United Athletic Conference

Grand Canyon's Marco Afonso and California Baptist's Evan Ince been named Western Athletic Conference Offensive and Defensive Players of the Week, respectively, for September 13 through September 19.

 

Afonso, a senior midfielder from Sandton, Johannesburg, South Africa, scored twice in the Lopes' 3-2 road win at Cal Poly. The senior put GCU on the scoreboard in the 62nd minute before Cal Poly fought back and put the match into extra time. In the first overtime, Afonso took advantage of a free kick at the top of the box and buried the opportunity into the right side of the net for the golden goal and the GCU win. The scores were his third and fourth of the season, which puts him in a tie for third in the WAC this season. 

 

Ince, a sophomore goalkeeper from North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, made the only two saves that he needed to make to earn the clean sheet in a 1-0 win at CSUN on Friday. With the Lancer defense limiting the Matadors to just three total shots, he made one save in the 11th minute and another in the 25th minute to help CBU earn the win.

 

Other offensive nominees: California Baptist's Bryan Iliohan recorded the brace in a 3-2 loss at Gonzaga on Monday, scoring twice on five total shots … Chicago State's Enrique Zamora scored the Cougars' lone goal in a 2-1 loss at Michigan on Monday … Dixie State's John Joseph netted a goal for the Trailblazers in their tight loss at UC Riverside on Friday … UNLV's Marco Gonzalez scored the game-winning goal after assisting on a score earlier in a 3-2 win over UC Irvine on Sunday night … San José State's Max Allen scored his second goal of the season in an offensive battle with Saint Mary's … Seattle U's Levonte Johnson scored a goal and assisted on another in the Redhawks' 3-2 loss at Portland on Friday night.

 

Other defensive nominees: Chicago State's Rashawn Kellman helped on the Cougar back line as they played Michigan tough before falling 2-1 … Grand Canyon's Alejandro Fernandez Alcaide added an assist while anchoring the Lopes defense in a 3-2 win at Cal Poly on Thursday night. 

 

Following the final non-conference match of the regular season on Tuesday afternoon when Chicago State hosts Northern Illinois, the WAC will turn its attention towards conference play, beginning on Saturday. In afternoon action, UT Rio Grande Valley heads to the Windy City to take on Chicago State while San José State travels to Air Force. The evening features UIW making the trip to Houston Baptist, California Baptist traveling to UNLV, Utah Valley visiting Dixie State and 19th-ranked Grand Canyon hosting Seattle U.

 

As a team, Seattle U is the leader in shots (112), saves (31) and are tied with four other teams (Chicago State, Grand Canyon and Houston Baptist) for the lead in shutouts (2). UNLV is the leader in points (43) and assists (15) and is tied with SU, CBU and UTRGV for the lead in goals (14). UTRGV is also the leader in goals per game (2.33) while Chicago State, Grand Canyon and Utah Valley are all tied for the lead in least goals allowed (6). CSU also has the top goals against average (0.92).

 

Individually, GCU's Justin Rasmussen and SU's Noe Meza are tied for the lead in shots (21). UTRGV's Reshaun Walkes is the leader in points (15), points per game (2.50), goals (6) and goals per game (1.00). UNLV's Marco Gonzalez and SU's Levonte Johnson are the leader in asssits with four each while seven players are tied for the lead in game-winning goals with seven apiece.

 

In goal, CBU's Evan Ince holds the top goals against average (0.49) and save percentage (.905). SU's Akili Kasim is the leader in saves (31) and is tied with GCU's Rafael Guerrero and CSU's Joe Bowles for the lead in shutouts (2).

 

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 11th at 1,986.

 

Grand Canyon used a road win at Cal Poly to move up six spots in the latest United Soccer Coaches Top 25, coming in at 19th. The Lopes are also 19th in the Top Drawer Soccer Top 25 and 27th in the College Soccer News Top 30.

 

In the latest United Soccer Coaches Far West Regional Ranking, the WAC held the most spots of any other conference. Grand Canyon is the top ranked team, moving up one spot to third. California Baptist is sixth, followed by Utah Valley in seventh, Seattle U in eighth and UNLV in 10th.

 

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.