WHAT’S ON TAP IN THE WAC
Conference play begins this Saturday with all eight teams playing each other. UNLV travels to Bakersfield, Kansas City is at Houston Baptist, Grand Canyon hosts Air Force and Seattle U welcomes San Jose State.
PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
OFFENSIVE – Kansas City’s Jordan Rideout, a junior forward from Southport, England (Blue Valley North HS, Ks.), scored a goal in the 43rd minute of Kansas City’s 1-1 tie against Omaha last week. It was the 16th of his career, tying him for eighth all time at UMKC. For the week, Rideout had eight shots, including four on goal, in the ‘Roos two matches.
DEFENSIVE – San Jose State’s Emmanuel Espinosa, a sophomore goalkeeper from San Jose, Calif. (Evergreen Valley HS), posted his first shutout of the season in a scoreless tie against Saint Mary’s on Sunday night. He had a season-high seven saves, including one in each of the overtime periods, in recording his third clean sheet of his career.
Others nominated on offense:
Alberto Sanchez, So., F, Grand Canyon - attempted four shots and scored in the 84th minutes of the ‘Lopes 3-2 loss at Cal State Fullerton last week. It was his first goal of the season.
Also nominated on defense:
Jamiesh Holait, Sr., D, Grand Canyon - played the entire 90 minutes in the loss at Cal State Fullerton and helped the defense limit the Titans to one goal in the second half as Grand Canyon scored twice after the intermission. He also attempted one shot in the game.
SAN JOSE STATE RECORDS SCORELESS DRAW
Sunday night’s 0-0 tie against Saint Mary’s was the first scoreless match in the WAC this season. Saint Mary’s outshot the Spartans, 16-12, including 7-5 on goal. San Jose State had no shots in the first overtime, but had three in the second extra period.
NATIONAL STATISTICS
In this week’s national stats report, Seattle U’s Jake Feener continues to lead the nation in total saves (66). The next best in the country is 59 saves by Georgia Southern’s Neal Bates. Feener is second in the nation in saves per game with 7.33. As a team, Seattle U is tops in the nation in saves per game (7.44).
MEN’S SOCCER RETURNS TO THE WAC
For the first time since 1999, the WAC is sponsoring men’s soccer. The league is made up of eight teams divided into two divisions and includes both full time members of the WAC and affiliates. The East Division is comprised of Air Force (affiliate), Grand Canyon, Houston Baptist (affiliate) and Kansas City. The West Division consists of Bakersfield, UNLV (affiliate), San Jose State (affiliate) and Seattle U. Six of the eight teams competed together in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) the past few years while Kansas City comes to the WAC from the Summit League and Grand Canyon is transitioning from Division II to Division I. Air Force and UNLV competed in the WAC from 1996-98 while San Jose State participated in men’s soccer from 1996-99.
REGULAR SEASON FORMAT
Regular-season play consists of a double round-robin format within each division and a single round-robin against the other division for a total of 10 matches. The points system is as follows: each team will receive three points for a win and one point for a tie.
2014 WAC TOURNAMENT
The WAC Men’s Soccer Tournament will be held at the Air Force Academy, November 14-15 and 17. Every team except Grand Canyon will participate as the Antelopes are ineligible due to their transition from Division II to Division I. Tickets are currently on sale and can be purchased online by going to the WAC’s website at wacsports.com and clicking on the Championships link.
FUTURE MEMBERS
The WAC will expand its men’s soccer league over the next couple of years with new programs from some of its full-time members. Utah Valley will begin play in 2014 while it is also expected to add Chicago State and Texas-Pan American in 2015.
TEAM-BY-TEAM NOTES
Air Force Falcons
Is in the midst of a six-match homestand ... is 11-8-2 in its previous 21 conference openers including a 3-0 mark as a WAC member (1996-98) ... freshman goalkeeper Jake Schenk has made 5.17 saves per game, the third best mark in the WAC ... the Falcons’ goal by Zachary Modley against Cal Poly on Sept. 27 was the first for Air Force since the opening match of the season (656 minutes) ... AFA played men’s soccer in the WAC for three seasons from 1996-1998 ... is coming off its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1997 after winning the MPSF tournament last year.
