WHAT’S ON TAP IN THE WAC
Houston Baptist opens week three with a game at IUPUI. On Friday, Kansas City takes on No. 9 Tulsa in Dallas while Bakersfield travels to 20th ranked and defending national champion Indiana. The Roadrunners continue their road trip with a match at No. 8 Louisville on Sunday. Air Force and Seattle U face Oregon State and Portland this weekend. The Falcons’ game at Oregon State on Sunday will be shown on the Pac-12 network.
PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
OFFENSIVE – UNLV’s Rodrigo Fuentes, a sophomore midfielder from San Diego, Calif. (San Ysidro HS), tallied eight points over the weekend, with three goals and two assists on the way to earning Most Outstanding Player honors at the UNLV Invitational. Fuentes opened the week with a career-best five-point game in UNLV’s 4-1 win against previously undefeated and unscored upon Bradley. He had an assist in the first half, and then in the second, Fuentes scored two goals in a four-minute span to put the game away. On Sunday against Georgia State, the Rebels fell behind 2-1 when Fuentes took a free kick, and sent a shot curving around the wall to the right side of the goal for the tying score. He then assisted on the final score to again put the game away, 4-2.
DEFENSIVE – Bakersfield’s Anthony Perez, a sophomore goalkeeper from Fontana, Calif. (Bloomington HS), posted back-to-back shutouts as the Roadrunners defeated Sacramento State, 3-0, on Friday and UC Davis, 2-0, on Sunday to win the Copa De Causeway Tournament. Perez turned away penalty kicks in both matches and made four saves against the Hornets and six saves against the Aggies.
Others nominated on offense:
Eduardo Caldaza, So., MF, Bakersfield - scored three of Bakersfield’s five goals in the Roadrunners’ two wins over the weekend. He came off the bench to score a goal against Sacramento State and then had both goals in Bakersfield’s 2-0 win over UC Davis.
Kyle Ciliento, Sr., F, Grand Canyon - in three games last week, Ciliento attempted a WAC-high 15 shots and put five on goal. He had one goal and an assist in Grand Canyon’s 2-2 tie at Stetson.
Gustavo Alvarado, Jr., F, Houston Baptist - had a game-winning goal in the second overtime of a 2-1 win at Oral Roberts, his first collegiate goal.
Also nominated on defense:
Ante Spajic, So., D, Grand Canyon - played every minute in his team’s three games and picked up his first assist of the season in the match at Jacksonville.
George Kelley, So., GK, Houston Baptist - picked up his first win as a goalkeeper with one save in the Huskies, 2-1, double overtime victory at Oral Roberts.
Joe Vitale, Sr., GK, UNLV - was named the Most Outstanding Defensive Player of the UNLV Nike Invitational after helping the Rebels to two wins. He had four saves in a 4-1 win over Bradley and then shut out Georgia State in the final 59 minutes on Sunday.
Jake Feener, Sr., GK, Seattle U - allowed one goal against both UC Davis and Sacramento State in 200 minutes and made 12 saves in the two matches over the weekend.
FUENTES EARNS ADDITIONAL HONOR
UNLV midfielder Rodrigo Fuentes picked up a pair of weekly honors on Monday. Besides being named WAC Offensive Player of the Week, he was named to the College Soccer News Team of the Week. He is the first Rebel to earn weekly national team honors since Lamar Neagle on Oct. 13, 2008 from TopDrawerSoccer.com.
NATIONAL STATISTICS
The first national stats report was released on Monday and UNLV’s Rodrigo Fuentes is in the top five in the statistical categories. Fuentes is third in the nation in total assists with three and four the in the country in total points with nine. Nationally, UNLV is the in the top 10 in total goals (8th-10), total assists (9th-9) and total points (10th-29).
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.
