United Athletic Conference

Air Force's Tristan Trager and San José State's Kasper Poulsgaard have been named Western Athletic Conference Offensive and Defensive Players of the Week, respectively, for October 11 through October 17.

 

Trager, a senior forward from San Clemente, Calif., recorded a pair of goals and a pair of assists as the Falcons remained atop the WAC standings with a pair of home wins. After recording an assist on Friday against Dixie State, he was involved in all three Air Force goals on Sunday against UNLV. After an early UNLV score, he scored the equalizing goal in the 15th minute and then assisted on the go-ahead goal in the 69th minute before adding an insurance goal in the 71st minute in the 3-1 win. On the season, Trager is tied with 11 goals on the year and leads the WAC with 29 points.

 

Poulsgaard, a junior defender from Hedensted, Denmark, led the Spartan backline during a Texas sweep, playing all 180 minutes in wins at UT Rio Grande Valley and UIW. In addition to strong defense, he scored the game-winning goal in the 88th minute at UIW to extend SJSU's unbeaten streak to seven matches.

 

Other offensive nominees: California Baptist's Emiel Deconinck scored his first and second goals of the season as the Lancers earned road wins at Houston Baptist and Chicago State … Dixie State's Larsen Rogers totaled three shots in a pair of road losses … Grand Canyon's Justin Rasmussen scored twice in the Lopes' 3-0 win over Dixie State on Sunday evening … UIW's Koen Vos scored the lone goal in the Cardinals' 1-0 win over Seattle U on Friday … San José State's Max Allen was involved in both goals at UT Rio Grande Valley, assisting on the first goal and scoring the game-winner in a 2-1 win at UTRGV … UT Rio Grande Valley's Jan Engels scored a pair of goals in home losses to San José State and Seattle U.

 

Other defensive nominees: Air Force's Kainoa Likewise totaled six saves as the Falcons earned a pair of home wins to stay atop the WAC table … Dixie State's Dominique Kossehasse led the Trailblazer defense in road matches at first-place teams Air Force and Grand Canyon … Grand Canyon's Anthony Munoz made five saves to secure Sunday's 3-0 win over Dixie State … Houston Baptist's JP Becerra made six saves to earn the shutout in Sunday's 2-0 win over Utah Valley … Seattle U's Akili Kasim save seven saves to secure the win in Sunday's 3-2 win at UT Rio Grande Valley.

 

Just two weeks remain in the regular season with a number of big matches coming up this week. First-place squads Air Force and Grand Canyon hit the road this week, traveling to Utah Valley and California Baptist for matches on Thursday and Saturday. In other matchups that will take place on Friday and Sunday, UT Rio Grande Valley and UIW will be at Dixie State and UNLV while Houston Baptist and Chicago State will visit Seattle U and San José State.

 

As a team, Seattle U continues to lead the WAC in shots (234) and corner kicks (96) while first-place Grand Canyon is the leader in points (99), goals per game (2.43), assists (31), least goals allowed (12), goals against average (0.85) and are tied with California Baptist for the lead in total goals (34) and with San José State for the lead in shutouts (5). Utah Valley is the leader in assists per game (2.23) and Chicago State is tops in total saves (73).

 

Individually, SU's Declan McGlynnis the leader in shots (54) and AFA's Tristan Trager is the leader in shots per game (3.92), points (29), points per game (2.23), goals per game (0.85) and is tied with CBU's Bryan Iliohan for the lead in total goals (11). Five players are tied for the lead in assists (7) with three tied for the lead in assists per game (0.54).

 

In goal, GCU's Rafael Guerrero is the leader in goals against average (0.82) and save percentage (.857). SU's Akili Kasim is tied with CSU's Joe Bowles for the lead in saves (64) with Guerrero holding the top mark in saves per game (5.00). Guerrero is also tied with Kasim and SJSU's David Sweeney for the lead in shutouts (3).

 

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 15th nationally in average attendance at 1,511 while Utah Valley is 18th at 1,341.

 

After one week away, Grand Canyon moved back into the United Soccer Coaches Top 25 at 25th. The Lopes are also ranked 12th in the Top Drawer Soccer Top 25 and 16th in the College Soccer News Top 30.

 

In the latest United Soccer Coaches Far West Regional Ranking, three WAC schools hold spots. Grand Canyon jumped two spots to fourth while San José State entered the poll at eighth. California Baptist fell two sports but remained in the poll at 10th.

 

Grand Canyon currently sits at 15th in the latest NCAA RPI Rankings. Seattle U is 40th, followed by UT Rio Grande Valley (74) and San José State (84) to round out WAC schools in the top 100.

 

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.