Tag: college men

One of the best drawing men’s programs in the country is Creighton, which is averaging more than 4,000 fans a game in 2007. Tulsa stunned a crowd of 4,023 at Morrison Stadium Saturday night when it scored three second-half goals to beat the previously unbeaten Bluejays, 3-1.

Notre Dame was the big winner on a weekend that saw three Big East teams fall from the unbeaten and untied ranks. The Irish downed Rutgers, 2-0, getting a goal and an assist from senior Ryan Miller in a nationally televised match that drew a crowd of 6,309 fans at Yurcak Field on Friday night. Two days later,  Jeb Brovsky scored his first goal of the season to give the Irish a 1-0 win at Villanova.

[FOCUS] The Big East has three men’s teams ranked among the top seven teams in the Soccer America rankings — No. 2 Connecticut, No. 3 Notre Dame and No. 7 West Virginia — and they will all be tested this weekend. As the Big East moves into full swing, four upstarts, all unranked nationally in the Soccer America Preseason Top 25, are off to great starts. South Florida (5-0-0) has broken into the Soccer America Top 25 at No. 23, while DePaul (4-0-0), Villanova (5-1-0) and Syracuse (3-0-3) could crack the Top 25 with big weekends.

[PROFILES] What a difference a year makes. The 2006 season was a largely forgettable one for Virginia’s Barlow brothers, Jeremy and Neil, but they have recovered to lead the fourth-ranked Cavaliers to a 5-1-0 start. Both are starting in midfield, and Neil Barlow scored the first goal in a 2-1 comeback victory over Campbell on Wednesday, his third goal of the season.

[WEDNESDAY ACTION] ACC men’s powers Duke and Maryland rebounded from disappointing losses on Saturday to record wins against tough non-conference foes — tuneups for their big showdown on Saturday night in Durham. No. 17 Duke (4-2-0) needed a penalty kick by Mike Grella in the 79th minute to escape with a 2-1 win over South Carolina. Sophomore Drew Yates scored his third goal of the season to lead No. 18 Maryland past Old Dominion, 1-0.

[INJURY] Creighton star Byron Dacy‘s comeback bid was short-lived. The junior forward will miss the remainder of the season due to a torn left ACL he suffered during the Bluejays’ exhibition match against Ohio State on Aug. 18. He came back to play two minutes against UCLA on Sept. 8 and played 19 minutes off the bench last Saturday against Loyola Marymount, scoring the game-winning goal in overtime for Creighton, ranked No. 8 in the country.

[TUESDAY ACTION] Junior Alejandro Bedoya is one of the nation’s most influential transfers. Bedoya, who earned All-Northeast Conference first-team honors in 2005 and 2006 at Fairleigh Dickinson, doubled his season totals with one goal and three assists and led No. 13 Boston College to an 8-0 win over Maine.

[MEN’S PREVIEW] Notre Dame will open the 2007 campaign Friday at the adidas/IU Credit Union Classic when the ninth-ranked Fighting Irish face No. 1 UCLA. It was at last year’s tournament in Bloomington that Joseph Lapira scored four goals in a 5-4 win over Indiana, beginning his remarkable campaign that resulted in his being named the Soccer America Player of the Year and Hermann Trophy winner. Notre Dame, which meets No. 7 Maryland on Sunday, is coming off a hot preseason during which it topped No. 18 New Mexico and No. 16 Northwestern by identical 3-0 scores.

[POLL] Veteran coach Tim Hankinson is off to a winning start at Ft. Lewis. The Skyhawks defeated Barry, 1-0, last Saturday in their 2007 opener to move into the top spot in the NSCAA/adidas NCAA Men’s Division II Top 25. Midfielder Kieran Hall, who represented Great Britain this summer at the World University Games in Thailand, scored the game’s lone goal. Defending champion Dowling fell from the top spot when it lost to Massachusetts-Lowell, 3-2.

Logan Fleck has been hired as the interim men’s coach at Division I Stetson a day after Sean Murphy resigned his position as the head men’s coach. The shakeup came in the middle of preseason training and followed Murphy’s placement under administrative suspension. According to the Daytona Beach News-Journal, records showed Murphy was arrested on Aug. 17 for driving under the influence in Ormond Beach — his second arrest for drinking and driving in his nine years at Stetson.

Duke head men’s coach John Rennie has announced that the 2007 season will be his last. Rennie built Duke into one of the elite programs in the country, earning the school’s first national championship in any sport in 1986 and leading his squad to five Men’s College Cups (1982, 1986, 1992, 1995 and 2004). Rennie’s Blue Devils have won five ACC titles, including back-to-back titles in 2005 and 2006.

[MEN’S TOP 25 PREVIEWS: 21-25] North Carolina lost seven starters — including MLS Rookie of the Year candidate Michael Harrington — and then red-shirt freshman Eric Lichaj signed with Aston Villa of the English Premier League late in the summer. Those losses would sidetrack most programs, but UNC has one of the deepest squads in the country.

The Santa Clara was selected as the preseason favorite to capture its second straight West Coast Conference title, edging out San Francisco for the first-place spot in the 2007 WCC preseason coaches poll.

New Mexico tops the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) preseason poll for the fifth consecutive year, garnering five of  the six top votes and 25 points.

Defending champion Fairfield has been chosen to win this year’s MAAC men’s title in a preseason poll of the league’s 10 head coaches.

Connecticut and St. John’s have been picked to capture the 2007 Big East men’s regular-season divisional titles in a vote by the league’s 16 head coaches.