Pac-12 Men's Soccer kicks off 2021 campaign this week
Aug 24, 2021
SAN FRANCISCO - Pac-12 Men's Soccer begins the 2021 campaign with five matches on opening day Thursday, Aug. 26 and 11 total matches over the first weekend of action.
- The biggest matches of the week feature STANFORD visiting SMU and WASHINGTON hosting Big West co-favorite UC Davis in their openers, CALIFORNIA traveling for an East Bay derby at Saint Mary's (Calif.) on Thursday and to Big West co-favorite UC Santa Barbara on Sunday, OREGON STATE taking on a pair of reigning league champions in Denver (Summit League) on Friday and Air Force (WAC) on Monday, and SAN DIEGO STATE visiting defending WCC champs LMU on Monday.
- Currently, 27 matches are set for broadcast on Pac-12 Networks this season beginning Sunday at 3:00 p.m. PT with UCLA welcoming San Francisco on Pac-12 Network and Pac-12 Los Angeles, and Washington hosting Cal State Fullerton on Pac-12 Washington. Additional matches will air on Pac-12 Insider, the free broadband streaming channel from Pac-12 Network. More fall sports broadcast information can be found here.
- Three Pac-12 programs begin the season in the United Soccer Coaches preseason poll in No. 8 Stanford, No. 9 Washington and No. 16 Oregon State. The three ranked teams are tied for second nationally only to the ACC's five teams.
- Mirroring the preseason national poll, Stanford, Washington and Oregon State went 1-2-3 in the Pac-12 preseason coaches poll, with the defending league champion Cardinal narrowly edging the Huskies for the top spot. UCLA, California and San Diego State rounded out the order of the league poll.
- Four College Soccer News preseason All-Americans headline the rosters of Pac-12 Men's soccer programs this fall - reigning Pac-12 Player of the Year Zach Ryan of Stanford, reigning Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year Charlie Ostrem and First Team All-Conference midfielder Dylan Teves of Washington, and First Team All-Pac-12 midfielder Sofiane Djeffal of Oregon State. The same quartet was also named to the Missouri Athletic Club's Hermann Trophy Watch List on Aug. 26.
- In total, 28 of the 33 players awarded Pac-12 All-Conference recognition for the 2020 season (First Team - 7, Second Team - 10, Honorable Mention - 11) are slated to return to rosters for 2021, including all eight honorees from Washington. One of the missing five is 2020 MAC Hermann Trophy recipient Gloire Amanda - the former OSU forward became the third Pac-12 recipient on the nation's top individual award in the past seven years (Jordan Morris, STAN, 2015; Leo Stolz, UCLA, 2014).
- 12 Pac-12 student-athletes are ranked on Top Drawer Soccer's Top 100 Upperclassmen for 2021:
6. Dylan Teves, M, Washington
8. Charlie Ostrem, D, Washington
11. Zach Ryan, F, Stanford
25. Sofiane Djeffal, M, Oregon State
32. Ousseni Bouda, F/M, Stanford
50. Will Richmond, M, Stanford
56. Yoni Sorokin, M, UCLA
59. Sam Fowler, GK, Washington
62. JJ Foe Nuphaus, D, California
65. Christian Soto, M, Washington
76. Ian Lonergan, D, California
94. Ahmed Longmire, D, UCLA
- The Pac-12 sent three teams - Stanford, Washington and Oregon State - to the 2020 NCAA Tournament, marking the fifth consecutive year and seventh time in the past eight seasons the league advanced at least three teams to the postseason.