Marshall University Athletics
Men's Soccer Breaks into Top 25, Ranked 23rd Nationally
10/1/2001 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
Men's Soccer Breaks into Top 25, Ranked 23rd Nationally
10/1/2001
HUNTINGTON, W.Va.-The Marshall men?s soccer team entered the top 25 for the first time ever today when the National Soccer Coaches Association of America released its? weekly poll. The Herd enter ranked 23rd overall and third in the Great Lakes Region (Indiana, Ohio State).
?This is a great honor for our team and we are extremely excited,? head coach Bob Gray stated. ?We feel like this marks our arrival on the national level. We have worked extremely hard to reach this point.?
Southern Methodist University (7-0-0) holds the top spot in the rankings, a spot they have held all season. They are followed by Stanford (6-0-0), St. John?s (5-0-1), Virginia (7-0-1) and Saint Louis (6-0-0).
Annual power Indiana (5-2-0) is ranked sixth. Washington (6-1-0), UAB (6-1-0), South Florida (8-0-0) and Rutgers (4-1-2), who made the biggest jump in the poll after being ranked sixteenth last week, round out the top 10.
San Diego (6-1-0) just missed cracking into the top 10 and is ranked 11th. North Carolina (6-2-0) is twelfth, followed by Loyola-Maryland (6-1-1), Fairfield (4-1-1), Ohio State (6-1-1), Furman (7-0-0) and South Carolina (6-1-0).
Seton Hall University (5-1-0), ranked eighteenth, is the highest newcomer in the poll. They are followed by Penn State (5-2-0), Connecticut (5-2-2), William and Mary (5-3-1) and newcomer Columbia (2-1-2).
Marshall, whose 8-1-0 start is the best in team history, enters the poll at 23. Boston College (5-2-0) and Clemson (6-2-0), tied for 24th, round out the top 25.
Marshall?s ranking will be put to the test immediately. The team travels to Buffalo on Friday, October 5, at 7:00 p.m. for a Mid-American Conference match. The road trip continues when they face Akron, a 2000 MAC Co-champion, on Sunday, October 7, at 2:00 p.m. The Zips defeated 15th ranked Ohio State last week.




