United Athletic Conference

Grand Canyon's Cameron Weller and San José State's David Sweeney have been named Western Athletic Conference Offensive and Defensive Players of the Week, respectively, for October 4 through October 10.

 

Weller, a junior forward from Spokane, Wash., was a scoring machine as the Lopes earned a pair of big wins on the weekend. On Friday night against UIW, he scored once and added two assists in the Lopes' 6-0 win. Not satisfied with his weekend, he added a hat trick on Saturday night against UT Rio Grande Valley, scoring three times in the Lopes' 5-1 win over UTRGV. 

 

Sweeney, a junior goalkeeper from Morgan Hill, Calif., earns honors for the second-straight week after going on the road and earning a shutout win at Utah Valley before holding off California Baptist for a 1-1 draw on Saturday. Against UVU, he made three saves to earn his third shutout of WAC play. He wasn't able to earn the clean sheet at CBU but made five saves to hold off the Lancer offense and help the Spartans earn an important point in the standings.

 

Other offensive nominees: Air Force's Tristan Trager scored twice in each of the Falcons' wins on the weekend, adding two assists in Sunday's 5-2 win over UIW to finish with 10 points on the weekend … California Baptist's Brian Gonzalez scored in each of the Lancers' matches on the week as CBU earned a 2-1 win over Seattle U before playing to a 1-1 draw with San José State … Chicago State's Enrique Zamora scored the Cougars' lone goal in a 2-1 loss at UNLV on Sunday … UIW's Koen Vos scored twice in Sunday's 5-2 loss at Air Force …  UNLV's Aedon Kyra scored the first goal and assisted on the game-winner in Friday's 2-1 win over Houston Baptist … San José State's Rudi Castro scored the game-winning goal in Thursday's 1-0 win at Utah Valley and then added an assist in Saturday's 1-1 draw at California Baptist … Seattle U's Levonte Johnson scored a goal and assisted on the other in Saturday's 2-1 win at Utah Valley … UT Rio Grande Valley's Reshaun Walkes scored for the Vaqueros' in Sunday's 5-1 loss at Grand Canyon.

 

Other defensive nominees: Air Force's London Aghedo led the Falcons defense in a pair of wins, allowing three total goals in home wins over UT Rio Grande Valley and UIW … Grand Canyon's Alejandro Fernandez Alcaide anchored the GCU defense to a pair of home wins over UIW and UT Rio Grande Valley while also adding a pair of assists in Sunday's win over UTRGV. 

 

It's a single match week across the week as teams look to give their legs a little rest after nearly two months of competition. With all matches played Saturday, it will be Dixie State traveling to California Baptist, Houston Baptist visiting UT Rio Grande Valley, Chicago State playing at UIW, UNLV heading to Utah Valley, Seattle U hosting Air Force and Grand Canyon treking to San José State.

 

As a team, Seattle U leads the WAC in shots (191), corner kicks (6.08) and are tied with Grand Canyon and San José State for the lead in shutouts (4). First-place GCU is also the leader in points (79), goals (29), goals per game (2.55), least goals allowed (9) and goals against average (0.81). The Lopes are tied with Air Force for the lead in both assists (23) and assits per game (2.09). Chicago State has the lead in saves (61).

 

Individually, AFA's Tristan Trager is the leader in shots (42), shots per game (4.20), points (22), points per game (2.20) and goals per game (0.90) and is tied with CBU's Bryan Iliohan for the lead in total goals (9). SU's Levonte Johnson is the leader in both assists (6) and assists per game (0.46). In goal, UVU's Joseph Wheelwright holds the lead for goals against average (0.76) while GCU's Rafael Guerrero is the leader in save percentage (.857). SU's Akili Kasim and CSU's Joe Bowles share the lead for saves (52) with DSU's Levi Lord leading the league in saves per game (5.40). SU's Kasim and GCU's Guerrero are tied with SJSU's David Sweeney for the lead in shutouts with three each.

 

Due to the lightning-forced cancelation of the schedule match between Utah Valley and UT Rio Grande Valley on Oct. 1, the standings will revert to a points per match format for the remainder of the 2021 season.

