Game Notes
Live Stats
The UNO men's soccer team begins the 2012 regular season on Sunday with a 5 p.m. match at home against the Bellevue Bruins. The match will take place at the UNO Soccer Field at 68th and Spring Streets and concludes UNO's annual “Welcome Week” festivities. Tickets are $5 for adults and $3 for students. UNO students get in free with their MavCard. Last year's home opener on the Sunday concluding “Welcome Week” drew 1,647 fans to the UNO Soccer Field. Live stats will be available at OMavs.com. UNO is coming off a 1-1-1 performance in three exhibition games, including a 2-0 win at Drake and a narrow 1-0 defeat at No. 3 Creighton.
Series History
Sunday's meeting will be the first between Omaha and Bellevue.
Welcome to The Summit League
The 2012 season marks UNO's first with a full Summit League schedule. UNO will play all seven Summit League foes once, starting with a Sept. 22 game at defending Summit League champion Western Illinois. Although the Mavericks will appear in the Summit League standings, UNO cannot qualify for the Summit League Championship or the NCAA Tournament until 2015-16.
Experienced But Young
Eight starters return for the Mavericks, including redshirt freshman
Logan Mendez, who started the first three games and missed the rest of the season due to injury. Mendez scored the first goal in school history in a 2-1 win over UMKC and despite missing the final 10 games, still finished third on the team with five shots on goal. Although the number of returning starters is high, the Mavs' nine returning players consist of one redshirt freshman, five sophomores and three juniors.
A Whole New Batch
While nine Mavericks return from last year's inaugural team, 13 fresh faces are new to the program this fall. Five newcomers got a head start and enrolled at UNO for the 2012 spring semester and trained with the Mavs throughout the spring - junior goalkeeper
Matt Grosey, junior forward
Thomas Torres, sophomore defender
Nick Miller, sophomore defender
Felipe da Silva and freshman midfielder
Devin Diego. The Mavs added two Division I transfers as well. Creighton Prep alum Jake Linden will be a freshman for the Mavs after redshirting one year at Xavier.
Houston Hoffman will be a junior after playing two years at Northern Illinois. The rest of the Mavs' incoming class comprises six true freshmen -
Emir Alihodzic, Chava Garcia,
Giovanni Giattino,
Danny Gustafson,
Lucas Hake and
Jesus Perez.
Next Up for the Mavs
The Mavs travel to Peoria, Ill., next weekend for the Hotels at Grand Prairie Classic, hosted by Bradley. UNO will play Mercer on Friday, Aug. 31 at 4:30 p.m. On Sunday, Sept. 2, the Mavs conclude play at the tournament against No. 25 Bradley at 2:30 p.m.
Last Time Out
The UNO men's soccer team concluded preseason play last Sunday with a 1-0 exhibition loss at No. 3 Creighton before 1,640 fans at Morrison Stadium. The meeting was the first ever between the two Omaha schools.
Creighton's Eric Miller broke a scoreless deadlock with a volley off a corner kick in the 74th minute. The Mavericks finished the preseason with a 1-1-1 record after tying Iowa Western 3-3 and defeating Drake 2-0. Creighton was coming off a 3-3 tie in an exhibition match vs. No. 9 Maryland on Friday night.
Creighton outshot Omaha 19-3 with a 5-2 edge in shots on goal. UNO's
Matt Grosey made four saves.
Logan Mendez had both shots on goal for the Mavs.
The Bluejays outshot the Mavs 6-1 in the first half, but the Mavericks recorded the only shot on goal when Mendez's threatening attempt from close range was turned away by Creighton goalie Jeff Gal in the 23rd minute. That was the first shot of the game for either team. Creighton's Andrew Ribeiro hit the post in the 26th minute.
With the wind at its back in the second half, Creighton outshot UNO 13-2. The Jays earned a penalty kick in the 78th minute, but Jose Ribas sent it off the crossbar.
Craig Buettner's chance for UNO in the 87th minute went high.
Scouting Bellevue
The Bruins enter with a record of 0-1 after falling to Jamestown 1-0 Wednesday night at Tranquility Park in Omaha. Bellevue went 3-13-3 last year overall but finished 3-0-2 in the Midlands Collegiate Athletic Conference, good for second place. Eight starters return from that squad, including Graeme Eaglesham, who led the team with 17 points last year on eight goals and one assist. Bellevue was picked to finish second in the MCAC Preseason Poll. The Bruins are coached by Matt Briggs, who is in his sixth season with a 54-34-8 record at the school.
