Photo Courtesy of Rick Lawrence
It’s college soccer’s most wonderful time of the year – tournament season. And in the Big East, it’s already well under way.
MLSsoccer.com's Top 20
Rank |
School |
Record |
Last Week |
1 |
New Mexico |
16-0-2 |
1 |
2 |
North Carolina |
14-2-2 |
2 |
3 |
Creighton |
16-2-0 |
3 |
4 |
Connecticut |
16-2-2 |
6 |
5 |
Maryland |
13-2-3 |
5 |
6 |
South Florida |
12-3-3 |
4 |
7 |
UCLA |
14-4-1 |
8 |
8 |
Akron |
13-3-3 |
7 |
9 |
Indiana |
11-3-4 |
11 |
10 |
Louisville |
12-5-2 |
16 |
11 |
Charlotte |
13-3-2 |
14 |
12 |
Furman |
14-2-4 |
13 |
13 |
UC Santa Barbara |
13-5-1 |
15 |
14 |
Boston College |
12-5-0 |
9 |
15 |
UC Irvine |
14-5-1 |
NR |
16 |
James Madison |
12-4-1 |
12 |
17 |
Coastal Carolina |
16-2-0 |
20 |
18 |
SMU |
10-6-1 |
NR |
19 |
Old Dominion |
11-4-1 |
19 |
20 |
Duke |
10-6-2 |
NR |
All four berths to Friday’s conference semifinals at Red Bull Arena were decided on Sunday, as Louisville’s recovery from their midseason struggles continued with a 1-0 win over Marquette courtesy of a Colin Rolfe strike.
Joining them in the last four is Connecticut, thanks to a 3-1 comeback win over Rutgers behind goals from Andrew Jean-Baptiste, Tony Cascio and Stephane Diop. Rounding out the field in New Jersey will be Villanova, 1-0 winners over South Florida in an upset, and St. John’s, who defeated West Virginia 2-0 on the road.
Here’s how the rest of the MLSsoccer.com Top 20 fared over the weekend:
New Mexico’s undefeated season is in the bag. The Lobos’ 3-0 win over UNLV marked their 12th straight victory, as senior Michael Green and Lance Roozeboom tallied a goal apiece in their final regular-season home game.
UNM heads to Denver as the No. 1 seed in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation tournament starting on Friday in the semifinals.
Without a conference tournament to worry about, UCLA clinched top spot in the Pac-12 with a 3-0 win over Stanford on Sunday. The Bruins are undefeated in the conference, but will put that record on the line one last time on Saturday against San Diego State.
Creighton head into the Missouri Valley Conference tournament semifinals on Friday coming off a sixth straight win. The Bluejays got road goals from Bruno Castro and Dion Acoff to take a 2-0 win over Evansville. They host the conference tournament.
After losing at home on Wednesday for the first time in 48 games, Akron came back with a win over Florida Atlantic on Sunday. Luke Holmes and Darren Mattocks tallied for the Zips, who will continue their 2010 title defense as hosts of the MAC tournament next weekend.
With the Big Ten tournament looming this weekend, Indiana edged Ohio State 1-0, thanks to a goal from Nikita Kotlov. Because of their fourth-place regular-season finish, the Hoosiers will travel to Michigan on Wednesday to face the Wolverines in the tournament’s first round.
Travis Clark covers D.C. United, college and youth soccer for MLSsoccer.com.
