Pac-12 Men's Soccer Weekly Rundown - Sept. 13, 2022

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

Week 4 Fixtures

• Pac-12 play kicks off this week with the SoCal sides venturing north to the Bay Area. CALIFORNIA (1-1-3) hosts SAN DIEGO STATE (2-3-1) and No. 2 STANFORD (4-0-1) welcomes No. 25 UCLA (3-2-0) on Thursday before the series flip on Sunday. All four matches between the squads picked third through sixth in the preseason Pac-12 coaches poll will be televised on Pac-12 Networks.
• Along with the league openers, OREGON STATE (1-2-1) will also host Seattle U on Thursday.
• On Friday, No. 4 WASHINGTON (4-0-1) will welcome Michigan State (Pac-12 Network) in a futbol lead-in to Saturday's American football contest between the Huskies and Spartans in Seattle.

Week 3 Results

• After dropping a trio of one-goal contests to open the season, San Diego State ran its unbeaten streak to three matches with a pair of victories last week. On Friday, the Aztecs routed UNLV, 5-0, with its most goals in a match since 2013, then on Sunday knocked off then-No. 6 Denver, 2-1, to secure two results against top-10 opponents in the same week for the first time since 2009 (1-1 at then-No. 7 Creighton on 9/5).
• Washington ran its regular-season non-conference win streak to 18 consecutive matches with a mid-week 3-0 win at USF. The Huskies then saw the streak move to 19 straight unbeaten matches (18-0-1) following a 1-1 draw against Air Force on Sunday.
• California is unbeaten in its last four matches after securing the first victory of the Leonard Griffin era with a 1-0 shutout of Cal Baptist on Saturday.
• Stanford's Carlo Agostinelli found the back of the net inside the first minute and the Cardinal held on for a 1-1 road result at Creighton on Friday to remain unbeaten.
• The league's two losses last week - UCLA at Portland and Oregon State at UC Santa Barbara - helped propel those opponents to Nos. 13 and 18, respectively, in the latest United Soccer Coaches national poll.

Milestone Victory for UW's Clark

• With Washington's 3-0 rout of USF last week, Huskies head coach Jamie Clark picked up his 150th career win on Montlake.
• Clark is now 150-52-23 overall in his 12th season at Washington, a win total which includes 69 league wins - the third-most in Conference history (Kevin Grimes, CAL 90; Jorge Salcedo, UCLA 89).
• For his career, Clark is 189-67-26 (.716) in 15 seasons as a manager (Washington, Creighton, Harvard), ranking among the top 10 active winningest coaches by percentage in NCAA Division I.

National Rankings

• Three teams remain in the latest United Soccer Coaches national poll - No. 2t Stanford, No. 4 Washington, No. 25 UCLA - creating a ranked matchup between the Cardinal and Bruins in their league opener on Thursday night in Palo Alto.
• It's the 36th consecutive top-10 poll appearance for Washington, a streak dating to Sept. 24, 2019.

In the Non-Conference

• Pac-12 programs combined for a 4-2-2 mark in Week 3, headlined by San Diego State's 2-1 upset of then-No. 6 Denver.
• The Conference sits at 15-8-7 (.617) through three weeks of non-conference play for the second-best win percentage nationally behind only the ACC (.716).

Top Performers

• San Diego State defender Elias Katsaros enjoyed a banner week with three header goals in the Aztecs' two wins. For his efforts, Katsaros was named Pac-12 Player of the Week, United Soccer Coaches National Player of the Week, and to both the College Soccer News and Top Drawer Soccer National Teams of the Week.
• With Katsaros' win this week and Ilijah Paul's last week, it marks the first time the Pac-12 has had multiple United Soccer Coaches National Player of the Week honors in a single season.
• Lucas Meek tallied the game-winner in UW's 3-0 win at USF, then assisted on Ilijah Paul's league-leading fifth goal of the season in the 1-1 draw with Air Force. Paul also paces the Pac-12 with 11 points (5g/1a) so far this season.
• California's Shoei Honda came off the bench to bag the game winner against Cal Baptist as Collin Travasos and the Golden Bears' defense logged their first shutout of the season.
• Stanford's Carlo Agostinelli (3g/2a) and Fletcher Bank (2g/4a) are both currently riding four-match point scored streaks with Bank assisting on Agostinelli's early goal at Creighton. The Cardinal duo is tied for second in the Pac-12 with SDSU's CJ Fodrey (3g/2a) on eight points.
• Washington goalkeeper Sam Fowler collected his second shutout of the season and 23rd of his career with the 3-0 clean sheet at USF. The 23 shutouts are now tied for sixth-most in league history (Andrew Thomas, STAN 2018-20). Stanford counterpart Matt Frank has allowed a league-low two goals so far this season to lower his career goals-against average to 0.66, which is currently on pace to eclipse the all-time Pac-12 mark.

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

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

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).