Pac-12 Men’s Soccer Weekly Rundown – Nov. 8, 2022

Schedule | Standings | Pac-12 Statistics | NCAA Statistics | NCAA RPI | Pac-12 Record Book

Week 12 Fixtures

• The Pac-12 Men’s Soccer regular season concludes with three rivalry matches and pivotal postseason contests on Thursday, Friday and Saturday this week.
• Action begins Thursday with Pac-12 champion and NCAA automatic bid recipient No. 1 WASHINGTON (15-0-3, 7-0-2) chasing history when it hosts OREGON STATE (6-3-6, 2-1-5) at 6:00 p.m. PT on Pac-12 Oregon & Washington. Context on the potential history for the unbeaten Huskies is below.
• UW is unbeaten in its last 13 league matches overall (9-0-4), its last loss coming against Oregon State (3-2) in Seattle on Oct. 22, 2021.
• SAN DIEGO STATE (5-8-4, 1-5-3) hosts UCLA (9-6-1, 3-4-1) Friday at 7:00 p.m. PT, while CALIFORNIA (3-7-6, 1-5-3) welcomes No. 5 STANFORD (10-2-5, 3-2-4) for the Big Clásico and Conference finale Saturday at 2:00 p.m. PT on Pac-12 Bay Area.

Historic Huskies

• At 7-0-2, Washington will be seeking to become the fourth team in Pac-12 Men’s Soccer history to finish unbeaten in league play. 
• The three previous teams to accomplish the feat were UCLA in 2003 (10-0-0) and 2011 (10-0-0), and Stanford in 2017 (9-0-1).
• The Huskies (15-0-3) will also be seeking to become the first team in Pac-12 history to go undefeated during the regular season. UW is 1-of-2 remaining unbeaten teams in NCAA Division I along with Kentucky (12-0-5). 
• Washington can also match or break the Pac-12 mark for largest point differential between champion and league runner-up – 10 points by Stanford in 2017 (28p vs. California 18p). The Huskies (23p) currently hold a 10-point cushion on second-place Stanford (13p), 12 on Oregon State (11p) and 13 on UCLA (10p).

Week 11 Results

• Washington wrapped up its fourth-ever Pac-12 title (2000, 2013, 2019, 2022) last Thursday with a 3-2 victory over UCLA, then continued its path toward league history with a 3-0 shutout of San Diego State on Sunday.
• The Huskies’ rout of the Aztecs halted a streak of 13 consecutive Conference matches that had resulted in either a draw or one-goal differential. For the season, 19 of the 26 league matches to date have been draws (9) or decided by just one goal (10).
• Oregon State and SDSU played to a 2-2 draw last Thursday, while Sunday’s tilt between the Beavers and Bruins was cancelled due to poor conditions in Corvallis. That match will not be rescheduled.

Cardinal Context

• Stanford capped the Pac-12’s non-conference campaign on Monday with an eye-popping 7-0 rout of Pacific.
• That win pushed the Pac-12’s collective non-conference performance to 31-9-7 for an NCAA Division I best .734 win percentage.
• The Cardinal’s outburst proved to be historic from a Conference perspective as it matched the most goals scored and largest margin of victory for a Pac-12 Men’s Soccer program against an NCAA Division I opponent (Stanford – 7-0 vs. Pacific, 11/7/2022; UCLA – 7-0 vs. San Diego State, 9/29/2002; Washington – 7-0 vs. California, 10/8/2000).
• The seven goals were also the most for a Pac-12 team against a Division I opponent since UCLA tallied seven against Penn State in the 2002 NCAA Tournament (7-1, 12/7/2002).

National Rankings & NCAA RPI

• Washington’s grip on the No. 1 ranking in the United Soccer Coaches national poll continued for a sixth consecutive week, the longest stretch for a Pac-12 program since UCLA’s league-record seven straight weeks in 2003.
• The Huskies have now made 44 consecutive top-10 poll appearances, a streak dating to Sept. 24, 2019.
• Stanford climbed one spot to No. 5 to make its 11th straight appearance in the top 10, and seventh inside the top 5 this season.
• UCLA and Oregon State are among the 10 teams also receiving votes.
• The Pac-12 owns four top-30 and five top-50 teams in the latest NCAA RPI report – No. 1 Washington, No. 5 Stanford, No. 20 Oregon State, No. 29 UCLA and No. 49 San Diego State.
• With NCAA Selections set for Monday, Nov. 14 at 10:00 a.m. PT on NCAA.com, the Pac-12 will be eying four bids for the first time since 2018 and ninth time since sport sponsorship began in 2000 (2001-03, 2006, 2013-14, 2016, 2018).

