TennZip

2nd semi next week will be at 2 pm on Friday..... WMU has had a lot of rough weather this year.....they will determine at 2 today if the BGSU at WMU game can be played today

No promotion by Larry Williams and his staff No coverage from the Beacon I am sure that the Beacon will provide some coverage if the zips win the MAC tourney and are a top 8 NCAA seed...but they have provided no coverage during the season. I think they did a writeup before the game against Michigan State. Joao Moutinho seems to be a pretty interesting guy. I would love for the Beacon to do a feature on Joao. Daniel Strachan has been the freshman that has greatly exceeded expectations. I would love to see the Beacon give young Mr. Strachan some press. Skye is a local kid and is vastly improved. Give the young man from Copley some coverage to acknowledge how hard he has worked and how vital he is to the only nationally ranked zips team. The Zips athletic department and the Beacon can do so much more. Sorry to vent.....need to go take my blood pressure med now.....as lack of publicity and coverage honks me off.

http://www.gozips.com/news/2017/11/3/mens-soccer-no-5-akron-closes-out-regular-season-hosting-northern-illinois.aspx very nice photo of the seniors at the link above

http://wmubroncos.com/news/2017/11/2/mens-soccer-broncos-finish-regular-season-hosting-bowling-green.aspx Western Michigan earned the No. 1 seed in the upcoming conference tournament which will be held at the WMU Soccer Complex. The semifinals of the tournament will take place on Friday, Nov. 10 beginning at 11 a.m. and the championship game will be on Sunday, Nov. 12 at 1:00 p.m.

http://unitedsoccercoaches.org/web/Rankings/College_Rankings/NCAA_DI_MEN/web/Rankings/NCAA/DI_MEN.aspx zips have moved from 19 in the coaches poll.....2 weeks ago..to 14 last week to 10 this week

http://gozips.com/news/2017/10/31/mens-soccer-no-5-akron-hosts-marshall.aspx

http://www.herdzone.com/sports/m-soccer/recaps/102817aaa.html The zips next opponent defeated Alabama Birmingham in their last game and former Zip Adi Dakwar was the hero. Adi played 58 minutes and had the golden goal. ....and a belated thank you to Adi Dakwar for converting his penalty kick against Stanford in the NCAA semis in 2015.

https://www.topdrawersoccer.com/college-soccer-articles/mens-team-of-the-week:-october-23-29_aid43247 Stuart selected to team of the week

in college soccer news poll...Louisville is 6 and Akron is 11 Louisville has wins over Duke (#8 in top drawer soccer) and Butler (#10 in top drawer) and has a tie against N. Carolina (#3 in top drawer soccer) their 2 losses are to #1 wake and NC State (I don't know much about NC State...but I suspect that they are better than Utah Valley) I know that Travis Clark...at top drawer....thinks the world of Jared Embick.... possibly the TDS writers just don't like Ken Lolla at Louisville???? RPI......takes the personal feelings out of everything.... at the end of the day...Louisville is #4 in RPI...and that will count much more than the top drawer soccer rankings

what is really strange about the NCAA's top 10...is the absence of Louisville Louisville is currently #4 in Gaucho Dan's RPI they did beat Clemson at Clemson this past Friday night...so they would probably be in the top 10 as of 10/29/17 Wake Forest (15-1-0) Indiana (13-0-3) North Carolina (13-2-1) Clemson (11-3-0) Michigan State (11-2-2) Duke (10-3-2) Notre Dame (9-4-2) Western Michigan (13-2-1) Georgetown (11-2-1) Akron (10-3-1) http://rpiupdatemenssoccer.blogspot.com/search/label/RPI Rank

good find, zippyfan i was just getting ready to post the release from the ncaa the good news is that those ratings are as of october 22 Georgetown is #9 in those ratings Georgetown tied Providence on Wednesday and Lost to St. Johns yesterday Notre Dame is #7 ...they lost to an excellent N. Carolina team 3-0 on Friday night Notre Dame hosts Pittsburgh in the ACC round of 16 this wednesday night...Pitt has already beaten UND once this year In important big ten games, Michigan State and Indiana played to 1-1 tie to finish tied for 2nd in league with 5-0-3 records. Michigan won the league with a 6-1-1 record with a 2-1 double overtime win at Maryland. maryland finished 4th with 5-1-2 record. Michigan is up to #12 in RPI (W. Michigan beat the wolverines earlier this year) http://www.ncaa.com/news/soccer-men/article/2017-10-29/di-mens-soccer-committee-reveals-top-10-ranking

