'Eaters Enter Tournament with No. 9 Denver, New Mexico

UPCOMING OPPONENTS

Game Notes

UC Irvine Anteaters vs. #9 Denver Pioneers (3-1-0)
Friday, September 8, 2017 - 3:00 PM
UNM Soccer Complex - Albuquerque, N.M.
Live Stats

Series: UC Irvine leads, 3-1-1 - Last meeting: Sept. 5, 2014 on a neutral site - W, 2-1

UC Irvine Anteaters at New Mexico Lobos (2-2-0)
Sunday, September 10, 2017 - 5:00 PM
UNM Soccer Complex - Albuquerque, N.M.
Live Stats | Video

Series: New Mexico leads, 7-6-0 - Last meeting: Sept. 17, 2016 at UC Irvine - L, 3-1

FIRST TOUCHES
9th - UC Irvine will face 9th-ranked Denver on Friday. UCI defeated No. 19 Denver in their last meeting in 2014. In the season opener, UCI fell, 2-1, to 9th-ranked Louisville. UCI also took on programs ranked 9th in 2007 (T, 1-1 vs. Brown) and 2003 (W, 1-0, at UCSB)

30 - Ivan Canales' goal Sunday night was his first career game-winner and gives him 30 points for his career. He still has a ways to reach the program's all-time top 10 with Pat Lee sitting 10th with 55 points

7 - Friday's match vs. No. 9 Denver will be the 48th match all-time against a ranked opponent for the program. UCI is 19-24-6 entering the match which includes 7 wins against top 10 programs

LAST WEEK RECAP
The first home matches for many of the Anteaters on the roster along with head coach Yossi Raz resulted in a gritty draw and a win to close out the weekend.

UC Irvine welcomed in Penn State, the first Big Ten program in Anteater Stadium since Wisconsin in 2010. The teams were even through the first 45 minutes besides a goal from the Nittany Lions in the 32nd minute. Both sides continued to attack in the second half, and UCI would find an equalizer in the 67th minute as Christian Carrillo headed home the first of his career. PSU had a player sent off in the 77th minute from a second yellow card, but the 'Eaters could not capitalize with the match ending in a 1-1 draw.

The final match Sunday evening pitted UC Irvine and UNC Asheville against each other. Despite an 11-0 shot advantage for UCI, the teams entered the half scoreless. UCI busted out quickly with goals from Giovanni Godoy and Ivan Canales 44 seconds apart in the 47th and 48th minutes, and while the Bulldogs pulled one back in the 72nd minute, the Anteater defense held to snag the 2-1 victory.

GRANGE AND ASHWILL INVITATIONAL
Denver starts the week off in a neutral site match on Friday. The Pioneers are ranked ninth and are fresh off their first loss in 37 regular season matches falling to Furman in OT. Denver reached the College Cup last season finishing at 20-1-3, and began 2017 ranked third and is 3-1 through the early going. UCI defeated Denver, 2-1, also on a neutral site, in their last matchup which came in 2014, the year the unbeaten streak began. The Pioneers return their four leading scorers including Andre Shinyashiki's nine goals and Blake Elder's seven. Keeper Nick Gardner returns in net after a 0.54 GAA in 2016 that required just 35 saves in 23 matches.

Sunday's match will be with a familiar face in New Mexico. UCI and the Lobos have squared off 13 times with UNM winning seven times including the last meeting in 2016, 3-1. The Lobos won three exhibitions and then lost at No. 11 Washington and Seattle to open the year. Wins vs. UNLV and Marquette have them back at 2-2. Niko Hansen, who dropped a hat trick on UCI last year has left, but a sturdy returning backline of Tom Smart, Matthew Constant, and Aaron Herrera patrols the goal along with Jason Beaulieu and his 67 saves from a year ago. The Lobos also claim a boisterous atmosphere backing them as they've annually been in the top 25 nationally in attendance which included an average of 1,361 fans in 2016.

COACH'S CORNER
Recapping Friday's draw with Penn State — "We started hesitant, but grew into the game as it progressed, especially in the second half. Obviously, there were a lot of emotions playing at home for the home crowd and the campus and the community, but I was happy how we responded. We could have easily won, but at the same time we could have lost. Penn State exposed us in transition, and that is something we must improve going forward, but there were a lot of positives tonight, and now we look to Sunday and another day to get better."

Recapping Sunday's win vs. UNC Asheville - "Another tough game. I think we found out rhythm in parts and were pretty and had nice opportunities - a couple we capitalized on, but most we didn't. We need to improve in many aspects of the game like our defense. It was a fair result, I felt we were the better team tonight, but credit to Asheville for being competitive and playing through to the final whistle. We were on our heels the last 15-20 minutes. I thought at times we combined well through traffic, used our speed, and connected effectively through short passing which was pretty to watch. We were able to break pressure and create opportunities, now we just have to finish better in the offensive third to put the game at ease sooner instead of battling that pressure at the end of the match like we did. We are still developing though, we got the result, and now we're on to some big tests."

THROW-INS
+ Dating back to 2016, neither UCI nor its opponent have earned a shutout in the last nine matches. The 'Eaters have outscored their opponents 18-17 in those matches
+ UC Irvine is unbeaten in its last three matches with Denver (2-0-1). Neither squad has earned a shutout in any of the five all-time meetings, and none have gone to overtime. UCI and Denver first met in 1998, a 5-2 UCI victory
+ UCI has lost its last two matches to New Mexico. No team has won more than two consecutive matches in the series. The Anteaters are 2-3 in matches played at New Mexico. UCI and UNM were conference members five times for matches in 1992-94 and 2000-01
+ UCI played Denver and New Mexico in the same season one other time - 2000. UCI defeated UNM, 2-1, but lost to Denver, 3-1
+ Including the opening weekend, UCI is 5-10-1 in games outside the state of California since 2014
+ The Anteaters lead the Big West Conference in goals (9), assists (13), and shots per game (16.75) through the first two weekends
+ Alex Waldron made his season debut over the weekend making five saves and running his all-time record to 4-4-1. His 0.90 goals-against average is second-best in the Big West
+ Players celebrating firsts over the weekend were Christian Carrillo (goal, points), Victor Falck (assist, point), Alvaro Quezada (assist), and Christian Bond-Flasza (start, assist, point)
+ The Big West South has a very connected coaching tree. Head Coach Yossi Raz spent nine years as an assistant coach at CSUN in addition to his time as a student-athlete for the program. Assistant Brian Lanoye spent eight years with Cal State Fullerton as an assistant coach along with a grad and undergrad assistant. Cal State Fullerton's head coach, George Kuntz, spent 19 seasons as head coach for the Anteaters and is joined by former Anteater coach and player, Carlos Aguilar, and another fellow player, Kyle Schmid. UC Riverside recently hired Chris Volk as its assistant coach after Volk spent 20 years as a coach with the UC Irvine program which included 17 years as an assistant coach and the last three years as the head coach.

Schedule

'Eaters Enter Tournament with No. 9 Denver, New Mexico

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Players Mentioned

Christian Bond-Flasza

Ivan Canales

Christian Carrillo

Victor Falck

Giovanni Godoy

Alvaro Quezada

Alex Waldron

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