Men's Soccer UCSB vs UCR summary

Men's Soccer UCSB vs UCR summary 

 

The Game

 This past Friday (9/28) #3 UCSB took on #24 UC Riverside. The game went similarly to what was expected (UCSB won 3-1), although there was an unanticipated flurry of cards shown throughout the entirety of the game.

The teams were nearly identically matched in height and weight as UCSB had an average body mass index (BMI) of 23.5 and UCR had an average BMI of 23.3. Therefore there was no clear imbalance of size on the field.

The Goals

 The first goal was put in by UCSB's Ema Boateng at 12:25 with an assist by freshman forward Charlie Miller. A short time later, at 21:13, UCR equalized the score with a goal by Ruben Valencia that came off of multiple assists. Going into the second half with a 1-1 tie UCSB came out charging the field. At 69:41 Nic Ryan buried the game winning goal making the score UCSB 2-1. After a frustrated tackle from behind UCR player Ivan Garcia was shown a red card which ultimately destroyed any hope left for UCR. As UCR played a man down and a mere 20 seconds later UCSB's Dion Acoff put in the third and final goal for UCSB making the score 3-1.

Conclusion

After inflating their egos with nothing but unranked teams UCR faced a sad reality, they were outmatched by #3 UCSB and suffered another embarrassing loss on their previously perfect record.

My experience at the Hawai'i-LBSU game 9/29/12

There is nothing like it anywhere else in the country. I don't know how Dave Shoji does it but his Rainbow Wahine volleyball squad bring in the best fans to the Stan Sheriff Center every match whether its UCLA or LBSU. The place is always at least 3/4 full at the 10,300 seat arena. The Wahine led the country in attendance every year for the past 16 years averaging 6,800 a match. This is probably one of the few women's sports in all of college volleyball that makes money. Football and basketball are still king as far as revenue but for Hawai'i we have a hidden gem in the middle of the Pacific that helps the athletic department financially.

Anyway I went to this Saturday's match between the Long Beach State 49ers and the Hawai'i Rainbow Wahine. It was an easy night for the Wahine as they swept the 49ers in three sets: 25-17,25-16,25-19. The kill leader again for the Wahine was Emily Hartong with 12 kills with Hawai'i solid all night hitting .370, Jade Vorster had another career-high night with eight blocks. Ali Longo had a team-high 10 digs.

Here are some pics of tonight's match...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?list=HL1348997505&v=9yawoYUjnjY&feature=player_detailpage

 

 

2012 Week 7 Preview: Women's Soccer

Another week in the books and as I've mentioned before, LBSU is back in the national rankings.  Tonight Northridge plays their last conference game of the year when they take on No. 22 Portland.  It they win tonight, they will be above .500 to start conference play tomorrow.

On Friday, No. 21 LBSU takes on UCR, UCI travels a full 20 minutes to play Fullerton, Pacific travels to Cal Poly, UCSB goes to UCD and Hawaii travels to Cal State Bakersfield for a tune-up before they start conference play.  Then, on Sunday, Pacific travels to UCSB, UCD goes to Cal Poly, LBSU plays Fullerton, Hawaii plays Northridge and rivals square off in UCI and UCR.

Keep reading to find out where you can follow the games live:

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2012
#NR/22 Portland	Cal State Northridge	7:00 PM	Live Stats
			Audio - POR
			Video (FREE)
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2012
Cal State Fullerton	UC Irvine	5:00 PM	BigWest.TV
			Live Stats
			Audio - CSF
UC Riverside	#21/NR Long Beach State	5:00 PM	Live Stats
Cal Poly	Pacific	7:00 PM	GameTracker
UC Davis	UC Santa Barbara	7:00 PM	Live Stats
Cal State Bakersfield	Hawai'i	7:00 PM	Live Stats
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2012
Cal Poly	UC Davis	12:00 PM	Live Stats
			Audio - CP
UC Santa Barbara	Pacific	12:00 PM	BigWest.TV
			Live Stats
Cal State Fullerton	#21 Long Beach State	5:00 PM	BigWest.TV
			Live Stats
			Audio - CSF
Cal State Northridge	Hawai'i	6:00 PM	Live Stats
UC Riverside	UC Irvine	6:00 PM	Live Stats

Keep reading here for continuous updates on Big West news.

