United Athletic Conference

Utah Valley's Jojea Kwizera and Seattle U's Akili Kasim have been named Western Athletic Conference Offensive and Defensive Players of the Week, respectively, for November 1 through November 7.

 

Kwizera, a junior midfielder from West Jordan, Utah, scored the match's first goal and assisted on the game-winner in Friday's regular-season finale at California Baptist. On the season, he will bring four total goals and nine assists for the Wolverines into this week's WAC Tournament in Phoenix.

 

Kasim, a senior goalkeeper from Seattle, made eight saves to secure a 2-1 win over San José State and give the Redhawks the second seed in this week's WAC Tournament in Phoenix. His 45 saves in WAC play were second among all keepers, as was his .818 save percentage against league foes. 

 

Other offensive nominees: Air Force's Tristan Trager scored the game-winning goal in the 66th minute to earn a 2-1 win over first-place Grand Canyon … California Baptist's Thomas Beecham scored the Lancers' lone goal in a 2-1 loss to Utah Valley on Friday … UIW's Eduardo Perez scored the Cardinals' lone goal in a 2-1 loss to UT Rio Grande Valley on Saturday night … Seattle U's Levonte Johnson scored each of the Redhawks' goals in a 2-1 win over San José State to clinch the second-seed in this week's WAC Tournament … UT Rio Grande Valley's Reshaun Walkes recorded the game-winning goal on decision day to propel the Vaqueros into the WAC Tournament with a 2-1 win over UIW.

 

Other defensive nominees: Air Force's London Aghedo helped the Falcons earn a 2-1 win over league-leading Grand Canyon in the regular season finale for both squads … UT Rio Grande Valley's Oliver Padilla made three saves to help UTRGV earn a 2-1 win over UIW and clinch a spot in this week's WAC Tournament … Utah Valley's Mateo Palomino scored his first career goal and helped hold CBU to just one score in a 2-1 win at California Baptist on Friday.

 

Six teams head to Phoenix this week for the 2021 WAC Men's Soccer Tournament, hosted by Grand Canyon. The Lopes earned the top-seed and will have one of two byes, with the other going to second-seed Seattle U. Air Force earned the third seed and will take on sixth-seed UT Rio Grande Valley while San José State is the fourth seed and will take on fifth-seed Utah Valley.

 

Heading into the WAC Tournament, Seattle U leads the WAC in shots (271) and corners (5.89) and is tied with Grand Canyon for the lead in total goals (38). GCU is also the leader in points (111), goals per game (2.24), assists (35), least goals allowed (15), goals against average (0.88) and are tied with San José State for the top spot in shutotus (6). Utah Valley has the most assists per game (2.12)

 

Individually, SU's Declan McGlynn is the leader in shots (61) and SJSU's Rudi Castro is the leader in shots per game (3.90). AF's Tristan Trager is the leader in points (31), points per game (1.94) and goals per game (0.75) while CBU's Bryan Iliohan is the leader in total goals (13). UVU's Jojea Kwizera and UNLV's Marco Gonzalez are tied for the lead in assists (9) with Kwizera holding a slight edge in the lead for assists per game (0.56). GCU's Justin Rasmussen is the leader in game-winning goals (5).

 

In goal, GCU's Rafael Guerrero is the leader in goals against average (0.82) and save percentage (.857). CSU's Joe Bowles holds the lead in saves (78) while Guerrero is the leader in saves per game (5.00). 

SJSU's David Sweeney and SU's Akili Kasim are tied for 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. On the season, GCU ranks 14th nationally in average attendance at 1,511 while Utah Valley is 19th at 1,169.

 

Grand Canyon remains in all three national polls, coming in at 25th in the United Soccer Coaches Top 25. The Lopes are also 13th in the Top Drawer Soccer Top 25 and 18th in the College Soccer News Top 30.

 

In the latest United Soccer Coaches Far West Regional Ranking, three WAC schools hold spots. Grand Canyon dropped three spots to sixth. UT Rio Grande Valley entered the poll at eighth with San José State coming in at ninth.

 

Grand Canyon currently sits at 17th in the latest NCAA RPI Rankings. Seattle U is 43rd, followed by UT Rio Grande Valley (94) and Air Force (98) 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.