September 16, 2004
UCSC Men Rank #2 in Nation

SANTA CRUZ, CA -- The National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) has moved the undefeated Slugs from #4 to #2 in the Nation this past Tuesday. This is the highest ranking that the UCSC Men's Soccer team has ever received in school history. Trinity University of Texas stands at #1 with a 4-0-0 record and has remained at the top of the rankings since the preseason polls. These two teams faced off last year in the Elite 8 of the NCAA DIII National Championships, where Trinity defeated the Slugs 3-0 and went on to claim the National Championship.

In addition, UCSC is currently at #1 in the West Region in the NSCAA Rankings.

UCSC ended the season with a final ranking of #5 in the Nation. It was a historic year for UCSC Men's Soccer which included some stats that put them into the NCAA records book: #10 on the list for Goals scored in a season (93), and #15 for season wins (21). Their final record of 21-2-0, a 6.5 game improvement from their 11-5-2 record from 2002, finishing in second among most improved teams.

Currently, the Slugs remain undefeated at 6-0 and hold the #1 ranking in the NCAA DIII West Region. Only 6 games into the season, the Slugs have scored 28 goals thus far, with Freshmen Alex Mandel and Matt Skenazy leading the way with 4 each. The Slugs are averaging almost 5 goals per game on 17 shots, while Senior Chris Pederson and Sophomore Justin Brock have only allowed 2 goals on the season.

Today the team left for their second road trip of the season and are heading down to Southern California to take on the University of La Verne (1-1-3) Thursday and Chapman University (1-3-0) on Sunday.