We've gone social! Follow us on Google Plus and Facebook!

2012 Week 6 Preview: Men's Soccer

Welcome to conference play everyone!  The scheduling is strange this season: teams play a ten-game conference season.  This means that each team plays their division teams twice (six games) and each team in the opposing division once (another four games).  Sagi Lev-Ari ranks third in the nation with nine goals so far, so we'll keep a special watch on him throughout the rest of the season.

The matches all start tomorrow night with Sacramento State at UCI, UCD at Northridge, Cal Poly versus Fullerton and No. 3 UCSB versus No. 24 UCR.  Then on Sunday, the stacked schedule continues, with Cal Poly facing UCR, Sacramento State playing Northridge, UCD plays at UCI and UCSB travels to Fullerton.

Below is where you can follow the games live:

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2012
Cal State Northridge	UC Davis	7:00 PM	Live Stats
			Audio - CSUN
UC Irvine	Sacramento State	7:00 PM	Live Stats
Cal State Fullerton	Cal Poly	7:30 PM	BigWest.TV
			Live Stats
			Audio - CSF
#24/NR UC Riverside	#3/5 UC Santa Barbara	8:00 PM	Live Stats
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2012
Cal State Northridge	Sacramento State	1:00 PM	Live Stats
			Audio - CSUN
#24/NR UC Riverside	Cal Poly	1:00 PM	Live Stats
UC Irvine	UC Davis	4:00 PM	Live Stats
Cal State Fullerton	#3/5 UC Santa Barbara	7:30 PM	BigWest.TV
			Live Stats
			Audio - CSF

Keep reading here for continuous updates on Big West news.

We've gone social! Follow us on Google Plus and Facebook!

2012 Week 6 Preview: Women's Volleyball

Now that conference play has started, there are a lot less games to go over, especially since I recapped Tuesdays games (for lack of getting a preview done then). Tonight, LBSU takes on Northridge, hopefully to continue their hot start, while Hawaii hosts UCI in a late match.  Tomorrow, Fullerton travels to Pacific to take on the Tigers while UCR goes to Davis.  Finally, on Saturday, Fullerton goes to UCD, UCR travels to Pacific, UCI flies back to the mainland to play Northridge, UCSB plays their rivalry game versus Cal Poly and LBSU goes to the islands to play Hawaii.

The two players to watch this week are UCI's Kristin Winkler who's on Big West Record Watch, and Hawaii's Emily Hartong who leads the league in kills.  Winkler currently sits fourth in the record book, needing 340 digs to capture the record outright, while Hartong just dominates, averaging 4.13 kills.

Look below to find where you can follow the games live:

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2012
Cal State Northridge	Long Beach State	7:00 PM	BigWest.TV
			Live Stats
			Audio - CSUN
			Audio - LBSU
#8 Hawai'i	UC Irvine	10:00 PM	Live Stats
			Audio - UH
			Video (FREE)
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2012
UC Davis	UC Riverside	7:30 PM	BigWest.TV
			GameTracker
Pacific	Cal State Fullerton	7:00 PM	BigWest.TV
			Live Stats
			Audio - PAC
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2012
Cal Poly	UC Santa Barbara	7:00 PM	BigWest.TV
			Live Stats
Cal State Northridge	UC Irvine	7:00 PM	BigWest.TV
			Live Stats
			Audio - CSUN
UC Davis	Cal State Fullerton	7:00 PM	BigWest.TV
			GameTracker
Pacific	UC Riverside	7:00 PM	BigWest.TV
			Live Stats
			Audio - PAC
#8 Hawai'i	Long Beach State	10:00 PM	BigWest.TV
			Live Stats
			Audio - LBSU
			Audio - UH

Keep reading here for continuous updates on Big West news.

