Seattle U's Declan McGlynn and Grand Canyon's Anthony Munoz have been named Western Athletic Conference Offensive and Defensive Players of the Week, respectively, for October 25 through October 31.

 

McGlynn, a junior forward from Kirkland, Wash., scored three times on the weekend as the Redhawks picked up home wins over Houston Baptist and Chicago State. On Friday against HBU, McGlynn scored twice in a 4-0 win and then he added his eighth goal of the year in a 4-1 win over Chicago State on Sunday.

 

Munoz, a senior goalkeeper from Albuquerque, N.M., totaled 15 saves while allowing just one goal as the Lopes earned their second-straight WAC regular season title with wins at California Baptist and Utah Valley. On Thursday at CBU, he made seven saves in 2-1 win to secure at least a share of the conference title. He followed that up with eight saves in a 1-0 win at Utah Valley on Saturday that clinched the title for the Lopes.

 

Other offensive nominees: California Baptist's Bryan Iliohan scored in each of the Lancers' matches on the week, scoring CBU's lone goal in a 2-1 loss to GCU before scoring the game-winner in a 1-0 win over Air Force … Grand Canyon's Shaun-Chris Joash scored the lone goal in a 1-0 win at Utah Valley on Saturday afternoon … UIW's Koen Vos recorded the brace with both of the Cardinals' goals in a 2-1 win at UNLV on Friday … UNLV's Aedon Kyra helped guide the Rebels to a home split, scoring in each game as UNLV lost 2-1 to UIW before earning a 2-1 win over UTRGV … UT Rio Grande Valley's Martin Tellez scored in back-to-back games as the Vaqueros went 1-1 in a road swing at Dixie State and UNLV … Utah Valley's Aaron Nixon scored his team-high seventh goal of the season in a 3-0 win over Air Force on Thursday.

 

Other defensive nominees: California Baptist's Gage Rogers made four saves to earn the shutout win on Saturday against Air Force … Chicago State's Joe Bowles made eight saves to secure the clean sheet in a double-overtime draw on Friday night against San José State … UNLV's Miguel Duenas Jr. anchored the Rebel defense with seven saves in a 2-1 win over UT Rio Grande Valley on Sunday … Seattle U's Akili Kasim earned his WAC-leading fifth shutout of the season in a 4-0 win over Houston Baptist on Friday … UT Rio Grande Valley's Oliver Padilla made a pair of saves to earn the shutout win on Friday at Dixie State … Utah Valley's Carter Johnson led the Wolverine backline in a 3-0 win over Air Force, adding a goal in his only shot of the match.

 

It's the last week of the regular season with five of six seeds and one spot in the tournament field up for grab. Utah Valley and California Baptist will lead things off on Friday night in Irvine with UVU looking to secure the fifth seed. On Saturday, regular season champion Grand Canyon will look to keep momentum going when they visit Air Force while San José State and Seattle U play with the second seed likely on the line. In perhaps the most important match of the week, UT Rio Grande Valley and UIW play in San Antonio in a de-facto play-in game for the final spot. Chicago State wraps up its season at Houston Baptist while Dixie State heads to UNLV for the 2021 finale.

 

As a team, Seattle U continues to lead the WAC in shots (262) and corner kicks (106) while first-place Grand Canyon is the leader in points (108), goals (37), goals per game (2.31), assists (34), least goals allowed (13), goals against average (0.81) and are tied with San José State for the lead in shutouts (6). Utah Valley is the leader in assists per game (2.13) and Chicago State is tops in total saves (85).

 

Individually, SU's Declan McGlynn is the leader in shots (61) and SJSU's Rudi Castro is the leader in shots per game (3.78). AF's Tristan Trager is the leader in points (29) and points per game (1.93) while CBU's Bryan Iliohan is the leader in total goals (13) and goals per game (0.76). UNLV's Marco Gonzalez is the leader in assists (9) and UVU's Jojea Kwizera is the leader in asssists per game (0.53). GCU's Justin Rasmussen is the leader in game-winning goals (5).

 

In goal, GCU's Anthony Munoz is the leader in goals against average (0.75) and save percentage (.864). CSU's Joe Bowles is the leader in saves (76) while 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 15th nationally in average attendance at 1,511 while Utah Valley is 19th at 1,169.

 

Grand Canyon made an eight spot jump in the latest United Soccer Coaches Top 25, moving all the way up to 17th. The Lopes are also ranked 12th in the Top Drawer Soccer Top 25 and 14th in the College Soccer News Top 30.

 

In the latest United Soccer Coaches Far West Regional Ranking, three WAC schools hold spots. Grand Canyon moved into the top three behind Oregon State and Washington. San José State remained at eighth and California Baptist remained at 10th.

 

Grand Canyon currently sits at 11th in the latest NCAA RPI Rankings. Seattle U is 49th, followed by California Baptist (93) and UT Rio Grande Valley (94) 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.