Men's Soccer to Begin National Title Defense Thursday vs. Northwestern

November 16 | Men's Soccer

2011 NCAA Tournament Interactive Bracket | 2011 NCAA Tournament Printable Bracket
Akron vs. Northwestern Match Notes (PDF) | GameTracker (live stats)

AKRON, Ohio – The University of Akron men's soccer team will face Big Ten champion Northwestern Thursday in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at FirstEnergy Stadium – Cub Cadet Field. The Zips and Wildcats will kick off at 7:30 p.m. (ET)

Match #21: Akron Zips (13-3-4) vs. Northwestern Wildcats (11-4-5)
Date/Time: Nov. 17, 2011 • 7:30 p.m. (ET)
Venue: FirstEnergy Stadium – Cub Cadet Field • Akron, Ohio
Radio: 1350 AM (WARF) • Television: None
Video Stream/Live Stats: NCAA.com

Thursday's Storylines
• Akron will begin its national title defense against Big Ten Champion Northwestern.
• The winner of the match will advance to meet sixth-seeded SMU on the road on Sunday, Nov. 20, at 8 p.m., ET, in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
• Akron is 44-1-5 (.930) in its last 50 matches at FirstEnergy Stadium – Cub Cadet Field and 6-1-1 all-time at home in the NCA Tournament under head coach Caleb Porter.

Ticket Information
• Limited reserved tickets – both chair back and bleacher back seats – are available for $15. General admission ($10), youth general admission ($5) and UA student tickets ($5) are also on sale now.
• Purchase your ticket now by calling 1-888-99-AKRON (25766) or visiting the C.P. and Cornelia S. Chima Athletics Ticket Office at InfoCision Stadium – Summa Field (located at the southwest corner of the venue, near Gate 1, at the corner of East Exchange and South Union streets).
• In recognition of the tremendous student support the Zips have received all season, UA head coach Caleb Porter has purchased the first 1,500 student tickets.
• Students can pick up their tickets at the March to the Match (located on Vine Street outside of InfoCision Stadium – Summa Field) – starting at 6 p.m. – on the day of the game, while supplies last. If available, the remaining student tickets will be distributed at Gate 2 of FirstEnergy Stadium – Cub Cadet Field prior to kick off.

NCAA Tournament All-Access
• If you can't make it to the game, you can listen to all the action locally on 1350 AM (WARF). The Voice of the Zips Steve French (play-by-play) and former UA All-American Simon Spelling (color) will have the call.
• A free video stream, as well as live stats, will be available on NCAA.com.

Akron at the NCAA Tournament
• The Zips will be making their 26th all-time appearance in the NCAA postseason Thursday. It is also the fifth consecutive season they have qualified for the 48-team playoff.
• Akron captured the school's first team national championship in any sport last December with a 1-0 victory over top-seeded Louisville in the NCAA College Cup final. It was UA's second consecutive appearance in the national championship game after falling in penalty kicks (3-2) to Virginia in 2009.
• Thursday's match will also mark the ninth time the Zips have hosted an NCAA Tournament game under sixth-year head coach Caleb Porter.
• UA is 6-1-1 (.813) at home in the NCAA Tournament under Coach Porter and has gone unbeaten in its last seven matches (6-0-1). One would have to go all the way back to the 2007 season to find the Zips' last defeat on their home field when UA came up short, 1-0, against South Florida in the NCAA's Second Round.
• The Zips are attempting to become just the fifth school in NCAA Men's Soccer Division I history to win consecutive national championships. Indiana, with Coach Porter on staff as an assistant at the time, was the last to do it in 2003 and 2004. Virginia, San Francisco and St. Louis are the three others.
• Just two schools (Indiana and Virginia) have won back-to-back championships in the last 35 years of Division I men's soccer. The Hoosiers accomplished the feat three times (2003-'04, 1998-'99 and 1982-'83) while the Cavaliers won four straight titles from 1991-'94.
• Akron will begin the NCAA Tournament unseeded for the first time under Coach Porter. The Zips were the No. 14 seed in 2007, No. 5 in 2008, No. 1 in 2009 and No. 3 in 2010.

Postseason Experience
• Although UA lost a Major League Soccer-record seven starters to the SuperDraft last January (including just two seniors), its four returners – Chad Barson, Scott Caldwell, Darren Mattocks and David Meves – have compiled a wealth of NCAA postseason experience in a short amount of time.
• On top of that, all four have played key roles in Akron's deep tournament runs.
• Juniors Barson, Caldwell and Meves have each appeared in all 10 NCAA Tournament games over the past two seasons, posting a record of 7-1-2.
• In those 10 games – against the best competition – Barson and Meves have helped the Zips record six shutouts while holding teams to one or fewer goals eight times. Furthermore, both players came up with huge defensive stops in the final seconds of the 2010 national championship win against Louisville to preserve UA's win.
• Caldwell, who was named the Most Outstanding Offensive Player of the 2010 College Cup, scored three goals during the Zips' march through the NCAA Tournament a year ago. None was greater, however, than the game-winner in the 79th minute of the national championship game against the Cardinals.
• Mattocks, a sophomore, started all five NCAA Tournament games last season and netted the game-winning goal in a 2-1 win against Indiana in the third round.

