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GCU'S GERMAN, AF'S PUJATS NAMED PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Grand Canyon's Damian German and Air Force's Trey Pujats have been named Western Athletic Conference Offensive and Defensive Players of the Week, respectively, for Sept. 11 - 17.
German, a junior forward from Phoenix (Maryvale HS), scored the WAC's first hat trick this season in a high scoring match with UC Riverside. He scored his first goal as an equalizer in the 25th minute before giving the ‘Lopes a 2-1 lead at halftime following a successful penalty kick in the 45th minute. After three unanswered UCR goals in the second half, he scored his second equalizer in the 86th minute to help send the match to overtime, allowing GCU to earn the 5-4 extra-time win. He also added an assist in Sunday's 4-2 loss to CSUN.
Pujats, a senior midfielder from Keller, Texas (Keller HS), commanded the Falcon defense to a pair of shutouts on the weekend, marking key scorers in both matches. On the week, he limited opponents' top offensive threats to just three shots and played all put two minutes in the wins over Saint Mary's and UC Davis.
Other offensive nominees: Air Force's John Sims scored twice in the Falcons' 3-0 win over UC Davis on Sunday afternoon … Kansas City's Eric McWoods played all but ten minutes for the ‘Roos, scoring a goal in a 2-2 road draw at Milwaukee … UNLV's Marco Gonzalez scored twice to help break the Rebels out of a scoring slump with a 3-0 win over Gonzaga … Seattle U's Cody Gibson scored twice in the Redhawks' 5-2 win over Santa Clara and added another goal in a 1-0 win over Drexel … UT Rio Grande Valley's Ilias Kosmidis scored twice in a 4-1 win over Our Lady of the Lake.
Other defensive nominees: Kansas City's Diego Serfaty played all 200 minutes for the ‘Roos, including all 110 minutes in a 2-2 tie at Milwaukee … Seattle U's Josh Adachi claimed a pair of victories in goal, totaling six saves on the week as the Redhawks pushed their nation-best home win streak to 21 games with wins over Santa Clara and Drexel … UT Rio Grande Valley's Antone Jarvis helped pace the Vaquero defense in a 1-0 win over Our Lady of the Lake.
UP NEXT
The WAC enters the final week of non-conference play with a number of intriguing matchups across the league. Kansas City will look to bounce back from its first loss of the year when they host Missouri State on Tuesday night before traveling to Drake on Saturday. Utah Valley makes a trip to the Evergreen State to take on Washington on Thursday night and Gonzaga on Sunday. Air Force will also be at Gonzaga as the 20th-ranked Falcons will take on the Bulldogs on Friday night. Seattle U will look to extend their nation-best home win streak on Sunday as the 24th-ranked Redhawks host rival Washington. UT Rio Grande Valley has San Diego State coming to town on Friday night and the Vaqueros will also host a neutral site contest between SDSU and WAC-member UIW on Sunday.
STATISTICALLY SPEAKING
Seattle U leads the league in several offensive categories, including shots (151), points (37), goals (13) and goals per game (1.86). Grand Canyon is the league-leader in assists with 12 while UT Rio Grande Valley is the leader in assists per game with 2.00. Air Force and UTRGV are tied for the lead in least goals allowed (3) while Air Force also leads the league in goals against average (0.43) and shutouts (5). Kansas City is tops in saves with 33.
Individually, SU's Alex Roldan is the league leader in shots with 34. San José State's Jeremy Romero and SU's Cody Gibson share the points lead with 10 each and are also tied for the league-lead in goals scored with five apiece. Five players are tied for the lead in assists with three each. In goal, UTRGV's Andy Rios has a league-best 0.57 goals against average while UMKC's Filippo Errico leads the WAC with an .838 save percentage and 31 saves. Seattle U's Josh Adachi holds the lead for shutouts with four.
ON THE MAP
Air Force made its debut in a trio of polls this week as the Falcons are ranked 20th in the United Soccer Coaches Top 25, 24th in the Top Drawer Soccer Top 25 and 27th in the College Soccer News Top 30. Seattle U is 18th in the CSN Top 30 and 24th in the USC Top 25.
STORM CHASERS
After seeing Hurricane Harvey force the cancellation of the season opening HBU Invitational, Houston Baptist again saw a major storm affect their game schedule. The Huskies were scheduled to play in a tournament in Savannah and Statesboro, Ga. but Hurricane Irma forced alternative plans. HBU still got a pair of games in, falling 1-0 at Georgia Southern before heading to North Carolina for a 3-1 win at Gardner-Webb.
HOME FIELD ADVANTAGE
Seattle U's picked up two more home wins on the week to push the Redhawks' nation-best home win streak to 21 games. Albany is second best but is 13 games back of the Redhawks at just eight games. Tulsa set the record for consecutive home wins at 39 from 1988 to 1992 while Akron holds the record for consecutive home games without a loss at 48 from 2008-2011.
BEST IN THE WEST
The WAC dominates the top half the United Soccer Coaches West Region poll with Air Force ranked number one, Seattle U ranked number two and Utah Valley holding steady at number four.
REPPING THE RPI
While the NCAA hasn't officially released any RPI rankings for the 2017 season yet, the WAC is the seventh ranked conference in the RPI Update rankings. Air Force leads WAC teams with an RPI of 12.
GIVE THE FANS WHAT THEY CAME TO SEE
The 4,351 fans that showed up at Clyde Field on opening night to watch Utah Valley defeat Akron, 1-0, is the eighth-largest crowd in NCAA Division I men's soccer this season as the Wolverines rank seventh nationally in attendance with an average of 2,514. Grand Canyon rankes 12th in average attendance at 2,202. UNLV also played in front of a large crowd on opening night as 4,385 fans game to Merlo Field to see the Rebels knock off host Portland, 3-2, in double overtime.
