Tag Archives: Men’s Soccer

The Weekend Rundown

Posted on November 18, 2011 by Shane

Men’s Hoops

Friday – Davidson at Duke. Call me crazy, but I like the Blue Devils.

Sunday – Mississippi Valley State at UNC. Call me crazy, but I like the Delta Devils

Women’s Soccer

Friday – UNC vs. Baylor, in Gainesville. Second round NCAA action. If UNC wins, they’ll play Sunday against (probably) Florida.

Friday – Georgia at Duke. Can’t wait for this. Duke will host games through the quarterfinals if they keep winning. Like UNC, they’ll play again at 1pm Sunday if they win, against the winner of Ohio State and UW-Milwaukee.

Men’s Soccer

Sunday – Duke vs. New Mexico. The Devils won their first round NCAA match against Georgia State, and will now travel to Albuquerque to try to continue the run.

Sunday – UNC vs. Coastal Carolina. UNC had a first-round bye, and will host a second round game at Fetzer. Hopefully it doesn’t rain; Coastal Carolina is from the ocean, and they love playing on water.

Field Hockey

Friday – UNC vs. Connecticut, 2pm. It’s the Final Four! If UNC wins, they’ll face Old Dominion or Maryland in the championship Sunday at noon. They’ve beaten both already this season, though ODU handed the Heels their only loss early on. UNC has faced Maryland in the championship the past two season, with a win in 2009 and a loss in 2010. If you have any inclination, you can watch this one live on NCAA.com.

Back this afternoon with the Triangle Prophets. Enjoy your weekend.

UNC, Duke Sweep Men’s Soccer Conference Awards

Posted on November 10, 2011 by William

2 Comments

The ACC announced today the winners of the 2011 individual and All-Conference awards. The Tar Heels and the Blue Devils swept the individual awards and were both heavily represented on the All-Conference teams. UNC led all teams with 8 players receiving recognition (4 First team, 1 Second team, 3 Freshman team). Maryland was second with 6 players and Duke followed up with 5.

2011 ACC Individual Awards

Offensive POY: Andrew Wenger - Duke

Offensive Player of the Year:
Andrew Wenger – Duke

Andrew Wenger was the ACC Defensive Player of the Year last season as a Sophomore, but switched to forward for his Junior season. It has paid off for the Blue Devils as Wenger is the first player to ever earn both Defensive and Offensive POY awards. Continue reading →

Posted in Duke, UNC | Tagged All-ACC Team, Andrew Morales, Andrew Wenger, Billy Schuler, Boyd Okwuonu, Carlos Somoano, Enzo Martinez, James Belshaw, Jordan McCrary, Kirk Urso, Matt Hedges, Men's Soccer, Mikey Lopez, Nick Palodichuk, Scott Goodwin, Sebastien Ibeagha | 2 Comments

Catching Up on Duke/UNC Fall Sports

Posted on November 3, 2011 by Shane

2 Comments

Hey gang, wanted to check in this morning with a quick update on some of the fall sports reaching their climax in the Triangle.

Women’s Soccer

As you all could probably tell, I’ve become pretty obsessed with women’s soccer this year, which I never imagined would be so much fun to watch. In that department, UNC suffered its FIRST EVER LOSS in the ACC tournament last weekend, losing in the quarterfinals to Florida State. That’s a bit of a deceiving word formulation, because UNC has actually lost three times previously on penalty kicks, but still, it’s the first regulation loss for the team that’s won 18 of 21 ACC tournaments. UNC also set a new program low with five losses on the season, and they’ll need an at-large bid to even make the tournament. Strange stuff for one of the best teams in college history.

The Dukies, on the other hand, are in prime form. Ranked third in the country, they’ll face Wake Forest in the ACC semis tomorrow in Cary (I’ll be there at 5:30). Duke won just its second ACC regular season title a week ago, and are vying for their first ACC tournament championship. After that, they’ll attempt to make just the second Final Four in school history, and win the first championship. Their lone ACC loss this year came to Carolina, when they were missing freshman standout Kelly Cobb and conceded the deciding goal with two minutes remaining.

Continue reading →

Posted in Duke, UNC | Tagged Erwin Cup, Field Hockey, football, Kelly Cobb, Men's Cross Country, Men's Soccer, Volleyball, Women's Cross Country, Women's Soccer | 2 Comments

Limbo: A Profile of UNC’s Carlos Somoano

Posted on October 6, 2011 by Shane

2 Comments

(From the annals of last year’s sports journalism class comes this feature on current UNC men’s soccer head coach Carlos Somoano. At the time, he was just the interim coach and wasn’t sure if he’d land the top position. This piece caught him in flux.)

Limbo

Carlos Somoano’s early dreams didn’t include Chapel Hill.