We've gone social! Follow us on Google Plus and Facebook!

2012 Week 6 Results

Today's results are going to include Tuesday's volleyball matches since I didn't have time to do a preview until this afternoon.  So lets get started:

Women's Volleyball:
If you missed the awesome match that was No. 8 Hawaii vs Cal State Northridge, then shame on you.  Northridge kept it not only close, but was leading the fifth set.  Hawaii tied it up and then took 4 match points to finally pull out the win.  After that, both teams took care of UCR.  On Friday, LBSU beat Cal Poly three sets to one, Northridge beat Fullerton 3-1, Hawaii swept UCR and UCI beat UCSB 3-1.  On Saturday, UCI swept Cal Poly, Northridge beat UCR in five sets, UCD won against Pacific, LBSU swept UCSB and Hawaii took five sets to knock off Fullerton.  Finally, on Tuesday, Pacific swept SJSU in their last conference match, and Bakersfield defeated Cal Poly in five sets.

Here are the standings:

	W	L	Pct.	W	L	Pct.
Hawaii	3	0	1	10	2	0.833
Long Beach State	2	0	1	7	6	0.538
UC Irvine	2	0	1	7	8	0.467
UC Davis	1	0	1	7	7	0.5
Cal State Northridge	2	1	0.667	11	4	0.733
Pacific	0	1	0	12	2	0.857
UC Santa Barbara	0	2	0	7	9	0.438
Cal State Fullerton	0	2	0	6	9	0.4
UC Riverside	0	2	0	5	10	0.333
Cal Poly	0	2	0	1	13	0.071

Men's Soccer:
Call me crazy, but the Big West is looking good going into conference play, with two teams ranked, UCSB and UCR who meet this week (y'all should look at the preview our newest author gave for the game).  Onto the results: on Thursday, Fullerton dominated Air Force 2-0, while Northridge put up another five spot, this time on San Diego.  Friday was okay, as Gonzaga beat UCI, UCLA tied UCSB in a battle of ranked teams and Cal Poly beat Harvard.  On Saturday, Saint Mary's beat UCD and Northridge put up another multiple goal shutout, beating Air Force.  Finally, on Sunday, Oregon State beat UCI, UCSB beat Harvard, Sacramento State pulled out the win over UNLV in overtime, UCLA beat Cal Poly, Fullerton beat San Diego and UCR lost their first game of the year against Cal State Bakersfield.

Standings are below:

North
	W	L	T	Pts.	W	L	T	Pct.
UC Santa Barbara	0	0	0	0	6	0	2	0.875
Cal Poly	0	0	0	0	5	3	0	0.625
UC Davis	0	0	0	0	2	3	4	0.444
Sacramento State	0	0	0	0	3	4	1	0.438
South
	W	L	T	Pts.	W	L	T	Pct.
UC Riverside	0	0	0	0	7	1	0	0.875
Cal State Northridge	0	0	0	0	6	3	0	0.667
Cal State Fullerton	0	0	0	0	4	6	0	0.4
UC Irvine	0	0	0	0	3	5	1	0.389

Women's Soccer:
LBSU finished up this week with another tally in the "win" category and were rewarded with a No. 21 ranking in the NSCAA Polls.  The rest of the conference is split fairly evenly above and below .500, and that  parity looks to grow with conference play beginning this week.  Here are last week's final scores:  Pacific beat St. Mary's in double overtime on Thursday.  On Friday, Pepperdine beat UCSB, UCD blew out Lamar 4-0, UCR lost to New Mexico, future conference mates SDSU beat UCI, LBSU defeated San Diego and Santa Clara beat Northridge in overtime.  Finally, on Sunday, UCR beat Lamar 2-1, New Mexico beat UCD, Pacific defeated Arizona, SDSU continued its Big West rampage, beating UCSB, Fresno State beat Cal Poly and San Diego defeated Northridge.  Pre-conference standings are below:

