THIS WEEK IN THE WAC ?“ The WAC enters week seven, the first week of league play. The league sports a .386 winning percentage against the rest of the country. There are three non-conference matches this week, including Utah State traveling to Orem for a match with Utah Valley State. UVSC then travels to Reno for a battle with Nevada. Fresno State faces Golden State rival Santa Clara. Conference play opens up Friday, Oct. 7 with San Jose State at Boise State and Idaho at Hawai'i. It is Idaho?™s first-ever WAC match. WAC continues with four matches, Sunday, Oct. 9. Louisiana Tech and Utah State do battle in both of their first-ever WAC matches, while Fresno State travels Nevada. Idaho returns to the mainland for San Jose State, while Boise State takes to the sky, traveling to Honolulu for a match with Hawai'i.
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XBOX LIVE PLAYERS OF THE WEEK ?“ Louisiana Tech forward Emily Cleaveland and Boise State goalkeeper Michaela Morrison have been named the Xbox Live Western Athletic Conference women?™s soccer offensive and defensive Players of the Week, respectively.
Cleaveland, a freshman from The Woodlands, Texas, was an integral part to Tech?™s two wins last week, with one goal and one assist at William Carey College and three goals and one assist against Nicholls State at home. Cleaveland?™s hat trick was the first in the WAC this year and the first posted by a Lady Techster since the team?™s inception last year.
Morrison, a sophomore from Boise, Idaho, played in both matches over the weekend in Texas recording a combined 13 saves out of 14 shots on goal faced (92.9 save percentage). Morrison also stopped her second penalty kick in two weeks, this time against Texas A&M late in the match deflecting it wide right. With the PK stop Morrison set a new school record for career penalty kick saves with two, she now owns two of the four Bronco PK stops all-time. In the two weekend matches Morrison faced 26 overall shots in 90 minutes and allowed only one scoring strike. She played one half in each of the matches this weekend. Morrison shut out TCU in her first half start against the Horned Frogs recording two saves.
Other offensive nominees included: None
Other defensive nominees included: Brittany Davis, Louisiana Tech
NATIONAL POLLS - Click on the following links to view the current national polls.
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SoccerBuzz.com
National | West | Central
SoccerTimes.com
SoccerAmerica Magazine
NEVADA POSTS SCHOOL RECORD FOR WINS ?“ Nevada, in just its second season under head coach Terri Patraw, has set a new single-season record for wins. Only 10 matches into the season, the Wolf Pack has tallied five wins, topping the mark of four set three previous times. With eight matches left in the regular-season schedule, Nevada is well on its way to its best-ever season.
NEVADA?™S ROBINSON NAMED TO ELITE TEAM OF THE WEEK ?“ Nevada defender Randee Robinson has been named to the Soccer Buzz Elite Team of the Week (Sept. 26). She earned the nod along with 10 other national players.This is the first national player of the week honor for the Wolf Pack soccer program. Robinson, a freshman from Port Orchard, Wash., not only anchored a defense that posted back-to-back shutouts but registered two goals in the process. The defender scored both of her goals in the 3-0 victory over the Cougars.
KAI BECOMES WAC?™S CAREER SHOTS LEADERS ?“ Hawai'i senior forward Natasha Kai, became the new career leader for shots, with six against Robert Morris, giving her 369. She passed BYU?™s Shauna Rohbuck who posted 368 from 1995-98. Kai continues her pace, firing 11 last week to move her career total to 380.
LOUISIANA TECH IN NATION'S TOP 10 ?“ Louisiana Tech is ranked third nationally in scoring offense. The Lady Techsters offense has posted 4.20 goals per match this season. It?™s not just all offense for Tech, as they have posted six shutouts in 2005, ranking 17th nationally with a 0.60 shutout percentage.
LOUISIANA TECH POSTS FIFTH DOMINATING WIN ?“ Louisiana Tech, in just its second year as a progam, registered its fourth and fifth dominating performances last week. The Lady Techsters posted eight goals in a win over William Carey, followed by a, 7-0, win over Nicholls State. In that win, Emily Cleaveland posted the conference?™s first hat trick, with three goals. Louisiana Tech has three other wins of seven or more. Tech routed Robert Morris, 7-0, Belhaven, 8-0, and Arkansas-Pine Bluff, 8-1.
WELL TRAVELED ?“ Three WAC schools have played four consecutive road matches this year in Boise State, Fresno State and San Jose State. The Bulldogs concluded its trip at Pacific, falling 3-1. The Bulldogs started the trip off well, earning a, 2-1, win over CS Northridge, but fell to San Francisco (3-0), Sacramento State (1-0). San Jose State finished its road trip, 0-4, falling to CS Fullerton, Long Beach State, Stanford and UC Riverside. Boise State?™s four-match road trip continued at Texas A&M, falling 2-0, and finished at TCU, falling, 1-0, in overtime. The Broncos earned two wins in its first two matches, defeating IUPUI , 4-1 and playing to a double-overtime draw with Southern Utah, 1-1.
