WHAT’S ON TAP IN THE WAC
Both Bakersfield and Seattle U play their home openers this week. The Roadrunners host UC Riverside on Thursday while Georgia State travels to the Redhawks on Friday. Houston Baptist continues its season-opening six-game road trip with matches on the East Coast at LIU-Brooklyn and Army. Grand Canyon also travels east where it faces New Hampshire on Saturday.
PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
OFFENSIVE – Kansas City’s Tato Chiaparro, a junior forward from Sao Paulo, Brazil (Lewis and Clark CC), helped UMKC claim a share of the SMU Invitational title, going 1-0-1. He scored a goal in the 80th minute against No. 13 Tulsa on Friday night, giving the ‘Roos a 1-0 lead, then scored the lone goal in a 1-0 win over SMU on Sunday night. For his efforts, he was named the SMU Invitational Co-Tournament MVP. For the week, he scored two goals, including a game-winner, on three shots.
DEFENSIVE – Kansas City’s Sylvester Yiadom, a junior defender from Accra, Ghana (Aggrey Smith HSH), earned all-tournament team honors after leading the ‘Roos defense to a shutout win vs. SMU and a 1-1 tie against No. 13 Tulsa over the weekend. Kansas City shared the SMU Invitational title with Tulsa, going 1-0-1. For the week, Yiadom helped UMKC tally a 0.45 goals against average.
Others nominated on offense:
Gerrit Thomas, Sr., MF, Grand Canyon - scored Grand Canyon’s only goal in a 2-1 loss at Stanford. It was his lone shot of the match as the Cardinal allowed just two total shots in the contest.
Stefan Lamanna, Fr., F, Houston Baptist - scored his first collegiate goal on a game-winner against IUPUI on Wednesday. Lamanna came off the bench to play in 33 minutes and scored on his only shot attempt.
Also nominated on defense:
Joshua Zehring, Jr., GK, Grand Canyon - had a season-high eight saves in the match at Stanford. The game-winning goal came via a penalty kick in the first half. Zehring held Stanford scoreless in the final 54 minutes.
George Kelley, So., GK, Houston Baptist - made a career-high six saves in a 2-1 win at IUPUI last week. He came within 13 minutes of earning his first collegiate shutout. Kelley added two saves in a loss against Butler earlier in the week.
Jake Feener, Sr., GK, Seattle U - had 22 saves and a 1.90 goals against average in two matches last week. His save percentage was .846 for the week.
KANSAS CITY EARNS SHARE OF SMU INVITE TITLE
Kansas City and Tulsa were each 1-0-1 at the SMU Invitational over the weekend to share the title. The two teams tied each other on Friday night, 1-1, while Kansas City beat SMU, 1-0, and Tulsa defeated Hartwick, 3-2, in overtime on Sunday. The ‘Roos had four players named to the all-tournament team in Broc Cramer, Guerrero Pino, Sylvester Yiadom and Tato Chiaparro. Chiaparro earned co-tournament MVP honors along with Tulsa’s Omar Mata.
NATIONAL STATISTICS
In this week’s national stats report, Seattle U’s Jake Feener leads the nation in both total saves (49) and saves per game (8.17). The next best in the country are 37 saves and 7.40 per game by both Georgia Southern’s Neal Bates and Ohio State’s Alex Ivanov. As a team, Seattle U leads the nation in saves per game (8.17).
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 its next six matches at home after opening with four of five on the road ... freshman goalkeeper Jake Schenk made a career-high seven saves in the match at Oregon State ... his five saves per game is the second best mark in the WAC ... the Falcons have not scored a goal since getting one less than three minutes into its first game of the season ... has been outscored, 12-1 ... 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
After playing its first five matches on the road, hosts UC Riverside on Thursday in its home opener ... the Roadrunners scored the first goal in both matches last weekend against nationally ranked Indiana and Louisville ... sophomore midfielder Eduardo Caldaza picked up his fourth goal of the year against Louisville, tied for the most by any WAC player this season ... junior midfielder David Velasquez scored goals in both matches last weekend ... Vincez Cenz has been added to the Bakersfield roster this week ... he is a freshman defender from Dortmund, Germany.
Grand Canyon Antelopes
Opens the season with eight consecutive road matches and does not host a non-conference home game (9 matches) ... Joshua Zehring had eight saves in the loss at Stanford ... was outshot by the Cardinal, 25-2, in the match ... GCU is second in the WAC in shots with 78 ... 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
Is completing a six-match road trip to open the season when it travels to LIU Brooklyn and Army this weekend ... 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 ... in its win at IUPUI, sophomore goalie George Kelley made a career-high six saves ... junior Charlie Gagnon scored the first goal of the match in the Huskies 2-1 win at IUPUI ... HBU has attempted the most corners in the WAC this year with 26 ... senior forward Kristopher Tyrpak leads the WAC in shots per game with 4.0.
Kansas City Kangaroos
Has allowed the fewest goals in the WAC with six in five matches (1.20 per game) ... has been called offsides a WAC-high 23 times ... senior GK Kevin Corby leads the WAC in GAA (0.68) and save percentage (.875) ... he tied a career-high with 10 saves in the match against Tulsa, the second most by a WAC goalie this year ... junior GK Chris McGaughey made a career-high nine saves in the 1-0 win at SMU ... he is third in the WAC in GAA (1.60) and save percentage (.778) ... the Kangaroos have attempted nine corners, tied for the fewest in the WAC this season.
UNLV Rebels
After scoring four goals in each of its two previous contests, the Rebels were shutout at home by Gonzaga 2-0 on Sunday ... UNLV outshot the Bulldogs, 18-9 in the match (8-4 on goal) ... it was scoreless until the 62nd minute ... Jose Mendoza had a chance to tie it up a few minutes later, but his penalty kick attempt was wide right ... despite the shutout, UNLV continues to lead the WAC in shots (81), points (29), assists (9) and goals (10) ... Rodrigo Fuentes leads the WAC in points (9) and points per game (1.8) ... UNLV played men’s soccer in the WAC for three seasons from 1996-1998.
San Jose State Spartans
Plays five of its next six at home ... in the 1-1 tie against Fresno Pacific, freshman Ben Reiter scored his first collegiate goal ... in the 6-1 loss at Cal Poly, the Spartans trailed 4-0 by the 26th minute ... for the second straight match, a freshman earned his first collegiate goal as Sam Croucher scored the Spartans’ lone goal ... 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
After opening its season with six-straight road matches, hosts Georgia State on Friday and Florida Gulf Coast on Sunday ... plays the most NCAA tournament opponents from last year of any WAC team in 2013 with three matches ... its second such matchup of the year is this weekend when it hosts Florida Gulf Coast ... Jake Feener leads the nation in saves (49) and saves per match (8.17) ... he had 14 saves against Portland on Sunday ... Miguel Gonzalez leads the WAC in shots (23) and is tied for the WAC lead in goals with four ... he scored both goals (one in each match) for the Redhawks last weekend.