Jan. 9, 2009
A YEAR TO REMEMBER: The UC Irvine men’s soccer team (15-2-6) completed the best season in school history with a 3-2 loss at No. 3 seed St. John’s in the third round of the NCAA Tournament. UCI finished the year with a 15-2-6 record overall, a Big West Conference title, a Big West Tournament title and a trip to the Round of 16 of the NCAA tournament.
NATIONAL HONORS ROLL IN: Four Anteater players earned All-America honors from various publications following the season. Senior Matt Murphy (Anaheim Hills/Mater Dei HS) was named All-America third team by College Soccer News. Junior Irving Garcia was named to Soccer America’s MVP’s second team. David Sias was named to TopDrawerSoccer.com’s Team of the Season third team. Andrew Fontein (Las Vegas, Nev./Sierra Vista HS) was named to the TopDrawerSoccer.com All-Rookie second team, the Soccer America All-Freshman second team and the College Soccer News All-Freshman third team.
Sias and Murphy each were named All-Far West Region first team in addition to their national honors.
COACHES GET HONORS TOO: Head coach George Kuntz was named NSCAA/adidas Far West Region Coach of the Year for the second time in the past three seasons. Assistant coach Chris Volk was named NSCAA/adidas West Region Assistant Coach of the Year.
NCAA TOURNAMENT REVIEW: UC Irvine made their first NCAA Championship appearance this season. UCI defeated Cal Poly 3-0 in the second round after two goals from Irving Garcia (San Luis, Ariz./Yavapai College) and one from Rafael Macedo. The team then lost 3-2 at St. John’s in the round of 16. Irving Garcia and Amani Walker (San Diego/Francis Parker HS) each had a goal and an assist in the loss. Freshman keeper Andrew Fontein had six saves between the two matches.
BIG WEST TOURNAMENT REVIEW: The Anteaters won the inaugural Big West Conference Tournament defeating UC Davis 1-0 and UC Santa Barbara 4-2. Freshman keeper Andrew Fontein had 11 saves on the week with a shutout against UCD and was named the MVP of the Tournament. Rafael Macedo had two goals including the game-winner against UCSB and assisted on UCI’s goal against the Aggies to lead the team with five points on the week. Sophomore Amani Walker had a goal and two assists against the Gauchos.
IN THE RANKINGS: The Anteaters are ranked 7th nationally in the current NSCAA/adidas poll, the College Soccer News poll and the Soccer America poll. They also are 10th in the Soccer Times poll. They are ranked 1st in the Far West Region in the NSCAA/adidas Regional Rankings.
RECORD BREAKING SEASON: In addition to the three offensive career records broken by Matt Murphy this season UCI has rewritten the record book this season. UCI won 15 matches this season breaking the previous record of 13 set in 2006. The team played in a record 23rd match this season. UCI’s six ties is tied for the school record set in 2001. UCI had the longest winning streak in school history with seven. UCI finished with their best ever winning percentage of 78.3%. The Anteaters had their first ever sellout crowd of 2,500 in their second round match against Cal Poly.
In the single season record list, Matt Murphy tied for the second most points in a season. His total of 11 goals this year is tied for the fifth most. Irving Garcia is tied for the third most assists in a season with nine. Murphy is tied for eighth most with eight. Murphy’s four game-winners in 2008 is tied for the fourth most and Spencer Thompson’s three game-winners is tied for sixth. Andrew Fontein’s five shutouts are tied for the fourth most in a season and his 1.02 goals against average is the fourth best. His shutout total is enough to tie him for 9th on UCI’s career list and is one save away from tying for 10th with 74 on the career saves list.
ANTEATER LEADERS: Matt Murphy led the team with 11 goals and eight assists for 30 points. Junior Irving Garcia is second with 23 points on seven goals and nine assists. Sophomore Spencer Thompson (Ahwatukee, Ariz./Mountain Pointe HS) is third with 22 points on eight goals and six assists. Andrew Fontein had 73 saves, a 0.92 goals against average and five shutouts.
UCI AMONG NCAA LEADERS: The Anteaters have the 7th best winning percentage in the country winning 78.3% of their matches in 2008. UCI has the 16th highest scoring offense on the year averaging 1.96 goals per match. Irving Garcia is 46th with 0.39 assists per match and Matt Murphy is 68th with 0.35 per match. Matt Murphy is 49th with 1.30 points per game. Irving Garcia and Spencer Thompson are 97th with 1.0 per game. Murphy is 61st with 0.48 goals per game. Andrew Fontein is 70th with a 1.019 goals against average and 79th in save percentage saving 77.7 percent of the shots he faced.
BIG WEST ACCOLADES: David Sias was named Big West Defensive Player of the Year. Freshman Andrew Fontein was named Big West Co-Freshman of the Year. Head coach George Kuntz was named Big West Coach of the Year.
The ‘Eaters had four players earn All-Big West first team honors; Matt Murphy, David Sias, Irving Garcia and Spencer Thompson.
This is the second first team honor for Murphy and his third All-Big West honor overall. David Sias had previously earned second team honors in 2007. These are the first honors for Garcia and Thompson.