ONE YEAR AGO THIS WEEK ?“ With the soccer season hitting conference play, we take a look back one year ago to see how teams fair compared to last season. On October 1, 2004, the beginning of WAC play last season, Hawai'i had the best record of the continuing members. The Wahine were 7-2-1, compared to 3-6-2 in 2005. Boise State reflects its performance from a year ago, when its was 6-4, going 6-4-2 this season. Fresno State has posted two more losses than a year ago, coming into this week 3-6-1, against 3-4-1 record in 2004. Nevada has made a big improvement, turning around a 2-6-1, non-conference record into a 5-4-1 record in 2005. San Jose State was 2-7 in 2004, bettering its 0-9-2 record in 2005. Louisiana Tech has made the biggest improvement, going from 0-5 in '04, to 7-3 in '05. Idaho and Utah State, both Big West members in 2004, were 2-5 and 3-6, respectively. The Vandals are now 2-9, while the Aggies are 2-6-3.
TARPENNING MOVING UP SAVES LISTS ?“ Nevada senior goalkeeper Megan Tarpenning has posted 22 saves in 10 matches this year, moving her into fourth on the WAC?™s all-time list with 365. Tarpenning needs just eight more saves to tie Tawni Martineau of Utah for third.
KAI MOVING UP RECORD LISTS ?“ Kai has posted six goals this season, moving her career total to 63 which is good for third and is four behind Kim Harvey of SMU for second. At 142 career points, Kai is 14 points behind SMU?™s Kim Harvey who is second. Kai set a new single-season record for shots at 130 in 2004. She passed BYU?™s Shauna Rohbuck who tallied 108 in 1996. She set the new shots mark in the conference-season as well, as she tallied 49 shots, to top 44 by Sherry Dick of TCU in 2000.
SOCCER FORMAT ?“ With the addition of Idaho, Louisiana Tech and Utah State and the loss of Rice, SMU, UTEP and Tulsa, the WAC has taken on a new format. Along with the Vandals, Lady Techsters and Aggies, Boise State, Fresno State, Hawai'i, Nevada and San Jose State all sponsor a women?™s soccer program. The WAC will continue its regular-season play as a single round-robin format for a total of eight conference matches, but will add in a points system. Each team will receive three points for a win and one point for a tie. The six teams with the most points at the end of the regular season will advance to the WAC Tournament.
WAC ENTERS NEW ERA ?“ The WAC is a nine-team league with the additions of Idaho, New Mexico State and Utah State following the departures of Rice, SMU, UTEP and Tulsa. It is the third time in conference history that the WAC will be comprised of nine teams (1980-91 and 2000). Only Idaho and Utah State sponsor women?™s soccer. Louisiana Tech added a women?™s soccer progam in 2004, but this will be the first year it competes in the WAC.
NCAA OPPONENTS ?“ Of the 95 non-conference matchups, 17 are against teams that played in the NCAA Tournament last year and six are at WAC home sites. Seven teams in the WAC play at least one non-conference opponent that competed in the NCAA Tournament last year while Boise State, Fresno State, San Jose State and Utah State are playing a WAC-high three NCAA opponents. Hawai'i and Idaho are playing two, while Nevada is playing one.
UNLV def. Nevada, 5-0
Utah def. Boise State, 3-0
Pepperdine def. Hawai'i, 2-0
UNLV def. Utah State, 2-1
Utah def. Idaho, 4-1
Stanford def. San Jose State, 5-0
Bowling Green def. Boise State, 1-0
Cal Poly def. San Jose State, 4-1
Hawai'i tied Weber State, 0-0 (2OT)
Cal Poly def. Fresno State, 3-0
Weber State def. Idaho, 2-1
Fresno State def. UNLV, 1-0
Utah def. Utah State, 3-0
Santa Clara def. San Jose State, 2-1
Texas A&M def. Boise State, 2-0
Weber State def. Utah State, 1-0
Fresno State at Santa Clara, Oct. 7
COLLEGE CUP ?“ The 24th Annual Women?™s College Cup will be held December 2-4 at the Aggie Soccer Complex in College Station, Texas. Last season, the WAC had two teams compete in postseason play, with Rice and SMU both falling in the first round. Visit ncaasports.com/soccer/womens/schedules/divi for more information.
TIE-BREAKING PROCEDURE ?“ To determine championship seeding in the event of ties between two teams or ties among multiple teams, the following criteria are applied:
In the event of a two-way tie:
1. Head-to-head competition
2. Compare the teams?™ records to that of the next highest finishing team (if tie for first). If tie is for position other than first, comparisn will begin at the top of the standings.
3. In the unlikely event that teams are still tied, the conference conducts a draw.
For a three or more-way tie:
1. Head-to-head competition among the teams involved in the tie. The team(s) with the best record against the other teams receives the higher seed or advances to the next tie-breaker.
2. Same procedures as above.