About Northwestern
• Northwestern will be making its sixth NCAA Tournament appearance all-time Thursday. All five previous appearances have come in the last eight seasons (2004, '06, '07, '08, '09).
• The Wildcats are 7-5-1 all-time at the NCAA Tournament. They advanced as far as the quarterfinals on two occasions, in 2006 and 2008.
• For the first time in school history, the Wildcats (11-4-5) captured both the Big Ten regular-season and tournament championships in 2011.
• Northwestern, which is unbeaten in its last 11 matches (8-0-3), earned a 2-1 win over Penn State in the championship game of the Big Ten Tournament last weekend after edging No. 9 Indiana, 3-2, on penalty kicks in the semifinals.
• NU began the season with three losses in its first five contests (1-3-1), but has gone 10-1-4 since then while going undefeated in the Big Ten (4-0-2).

Northwestern Series Notes
• Akron and Northwestern will be meeting for the third time in their all-time series and the second time in postseason play.
• NU defeated UA in the last meeting, a 1-0 decision in the third round of the NCAA Tournament in 2008. As a No. 14-seed, the Zips were originally scheduled to host the unseeded Wildcats but the game was moved to Evanston, Ill., due to unplayable field conditions at the old Lee R. Jackson Soccer Field.
• The Zips have just two players left from that 2008 team. Fifth-year senior Matt Dagilis started at center back that game, while fourth-year junior Thomas Schmitt took a redshirt that season as a freshman but made the trip.
• Akron earned a 1-0 win in the two schools' only other meeting in 1989. The game was played on the campus of South Carolina as part of the South Carolina MetLife Classic.

Defending The Homefront
• Akron is 44-1-5 (.930) in its last 50 matches at FirstEnergy Stadium – Cub Cadet Field.
• Statistically speaking, no other team in NCAA history has been tougher to beat at home than the Zips, who set a Division I record for the longest home unbeaten streak earlier this season. From Sept. 5, 2008 to Oct. 29, 2011, Akron went 44-0-4 on its home field while out-scoring the competition, 119-21.

Akron Sweeps MAC Specialty Awards
• For the fifth straight season, UA swept the Mid-American Conference specialty awards as Darren Mattocks was named Player of the Year, Wil Trapp was named Newcomer of the Year and Caleb Porter was named Coach of the Year.
• Mattocks is the ninth Akron player to earn the league's highest individual honor since 1993 and follows Darlington Nagbe (2010), Teal Bunbury (2009), Steve Zakuani (2008), Corey Sipos (2007), Sinisa Ubiparipovic (2006) and Ross McKenzie (2005) as the seventh consecutive Zips player to receive the award.
• Trapp, who was the No. 1-ranked freshman in the nation according to Top Drawer Soccer last month, becomes the 10th UA player to earn newcomer honors and the sixth in the last seven seasons, following Mattocks (2010), Zarek Valentin (2009), Nagbe (2008), Zakuani (2007) and Evan Bush (2005).
• It is the fifth consecutive season Porter has be named MAC Coach of the Year.
• Furthermore, 10 Akron players received All-MAC honors, including seven first-team selections. Joining Mattocks and Trapp on the First Team were Scott Caldwell, Aodhan Quinn, Luke Holmes, Chad Barson and DeAndre Yedlin. Bryan Gallego, David Meves and Thomas Schmitt each received Second Team honors.

Akron in the NCAA
• As a team, the Zips are ranked seventh in scoring offense (2.1 goals/game) and ninth in goals against average (0.62).
• UA also enters the NCAA postseason with the 10th-best winning percentage in Division I with a record of 13-3-4 (.750).
• Individually speaking, a trio of Zips are ranked in the top 15 of their respective categories. Striker Darren Mattocks, who has found the net 36 times in 45 career games, is the nation's third most-prolific scorer with a team high 18 goals in 20 matches this fall. He is also ranked fifth in total points with 40 (18 G, 4 A).
• Midfielder Scott Caldwell is ranked fourth in the country for total assists with 10 helpers while goalkeeper David Meves is ranked 13th in GAA (0.646).

Did you Know?
• As a team, Akron has recorded 44 assists on 42 goals.
• All three of UA's losses this season have been one-goal games and two of those came in overtime. The Zips suffered golden goal defeats on the road at No. 18 UC Santa Barbara (3-2) and at Michigan (1-0).
• Ten different players have scored at least one goal for Akron this season while six different players have recorded game-winners. Mattocks leads both categories with 18 goals and five game winners.
• The Zips, who have yet to allow a first-half goal, have held opponents to one or fewer goals in 17 of 20 games (11 shutouts) this season.