Catching Up 10/31/10

This weekend was the most disappointing weekend of the year. Quick note of warning: Anger and severe sarcasm may be detected below.

Men's Soccer:

It happened. The #1 University of Akron men's soccer team was upset 2-1 by 8-9-0 Cleveland State on Saturday, despite leading in shots (12-6) and shots on goal (6-2). At 14-1-1, all this really means is that the Zips may lose the #1 seed in the tournament. The home unbeaten streak continues, and as long as we see the Zips team that outscored the #2, 3, and 4 teams in the country 9-0 show up in the NCAA tournament, the championship is definitely still attainable.

Volleyball:

The volleyball team dropped in four sets to Miami, but fought to a five-set win over Bowling Green the next day. After a magnificent start to the season, the team has sunk to 14-10 this season, just 6-6 in MAC play. They return to James A. Rhodes Arena this weekend for matchups against 10-17 (3-9 MAC) Kent State and 15-10 (7-5 MAC) Ohio.

Women's Soccer:

After extending their unbeaten streak to 5 games by defeating Ohio 1-0 to close out the regular season, the lady Zips dropped to Miami 2-0 in the first round of the MAC tournament. This ended their season with a 7-11-1 record. The women's soccer team is still a work-in-progress, and can improve on this semi-successful season by working more on controlling possession. I'd like to see Caleb Porter's "Death by 1000 passes" motto start to rub off on the women's soccer team.

Football:

This is getting annoying to blog about, but Akron's 30-0 defeat at the hands of the Temple Owls is a little better than last week's 56-10 drubbing from Western Michigan.

For once, the Zips defense looked like a defense. The score at the end of the half was 6-0. Unfortunately, Temple has a heck of a defense, and Patrick Nicely was pretty awful once again (15-26, 134 YDS, INT). Alex Allen (10 CAR, 30 YDS) and Nate Burney (7 CAR, 14 YDS) couldn't get much going, either. Zack Campbell was once again my MVP with 10 punts for 383 yards.

Quote from head coach Rob Ianello, from GoZips.com.

"We are establishing a foundation for how we are going to do things, and we are establishing a foundation for a program and we are going to get this thing pointed in the right direction, we just need to keep working towards improvement."

Ianello has literally stated nine different variations of that quote this year, one after each loss. Tune in next weekend for the tenth variation, unless the Zips can pull off their best chance for a not-winless season against Ball State.

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 9/12/10

1) The men's soccer team defeated Bowling Green 2-0 yesterday. Kofi Sarkodie and Darren Mattocks scored the goals. Even though Akron led the Falcons in shots 16-1 at the half, the game was scoreless until the 64th minute. Here's the box score. Anybody else looking forward to the College Cup this year?

2) This video of Ianello's post-game conference answers a few questions about yesterday's game. While I think J.D. should have been given another chance, after all the injuries last year, Ianello's top 25 recruiting ability will probably pay off in two or three years.

3) Gardner-Webb was 5-5 on touchdowns inside the red zone yesterday. This red zone defense is going really hurt us in the next two games.

4) Poll: Does the football team make it to three wins this year?