Leaderboard

It would also be nice to put a morale and spirit breaking @$$ whoopin' on them if we have to face them again in a couple of weeks.

Two days in the books, and a commanding lead, brought to us by some stellar performance from our youngins and our vets. We had two Championship finalists in the 500 Free in Emma King and Mackenzie Vargas. Then it was Freshman Sarah Watson taking the Championship in the 200 Individual Medley, with Paulina Nogaj, Ellie Nebraska and Jackie Pash all making the Champ finals as well. In the 50 Free it was Beast-mode Senior Sadie Fazekas, who has been so focused this meet, taking the title with a sizzling 22.20 second time, and teammates Ragen Engel, Sofia Hennell and Morgan Waggoner sweeping the other top 4 slots. All meeting NCAA standard. Then a surprise as Freshman Kami Goodrick took silver in the 1 meter dive. Great story on this kid; she was a stellar high school gymnast who had to quit due to an injury but tried diving as a replacement, and after just one year of diving won the Ohio High School Championship. And she got us 17 points tonight. Karly Crail was a finalist as well. And to cap off the night it was our 200 yard Freestyle relay team won gold by 2 seconds over Buffalo, and the team of Engel, Fazekas, Hennell and Waggoner blister a 1:28.554 time, good for a new meet, MAC and Ocasek record, and an A standard for NCAA in the process. The Zips have 319 points to Easter Michigan's 221 points, and Buffalo is at 199 points. Some good stuff....

I have been driving a lot over the past 2 days...so I am slow in responding. I wanted to acknowledge and thank TJ for all of his contributions to Zips soccer. Jared, Ger and TJ did super work in the MAC tourney and the NCAA tourney leading and improving the zips soccer team (while operating with one less coach than most teams). Very happy for TJ that he has moved into an assistant position.

I don't know that any game is a "must win" before the MAC tourney but I see this as a huge game. It is one we should win when you look at the standings. It is at home. It comes as the team seems to be improving and progressing. When Groce's teams have been successful in March they usually had a "launching pad" game that got them headed in the right direction. This one would seem to make sense. Its Ohio University

cool story about Tim B. and his prom date https://www.columbusalive.com/sports/20190227/crew-season-preview-president-tim-bezbatchenko-and-head-coach-caleb-porter-lead-new-look-front-office

Jared mentioned on the podcast that TJ had left the Zips... Best wishes to TJ. Great coach and person. Gonna miss him but I'm sure Jared will find another excellent assistant.

FYI, could be a doubleheader first round at the JAR.

Awesome about time we picked up an Explorer. Hudson has a long history of excellent soccer. I think I have a new favorite player :-)

Spring roster link: https://gozips.com/news/2019/1/15/akron-mens-soccer-announces-four-member-early-2019-signing-class.aspx?path=msoc direct link: https://gozips.com/documents/2019/1/15/akron_msoc_2019spring.pdf (25 players: 21 position players, 4 GKs) Freshmen (8) 28 Dion Akhigbe MF/F 5-8 Fr. (R) 29 Nick McCausland D 5-8 Fr. (R) 30 Nick Sibila GK 6-4 Fr. (R) 31 Ricky Ceballos GK 5-10 Fr. (R) Grant Abbott GK - Fr. Henrique Cruz MF - Fr. Johnny Fitzgerald MF - Fr. Will Jackson F - Fr. Sophomores (9) 2 Pol Hernandez D 5-6 So. 3 Carlo Ritaccio D 5-11 So. 4 Marco Milanese D 5-11 So. 12 Colin Biros MF/F 5-6 So. 15 Braden Petno F 6-4 So. (R) 16 Sam Tojaga MF 5-11 So. 18 Ivan Nikolic D 5-11 So. 23 Daniel Oliveira D 5-7 So. (R) 27 Declan Watters D 6-5 So. (R) Juniors (5) 9 David Egbo F 6-1 Jr. 14 Diogo Pacheco MF/F 5-10 Jr. (R) 24 Tor Saunders GK 6-5 Jr. (R) 25 Daniel Strachan D 6-1 Jr. 32 Peter Zecca F 5-10 Jr. Seniors (3) 5 Leonard Sohn D 5-10 Sr. 6 Skye Harter MF 6-1 Sr. (R) 21 Christian Lue Young MF 6-0 Sr. (R) Coaches Head Coach: Jared Embick (13th season/seventh as head coach) Assistant Coach: TJ Kolba (fifth season) Goalkeepers Coach: Ger Coppinger (fifth season)