United Athletic Conference

Seattle U's Jesse Ortiz and UT Rio Grande Valley's Trevor Schneider have been named Western Athletic Conference Offensive and Defensive Players of the Week, respectively, for February 1 through February 7.

 

Ortiz, a sophomore midfielder from Houston, Texas, scored twice in the Redhawks' opening-day win over Gonzaga. After evening up the score with a goal in the 21st minute, he scored again in the 51st minute to give SU a lead. After a late Gonzaga equalizer, the Redhawks earned the win on a golden goal in the second overtime to open the season with a win.

 

Schneider, a junior goalkeeper from Coquitlam, B.C., Canada, made a career-high seven saves to help UTRGV defeat Seattle U and end the Redhawks' unbeaten streak at 17 matches. Despite being outshot 20-7, he led the Vaquero defense and pitched the shutout to take the win back to Texas.

 

Other offensive nominees: Air Force's Michael Neacsu scored the Falcons' first goal of the season en route to a 4-0 win at Dixie State on Saturday … UT Rio Grande Valley's Renan Dos Santos scored the game-winning goal as the Vaqueros knocked off preseason-favorite Seattle U, 1-0, on Saturday evening.

 

Other defensive nominees: Air Force's London Aghedo helped the Falcons hold Dixie State to just four shots and added a goal in the 34th minute to lead the Falcons to a 4-0 win in St. George.

 

The delayed season in underway and this week's schedule features a pair of non-conference games in the Golden State. On Tuesday, California Baptist will open the season on the road at The Master's College in Santa Clarita. Dixie State visits San Diego State on Thursday before traveling back up to Irvine on Saturday to take on CBU in WAC play. Also on Saturday, UNLV and UIW open up the season against each other in San Antonio, Seattle U travels to the Gulf to take on Houston and Grand Canyon heads to Texas to take on UT Rio Grande Valley.

 

Seattle U leads the five teams that were able to play on opening weekend in shots (43), saves (11) and corner kicks (12). Air Force is the leader in points (13), goals (4), goals per game (4.00), assists (5), assists per game (5.00) and are tied with UTRGV and Houston Baptist for the lead in shutouts at 1 each.

 

Individually, SU's Noe Meza has the early lead in shots (12) and teammate Jesse Ortiz has the lead in goals (2) and points (4). AF's London Aghedo is the leader in points per game (3.00) and his Falcon teammate Quinn Matulis has the lead in assists (2). In net, three keepers have a perfect 0.00 goals against average and 1.000 save percentage. SU's Akili Kasim is the leader in saves (11) while UTRGV's Trevor Schneider is the leader in saves per game (7.00).

 

Grand Canyon head coach Schellas Hyndman announced that this spring season will be the final one of his successful career. In addition to over 500 collegiate wins at Eastern Illinois, SMU and GCU, he was head coach at FC Dallas for six years, earning 2010 MLS Coach of the Year honors.

 

Due to restrictions in Santa Clara County that did not allow San José State to practice for much of January, the Spartans have elected not to play their first two WAC games of the season. The affected matches include UIW on Feb. 6 and at Air Force on Feb. 13. 

 

Positive COVID-19 test results have forced California Baptist to cancel its first two matches of the season. The Lancers were scheduled to open the 2020-21 season on Wednesday at Pacific before visiting Las Vegas for the WAC opener against UNLV. It was later announced that the CBU at UNLV match will now take place on March 22 in Las Vegas.

 

The 2020-21 season marks the initial WAC campaign for three head coaches in the league. Dixie State head coach Jonny Broadhead leads the Trailblazers into the Division I era in his fourth season in St. George. UIW's Kiki Lara returns to his alma mater after leading Eastern Illinois. UT Rio Grande Valley's Bryheem Hancock was the final coach hired for the season, coming to the valley in November after serving as head coach at Radford for the last three seasons.

 

Seattle U is the preseason favorite to win the 2020-21 Western Athletic Conference men's soccer title in a vote of the league's 11 head coaches, who could not vote for their own team.

 

The Redhawks received nine of 11 first-place votes and 98 total points to earn the preseason nod. Utah Valley was selected second with a first-place vote and 81 points. Air Force was selected third with 79 points, followed by Grand Canyon, who earned fourth with the final first-place vote and 65 total points. UNLV was selected fifth with 63 points, followed by San José State in sixth points. California Baptist earned the seventh spot with 54 points, followed by UT Rio Grande Valley in eighth, Houston Baptist in ninth, UIW in 10th and newcomer Dixie State in 11th. 

 

Seattle U's Noe Meza and Alex Acton-Petronotis 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.

 

Meza and Acton-Petronotis were joined on the Preseason All-WAC squad by teammates James Morris and Akili Kasim. San José State was the only other team with multiple players honored as forward Rudi Castro and midfielder Max Allen each picked up the preseason recognition. Also earning recognition were Air Force's Tristan Trager, Grand Canyon's Esai Easley, UNLV's Billy Jones, UT Rio Grande Valley's William Akio and Utah Valley's Mark Brown.

 

The 2020-21 WAC Men's Soccer Tournament will feature the top six teams on April 13, 17, and 19 at Johann Memorial Field in Las Vegas. The top two teams in the regular-season standings will receive byes straight to the semifinals.