REWRITING HISTORY
UNLV senior forward Danny Musovski is currently tied with Tulsa's Donivan Bradshaw (1996-99) for the most points in WAC men's soccer history with 84. He is also second all-time on the goals list with 33, four behind Bradshaw, but he has company as Grand Canyon's Niki Jackson has 32 goals in his Lopes career, which ties him for third with New Mexico's Justin Sells (1996-97). Musovski is also tied for fourth all time in assists with 18 while Johnson's 188 shots rank him behind former teammate Alberto Sanchez-Garcia (2013-15), who finished his career with 210.
UPSET CITY
The WAC opened up the 2017 season with five matches against teams ranked in the United Soccer Coaches Top 25 and picked up three wins while falling in double-overtime in a fourth. Utah Valley earned a 1-0 win over 16th-ranked Akron on Friday night. Air Force outlasted 23rd-ranked Florida Gulf Coast, 3-2, on Sunday while Seattle U extended its 18-match home winning streak with a 1-0 win over 20th-ranked New Mexico. Grand Canyon played 14th-ranked Creighton tough in Omaha before falling 1-0 in double-overtime.
UNLV PICKED TO WIN 2017 TITLE
UNLV is the preseason favorite to win the 2017 Western Athletic Conference men's soccer title in a vote of the league's 11 head coaches, who could not vote for their own team.
The Rebels collected five first place votes and 90 total points to take the top spot. Defending regular season champion Utah Valley earned three first place votes and was just a point back at 89 to earn the second spot while Seattle U earned the remaining three first place votes to total 87 points for third. 2016 tournament finalist Air Force was picked fourth with 72 points followed closely by Grand Canyon in fifth with 70 points. CSU Bakersfield was sixth with 54 points and San José State was selected seventh, followed by UT Rio Grande Valley in eighth and UIW in ninth. Houston Baptist and Kansas City tied for 10th to round out the poll.
AUNE, MUSOVSKI HIGHLIGHT PRESEASON ALL-WAC SQUAD
UNLV forward Danny Musovski and Seattle U defender Nathan Aune were selected as WAC Preseason Offensive and Defensive Player of the Year respectively in a vote of the league's 11 head coaches, who could not vote for their own players.
Musovski is joined on the Preseason All-WAC squad by midfielder teammate Timo Mehlich while Aune is joined by midfielder teammate Sergio Rivas. Air Force has three players as forward Austin Dewing, midfielder Tucker Bone and goalkeeper John Wendt were all honored. Utah Valley had a pair selected as forward Paul Hoffmeister joined defender Giovanny Vazquez on the squad. Grand Canyon forward Niki Jackson and CSU Bakersfield defender Jamie Carey-Morrell rounded out the 11-member team.
THREE NAMED TO MAC HERMANN WATCH LIST
Utah Valley's Paul Hoffmeister, Grand Canyon's Niki Jackson and UNLV's Danny Musovski are among those on the watch list for the 2017 Missouri Athletic Club's (MAC) Hermann Trophy. Hoffmeister was a third-team All-American as a junior, Jackson was the 2016 WAC Offensive Player of the Year and Musovski earned 2016 WAC Tournament MVP honors.
HOFFMEISTER, MUSOVSKI NAMED PRESEASON ALL-AMERICA
A pair of WAC men's soccer players will open the year as preseason All-Americans as Utah Valley's Paul Hoffmeister was named a first team selection and UNLV's Danny Musovski earned second team honors by College Soccer News. The duo was also named to the Top Drawer Soccer Preseason Best XII Third Team.
READY TO ROLL
After playing through a four-year transition period to NCAA Division I, both Grand Canyon and UIW are eligible for the postseason this year. The Lopes are predicted to finish fifth in the regular season while the Cardinals are ninth in the preseason coaches poll.
LUCKY SEVEN
With all 11 men's soccer teams eligible for the postseason in 2017, the WAC tournament field has expanded from six teams to seven teams. The tournament also added an extra rest day between the first round and semifinal round. The regular season champion and top seed will receive the only bye in the tournament, with the other teams beginning play on Wednesday, Nov. 8 in Las Vegas. Semifinals will be played on Friday, Nov. 10 with the championship game set for 1 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 12.
PLAYING THE BEST
The WAC has 23 non-conference games against participants from the 2016 NCAA Men's Soccer Tournament. UNLV, a 2016 postseason participant itself, is one of three schools to play four NCAA participants, making trips to Portland, New Mexico and UCLA and hosting Pacific. Utah Valley has four non-conference matches against postseason participants, hosting Akron and CSUN and traveling to San Diego State and Washington. Seattle U also has four with home games against New Mexico, Mercer and Washington and a road trip to Portland. San José State opens the season hosting defending national champion Stanford and will travel to both CSUN and Pacific. Grand Canyon will travel to Creighton and Pacific and host CSUN. UT Rio Grande Valley takes on Loyola Chicago on a neutral field at Northern Illinois before returning home to take on San Diego State later in the season. UIW will also face San Diego State in Edinburg. Air Force takes on Florida Gulf Coast at home while CSU Bakersfield travels to Pacific.
COMING SOON
California Baptist is scheduled to join the WAC for 2018-2019 competition. They will begin their four year transition process to Division 1. This will make them ineligible to compete in post season tournaments (WAC and NCAA) until 2022-2023 season. They will be coming from the Pacific West Conference where they won five championships (M&W Cross Country, W. Basketball, W. Golf, and Softball) during 2016-2017 season.
ON THE AIR
The WAC Digital Network will broadcast 88 regular season games and all six games of the expanded 2017 WAC Men's Soccer Tournament in Las Vegas.