What To Expect From Pac-12 Men's Soccer

Tonight Oregon State Men's Soccer starts the first season of the reborn Pac-12 with a match against San Diego State. After going 4-1-3 during non conference play, the Beavers have been ranked 21st in the United Soccer Coaches poll and 20th in the RPI rankings. They're the favorites to take the conference crown, but how has the rest of the new Pac-12 performed?

First off, a note about the conference's membership. Only three Pac-12 schools, Oregon State, Gonzaga and San Diego State, have Men's Soccer programs. To round out the conference, the Pac-12 has partnered with the Big West, with four Big West schools competing in the Pac this season. The rest of the Big West will also play the three Pac-12 schools, either during the non-conference portion of the schedule or doing the conference portion as part of the Big West/Pac-12 Crossover.

The four Big West schools playing in the Pac-12 this season are Cal Baptist, Cal Poly, UC Riverside and UC San Diego. The Big West is a conference that has a strong soccer history, but the Beavers have already played a lot of it's top teams this season, including UC Irvine and UC Santa Barbara.

The Pac-12 school with the most impressive record this season is Cal Baptist. The Lancers are 6-2, with their only losses to San Diego, a top ten team, and a middle of the road Duke program. Their signature win is a 1-0 victory over UC Irvine, a team the Beavers only managed to tie.

Cal Baptist's 1.375 goals per game average is the lowest in the conference, but their goals allowed average of 0.63 is also the conference's lowest. This is a defense first team, but they've got one of the conference's top goal scorers in Blake D'Agostino, whose five goals account for nearly half of the Lancers' season total. Ulrik Stroem has made an argument as the best goalie in the conference, allowing only 0.5 goals per game.

The other school to watch out for is Gonzaga. The Beavers' former WCC rival has a 3-3-2 record, with their best win coming against CSU Bakersfield. The Bulldogs sit right in front of the Lancers in the RPI rankings, with the teams ranked 83rd and 84th respectively. Like the Lancers Gonzaga is a defense first team, scoring 12 goals to 8 allowed this season. Drew Pederson has led the team in most offensive categories this season, but the Bulldogs need to find more scoring if they want to compete for the conference title.

UC San Diego has gotten off to a solid start this season with a 5-3 record. The Tritons opened the season with a 7-0 stomping over Navy, but that remains the season high point. Their losses came against UNLV, UC Irvine and Cal State Fullerton, suggesting a gap between UC San Diego and the top of the Big West.

Like the previous two teams, the Tritons are defensively a strong team, matching the Lancers with only 5 goals allowed this season. Goalkeeper Nic Thiele leads the conference with an .828 save percentage, and Gavin Allegaert and Ryan Namdar have given the Tritons a solid one two punch of scoring, but UC San Diego still needs to prove themselves against a quality opponent.

Cal Poly has had a more mixed non-conference schedule, entering the Pac-12 stretch with a 4-2-3 record. While their most recent game was an emotional win over UC Santa Barbara, ties against San Diego State and UC Davis and a loss against CSU Bakersfield show there's still a lot of development the Mustangs need.

On paper this is a more offensive team than the previous schools, with their 15 goals third in the conference, but at 1.667 goals per game its hard to call them an offensive juggernaut. Colin Pearce and Devin Bening have scored three goals a piece for the Mustangs, and the team has demonstrated a strong ability to produce goals with a relatively low amount of shots, but whether they can keep that up against a great defense remains to be seen.

UC Riverside enters conference play with a 3-3-2 record. Their early season 2-0 win over Grand Canyon suggested some promise, but GCU's continued struggles and the Highlanders inability to take down any other strong opponents has left them near the bottom of the Pac-12 standings. Nearly half of the Highlanders 13 goals this season came from a 6-0 romp over Life Pacific. Beyond that Riverside has not impressed offensively or defensively.

San Diego State currently sits at the bottom of the Pac-12 standings, with a 2-5-3 record. Their two wins came against Life Pacific and Sacramento State, an NAIA school and one of the worst teams in Division 1. While the Aztecs have tied the Beavers with 17 goals scored this season, 7 of those came against Life Pacific, and San Diego State has also allowed 17 goals, the most in the Pac-12.

The Aztecs will be the first team the Beavers face in the new Pac-12, with kick off set for tonight at 7 PM Pacific.

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