	W	L	T	Pts.	W	L	T	Pct.
Long Beach State	0	0	0	0	7	3	0	0.7
Hawaii	0	0	0	0	5	3	2	0.6
UC Davis	0	0	0	0	5	4	1	0.55
UC Riverside	0	0	0	0	5	4	2	0.545
Cal State Northridge	0	0	0	0	3	3	3	0.5
Cal Poly	0	0	0	0	3	5	1	0.389
UC Irvine	0	0	0	0	4	7	0	0.363
UC Santa Barbara	0	0	0	0	3	6	1	0.35
Cal State Fullerton	0	0	0	0	3	6	0	0.333
Pacific	0	0	0	0	3	6	0	0.333

Now it's time for everyone's favorite part (okay, so just mine...), the Big West Confidential Weekly Awards:

Big West Confidential Team of the Week: UCSB for staying undefeated

Big West Confidential Offensive Player of the Week: Brandon:  LBSU womens volleyball Alma Serna had 27 kills in two matches over Cal Poly and UCSB
Chris: I'm giving it to Sagi Lev-Ari (Northridge) for continuing his hot goal-scoring streak.  Lev-Ari totaled three more this past weekend.

Big West Confidential Defensive Player of the Week: LBSU women's soccer Marrina Meyers had six saves and her third shutout of the season over San Diego.

Awards in bold mean unanimous decision.

Keep reading here for continuous updates on Big West news.

We've gone social! Follow us on Google Plus and Facebook!

Men's Soccer Friday Preview: UC Santa Barbara vs UC Riverside

Men's Soccer Friday Preview: UC Santa Barbara vs UC Riverside

 This Friday the undefeated UCSB Gauchos will take on the UC Riverside Highlanders (only recently defeated). The Gauchos look to go without a loss in their 9th game of the season while the Highlanders look to bounce back after an embarrassing 2-0 loss to Cal State Bakersfield.

Scoping it Out:

 The game this Friday is crucial for both teams as a win by either could be reflected in the next polls while a loss could significantly move UCSB down and would most likely knock UCR out of the rankings entirely. While the game will be hard fought there are some inherent conditions which may adversely affect one team or the other. These concerns were expressed by UCSB head coach Tim Vom Steeg in an interview on Tuesday Night. Among the concerns listed he emphasized that UCR tends to play the exact same tactic every year which is very dramatically favored by their home field. The field is narrow in its dimensions and this allows UCR to run its traditional play of kicking a long ball and counterattacking. While this may be unfair it is still allowed by regulation and surely many of UCR's victories this season will be attributed to their schedule which features 10 home games with what is currently ranked (by RPI) as the easiest schedule of all the teams in Big West. Another concern (primarily for Riverside) is their lack of fans which obviously makes their team lose morale.

What We Can Expect From Our Boys (Gauchos, obviously):

This is what Vom Steeg said he expects on the injuries for Friday-

Machael David-will most likely come back next week

Achille Campion-some chance (depends on how he feels)

Peter Schmetz-is out for Friday

Dion Acoff-expected to be back on Friday

Javier Castro-swelled up above the knee, he'll be out for Friday

How to Approach this Match:

  Riverside and Santa Barbara are both currently tied for highest winning percentile in Big West but this is a rather misleading statistic. The Gauchos are currently ranked #3 in the NSCAA rankings while Riverside is #24. With their previously undefeated status Riverside had unfolded an impressive record of 7-0-0 but without that there isn't much of an impression to be made; there wasn't anything else (besides multiple consecutive wins) to be expected from playing mostly unranked teams and thus their 15 minutes of fame have come to an end with their defeat last weekend. Will they be able to grasp this coming opportunity to make a statement? My prediction is probably not. Vom Steeg has quite a bit under his belt and he will have formulated some ingenious strategy to deal with whatever Riverside has to throw in. With this and ridiculously talented players with exposure from all over the world UCSB clearly has the favor in this match.

