The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
Stanford-Stanford Nike Classic
Stanford Gets Early Goal, Holds Off UAB, 1-0
9/26/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
Sept. 26, 2005
PALO ALTO, Calif. - Galen Thompson took advantage of an empty net as the result of two UAB players colliding in the 38th minute and Stanford withstood the Blazers' attack as the Cardinal held on for a 1-0 victory in the final match of the 2005 Stanford Nike Classic men's college soccer tournament late Sunday night. Stanford goalkeeper Andrew Kartunen notched a pair of saves while shutting out UAB, the sixth-highest scoring team in the nation according to last week's NCAA statistics.
"It's been a frustrating weekend," UAB head coach Mike Getman said. "It took us 27 hours of travel just to get here and with our travel schedule altered, the weekend has been disjoined from start to finish. It's no excuse, though. We played well at times, but not well enough to win against two very good teams. We need to shake this weekend off and get focused because we open Conference USA play next weekend."
UAB (5-3) fell to No. 5 California on Saturday, 3-1. The Blazers original flight to San Francisco on Thursday was cancelled due to Hurricane Rita's affect on air travel through Houston, where UAB's flight connected. Getman and his club instead flew Friday and Stanford altered the tournament schedule to accommodate UAB's revised arrival. All four tournament teams - UAB, Stanford, Cal and Army - were forced to play back-to-back days as a result.
Stanford (3-4-1) got assists from Evan Morgan and Dan Shimizu, who crossed the ball to Thompson on the scoring play. The match marked the first time UAB was shutout since a 2-0 loss to then-No. 20 Memphis on Oct. 27 of last year.
UAB now readies for Conference USA play as they travel to SMU on Friday for a 7 p.m. CT kickoff. The Blazers will then face Tulsa on the road at 1:30 p.m. CT Sunday afternoon. Both SMU and Tulsa ended last season ranked in the top 15 in the NSCAA Coaches Poll and are new members of Conference USA for 2005.
