Catching Up 10/10/10

Another busy week for me, another attempt to catch readers up on everything that happened this last week.

Men's Soccer:

After defeating Northern Illinois 1-0 earlier this week, the #1 men's soccer team now stands at 9-0-1 (3-0-0 in MAC). Goalkeeper David Meves and Hermann candidate midfielder Anthony Ampaipatakwong are a bit beaten up at the moment, but the reserves are filling in superbly. Backup keeper Anthony Ponikvar stepped into the game against NIU to record 5 saves in 40 minutes, keeping the Huskies without a goal. Next up is a game at Penn State.

Volleyball:

The volleyball team crushed Buffalo in three sets, but fell in five to Toledo yesterday. They are still 13-5 (5-1 in MAC). A tough road trip to 17-2 (3-1) Northern Illinois and 12-5 (3-1) Western Michigan is next.

Women's Soccer:

At least with their 3-10-0 (1-5-0) record, they have one more win than Kent State and Buffalo combined. The lady Zips are continuing with their poor offensive play, much of which is caused by poor control of the ball. They looked great in the 1-0 loss to Northern Illinois on Friday, but gave up two goals early against Western Michigan earlier today before falling 3-1. Next up are away matches against Bowling Green and Miami.

Football:

Ha. Yeah...

The defense was spectacular against Kent State yesterday. Two of Kent State's touchdowns came from Akron turnovers. The worst part about the game was that Akron had a lot of chances to win it in the fourth quarter; and as has been the case this year, the offense was fired up enough to punch out the following drives in the final quarter:

3 plays, 7 yards, fumble

5 plays, 7 yards, punt

3 plays, 4 yards, fumble

2 plays, 15 yards, interception

1 play, 0 yards, interception

The bad: See above, and Patrick Nicely (16-33, 133 YDS, 3 INT)

The decent: Alex Allen (14 CAR, 51 YDS, TD) and Jeremy LaFrance (6 REC, 75 YDS)

The great: Zack Campbell (7 punts, 321 YDS)

On the bright side, they still have a chance to become bowl eligible.

Roo News 9/25/10

1) I'm not going to bother with a big football preview this week. I haven't given up on the Zips' chances, though. The last two games against Indiana have been reasonably close (38-21 in 2009 and 41-24 in 2007). Heck, Western Kentucky put up a fight against the Hoosiers last week. On top of that, the last time the Zips were 0-3, they won 6 of the next 7. On the other hand, the Zips haven't won on the road since 2008. The game's at 7 o'clock on the Big Ten Network.

2) But we have soccer! That motto is going to stick even more after the men's soccer team embarrassed #2 Tulsa 4-0 yesterday. All three of Akron's Hermann candidates scored, along with Perry Kitchen. The Zips have now downed...no, shutout...no, outscored 9-0 the #2, #3, and #4 teams in the nation. How's that for a team? The Zips now have a streak of 11 straight games with a shutout, tied for the longest in NCAA history.

The game was 2-0 within the first 13 minutes, and Tulsa never got on track. The Golden Hurricane (what exactly does their mascot look like?) were outshot 20-8, only one of their shots came near David Meves, and the Zips hit the crossbar three times. They hit the crossbar three times! This game could have been 7-0! Tulsa is the #2 team in the country! Anyway...Caleb Porter?

The Zips have a chance to set a new NCAA record for a shutout streak at Ohio State on Wednesday.

3) For every incredible win the men's soccer team pulls off, the women's soccer team gets annihilated. I did not see this coming. They were bulldozed by Central Michigan 3-0 in their MAC opener. The Zips are now 2-6-0 and have dropped to fifth in the MAC East. They travel to Ypsilanti on Sunday to face Eastern Michigan before returning to Akron on Friday for a doubleheader with the men.

4) The volleyball team improved to 9-4 after crushing Bowling Green yesterday. I was able to see the first set before I hiked over to the soccer game, which turned out to be the most exciting. The sets were 27-25, 25-23, and 25-16, all in favor of the Zips. They have another game today against Miami (Ohio) at 7.

Roo News 9/20/10

1) While I expected the football team to lose to Kentucky this weekend, I didn't expect them to lose it this badly. The final score was 47-10. It's no surprise that Kentucky put up 47, but I'm still in disbelief that we were held to 3 points until there was a minute left in the game. The Zips used to have an offense...

This will be short.

KY-Total Rushing-290 YDS

AKR-Total Yards-172 YDS

That just about sums it up. Patrick Nicely was 4/19 for 57 yards. Matt Rodgers came in at the end of the game to throw the Zips' only touchdown. He was 2/5 for 48 yards. Does this mean Rodgers is the better quarterback? I still don't think so; but he is probably the better quarterback for Ianello's new pro-style system. Nicely has played out of the shotgun since high school. He's a very good shotgun quarterback, which we all saw last year. It's very tough to take a shotgun-oriented QB and turn him into a pocket passer.

The game against Gardner-Webb showed that the Zips can get it done on offense, but only if Alex Allen and Nate Burney have early success. The receivers (other than LaFrance) on this year's team really aren't capable of making plays. Nicely (or Rodgers) needs some help.

And I'm still not sure what's going on with the defense. They looked great early on in the game, when it was 6-3 Kentucky midway through the 2nd quarter. Then the Wildcats scored six consecutive touchdowns. Here are the rest of the stats.

2) The #1 men's soccer team defeated Cincinnati 1-0 yesterday, moving to 5-0-0 on the season. Akron dominated for a large portion of the game (no surprise there), outshooting Cincinnati 12-4. The Bearcats also had 19 fouls to Akron's 6. The lone goal of the game came off of an Ampaipatakwong free kick.

For those with Fox Soccer, tune in Friday night for the game against Tulsa. It's going to be a good one.

3) The women's soccer team dropped to 2-5-0 after losing to Long Beach State 4-1.

4) The volleyball team defeated both Connecticut and Cornell on Saturday, sweeping the Colgate Invitational. The sweep puts their record at 8-4, second in the MAC East.