Final Score Prediction: UCSB 3 UCR 0

"And the money kept rolling in..." Fox Sports and Big West Reach Media Rights Agreement

Blame me for being on an Evita kick, but I thought that quote would perfectly describe this action.  So here's the deal, Fox Sports essentially renewed and expanded exclusive media rights for the Big West Conference that will be shown on the three Southern California regional channels: Fox Sports West, Fox Sports Prime Ticket and Fox Sports San Diego.  Starting next season, Fox Sports will be showing a minimum of 32 games per season, including 12 SDSU basketball games.  In addition to the televised broadcasts, starting this November, the BWC will launch the free-to-access video online (similar to what BigWest.TV has now, only I think the production quality will be better since it is Fox Sports, details weren't clear).

What we can get out of this: y'all better thank SDSU for this deal, because they were the main attraction of this deal.  That being said, any team has a possibility of usurping the Aztecs on a televised broadcast.  This also puts huge pressure on Time Warner Cable to get their act together in San Diego.  Currently, unless I'm behind on details, Time Warner still does not get FSSD which means that there will be many 'Tec fans without access to the games (a quick statistic out of a Google search puts 1-in-7 adults in San Diego have a degree from SDSU).

Fox Sports West and Prime Ticket cover almost all of Southern California, Central California, Hawaii and Southern Nevada.  What this means is that Davis and Boise will be essentially left out of this deal, though Davis can probably work something out with the cable companies up there and Boise will probably work with the Big West and 24/7 Sports (the local channel up there) to continue broadcasting all their games.

My biggest question of this deal, how much money is the Big West getting out of this?  It probably isn't much more than what they're getting right now, but maybe it has been renegotiated to throw in the two new schools.  No matter, the league still wins because they are getting good quality, increased exposure.

Introducing the Newest Member of the Big West Confidential: Moshe Carmeli

As the site grows bigger, it is necessary for more writers to help out.  With that being said, I'd like to introduce the new member of the Big West Confidential: Moshe Carmeli.

Big West Confidential Author Profile
Username: moshecmeli (how it will show up when he posts)
Fandom: UCSB
Contributor elsewhere? Nope
In his own words:

As an exemplary institution UCSB provides excellent programs in both academics and athletics. The soccer program, being lead by head coach Tim Vom Steeg has been hinting at a national title consistently over the last decade. After finally achieving that goal in 2006 UCSB seeks the road to the top again with what may be the most talented pool of players yet. The depth of the team this year will not only allow UCSB to effectively defend against opponents but also allow UCSB to score a number of goals (which has scored multiple goals in 7 of the 9 matches so far). UCSB remains undefeated at this point with 8 non-exhibition matches played and a 6-0-2 record.

  Moshe will be covering mostly UCSB soccer and other UCSB sports

If you want to start covering your team or sport (if you played a certain sport), email me at cjhondros at gmail dot com.  You can also ask using  Google Plus and Facebook and even Twitter.

Keep reading the Confidential for all the latest Big West updates.

Wahine volleyball drop one spot in polls to 8th

It may have been the two 5-set match scares that dropped the Hawai'i Rainbow Wahine volleyball team one spot in the latest AVCA coaches poll. It could be the top ten in the polls won to some good ranked teams and some lost to some unranked teams to shuffle the poll. But one thing is for certain. Coach Dave Shoji right now does not care where the Wahine are ranked. They need to worry about winning the next match which is at home this week. 

The Wahine will play an exhibition match with the Toyota Auto Body pro team tomorrow before they go back to Big West play against UC Irvine on Thursday Sept. 27 at the Stan Sheriff Center. They they will have a big match up with former rival foe Long Beach State Saturday night at the SSC. Yes that's right Hawai'i fans remember coach Brian Gimmillaro and his tenacious 49ers team that always give the Wahine trouble. We are not in the WAC anymore so we cannot take any game lightly. All matches are at 7:00pm HST.

You can see live stats on sidearmstats and find the link at hawaiiathletics.com
For the locals we can see it live on TV:  OC 16 or 1016 in HD.

Let's have a packed house for all the matches but especially Saturday's match with LBSU!