He spent his youth in Texas, the epicenter of American football. But while an entire state looked to the gridiron, Somoano and his friends traveled an hour and a half just for a few good hours on the soccer pitch. Everyone else called it a “sissy sport,” but Somoano was devoted. So devoted, in fact, that he made his way to a Division 2 program when college seemed like a distant possibility. So devoted that he played in Europe before suffering a career-ending leg injury. So devoted that he took his first job as an assistant coach for no pay, and his second for a mere $16,000 per year.

Continue reading →

Posted in UNC | Tagged Carlos Somoano, Men's Soccer, soccer | 2 Comments

Fall sports rankings and national title odds

Posted on October 5, 2011 by Shane

9 Comments

Let’s take a look at the respective rankings of every fall sports team at Duke and UNC.

Football

UNC: #35 (by the ‘others receiving votes’ portion of the USA Today poll)
Duke: #42 (hey, we got a vote!)

Men’s Soccer

UNC: #4
Duke: #26

Continue reading →

Posted in Duke, UNC | Tagged Cross Country, Field Hockey, football, Men's Cross Country, Men's Soccer, national title hopes, Rankings, soccer, Volleyball, Women's Cross Country, Women's Soccer | 9 Comments

Duke Earns Its First Erwin Cup Point!

Posted on October 3, 2011 by Shane

1 Comment

The Duke football essay project returns tomorrow, but in the meantime, here’s the wrap from the weekend.

-Check the scoreboard, baby! (Right sidebar.) Duke has its first point of the Erwin Cup, and it was well-earned. Visiting the #5 UNC Tar Heels, the men’s soccer team pulled out an incredible 2-2 draw. Luckily, Will asked me the day before the game what would happen in the case of a tie, and we decided that the difference in possible points earned would go to the road team. So in this case, UNC stood to gain 3 with a home win, and Duke would get 4 with a road win. The difference is 1, so Duke takes the point.

Riley Wolfe scored the game-tying goal for Duke in the 84th minute, and the Blue Devils are now unbeaten in their last five matches.

-UNC women’s soccer did a better for themselves, winning 4-1 at Miami. You can watch the goals here.

-Duke women’s soccer continued its incredible season, and Tara Campbell earned yet another shutout, in a 1-0 win over Virginia Tech. You can see the nifty goal, scored by Kaitlyn Kerr after a great headed pass from Chelsea Canepa, here:

Posted in Duke, UNC | Tagged Erwin Cup, Men's Soccer, soccer, Women's Soccer | 1 Comment

Looking ahead: Duke-UNC men’s soccer, Friday night

Posted on September 28, 2011 by Shane

3 Comments

Stuff to know:

-The game is in Chapel Hill, and UNC wants to break the single-game attendance record. (Linke opens. pdf)

-The Duke women’s team is red-hot, but the men are entrenched in a year-long struggle. They started off ranked, but a series of close losses pushed them well out of the top 25. On the other hand, they’re now working on a 4-match winning streak in which they’ve scored at least four goals in each. Here’s video from their win against Presbyterian. Notice how the players don’t seem to celebrate even a little after a goal. Do they hate each other?

-Unlike Duke, UNC has had a dream season. They started off the year with a win over #1-ranked Louisville, and have lost just one game, a 1-0 road loss to Virginia Tech, en route to compiling an 8-1 record. Their last win, yesterday against #14 Old Dominion, should shoot them up even higher than their current #5 ranking.

I will be there for the second ever Erwin Cup match. If anyone attends, any kind of Erwin Cup sign will make the pages of this blog.

Posted in Duke, UNC | Tagged Erwin Cup, Men's Soccer | 3 Comments

UNC’s Mystifying Loss – Weekend Recap

Posted on September 13, 2011 by Shane

Kealia Ohai Strikes Again – Weekend Recap

Posted on September 6, 2011 by Shane

The Weekend Recap – Good Signs

Posted on August 29, 2011 by Shane

2 Comments

Last year, I was pretty lax about going to see non-basketball sports at Duke and UNC. I hit up most of the main football games, and I was definitely on the spot come hoops season, but I never went to a single soccer match, and only made it to a couple baseball, tennis, and lacrosse games in the spring. It’s lucky I did, though, because those late experiences kicked me into gear. I remembered how much fun it was to watch elite college sports of any kind, and I vowed to make an effort to get to more games this year.

Still, I didn’t know if I’d like watching women’s soccer this weekend at the Carolina Nike Classic. The defending national champs (Notre Dame) were in town, and sure, UNC has the most successful college program of any sport in the country, and yeah, I’ve been getting really into soccer over the past year and a half. But logic be damned- I was afraid to be bored.

Let me tell ya, I was one misguided dude.

Continue reading →

Posted in Duke, UNC | Tagged Field Hockey, Men's Soccer, soccer, Women's Soccer | 2 Comments