The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB Travels To SMU For Crucial C-USA Showdown
10/25/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
Oct. 25, 2011
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The No. 25 UAB men's soccer team will travel to Dallas, Texas for its biggest game of the 2011 campaign to date when it takes on No. 15 SMU on Wednesday night at Westcott Field. The contest will not only pit two nationally-ranked teams against one another, but will also give the winning squad an edge in the race for the Conference USA regular-season championship.
In addition to both teams being nationally ranked, the squads are among the top 15 teams in the NCAA RPI rankings, which were released on Tuesday. SMU leads all C-USA teams with a No. 13 RPI rating, while UAB is just behind, ranked 14th.
The Blazers enter the contest riding a five-game winning streak, including four wins against conference foes, to improve to 10-3-2 on the season and 4-1 in league play. UAB has yet to lose a road game in C-USA play, most recently capturing a 3-2 victory at Marshall on Saturday night.
The Mustangs come into Wednesday's showdown having won three straight games and are unbeaten in their last five contests (4-0-1). Furthermore, SMU has just one defeat over their last nine matches (7-1-1).
Leading the offensive attack for UAB is senior forward Babayele Sodade, who was selected as the league's offensive player of the week and College Soccer News' National Player of the Week. Sodade has scored the game-winning tally in each of the last three contests (vs. then-No. 6 UCF, vs. Memphis and at Marshall) and leads the team in goals (11), assists (5) and points (27). He also leads the conference in game-winning goals (6) on the year.
Defensively, goalkeeper Carl Woszczynski anchors a back line that allows 1.03 goals per game and has four shutouts on the campaign. The Columbus, Ind. native and three-time C-USA Defensive Player of the Week honoree ranks second in the league in saves (62) and shutouts (4) and is fourth in goals against average (0.98) and save percentage (.805).
SMU's scoring attack is led by senior Arturo Ivo, who was selected as the C-USA Preseason Player of the Year. Ivo paces the team in goals (5), assists (8) and points (18) this season. Midifelder Juan Castillo ranks second on the squad with four goals and three assists, while leading SMU with three game-winning tallys.
SMU defender Diogo de Almeida was named the C-USA Defensive Player of the Week and also earned a spot on the College Soccer News National Team of the Week after scoring the lone goal in the Mustangs 1-0 win over Missouri State this past Saturday. Goalkeeper Jaime Ibarra has started all 13 contests in the net for SMU. He has allowed just 13 goals this season, while making 56 saves, for a GAA of 0.96 on the campaign.
The Blazers and Mustangs are set to kick off at 7 p.m. CT and the match can be followed live on Gametracker by logging onto UABSports.com.
