Men's Soccer | 11/9/2010 5:13:50 PM
Match 19: No. 5 McPherson College at No. 1 Kansas Wesleyan University
Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2010 | 12:00 p.m. | Salina Stadium | Salina, Kan.
Match Notes (PDF)
KCAC Tournament Bracket
McPherson, Kan. - The McPherson College men’s soccer team kept their KCAC Championship and NAIA tournament hopes alive with a trip to the KCAC semifinal round. The No. 5 Bulldogs (9-8-1, 5-4-0) will face No. 1 Kansas Wesleyan University (14-2-0, 9-0-0) Wednesday afternoon at Salina Stadium at 12:00 p.m. The winner advances to the KCAC Championship match and will play either No. 2 Ottawa University or No. 3 Friends University.
McPherson is attempting to qualify for its second NAIA Tournament appearance, but will need a positive showing over the next two matches to earn the conference’s automatic berth. In their last meeting, Kansas Wesleyan defeated MC 4-0 with three of their four goals coming in the first half. Despite the margin of defeat, the Bulldogs tallied 10 shots, but struggled putting them on frame with two shots on goal.
The meeting between the Bulldogs and Coyotes marks the fourth time in the last five seasons that these two sides have met in a postseason match. McPherson holds a 3-0-1 advantage in those games. The Coyotes lone postseason victory against MC came in 2006 on a shootout.
The Bulldogs enter the match off an impressive quarterfinal win against Bethany College, 3-1. Senior midfielder
Trent Lawrence (Hutchinson, Kan.) and junior forward
Tarek Khalidi (Augusta, Kan.) netted their first goals of the year to help MC to the 3-1 victory. Sophomore
Geverton Ost (Porto Algre, Brazil) was credited with the third goal. McPherson hopes to use that momentum against the Coyotes.
Scouting Kansas Wesleyan
Kansas Wesleyan (14-2-0, 9-0-0) concluded the regular season a perfect 9-0 in conference action and the outright No. 1 seed for the conference tournament. The Coyotes faced one of the toughest schedules in NAIA soccer this season by taking on California Baptist, Azusa Pacific, Bellevue and William Jewell in non-conference action away from Salina. Despite the difficulty of their non-conference schedule, KWU ended the season with a 14-2-0 record with losses coming only to nationally ranked William Jewell and California Baptist.
The Coyotes not only breezed through the regular season, but swept the special conference honors as Alex Chavez earned offensive player of the year and newcomer of the year, Edgar Espinoza garnered defensive player of the year and Deigo Millan earned the honor of goalkeeper of the year.
Chavez, a potential NAIA national player of the year, leads the NAIA in points with 62 and goals at 27. He has recorded nine multi goal matches, including hat tricks in four out of the last five matches. He also leads the NAIA in goals per game (1.69), points per game (3.88), shots per game (5.56) and shots on goal per game (3.5). Chavez has recorded eight assists to go along with his scoring.
Goalkeeper Diego Millan has started 15 matches in goal for the Coyotes and owns a of 13-2-0 record on the season with a .786 save percentage and 0.89 goals against average.
Mike Dibbini is in his sixth season as the head coach of the KWU men’s and women’s soccer programs and owns a combined 150-46-16 overall record. He was recently named the KCAC 2010 Men’s Soccer Coach of the Year.
