Unfinished Business
October 31, 2011 | Men's Soccer
THIS WEEK'S ACTION
#11 UC IRVINE ANTEATERS at
CAL POLY MUSTANGS
Tuesday, Nov. 1 - 7:00 PM
San Luis Obispo, Calif. - Spanos Stadium
With just one point last week, UCI's (13-5-1, 5-3-1) tournament fate falls on their final regular season match as they travel to Cal Poly looking for a little revenge in the home of the Mustangs.
LOWE'S SENIOR CLASS AWARD: Senior goalkeeper, Andrew Fontein (Las Vegas, Nev. / Sierra Vista HS), competed in his senior day on Saturday, and he has just two more weeks until the voting for the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award ends on Nov. 14. After an early surge in the voting, Fontein has slid back to the rest of the pack. Fans are a large part of the final voting for the award and can do their part by going to seniorCLASSaward.com.
THE BATTLE CONTINUES: Seniors Christian Hernandez (Palmdale / Taft College) and Miguel Ibarra (Lancaster / Taft College) continue to battle atop the stat leaders for the 'Eaters. Hernandez regained the team lead with his seventh goal and 20th and 21st points in Saturday's match. Ibarra assisted on his goal giving him the assist lead, and keeping pace with 20 points.
The pair have been jockeying back and forth in multiple categories. They each have 25 shots on goal, while Hernandez has a slim margin in shots (54-49) and game-winning goals (4-2)
BREAKING DOWN THE BIG WEST: The Big West standings can be a scary place especially around Halloween. With six of the seven schools still alive for a berth in the Big West Tournament, the final week is wide open.
The one positive is that the teams have found a nice, single-file order entering the week. UCI is on top of the pile with 16 points followed closely by UC Davis (15) and UC Riverside (14). Not far behind are UCSB (12), CSUN (11), and CSUF (10).
UCI remains at a slight disadvantage having just one conference match remaining while most of the others still have two to play. Because of that, each school still has a chance to catch or pass UCI in the standings making this week's match against Cal Poly that much more important.
The Anteaters must come away from Cal Poly with at least one point, meaning a win or a draw, to ensure a berth in the tournament. A win would place UCI at no-worse than a second place finish. An outright regular season title will be determined based on the other matches, most notably UC Davis who controls their own destiny with matches against CSUF and UC Riverside remaining. UC Irvine holds the tiebreaker over most of the Big West except for UC Davis, while their tiebreaker with Cal Poly will be determined based on Tuesday night's match.
CAL POLY MUSTANGS: The Mustangs have scuffled of late losing a pair of road contests before mirroring UCI with a scoreless tie at CSUN last week as they are now 6-7-3 on the year and 3-4-1 in conference, currently sixth in the Big West.
The Mustangs escaped Anteater Stadium with a 1-0 win in late September. They have also taken down UCSB at home and drawing a tie with No. 12 West Virginia and top-ranked New Mexico.
Cal Poly has managed just 15 goals in their 16 matches with Kyle Montgomery scoring three of them. He also holds the team lead with seven points.
Keeper Patrick McLain has taken the brunt of the season on his shoulders with a 5-7-3 record in 15 matches. He has allowed just 13 goals and posted six shutouts while stopping 37 shots. Freshman Chase Hauser was in net against the 'Eaters in the last match and posted a shutout in his first career start.
In any case, the Mustangs should pull a good crowd for the visiting Anteaters. Cal Poly has averaged 2,240 fans per match in 10 matches this season.
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