United Athletic Conference

Air Force's Tristan Trager and San José State's David Sweeney have been named Western Athletic Conference Offensive and Defensive Players of the Week, respectively, for September 27 through October 3.

 

Trager, a senior forward from San Clemente, Calif., led the Falcon offense to a pair of road wins, totaling three goals and an assist. On Friday against Chicago State, he scored twice and assisted on another in a 4-0 win over the Cougars. He followed that up with a goal scored in Sunday's 2-1 win over Houston Baptist. On the season, he is tied for third in goals with five total scores.

 

Sweeney, a junior goalkeeper from Morgan Hill, Calif., led the Spartans to a pair of shutout victories, making 15 total saves in wins over Dixie State and UNLV. On Friday, he stopped four shots to record the clean sheet in a 3-0 win over the Trailblazers. He followed that up with 11 saves in a 2-0 win over UNLV on Sunday. On the year, he holds a 1.86 goals-against average to go with a .705 save percentage.

 

Other offensive nominees: California Baptist's Bryan Iliohan scored his eighth and ninth goals of the season in a road swing at UIW and UTRGV … Chicago State's Cal-Wayne Allen scored the Cougars' lone goal on the week in a 3-1 loss to nationally-ranked Grand Canyon … Dixie State's Ethan Bell recorded his only shot on goal in Friday's 3-0 loss at San José State … Grand Canyon's Shaun-Chris Joash scored three of six total goals for GCU on the week, putting in a score in Friday's 3-1 win at Houston Baptist and then scoring twice in Sunday's 3-1 win at Chicago State … San José State's Jamal Adam recorded a pair of goals on the week, scoring once in shutout wins against both Dixie State and UNLV … Seattle U's James Morris recorded the brace with a pair of goals, adding an assist, in Sunday's 4-0 win over Dixie State … UT Rio Grande Valley's Yusef Cueceoglu scored a goal and assisted on the other in the Vaqueros' 2-1 win over California Baptist … Utah Valley's Jojea Kwizera scored the game-winner and assisted on another in a 2-1 road win at UIW.

 

Other defensive nominees: Air Force's London Aghedo anchored the Falcons defense that allowed just one goal over two matches while also adding a pair of assists in Sunday's 2-1 win at Houston Baptist … Chicago State's Rashawn Wellman played well on the Cougars' back line in losses to Air Force and Grand Canyon … Dixie State's Levi Lord made nine saves for the Trailblazers in a 3-0 loss at San José State … Grand Canyon's Miguel Prado played lockdown defense to help the Lopes stay perfect in WAC play with wins at Houston Baptist and Chicago State … Seattle U's Akili Kasim tied his career high with nine saves against UNLV and earned his 16th and 17th career shutouts to ranked second in SU program history … UT Rio Grande Valley's Oliver Padilla made three saves to help UTRGV earn a 2-1 win over California Baptist … Utah Valley's Erik Lyons added an assist in the Wolverines' 2-1 win at UIW on Sunday.

 

This week's WAC schedule begins on Thursday with Seattle U traveling to California Baptist and San José State traveling to Utah Valley. The road teams will switch sites on Saturday with CBU hosting SJSU and UVU hosting SU. Eight more teams play Friday and Sunday with Houston Baptist and Chicago State visiting UNLV and Dixie State and UT Rio Grande Valley and UIW heading to Air Force and Grand Canyon.

 

As a team, Seattle U leads the WAC in shots (169), points (58), goals (20), assists (18), shutouts (4) and corner kicks (69). UT Rio Grande Valley is the leader in goals per game (2.25) while Utah Valley has the lead in assists per game (2.12). Grand Canyon has allowed the least number of goals (7) and has the top goals against average (0.87). Dixie State is the leader in saves (47). 

 

Individually, SU's Declan McGlynn leads the WAC in shots (36) while AF's Tristan Trager is the leader in shots per game (4.12). UTRGV's Reshaun Walkes and CBU's Bryan Iliohan are tied for the lead in points (18) with Walkes holding sole possession of the lead in points per game (2.25). Iliohan is the leader in goals (9) and goals per game (0.90). GCU's Justin Rasmussen is tied with SU's Levonte Johnson for the lead in assists (5), with Rasmussen having the lead in assists per game (0.62). 

 

In goal, UVU's Joseph Wheelwright holds the top goals against average (0.70) while GCU's Rafael Guerrero has the lead in save percentage (.857). CSU's Joe Bowles is the leader in saves (44) with DSU's Levi Lord holding the lead in saves per game (5.40). SU's Akili Kasim holds the lead in shutouts (4).

 

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. Not to be outdone, Utah Valley ranks seventh nationally in average attendance at 2,366 while GCU is ninth at 1,994.

 

Grand Canyon moved up three spots in the latest United Soccer Coaches Top 25, coming in at 17th. The Lopes are also 16th in the Top Drawer Soccer Top 25 and 17th in the College Soccer News Top 30.

 

In the latest United Soccer Coaches Far West Regional Ranking, three WAC schools hold spots. Grand Canyon is the top ranked team, moving up one spot to number three. Utah Valley fell one spot to eighth while California Baptist dropped four spots to nine. 

 

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.