Saves Galore
UNO goalkeeper
Josh Christensen was a busy man last year, playing all but one minute in goal for the Mavs. Christensen posted 75 saves for a 5.77 saves per game average, which ranked eighth among all Division I keepers.
Home Sweet Home
The UNO men's soccer team received outstanding fan support in its three home games in its inaugural season, and the result was a 21st ranking nationally in attendance among NCAA Division I men's soccer programs. The Mavs averaged 1,130 fans in two games played at the UNO Soccer Field and one at Werner Park. Although the Mavs do not count toward the official NCAA attendance figures because of their transitional status, they were just one of 27 schools in the nation to finish with an average of more than 1,000 fans per game. The Mavs' mark also would have ranked first in The Summit League in 2011, more than double that of the next closest competitor, IUPUI at 555. UC Santa Barbara led the nation with 4,782 per game, followed by Maryland with 3,781.
Mavs Begin Full Summit League Schedule in 2012
The Omaha men's soccer team will play 16 games, including five at home, as part of its 2012 schedule. The Mavericks will play their first full Summit League schedule this year with seven games against league foes. In all, UNO will have six home dates counting an exhibition, all of which will be played at the UNO Soccer Field at 68th and Spring Streets. In the Mavs' inaugural season last year, UNO hosted just three games. UNO begins the regular season on Sunday, Aug. 26 at home against Bellevue at 5 p.m. The Mavs will then play at the Hotels at Grand Prairie Classic in Peoria, Ill. On Aug. 31, UNO opens against Mercer. On Sept. 2, the Mavs face host Bradley, who reached the 2011 NCAA Tournament Second Round. UNO returns for their second home game against Seattle on Sunday, Sept. 9 at 5 p.m., before heading to the West Coast for games against San Diego State (Sept. 14) and UC Riverside (Sept. 16) at the UC Riverside Tournament. The Mavs' first-ever Summit League conference game will be at defending Summit League champion and NCAA Tournament qualifier Western Illinois on Sept. 22. The following week, UNO hosts IUPUI on Saturday, Sept. 29 at 1 p.m. On Oct. 2, UNO steps out of the conference slate to visit SIU Edwardsville for the second straight year. The Mavs then host Summit League foe Eastern Illinois on Oct. 6 at 1 p.m. Two days later on Oct. 8, UNO travels to face non-conference opponent Tulsa. On Oct. 13, UNO is at Summit League member IPFW. Following that, the Mavs head to Milwaukee for a non-conference match on Oct. 16. UNO returns to Summit League action at the site of its first win in program history, UMKC, on Oct. 20. UNO concludes its home schedule with a Noon game against Oakland on Sunday, Oct. 28. The Mavs close the season on Nov. 3 at Oral Roberts in Tulsa, Okla.
Lessons Learned
After a 1-11-1 record in their inaugural season as a program, the Mavericks will use the adversity they faced last year to continue to build the program from the ground up. The Mavs started to click toward the end of the 2011 season with three goals in the final three games after scoring three times through the first 10 games. UNO picked up a 1-1 draw at Missouri Valley Conference foe SIU Edwardsville in late October, its only result of the season after the 2-1 season-opening win at UMKC.
Preseason Honors
Midfielder
Vance Rookwood and forward
Craig Buettner were named to the College Sports Madness Preseason All-Summit League Second Team. Rookwood led UNO last year with three points on one goal and one assist. Buettner had one goal after joining the team midway through the season after an open tryout.
Mavs Picked Eighth in Summit League Preseason Poll
UNO was picked to finish eighth in The Summit League Preseason Poll, which was determined by a vote of the league's eight head coaches. Defending champion Western Illinois is the favorite to repeat as champions. The Fighting Leathernecks, who claimed both the 2011 regular season and postseason championships, received five first-place votes and totaled 46 points. Kansas City had one first-place vote and finished second with 39 points to edge out Oakland, who received the remaining two first-place votes and had 38 points. Oral Roberts, IUPUI, Fort Wayne and Eastern Illinois finished fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh. League newcomer Omaha rounded out the poll. The top four teams in the regular-season standings, except for UNO, will compete for The Summit League Men's Soccer Championship in Macomb, Ill., Nov. 9 & 11.