Senior Rafael Macedo, senior Kyle Schmid, senior Shane Westbrook and Fontein were each named All-Big West second team.
Sophomore Gray Bailey was named All-Big West honorable mention.
FROM WORST TO FIRST: UCI won its first regular season Big West title after finishing last in 2007 (6-9-5). The Anteaters won eight more games in 2008 than in 2007.
MURPHY IN THE RECORD BOOKS: Matt Murphy owns the all-time career UCI records in points with 85 career points, goals with 33 and game-winning goals with 11. Murphy is tied for third with 19 assists in his career.
Murphy is fifth all-time in the Big West Conference with 33 goals and is fifth in career points with 85. He is third with 11 game-winning goals.
Murphy was named All-Big West first team for the second time this season and his third All-Big West honors overall.
FONTEIN BETWEEN THE PIPES: Andrew Fontein has started 18 matches for the ‘Eaters this season. He was named the Most Valuable Player following the Big West Conference Tournament. He has five shutouts on the year, tied for the fifth most in a single season at UCI. He has a goals against average of 1.02, the fourth best single season total for an Anteater. He was named the Co-Big West Freshman of the Year and All-Big West second team. Fontein was named Big West Player of the Week September 22nd and to the College Soccer News National Team of the Week November 17th.
SIAS IN THE BACKFIELD: Senior co-captain David Sias (Fountain Valley HS) has led UCI’s backline for four seasons. He made his 68th career start at St. John’s for the fourth most in UCI career history. Sias is the Big West Defender of the Year and was named All-Big West first team. Sias was named to the Top Drawer Soccer Men’s Collegiate National Team of the Week November 10th.
GARCIA’S MOVE TO THE FRONT LINE: Irving Garcia moved up from the midfield to be a forward late in the season and it has paid off big for the ‘Eaters. The All-Big West first team honoree has scored at least a point in each of the past seven matches and has become UCI’s second leading scorer with 23 points on seven goals and nine assists.
FREIGHT TRAIN BACK ON TRACK: Spencer “Freight Train” Thompson had his freshman season cut short due to a foot injury. Thompson has come back strong in ’08 with eight goals and six assists for 22 points. Thompson was named All-Big West first team and earned All-Tournament team honors in all four of UCI’s in-season tournaments.
MACEDO IN THE MIDDLE: Rafael Macedo has taken control of the offensive midfield for the ‘Eaters. He has three goals and an assist in the past four games including the game-winner in the Big West Tournament championship match against UCSB. Macedo was named All-Big West second team and has 12 points this season with five goals and two assists.
GRAY MATTERS: Sophomore Gray Bailey (Huntington Beach HS) has been an outstanding defensive midfielder for the ‘Eaters. Bailey has even made a mark on the offensive end with six points with four assists and the game-winning goal at UC Santa Barbara. Bailey was named All-Big West honorable mention.
RUNS IN THE WILLRICH FAMILY: Senior Michael Willrich is in his second year with the ‘Eaters after a successful two-year stint at San Diego City College. Willrich had the game-winner at San Diego. Michael’s father Jean played professionally for two seasons in the Netherlands, eight in the North American Soccer League (NASL) and 12 in the Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL). He was also a member of the 1984 U.S. Olympic soccer team.
HEAD COACH George Kuntz: The Anteaters are led by head coach George Kuntz who is in his 14th year at the UCI helm. Kuntz was named NSCAA Far West Region Coach of the Year in 2006 and has been named the Big West Coach of the Year in two of the past three years.
CONTRIBUTING TO THE CREW: Former UCI players Brad Evans and Kenny Schoeni are members of the Columbus Crew that just captured the first MLS Cup in franchise history. Evans was selected by Seattle Sounders FC in the MLS Expansion Draft last week. The Crew is coached by Sigi Schmid who is the father of UCI senior Kyle Schmid and Anteater assistant coach Kurt Schmid.
WINNING IN THE CLASSROOM: Sophomores Corey Attaway and Spencer Thompson were each named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District First Team. Both were named Big West Scholar-Athletes last year with Attaway earning Big West All-Academic honors in 2007. Five additional players on the current squad have been named Big West Scholar-Athletes in the past.
2008 RECRUITS RECOGNIZED: College Soccer News ranked UCI’s newcomers the 40th best recruiting class in the nation. The ‘Eaters had the second highest ranked class in the Big West. Of those newcomers, Irving Garcia and Andrew Fontein each earned All-Big West honors in their first seasons at UCI.
2008 Stats
Player Goals Assists Points GWG
Matt Murphy 11 8 30 4
Irving Garcia 7 9 23 2
Spencer Thompson 8 6 22 3
Amani Walker 4 5 13 0
Rafael Macedo 5 2 12 1
Carlos Aguilar 3 3 9 1
Kevin Santora 2 3 7 1
Gray Bailey 1 3 5 1
Michael Willrich 1 1 3 1
Brett Berman 1 0 2 1
Norby Rodriguez 1 0 2 0
Kyle Schmid 0 1 1 0
Goalkeeper Min. Svs GA GAA SHO
Andrew Fontein 1855 73 21 1.02 5
Pat Barton 335 11 3 0.81 1