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
Plays four of its first five matches on the road with the only home contest coming last Saturday against Army ... 1,658 fans attended the match, the most of any WAC team at home this year ... Army scored the only goal of the game in the 72nd minute ... Air Force outshot the cadets, 16-11 during the game but Army had six shots on goal compared to just four for the Falcons ... Air Force goalie Jake Schenk made a career-high five saves ... there were a total of seven yellow cards, six coming on the Army side ... 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
Bakersfield continues its five-game road trip to open 2013 this weekend at Indiana and Louisville ... the 3-0 win over Sacramento State last Friday was the fourth consecutive shutout victory over the Hornets for the Roadrunners ... Bakersfield has outscored Sacramento State, 14-0, since 2011 ... Eduardo Caldaza became the first Roadrunner to score two goals in a match since Sept. 26, 2010 ... Caldaza scored both goals in the 2-0 win over UC Davis on Sunday ... his goals were the first scored by either team in the series since the 2010 season as both matches in 2011 and 2012 were scoreless double-overtime ties ... the back-to-back shutouts are the first for Bakersfield since recording five straight in 2011.
Grand Canyon Antelopes
Opens the season with eight consecutive road matches and does not host a non-conference home game (9 matches) ... in its 3-1 loss at Jacksonville, Kyle Ciliento led the offense for GCU with six shots, two of which were on goal ... Gerrit Thomes, who recorded his first goal of the season, and Alberto Sanchez Garcia attempted four shots apiece ... in the 2-2 tie at Stetson, GCU outshot its opponent, 30-12 ... Jose Rodriguez Nieblas had his first goal of the season in that game ... 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
Junior F Gustavo Alvarado’s goal against Oral Roberts was the first of his collegiate career after missing most of the season last year due to injury ... is in the middle of a six-match road trip to open the season and plays nine of its first 10 matches on the road ... plays just one non-conference home match when it hosts Oral Roberts on Oct. 1 ... freshman Tobenna Uzo is tied for the WAC lead with three goals on the season ... he has scored one goal in all three games for the Huskies ... he had one on Monday night against Butler to close the deficit to 2-1, but the Bulldogs added two goals in the final minute to put the match away.
Kansas City Kangaroos
After opening at home, is in the middle of a four-match road trip and a stretch of six of seven away from home ... Friday night’s game at Memphis started 28 minutes late due to bus issues ... GK Chris McGaughey had four saves while Memphis made just one in the 1-0 win for the Tigers ... was shut out for the second straight match, 3-0, at Central Arkansas ... had just one shot in the first half against the Bears ... has scored just one goal in its first three matches ... is second in the WAC in goals against average with 1.55 per game ... Kevin Corby leads the WAC in GAA (0.58) and save percentage (.800) ... the Kangaroos have attempted nine corners, tied for the fewest in the WAC this season.
UNLV Rebels
Scored four goals against both Bradley and Georgia State ... it was the first time in 22 years that the Rebels scored at least four goals in back-to-back matches ... Rodrigo Fuentes’ five points against Bradley are the most by a WAC player in a match this season ... GK Joe Vitale had four saves against Bradley and two versus Georgia State ... the Rebels only allowed three shots in the first half against Georgia State, but found themselves trailing 2-1 before scoring three unanswered goals ... UNLV outshot Georgia State, 26-5, and 10-3 on goal ... has scored 10 goals on the year, twice as many as the next best team in the WAC ... UNLV played men’s soccer in the WAC for three seasons from 1996-1998.
San Jose State Spartans
Freshman Rory Knibbs scored the first goal of his collegiate career to give the Spartans a 1-0 advantage, but San Francisco responded with two goals to post a 2-1 win in the Spartans only match last week ... the goal was the first for San Jose State on the year after being shut out in its first two matches ... GK Felix Petermann is third in the WAC in GAA (1.40) ... the Spartans return home on Friday for a match against Fresno Pacific and will be looking for their first home goal of the season ... 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
Is opening its season with six-straight road matches ... plays two more on the road before hosting Georgia State on Sept. 20 in is home opener ... GK Jake Feener played all 200 minutes in goal over the weekend for the Redhawks ... Feener and Miguel Gonzalez were named to the Copa De Causeway all-tournament team ... Feener allowed just two goals over the weekend while Gonzalez scored the first goal of the game against Sacramento State that ended in a 1-1 tie ... Feener had eight saves against Sacramento State, tying his own mark for the most by a WAC player this year ... was outshot by UC Davis 21-5.