UC IRVINE NOTEBOOK : Net Gain: Smith Making His Mark as a Scorer
IRVINE — Kevin Smith was on top of the Big West Conference scoring statistics, if not a little bit of the world, last week.
Then the UC Irvine men’s soccer team was shut out twice.
And Smith took a little tumble.
He has fallen to third in scoring, and is left to worry about his team’s prospects after the Anteaters lost to UC San Diego, 2-0, and to UC Santa Barbara, 4-0, last week.
“It’s going to be tough,” Smith said, looking ahead to the conference season. “UCSB, they’re not exactly one of the top teams in the conference, and they beat us pretty handily.”
Smith is looking for improvement from a team that went 3-15-1 last season.
In fact, he already has seen it.
“You can’t expect too much this year,” he said. “On the other hand, we’ve won four games and last year we only won three all year.”
Irvine is 4-7-1 overall, 0-1 in the Big West.
Smith is only a sophomore, but already he is making his mark as a scorer. He finished with six goals and five assists as a freshman, a year after scoring 16 goals as a senior at Edison High School for a team that made it to the Southern Section 4-A final.
Moved from his position as midfielder and forward last season to a pure forward this season, Smith’s scoring has stepped up sharply. He scored five goals in the first 10 games.
“I got off to a great start,” he said. “The midfielders were playing well behind me and giving me great balls.”
He also has six assists, illustrating his ability to create shots for teammates as well as make them himself.
And if the team’s success can keep step with Smith’s, a season of progress might be ahead. There is much rejoicing about the progress being made in the women’s program, too. Led by Michele Braceros, who has scored five goals in the past three games, the women have won four games in a row.
And that’s plenty enough to be a school-record winning streak for the program.
Irvine (4-5-1) could tie its victory total of last year with a victory over U.S. International today at Crawford Field.
The traditional opening day of basketball practice for the men’s and women’s teams is Oct. 15.
But Coach Bill Mulligan and the men’s team will not continue its fledgling tradition of holding a public midnight practice, rolling out the balls the moment it is allowed by NCAA rules.
The 15th falls on a Monday this year, meaning the practice would be held late Sunday night. Mulligan, trying to improve on a 5-23 record, decided against it, saying that Sunday night wouldn’t be a good time for players or spectators.
Besides, Mulligan said, when you hold a public practice, you have to scrimmage to entertain the fans and not just work on fundamental drills.
The Anteaters, after the worst season in school history, apparently don’t mean to to waste any opportunity to get better.
Anteater Notes
The women’s cross-country team, which will compete Saturday in the Stanford Invitational, is ranked 12th in the first NCAA Division I poll of the season. Villanova, the defending champion, is ranked first, receiving all eight first-place votes. No other California school is in the top 20. . . . In the Volvo Tennis preseason collegiate poll, the Irvine men’s team is ranked 17th in the nation. The Anteaters were ranked 16th in the final poll last season, and Coach Greg Patton expects a strong recruiting class to keep the team in the top 20. Four freshmen--Brett Hansen-Dent (Newport Harbor High), Marco Zuniga (San Diego Bonita High), Brett Stern (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) and Charles Wheeler (South Africa) might be among Irvine’s top six players. In other men’s tennis rankings, Stanford is No. 1, UCLA is No. 2, Tennessee is No. 3 and USC is No. 4. Other ranked California schools are California (No. 6), Pepperdine (No. 11), University of San Diego (No. 20) and Fresno State (tied for No. 25). . . . The water polo team is 7-6 after losing two of three matches on a Northern California trip last weekend and an overtime match to UCLA Tuesday. The Anteaters defeated Air Force at Stanford but lost to top-ranked Cal and third-ranked Stanford. . . . The deadline for purchasing season tickets for priority seating for men’s basketball is Friday. Irvine sold about 850 season tickets last year.
