Pac-12 Men's Soccer Weekly Rundown - Nov. 1, 2022

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

Week 11 Fixtures

• Pac-12 Men's Soccer enters its penultimate week of league play as the Pacific Northwest programs welcome the SoCal sides starting Thursday with OREGON STATE (6-3-5, 2-1-4) hosting SAN DIEGO STATE (5-7-3, 1-4-2) at 6:00 p.m. PT and No. 1 WASHINGTON (13-0-3, 5-0-2) hosting UCLA (9-5-1, 3-3-1) at 8:00 p.m. PT. Both matches will air on Pac-12 Network.
• The venues flip on Sunday with the Huskies hosting the Aztecs at 12:00 p.m. PT on Pac-12 Network, followed by the Beavers and Bruins at 2:00 p.m. PT on Pac-12 Insider.
• STANFORD (9-2-5) will complete the Pac-12's non-conference slate on Monday when it welcomes Pacific to The Farm at 5:30 p.m. PT on Pac-12 Insider.

Pac-12 Title Scenarios

• League-leader Washington (17 points) largely controls its Pac-12 title destiny as any victory in its final three matches will be enough to secure the program's fourth-ever Conference crown (2000, 2013, 2019).
• The Huskies could also clinch the title Thursday via a draw against UCLA (10p, three matches left) coupled with an Oregon State (10p, three matches left) draw or loss versus San Diego State.
• Any dropped points by Oregon State or UCLA over their final three matches would also allow Washington to clinch at least a share of the title.
• Only three times has a school completed Pac-12 play unbeaten since the league began men's soccer sponsorship in 2000 - UCLA in 2003 (10-0-0) and 2011 (10-0-0), and Stanford in 2017 (9-0-1).

Montlake Milestones

• At 13-0-3, Washington has set a new mark for the best start in program history, surpassing the 11-0-4 start to its 2013 campaign.
• The Huskies are 1-of-3 remaining unbeaten teams in NCAA Division I along with Duke and Kentucky.
• UW is unbeaten in its last 16 road matches (13-0-3) dating to the start of the 2021 season.
• UW is unbeaten in its last 11 league matches overall (7-0-4).
• UW is 41-6-3 at home the past five seasons, including 15-5-1 in Pac-12 matches.

NCAA Committee Top 16 Reveal

• The NCAA Men's Soccer Selection Committee unveiled its early top-16 ranking last Friday and three Pac-12 teams made the cut - No. 1 Washington, No. 6 Stanford and No. 16 Oregon State.
• The Pac-12 last had three seeded teams in the NCAA Tournament in 2014 when four of its league-record five postseason programs were among the top-16 seeds (#2 UCLA, #6 Stanford, #14 Washington, #15 California).
• The 48-team field for the 2022 NCAA Men's Soccer Tournament will be unveiled on Monday, Nov. 14 at 10:00 a.m. PT on NCAA.com.

Week 10 Results

• The trend of draws and one-goal margins continued as all four league matches fit the description last week; for the season, 17 of the 23 league matches to date have been draws (8) or decided by just one goal (9), including a streak of 11 consecutive league tilts dating to Oct. 9.
• Last Thursday's matches both finished 2-1 in favor of the visitors as Washington stunned California on Ilijah Paul's league-leading 10th goal of the season with nine seconds to play, and Oregon State scored two second-half goals to upset then-No. 5 Stanford.
• On Sunday, Washington and Oregon State both secured road points with draws at Stanford (3-3) and California (1-1), respectively.
• UCLA strengthened its postseason resume with a 1-0 non-league victory at Rutgers, leaving the Bruins a victory shy of their first back-to-back 10-win campaigns since 2015 and 2016. Riley Ferch provided the match's lone goal, while goalkeeper Nate Crockford stopped a penalty in the 86th minute to preserve the win and his league-leading eighth shutout of the season.

National Rankings & NCAA RPI

• Washington is No. 1 in the United Soccer Coaches national poll for a program-record fifth consecutive week, while Stanford dropped one spot to No. 6 and UCLA rose to the top team among others receiving votes.
• It's the longest stretch at the top for a Pac-12 program since California's five consecutive weeks in 2013. UCLA owns the Conference's longest stretch at No. 1 with seven straight weeks during the 2003 season.
• The Huskies have now made 43 consecutive top-10 poll appearances, a streak dating to Sept. 24, 2019.
• Despite ranking 16th in the early NCAA Committee reveal, 18th in the NCAA RPI and going 4-0-2 against ranked opponents since Sept. 20, Oregon State is not receiving votes in the United Coaches poll.
• In the latest NCAA RPI report, the Pac-12 continues to trend toward four postseason teams for the first time since 2018 - No. 1 Washington, No. 6 Stanford, No. 18 Oregon State, No. 28 UCLA.
• Thanks to its national-best .728 non-conference win percentage (30-9-7), the Pac-12 continues to rate as the top conference in the NCAA Division I Conference and Non-Conference RPI Rankings reports.

Top Performers

• UCLA keeper Nate Crockford, who matched his season-high with six saves in the win at Rutgers, garnered recognition on the Top Drawer Soccer National Team of the Week.
• While Crockford was the only Pac-12 player to be named to a national team of the week, Oregon State's Joran Gerbet, UCLA's Riley Ferch and Washington's Pac-12 Player of the Week Gio Miglietti all earned honorable mention recognition from Top Drawer Soccer.
• Clarence Awoudor received credit for the game-winning goal in the 83rd minute in Oregon State's upset 2-1 win at Stanford. All of Awoudor's three goals and eight points this season have come in the Beavers' last five matches.

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
Sept. 19 - Tommy Silva, UCLA
Sept. 26 - Javier Armas, Oregon State (POTW), Keegan Hughes, Stanford
Oct. 3 - Will Reilly, Stanford
Oct. 10 - Lucas Meek, Washington (POTW)
Oct. 17 - Clarence Awoudor, Oregon State, Nick Scardina, Washington
Oct. 24 - Shane de Flores, Stanford

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
Sept. 27 - Keegan Hughes, Stanford; Lucas Meek, Washington (POTW)
Oct. 4 - Will Reilly, Stanford; Nicholas Scardina, Washington
Oct. 11 - Gio Miglietti, Washington
Oct. 18 - Clarence Awoudor, Oregon State, CJ Fodrey, San Diego State
Oct. 25 - Shane de Flores, Stanford; Mouhameth Thiam, Oregon State
Nov. 1 - Nate Crockford, UCLA

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).