United Athletic Conference

Utah Valley's Aaron Nixon and Chicago State's Joe Bowles been named Western Athletic Conference Offensive and Defensive Players of the Week, respectively, for August 30 through September 5.

 

Nixon, a sophomore forward from West Jordan, Utah, recorded his first career brace in a 5-1 win over CSUN on Thursday night. His first goal came in the 22nd minute, giving the Wolverines the 2-0 lead on a bicycle kick that ranked second on SportsCenter Top Plays. He added another insurance goal in the 44th minute and assisted on the final goal in the 57th minute as UVU won big in its home opener.

 

Bowles, a graduate goalkeeper from London, England, made three saves to earn the Cougars' first clean sheet of the season in a 1-0 overtime win over visiting Green Bay on Friday. On the young season, he has allowed just three goals over 291:44 minutes for a 0.93 goals against average.

 

Other offensive nominees: California Baptist's Brian Gonzalez scored the Lancers' goal in a 1-1 draw at CSU Bakersfield on Thursday … Chicago State's Enrique Zamora scored the golden goal in overtime in a 1-0 win over Green Bay on Friday … UNLV's Aedon Kyra scored a goal and tallied an assist in Sunday's high-scoring 4-3 loss at Cal … San José State's Willy Miranda led the Spartans with five points on the week, scoring a goal with an assist in Thursday's loss to Sacramento State and adding the game-winning goal in Sunday's 5-2 win over UC Davis … UT Rio Grande Valley's Reshaun Walkes scored a goal in each of UTRGV's two wins, adding an assist in Friday's 3-2 win at UAB.

 

Other defensive nominees: San José State's David Sweeney made five saves on 11 total shots to earn the win against defending Big West champion UC Davis in a 5-2 victory on Sunday afternoon … UT Rio Grande Valley's Trevor Schneider helped the Vaqueros to a pair of wins, including making a season-high six saves in a 2-1 win over Elon on Sunday … Utah Valley's Carter Johnson helped the Wolverines earn a 5-1 win over visiting CSUN, helping secure the midfield while scoring a goal on a corner kick and assisting on another. 

 

It's another busy week around the WAC. Among the top matches will be Seattle U, fresh off a double-overtime win over 24th-ranked Duke, hosting 14th-ranked Oregon State on Friday night. On Saturday, San José State makes the short trip to 20th-ranked Stanford. Sunday's top match features UT Rio Grande Valley traveling to 13th-ranked Florida International and on Monday, UIW takes on eighth-ranked SMU in Dallas. 

 

As a team, Seattle U is the leader in shots (56), saves (23) and are tied with Chicago State for the lead in shutouts (2). San José State is tops in points (28), goals per game (3.00), assists (10), assists per game (3.33) and share the lead in goals with UT Rio Grande Valley at four. California Baptist is the leader in goals allowed (2) and goals against average (0.62) while Houston Baptist is the leader in corner kicks (29).

 

Individually, UTRGV's Reshaun Walkes is the leader in shots (14), shots per game (3.50), points (11), points per game (2.75), goals (5) and goals per game (1.25). GCU's Justin Rasmussen has the lead in assists (3) and assists per game (0.75) and is tied with SU's Declan McGlynn for the lead in game-winning goals (2). CSU's Joe Bowles holds the top goals-against average (0.67) and is tied with SU's Akili Kasim for the lead in shutouts (2). Kasim also holds the lead in save percentage (.852), saves (23) and saves per game (5.75).

 

Grand Canyon is among those receiving votes in the United Soccer Coaches Top 25, which was voted upon before the Lopes' 1-0 win at 22nd-ranked Oregon State on Monday night. GCU is also 27th in the latest College Soccer News Top 30.

 

The second United Soccer Coaches Far West Region Poll was released with three WAC schools among the top ten. Utah Valley is the top ranked team, ranking eighth. California Baptist ranks ninth and Grand Canyon, who upset 22nd-ranked Oregon State on Monday after votes were submitted, are ranked 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.