No. 4 seed Hoosiers Wednesday in the second round of the NCAA Division I Men’s Tournament, but there’s no one betting against the Braves after what they’ve overcome this season. Soccer has been their refuge this fall following the death of one of their players in a fire caused by a prank involving three of his teammates.

[NAIA] Southern California rivals Azusa Pacific and Concordia will meet Tuesday in the final of the NAIA Men’s National Championships in Olathe, Kan. Azusa Pacific advanced to the final for the third straight year with a 1-0 win over Simon Fraser on Steven Lenhart‘s goal. Jeff Clark‘s overtime goal gave Concordia a 2-1 win over Auburn-Montgomery in Tuesday’s other semifinal.

A big week of Division I men’s conference tournament play began on Tuesday with wins by Virginia in the ACC, Towson and VCU in the CAA and Hartwick and Northern Illinois in the Mid-American. For all the conference tournament results and goalscorers, as well as schedules and television updates …

No. 1 Wake Forest’s 3-1 victory over Virginia on Friday night kept the Demon Deacons at No. 1in the  Soccer America Men’s Top 25 for the ninth time in 11 weeks and knocked the slumping Cavaliers (1-5-2 in the ACC!) out of the Top 25. All six teams behind Wake remained in the same spot after recording wins over the weekend. For the complete Top 25 …

Five unanimous selections highlighted the All-Big Ten first team, including Ohio State forward Xavier Balc, the 2007 Player of the Year. Striker Doug DeMartin (Michigan State), midfielders Brad Ring (Indiana) and David Roth (Northwestern) and defender Eric Brunner (Ohio State) were also unanimously selected by the conference coaches.

No. 1 Wake Forest showed just how potent its attack is by scoring four goals in eight minutes to break open a close game against Davidson and roll, 5-1. Zack Schilawski and Cody Arnoux each scored twice for the Deacons, who improved to 14-1-2. For all Tuesday’s scores …

[MAKING A LIST] UCLA, Soccer America’s men’s preseason No. 1 pick, is unranked in this week’s Top 25. But 15 of the top 20 teams in Soccer America’s preseason rankings are still ranked. Current No. 1 Wake Forest was No. 2 in the preseason. Three teams are back to the exact spot that they began the season: SMU at No. 5, Indiana at No. 12 and Northwestern at No. 16. For a look at where the teams ranked in the preseason rank today …

The NCAA has released its second RPI for NCAA Division I men’s teams. Soccer America examines the 48 teams that would made the NCAA Tournament as of the NCAA’s late-season snapshot  — the top-ranked team from each of the 22 conferences and the 26 next highest-ranked teams. The latest RPI shows strength for the Big East, ACC and Big Ten. It’s a weak year for the Pac-10, and the CAA has fallen sharply. For Soccer America’s projected 48 and conference rankings …

[TOP 25 ACTION] Nine of the 11 Top 25 men’s teams in action on Wednesday played on the road, and only No. 11 Michigan State returned home with a loss. The Spartans dropped their second straight 2-0 decision, falling at Cincinnati in non-conference action. No. 4 Brown, No. 6 Boston College, No. 9 Indiana, No. 14 UC Santa Barbara, No. 17 Duke and No. 19 West Virginia all won on the road.

[FEATURE] Alejandro Bedoya is making a strong case for ACC Player of the Year honors at Boston College after transferring Fairleigh Dickinson. California JC star Oscar Castillo has been an invaluable addition to the UConn backline. Andrei Gotsmanov, son of a former Soviet international star, has emerged from a two-year layoff to star at Creighton. Virginia Tech took the unusual route of bringing in 6-foot-6 Englishman Robert Edmans and Germans Georg Zehender and Stefan Hock from European universities. All are first-year transfers, and all are playing big roles at Top 10 programs.

Maryland coach Sasho Cirovski has issued a warning: “We’re a lot better than some people think out there right now.” He likes the progress his young team has made in recent weeks. The Terrapins, 3-4-1 at one point in the season, have quietly run off an eight-game unbeaten streak and slipped this week to the Soccer America Men’s Top 25 at No. 21.

[MAKING A LIST] Colleges have been recruiting Icelanders for several decades. With the success of Columbia’s Rikki Dadason (the Lions’ all-time leading scorer with 50 goals) and UNC Greensboro’s Siggi Eyjolfsson (the first Icelander to be named a first-team All-American), a pipeline of players from Iceland to U.S. colleges developed.