UIC men's soccer continues climb in rankings

Sept. 26, 2006

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Chicago, Ill. -- Just a little more than one month ago, the University of Illinois at Chicago men's soccer team was picked to finish third in the Horizon League. Now five weeks later, the Flames stand seventh ... in the nation. That's where the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) has UIC in its latest poll, released Tuesday afternoon (Sept. 26). The ranking is the highest in school history and comes one day after Soccer America tabbed the Flames ninth in its listings.

UIC moves up two spots on the NSCAA ladder and one position on the SA canvass. Two other organizations also place the Flames in their top ten rankings, with Soccer Times ranking UIC sixth and College Soccer News tenth.

Coach John Trask's team begins the final week of September with a 7-0-2 ledger, putting the Flames as one of only six remaining unbeaten teams in Division I. With UIC's 3-0 victory over defending regular-season League titlist University of Detroit Mercy on Sunday (Sept. 24), the Flames have now outscored their opponents 18-3.

Senior forward Eric Cervantes scored two of the three goals in that match, giving him four on the season. Senior forward Tonci Skroce and junior midfielder Cesar Zambrano also have four markers apiece for the Flames, while freshman goalkeeper Jovan Bubonja ranks fourth in the nation with a 0.345 goals-against average and four shutouts.

UIC's hopes of entering October still undefeated center on Thursday's (Sept. 28) match at the University of Wisconsin. The Badgers (4-3-2) are ranked eighth in the NSCAA's Great Lakes Region poll, one of five Big Ten Conference entries on that list. All of those schools are looking up at UIC, which stands alone atop the region for the second week in a row.

The University of Notre Dame (5-3-2) is second in the region, according to the coaches, with Northwestern University (7-2-0) third, Indiana University (4-3-2) fourth and Northern Illinois University (6-3-1) fifth. UIC hosts Northwestern on October 11.

The rest of the region's top ten include the University of Akron (6-2-0), Michigan State University (6-2-1), Wisconsin, the University of Cincinnati (6-3-1), and the University of Michigan (5-4-1).

On a national level, Southern Methodist University moved to the top of all the major polls, remaining undefeated with a 10-0-1 mark that includes a 3-0 victory at Saint Louis University last Friday. The NSCAA and SA have the same teams in the top four spots with Clemson University (8-0-1) second, followed by the University of Maryland (8-1-0) third and the University of Washington (8-0-0) fourth. The NSCAA ranks the University of Virginia (8-1-0) fifth, while Soccer America has the University of North Carolina (8-2-0) in that spot.

UIC's fast start is also the focus of a profile on Soccer America's web edition. To read the story, log on to www.socceramerica.com and follow the "men's college" links.

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Note: The major national polls---and the NSCAA Great Lakes Region poll---can be found in the PDF version of this release.