current top 16 RPI shown below... top 4 are ACC teams 6,9 and 11 are ACC teams WMU is 7... Akron is 10... Akron needs to go one game at a time.. with the ultimate goal of beating WMU on their own field in the conference title game. 4 straight wins........and Akron has possibility of top 8 seed and 2 home NCAA games... akron really needs Notre Dame and virginia both to lose early in the ACC tourney Ben is back healthy...Sam is back healthy...Joao and Strachan continue to get better and better.... This team has come a long way from the UVU and Denver trip. RankSCHOOLWLDRPISOSOSS 1North Carolina1421.675039 2Wake Forest1511.6577503 3Duke1232.653424 4Louisville1123.6379138 5Indiana1303.6331622 6Clemson1140.6289613 7Western Michigan1421.62862440 8Michigan State1122.62632315 9Notre Dame952.621011 10Akron1231.61412619 11Virginia1033.6114145 12New Hampshire1113.60465630 13FIU1103.60349042 14Maryland1033.59813110 15Stanford1221.59689728 16Butler1041.59611156

zips move up to 10 in the rpi after last night Pitt probably won't make the NCAA as they dropped to 8-9 last night as Va Tech crushed them 3-0 UNC, #1 in RPI beat Notre Dame 3-0 Syracuse, another former zip opponent, was 0-6-1 in ACC before last night...they are now 0-6-2 after tieing Wake Forest 0-0 (Wake is #2 in RPI and had been 7-0-0 in ACC) ken Lolla's Louisville team is now #4 in RPI after a 2-1 win over Clemson. Clemson is 4-4 in the ACC...but they are #6 in the nation in RPI

http://wvusports.com/news/2017/10/26/mens-soccer-top-25-matchup-senior-night-close-home-slate.aspx

http://www.thedaonline.com/sports/wvu-aims-to-finish-strong/article_b80617b2-b916-11e7-958b-136ae9880399.html The zips need to come out focused. WVU has an impressive win over Michigan State and they were very competitive against Western Michigan.

Congratulations to Victor Souto. Riverhounds fan voted for Victor as having the best Riverhounds goal of the year.

what the Pitt student newspaper had to say about the game https://pittnews.com/article/124120/sports/zips-hold-panthers-nil-3-0/

zips up to #11 in RPI after last night's game... old friend Dave Giffards has VCU up to #20 in the rpi after VCU pummeled Maryland 3-0 last night

from local pittsburgh soccer writer twitter

https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2017/10/24/darren-mattocks-continues-write-his-timbers-story-after-goal-vs-caps

Cregan quoted in this article from a major Pittsburgh paper http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/Pitt/2017/10/16/Coach-Jay-Vidovich-is-making-Pitt-men-s-soccer-relevant-Bryce-Cregan/stories/201710130150 “We didn’t have any type of winning culture at Pitt, whereas at Akron, you were expected to win games every year, make the tournament and go far in the tournament,” said senior defender Bryce Cregan, who transferred from Akron. “Here, we didn’t really have any expectations.” “At the beginning of the year, we were under the radar,” Cregan said. “Now, I think teams are kind of scared to play us. We still have the old Pitt name, but we’re not the old Pitt anymore.”

https://pittsburghsoccerreport.com/2017/10/24/pitt-vs-akron-702-p-m/ This will be a match that senior captain center back Bryce Cregan has been looking forward to, having played his first two collegiate seasons prior to transferring to Pittsburgh when Vidovich was hired in 2016. Cregan started 12 of 16 matches for the Zips, in his freshman season in 2014, recording one assist, but only made three appearances in 2015. Cregan has been a part of the U.S. Youth National Team system, making eight international appearances and was a member of the U.S. U17 Men’s National Team.

http://www.pittsburghpanthers.com/facilities/?id=16 above is a link to the peterson sports complex it has a link to directions I keyed in a stow address to get there.... the recommended route is to use 279S once you get off 79s there is another route that uses 376 and takes 9 minutes longer (if neither route has construction delays) below are part of the directions to get to the soccer field....you have to go to exit 2 to change from 279S to 579S On Saturday October 14th, I drove on 279S to get to the Fort Pitt Bridge as I was going to the last Riverhounds game of the year. it took me 45 minutes to go 1 mile(between exit 5 and exit 4) as they had the road shut down to 1 lane at exit 4 on 279S (due to construction). for anyone going over to Pitt for the game, I would highly suggest checking your traffic apps to check for construction delays on 279S.....and also 376. Allow yourself plenty of time to get there as Pittsburgh traffic will be very heavy from 5 to 6:30. I have always run into delays whenever I have traveled on 279S part of route to Ambrose Urbanic stadium ....using 279S Merge onto I-79 S via EXIT 28 toward Pittsburgh. Then 6.93 miles Merge onto I-279 S/Parkway North via EXIT 72 on the left toward Pittsburgh. Then 11.42 miles Merge onto I-579 S via EXIT 2A toward Veterans Bridge. Then 0.89 miles Take the 7th Avenue exit toward 6th Avenue/Downtown Exits. Then 0.33 miles