 

Grand Canyon briefly held the NCAA seasonal high for attendance when 5,018 fans packed themselves into GCU Stadium on Sep. 10 and were treated to a 1-0 Lopes win over Saint Mary's. On the season, GCU ranks 12th nationally in average attendance at 1,597 while Utah Valley is 15th at 1,556.

 

Despite outscoring opponents 11-1 on the week, Grand Canyon fell eight spots in the United Soccer Coaches Top 25, taking the final spot. The Lopes are ranked much higher in the Top Drawer Soccer Top 25, coming in at 10th, and are ranked 16th in the College Soccer News Top 30.

 

In the latest United Soccer Coaches Far West Regional Ranking, four WAC schools hold spots. Grand Canyon is the top-ranked WAC school, somehow dropping two spots after outscoring opponents 11-1 on the week. Air Force rejoins the poll at seventh, followed by California Baptist in eighth and Utah Valley in 10th.

 

In the first official RPI release of the season, Grand Canyon finds itself ranked eighth nationally. Two more WAC teams are in the top-50, with Seattle U ranked 37th and UT Rio Grande Valley at 40th.

 

Grand Canyon is the preseason favorite to win the 2021 Western Athletic Conference men's soccer title in a vote of the league's 12 head coaches, who could not vote for their own team.

 

The Lopes received six of 12 first-place votes to finish with 110 points for the preseason nod. Seattle U was just two points back, picking up four first-place votes to tally 108 points. San José State grabbed the final two first place votes to finish third with 94 points. Air Force was fourth with 89 points, followed closely by UT Rio Grande Valley in fifth with 86 points. California Baptist was sixth with 76 points, UNLV was seventh with 68 points and Utah Valley was eighth with 55 points. UIW was ninth, followed by Dixie State and Houston Baptist in a tie for 10th and Chicago State rounding out the poll in 12th. 

 

Grand Canyon's Justin Rasmussen and Esai Easley were selected as the WAC Preseason Offensive and Defensive Player of the Year respectively in a vote of the league's 12 head coaches, who could not vote for their own team or players.

 

Rasmussen and Easley were joined on the Preseason All-WAC squad by teammate Maximilian Moeller. San José State also had three honored with Willy Miranda, Max Allen and Carlos Gomez Zavala earning recognition. Seattle U was represented by Noe Meza and Akili Kasim. Also earning recognition were Air Force's London Aghedo, California Baptist's Thomas Beecham and UT Rio Grande Valley's Reshaun Walkes.

 

The WAC will have some strong competition in the non-conference portion of the schedule with seven matches scheduled against participants from last spring's NCAA Tournament. Grand Canyon and Seattle U have two each with both the Lopes and Redhawks scheduled to play both Washington and Oregon State. Air Force is also scheduled to take on Oregon State while Utah Valley will host Washington. Finally, San José State will take on nearby-rival Stanford.

 

Utah Valley has announced former US National Team member Kyle Beckerman as its next head coach. Beckerman retired after a monumentally successful 21-year professional and international career in December. He spent 14 of those seasons in Utah with Real Salt Lake, where he was a captain and led the team to a 2009 MLS Cup. He also had 58 caps as a member of the U.S. National Team, including starting appearances in the 2014 World Cup. In 2020, he was named one of Major League Soccer's 25 Greatest Players of all-time.

 

Former MLS SuperDraft Pick and All-American defender at UCLA Leonard Griffin will take over as head coach at Grand Canyon, replacing the retiring Schellas Hyndman. Griffin heads to Phoenix after two seasons as the head coach at San Francisco. He also served as an assistant at Saint Mary's, California and UCLA and he began his coaching career as an assistant at Cal State San Bernadino. 

 

Current Seattle Sounders FC and former Seattle U defender Alex Roldan was voted by fans as an MLS All-Star and joined his brother Cristian on Aug. 25 as the best of the MLS take on the best of Liga MX at Banc of California Stadium in Los Angeles. The MLS bested Liga MX in penalty kicks, 3-2, after a 1-1 draw with Alex playing the entire first half at right back.

 

The 2021 WAC Men's Soccer Tournament will feature the top six teams on November 10, 12, 14 at GCU Stadium in Phoenix. The top two teams in the regular-season standings will receive byes straight to the semifinals.