2012 Week 6 Preview: Women's Soccer

The last weekend of non-conference play is upon us for women's soccer.  That being said, there are only 13 games this weekend, as Hawaii and Fullerton are on bye weeks.  Let's delve into them:

Pacific gets a chance to improve on their one win, when they travel to Saint Mary's today and return home to play Arizona.  UCSB travels south to play a couple of ranked teams: No. 20/NR Pepperdine and No. 16/25 San Diego State, while UCI plays host to the Aztecs.  UCR hosts the UCR Tournament, where they and UCD will play Lamar and New Mexico.  Northridge travels to Santa Clara before returning home where they will host San Diego one day after LBSU has played them.  Finally, Cal Poly travels to Fresno State, to take on the Bulldogs.

Continue reading to see where you can keep track of the games live:

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2012
Saint Mary's	Pacific	4:00 PM	Live Stats
			Video (FREE)
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2012
Pepperdine	UC Santa Barbara	3:00 PM	Live Stats
UC Davis	Lamar	4:00 PM
Long Beach State	San Diego	7:00 PM	GameTracker
UC Riverside	New Mexico	7:00 PM
San Diego State	UC Irvine	7:00 PM
Santa Clara	Cal State Northridge	7:30 PM
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2012
UC Davis	New Mexico	10:00 AM
Pacific	Arizona	12:00 PM	BigWest.TV
			Live Stats
UC Riverside	Lamar	1:00 PM
Fresno State	Cal Poly	1:00 PM
San Diego State	UC Santa Barbara	1:00 PM
Cal State Northridge	San Diego	6:00 PM

Keep reading here for continuous updates on Big West news.

We've gone social! Follow us on Google Plus and Facebook!

2012 Week 5 Preview: Men's Soccer

We're entering the last weekend of non-conference play for men's soccer.  Two Big West teams are ranked in the Soccer America and NSCAA Polls: No. 5/3 UCSB and No. 25/19 UCR respectively.  Friday Night will host a huge ranked match in No. 9/12 UCLA vs UCSB, a game that will be televised on Fox Soccer Channel at 6 PM.  A win by the Gauchos will continue to cement them as a NCAA soccer powerhouse, and a place to develop great talent.  With that, let's get to the games:

Fullerton gets a nice home-stand to finish up non-conference play when they play Air Force and San Diego, while Northridge travels to face the Torreros then go home to play the Falcons.  UCI travels to Corvallis to compete in the Oregon State Hensor/Zaher Nike Classic, playing Gonzaga and OSU.  UCSB gets to stay home to face UCLA and Harvard, as does Cal Poly, who hosts the Nike Central Coast Challenge against the Bruins and the Crimson.  Finally, UCD hosts Saint Mary's, UNLV goes to Sacramento and UCR hosts Cal State Bakersfield.

Read below to find out where you can keep track of all the games:

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2012
Cal State Fullerton	Air Force	7:00 PM	BigWest.TV
			Live Stats
			Audio - CSF
San Diego	Cal State Northridge	7:00 PM	GameTracker
			Video (FREE)
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2012
UC Irvine	Gonzaga	2:00 PM	Live Stats
#3 UC Santa Barbara	UCLA	6:00 PM	FOX Soccer
			Live Stats
Cal Poly	Harvard	7:00 PM	Live Stats
			Audio - CP
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2012
UC Davis	Saint Mary's	4:00 PM	GameTracker
Cal State Northridge	Air Force	7:00 PM	Live Stats
			Audio - CSUN
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2012
UC Santa Barbara	Harvard	12:00 PM	BigWest.TV
			Live Stats
Oregon State	UC Irvine	12:00 PM	Pac-12 Networks
			Live Stats
Sacramento State	UNLV	1:00 PM	Live Stats
Cal Poly	UCLA	4:00 PM
Cal State Fullerton	San Diego	5:00 PM	BigWest.TV
			Live Stats
			Audio - CSF
No. 19/25 UC Riverside	CSU Bakersfield	7:00 PM

Keep reading here for continuous updates on Big West news.

We've gone social! Follow us on Google Plus and Facebook!