United Athletic Conference

Seattle U's Noe Meza and UNLV's Miguel Duenas Jr. have been named Western Athletic Conference Offensive and Defensive Players of the Week, respectively, for March 15 through March 21.

 

Meza, a redshirt senior forward from Sunnyside, Wash., had a career week, scoring four goals in a pair of wins. In a midweek trip to Air Force, he scored the match's only goal in 1-0 win against the Falcons. He followed that up with a hat trick in a 7-1 win over Incarnate Word on Sunday afternoon. 

 

Duenas Jr., a redshirt sophomore from North Las Vegas, Nev., made five saves in an 1-0 overtime win over Utah Valley on Friday night. On the season, he leads the WAC with three shutouts and his 0.22 goals-against average and .947 save percentage are also league bests.

 

Other offensive nominees: Dixie State's Niko Shumov scored a goal and assisted on another in the Trailblazers' 2-1 win over Houston Baptist … Grand Canyon's Justin Rasmussen scored in his fourth-straight match and added an assist as the 24th-ranked Lopes earned a 3-1 win over California Baptist … UIW's Eduardo Perez gave the Cardinals an early lead at Seattle U with a goal in the sixth minute on Sunday … San José State's Kameron Bolden scored the Spartans' lone goal in a 1-1 draw with UT Rio Grande Valley on Saturday … UT Rio Grande Valley's Reshaun Walked scored for the third time this season in a 1-1 draw at San José State.

 

Other defensive nominees: Dixie State's Jakob Moore made three saves to help the Trailblazers earn a 2-1 overtime win over Houston Baptist … Grand Canyon's Marios Andreou helped the Lopes' defense hold CBU to just six shots and also scored a goal and tallied an assist in GCU's 3-1 win on Friday … UT Rio Grande Valley's Trevor Schneider made six saves as the Vaqueros played to a 1-1 draw at San José State … Utah Valley's Joseph Wheelwright collected seven saves with the only goal allowed coming on a penalty kick in a 1-0 overtime loss at UNLV.

 

Following a UNLV overtime win over California Baptist on Monday afternoon, the focus turns to Friday with the push to Las Vegas beginning in earnest. Air Force heads to UT Rio Grande Valley, San José State travels to California Baptist, Houston Baptist stays in-state to take on UIW, Utah Valley makes the trek to Seattle U and Dixie State visits Grand Canyon.

 

Seattle U leads the league in shots (138), points (5), goals (17), assists (16), saves (40) and is tied with San José State for the lead in assists per game (2.00). Grand Canyon is the leader in goals per game (2.17). On defense, UT Rio Grande Valley has the lead in goals allowed (3) and goals against average (0.55). UNLV has the lead with four shutouts on the year.

 

Individually, CBU's Luis Mueller is the leader in shots (29) while SU's Noe Meza is the leader in shots per game (3.50). GCU's Justin Rasmussen is the leader in points (15), points per game (2.50), goals (1.00) and goals per game (1.00). SJSU's Rudy Castro has the lead in assists (4) and assists per game (1.00). In net, UNLV's Miguel Duenas Jr. has the lead in goals against average (0.18), save percentage (.950) and shutouts (4). SU's Akili Kasim has the lead in saves (39).

 

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.

 

A positive COVID-19 test within the Dixie State men's soccer program forced the Trailblazers to cancel a pair of games in California. DSU's non-conference match at San Diego State on Feb. 11 and its WAC match at California Baptist on Feb. 13 were both scrapped.

 

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 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.

 

Five WAC teams find themselves in the top 100 of the latest NCAA RPI Rankings with three of those schools in the top 25. UT Rio Grande Valley leads the way at nine, followed by Grand Canyon at 11th and California Baptist at 25.

 

Now 5-0-0 on the season, Grand Canyon moved up four spots in the United Soccer Coaches Top 25, coming in at 20th. The Lopes are also 24th in the Top Drawer Soccer Top 25 and 25th in the College Soccer News Top 30. Seattle U is among those receiving votes in both the USC Top 25 and CSN Top 30.

 

While the Pac-12 holds the top three spots in the latest United Soccer Coaches Far West Regional Poll, the next six spots belong to the WAC. Grand Canyon is tops at fourth, followed by Seattle U, UT Rio Grande Valley, California Baptist, UNLV and San José State.

 

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.