Top Performers

• Junior midfielder Imanol Rosales’ career-high five-point week helped Washington to the Pac-12 title and earned him Pac-12 Player of the Week accolades.
• UW’s Nick Scardina recorded a pair of assists in the victory over UCLA to earn honorable mention on Top Drawer Soccer’s National Team of the Week.
• More from Washington – Ilijah Paul and Lucas Meek each scored in the win over UCLA to continue their battle for Pac-12 Golden Boot; Paul currently leads the league with 11 goals, while Meek is on his heels with 10 goals and a league-best 28 points.
• Stanford saw six different scorers and nine different point scorers in Monday’s 7-0 rout of Pacific. Freshman Liam Doyle found the net twice, rookie Zach Bohane recorded a pair of assists, and senior Keegan Tingey grabbed a goal and assist to lead the Cardinal.
• Junior Mouhameth Thiam leads Oregon State with five goals this season, scoring all five in the past six matches during which the Beavers are unbeaten (2-0-4).
• UCLA’s Tucker Lepley, playing in just his fourth match of the season after being a Freshman All-American last fall, tallied a goal and assist in the narrow 3-2 loss at Washington.
• Lastly from Washington, Kalani Kossa-Rienzi scored this absolute golazo, and celebrated accordingly, to open the scoring against San Diego State.

70’ | GOOOOOOOAAAAAALLLL HUSKIES!!!@Kkrienzi with his second of the season off the assist by Gabe Threadgold and Imanol Rosales!

UW 1, SDSU 0

Pac-12 Network
https://t.co/Bv7cmNFOpt #GoHuskies pic.twitter.com/oVn7mZMoNY

— Washington Men’s Soccer (@UW_MSoccer) November 6, 2022

National Teams/Players of Week

College Soccer News National Teams of the Week
Aug. 29 – Christian Soto, Washington
Sept. 5 – Riley Ferch, UCLA; Ilijah Paul, Washington
Sept. 12 – Elias Katsaros, San Diego State
Sept. 19 – Tommy Silva, UCLA
Sept. 26 – Javier Armas, Oregon State (POTW), Keegan Hughes, Stanford
Oct. 3 – Will Reilly, Stanford
Oct. 10 – Lucas Meek, Washington (POTW)
Oct. 17 – Clarence Awoudor, Oregon State, Nick Scardina, Washington
Oct. 24 – Shane de Flores, Stanford

Top Drawer Soccer National Team of the Week
Aug. 30 – Tommy Silva, UCLA
Sept. 6 – Riley Ferch, UCLA; Ilijah Paul, Washington (POTW)
Sept. 13 – Elias Katsaros, San Diego State
Sept. 27 – Keegan Hughes, Stanford; Lucas Meek, Washington (POTW)
Oct. 4 – Will Reilly, Stanford; Nicholas Scardina, Washington
Oct. 11 – Gio Miglietti, Washington
Oct. 18 – Clarence Awoudor, Oregon State, CJ Fodrey, San Diego State
Oct. 25 – Shane de Flores, Stanford; Mouhameth Thiam, Oregon State
Nov. 1 – Nate Crockford, UCLA

United Soccer Coaches National Player of the Week
Sept. 7 – Ilijah Paul, Washington
Sept. 14 – Elias Katsaros, San Diego State

Notes and Nuggets

• The Pac-12 sent three teams – Oregon State, Washington, UCLA – to the 2021 NCAA Tournament, marking the sixth consecutive year and eighth time in the past nine seasons the league advanced at least three teams to the postseason.
• The nation’s top RPI conference in 2021 also had the nation’s top two teams in the RPI (#1 Washington, #2 Oregon State) and the top two seeds in the NCAA Tournament (#1 Oregon State, #2 Washington). It was the second time in Conference history the Pac-12 had the NCAA Tournament’s top two overall national seeds along with 2013 (#1 UCLA, #2 California). The Pac-12 and ACC (nine times since seeding began in 1994) are the only leagues to have the top two overall national seeds.
• Over the past nine years, Pac-12 men’s soccer has earned 31 out of a possible 54 NCAA Tournament bids across its six members, a 57 percent success rate bettered only by the 12-team ACC (65%, 70-108).
• The six-team Pac-12 has had a College Cup representative in six of the last eight seasons (UCLA 2014; Stanford 2015-17, 2019; Washington 2021). Only the 12-team ACC has had more total appearances (12) than the Pac-12’s six over that span.
• The Pac-12 boasts two of the top seven (Jeremy Gunn, Jamie Clark) winningest active coaches by percentage in NCAA Division I, while a third is a two-time Pac-12 Coach of the Year (Terry Boss).
• The Pac-12 has produced three of the last eight MAC Hermann Trophy winners – Oregon State’s Gloire Amanda (2020), Stanford’s Jordan Morris (2015) and UCLA’s Leo Stolz (2014) – as well as six finalists in the past nine years (2021 Dylan Teves, WASH; 2017 Tomas Hilliard-Arce, STAN; 2013 Leo Stolz, UCLA).
• The Pac-12 has produced 20 First Team All-Americans in the nine seasons since 2013 after amassing only 15 from 2000-2012.
• Since expanding beyond two rounds in 2014, 72 Pac-12 student-athletes have been selected in the MLS SuperDraft, including four years of double-digit selections (2014, 2015, 2019, 2022).