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Men's Soccer Closes Out Regular Season At Valparaiso

Men's Soccer Closes Out Regular Season At Valparaiso
Posted: Nov 02, 2009

Nov. 2, 2009

Contact: Renee Adam

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Match 18
Cleveland State (7-6-4, 4-1-2 HL) at Valparaiso (8-6-2, 3-2-2 HL)
Date: Saturday, Nov. 7, 2009
Time: 2:00 p.m. EDT
Site: Eastgate Field (500), Valparaiso, Ind.
Series: CSU leads, 9-2-0
Last Meeting: CSU 3, Valparaiso 2 (10/11/08) at Krenzler Field

SETTING THE SCENE: The Cleveland State men's soccer team will close out the regular season when the Vikings travel to Valparaiso, Indiana to face the Crusaders on Saturday (Nov. 7) at 2:00 p.m. EDT. The Vikings enter the match with a 7-6-4 overall record and are currently in second place in the Horizon League with a 4-1-2 record.

REVIEWING LAST WEEK: The Vikings were in action once over the past weekend. Here is a review of that contest:

Match 17: CSU 1, Butler 0 (Oct. 31, Alumni Field)
Slavisa Ubiparipovic recorded his fifth goal of the season and the lone goal of the match in the 82nd minute when he put the ball right under the cross bar from five yards out, giving CSU its sixth shutout of the season. Marco DiFranco and Admir Suljevic found Ubiparipovic on the play, marking their fourth and fifth assists of the year respectively. Brad Stuver posted the shutout for the Vikings, recording seven saves.

2009 SEASON PREVIEW: With 11 seniors returning, including nine that have been in the 2009 starting lineup so far, the Vikings have experience and depth on the field this season. 2008 all-league first team honoree senior Slavisa Ubiparipovic returns up front, and leads the team in points (15), is tied for the lead in assists (5) and is second on the team in goals (5). He is joined up front by freshmen Aaron Adkins (4g, 2a, 10pts) and Admir Suljevic (3g, 4a, 10pts) who both earned high school All-America honors following their senior campaigns, giving the Vikings a loaded front row. Experience is the key to the midfield this season, as all three starters return: Marco DiFranco, who is tied for first on the team with five assists, Josh Williams who leads the team in goals with six, adding two assists for 14 points and Kevin Malone. The entire defense returns for 2009 after posting six shutouts last season. Leading the charge are seniors Eric Tattersall, Mitch Boyer (1g, 2pts) and Anthony Baraldi and junior Audric Kilroy (1a, 1pts). They have played in a combined 53 matches this season, allowing just 22 goals. Freshman Brad Stuver has played in 11 matches as goalie this season posting 45 saves, two shutouts and a 1.00 GAA, while Nick Harpel has played in nine contests, recording 38 saves, a 1.12 GAA and three shutouts. Backing up Stuver and Harpel is freshman Almir Suljevic (4 saves).

HOME FIELD ADVANTAGE: The Vikings have successfully gone two straight seasons without losing a match at Krenzler Field, going 11-0-2 over the past two years. During the stretch the Vikings have defeated or tied 12 different teams, playing only Wright State twice at home last season. This marks only the second time in school history that CSU has been unbeaten at home in consecutive seasons, the first dating back to the 1969 and 1970 seasons when the Vikings went a combined 10-0 at home. But, it is the first time that CSU has been undefeated at home in two straight seasons since the 1985 season when Krenzler Field was built.

...LEAGUE ADVANTAGE: The Vikings are one of only three Horizon League teams that are unbeaten on their home fields this season. Butler (5-0-0) and Green Bay (6-0-1) are the other two teams to remain undefeated at home. These teams also represent the current top three teams in the league standings, with Butler being the only school to have a home contest left (Wright State) to close out the regular season. Last year CSU was the lone team to go undeafeted at home throughout the entire season (6-0-1).

SHUTOUT SERIES: The 1-0 victory against Butler marked the sixth shutout of the 2009 season, which is tied for the most shutouts in a season over the past 10 years. Last season the Vikings posted six shutouts with three coming against league opponents compared to four this season; Loyola, Milwaukee, Wright State and Butler. CSU is tied for second in the league in shutouts against all opponents, but is first with four shutouts against league opponents only.

DYNAMIC DUO: Seniors Slavisa Ubiparipovic and Marco DiFranco have combined to score nine out of the 10 CSU points recorded against Butler over the last two seasons. DiFranco has tallied two goals (11/02/08, 11/14/08) and one assist (10/31/09), while Ubiparipovic has recorded one goal (10/31/09) and two assists (11/02/08, 11/14/08).

...UBIPARIPOVIC LEADS GOALS: Slavisa Ubiparipovic recorded his fifth goal of the season when he scored the game-winner against Butler last Saturday. He is currently second on the team in CSU career goals with 10, but leads the team with 13 goals when you add in his goals scored at Xavier. Over the last two seasons the Vikings are 5-1-2 when Ubiparipovic records at least one goal.

...DIFRANCO TOPS IN ASSISTS: Marco DiFranco recorded his fifth assist of the season this past Saturday and his 12 career assist, which is tops for CSU. The Vikings are 3-1-1 when DiFranco tallies an assist in a match, losing only to Santa Clara in the second match of the season. Over the last four seasons, CSU has gone 5-2-1 in matches where DiFranco records an assist.

STUVER SAVES: Brad Stuver still holds the Horizon League record for the most saves in a single match this season with his 10 save effort at Milwaukee (10/2). Stuver is first in the league with a .833 save percentage and fifth with 45 saves, one of only three true freshmen to be ranked in both categories. He posted his second career shutout last Saturday against Butler (10/31), recording seven saves.

HL UNBEATEN STREAK: The Vikings currently have the longest unbeaten streak in league play, going 3-0 over the last two weeks. This is the second best streak that CSU has had in the past 10 seasons. Last year the Vikings were on an eight match unbeaten streak (7-0-1) going into the league championship match and in 2002 the team also had a 3-0 streak during the middle of the season before losing to UIC. Admir Suljevic has led the Vikings during the streak, recording three goals and two assists for eight points.

1,000 MINUTE CLUB: Seven Vikings have been on the field for more than 1,000 minutes of action this season, including seniors Josh Williams, Slavisa Ubiparipovic, Marco DiFranco and Anthony Baraldi, junior Audric Kilroy, sophomore Justin Mancine and freshman Admir Suljevic. The group has tallied 16 out of the 22 CSU goals (.727) and 18 of the 22 assists (.818). At least four of them have been starters in all 17 matches for the Vikings this season, with all seven starting in eight contests.

BOYER EARNS P.O.W.: Senior defender Mitch Boyer earned Horizon League player of the week honors following his defensive performance in Saturday's (10/31) 1-0 shutout against Butler. After sitting out five matches, Boyer returned to the lineup on Saturday to lead the Viking defense to their sixth shutout of the season. The award is the second of his career, earning his first accolade last season.

NEXT UP: The Vikings will await the rest of the Horizon League results from the next week to see what seed they will receive entering into the conference tournament that begins on Tuesday (Nov. 10).