For the first time in program history, the UCF men’s soccer team is ranked in the top-10 nationally as the Knights have climbed to No. 8 in this week’s Soccer America Top 25. The Knights are off to a perfect 5-0 start in 2011.<\/p>\n
After recording convincing wins over visiting North Florida and host Mercer last week, the Knights moved from No. 12 to No. 8 in the poll. Maryland is first, followed by Connecticut, Creighton, defending national champion Akron, North Carolina, Louisville and Indiana.<\/p>\n
“It is great for the recognition, but there is still a long road ahead of us,” UCF head coach Bryan Cunningham said. “We understand that and our players understand that. Our main focus right now is preparing to play George Mason on Friday night and knowing that we are going to get their best shot.”<\/p>\n
UCF is one of only seven teams in the top-25 poll without a loss or a tie this season.<\/p>\n
UCF also moved into the top 10 in the NSCAA poll. The Knights are now 10th in the poll, moving up from 13th.<\/p>\n
The Knights have totaled 15 goals in five contests this year, compared to only four for their opponents. UCF leads Conference USA in goals per game (3.00) and assists per game (2.80) and is second in the league in goals against average (0.80).<\/p>\n
UCF’s impressive start to the campaign comes after the program recorded one of the finest seasons in school history in 2010. The Knights went 12-5-3, earned the No. 2 seed at the C-USA Tournament and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament after topping USF, 3-0, in the first round in Orlando.<\/p>\n
The Knights will conclude a three-match road stretch this weekend in Washington, D.C. UCF will face George Mason Friday before ending the trip at American Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the first time in program history, the UCF men’s soccer team is ranked in the top-10 nationally as the Knights have climbed to No. 8 in this week’s Soccer America Top 25. The Knights are off to a perfect 5-0 start in 2011. After recording convincing wins over visiting North Florida and host Mercer last week, the Knights moved…","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":27364,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-twocol.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"lazy_load_responsive_images_disabled":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[629,3088,3346],"tu_author":[],"class_list":["post-27360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-bryan-cunningham","tag-mens-soccer","tag-ncaa"],"yoast_head":"\n