Bakersfield Roadrunners
The loss to No. 24 UC Irvine last week dropped the Roadrunners to 0-3 against nationally ranked opponents this season ... they are 2-10 against top 25 teams since moving to Division I in 2007 ... tonight’s game against South Florida is the first for Bakersfield in the state of Florida since winning the 1997 NCAA Division II National Championship in Boca Raton ... Bakersfield features three players (Zayd, Alex and Armando) with the last name “Flores” but none are related ... head coach Simon Tobin is in his 27th season and is two wins shy of reaching 300 for his career (298-183-53).
Grand Canyon Antelopes
Opens the season with eight consecutive road matches and does not host a non-conference home match ... Kyle Ciliento scored a goal against Cal State Fullerton and is now one shy of tying the school record of 55 career goals ... sophomore F Alberto Sanchez Garcia has put eight of his 19 shot attempts on goal this season ... is making the jump up to Division I this season but is ineligble for the WAC’s and NCAA’s postseason due to the transition ... in 1996, GCU won the NCAA Division II National Championship ... the ‘Lopes have posted eight consecutive winning seasons.
Houston Baptist Huskies
After opening the season with six straight on the road, HBU plays its home opener tonight against Oral Roberts ... the match is the only non-conference home contest for the Huskies ... has a three-match winning streak and has won four of its last five ... is the only WAC team to not be shut out this year ... Tobenna Uzo leads the WAC in goals per game (0.83) and points per game (1.67) ... he is tied for the WAC lead in goals with five ... HBU is tied for the most corners in the WAC this year with 43 ... senior forward Kristopher Tyrpak leads the WAC in shots per game with 4.17.
Kansas City Kangaroos
After scoring one goal in each of its previous four matches and going 1-1-2, Kansas City was shut out in its last match, 1-0, at Drake ... UMKC has allowed the fewest goals in the WAC with 11 in eight matches (1.27 per game) ... has been called offsides a WAC-high 42 times ... Jordan Rideout is tied for third in the WAC in both shots (27) and shots per game (3.38) ... senior GK Kevin Corby leads the WAC in GAA (0.55) and save percentage (.883) ... Chris McGaughey was in goal for the Drake game and made four saves ... he is fourth in the WAC in saves with 28.
UNLV Rebels
The Rebels lost to Sacramento State 1-0 in overtime, last week despite outshooting the Hornets, 26-10 ... 10 different UNLV players were credited with at least one shot while Joaquin Rivas and Salvador Bernal had five each ... Ryan Harding made four saves for the Rebels ... UNLV has scored two goals in its last four matches after scoring eight in its previous two ... UNLV continues to lead the WAC in points (35), assists (11) and goals (12) ... Rodrigo Fuentes leads the WAC in points (11) ... UNLV played men’s soccer in the WAC for three seasons from 1996-1998.
San Jose State Spartans
Plays its next three matches at home ... the 0-0 draw against Saint Mary’s last week was the first scoreless game involving a WAC team this year ... the Spartans have been shut out in each of its last three matches ... faces Seattle U in its WAC opener after beating the Redhawks, 3-0, in the regular season finale of the MPSF last year ... San Jose State played men’s soccer in the WAC for four seasons from 1996-1999 and in two of those years – 1997 and 1999 – produced the conference’s Freshman of the Year.
Seattle U Redhawks
Michael Roberts scored his third goal of the season in the match at Gonzaga last week ... Ian Hines-Ike had two shots against the Bulldogs and is ranked scond on the team with 11 shots in just his first year of collegiate action ... plays the most NCAA tournament opponents from last year of any WAC team in 2013 with three matches ... Jake Feener leads the nation in saves (66) and is second in the country in saves per match (7.33) ... he had nine saves at Gonzaga, his second highest total of the season ... Miguel Gonzalez leads the WAC in shots (30) and is tied for the WAC lead in goals with five.