November 8, 2007

College Soccer: Mustangs’ playoff hopes still kickin’
After three ties and a loss in their past four games, the Mustangs edge the Matadors on forward Jeff Meyer’s first goal of the season

With the Cal Poly men’s soccer team’s postseason hopes dwindling, reserve forward Jeff Meyer picked a perfect time for his first goal of the season.

Notching a win for the first time in three weeks, the Mustangs shut out Big West Conference foe Cal State Northridge for a 1-0 victory at Alex G. Spanos Stadium on Wednesday when Meyer redirected a header from teammate Mario Fernandez past Matadors goalkeeper Kevin Guppy in the 40th minute.

Cal Poly (10-2-4, 5-1-4 Big West) is trying to squeak into the 48-team NCAA Tournament, but three ties and a loss in the team’s previous four games have hindered the effort.

“Tonight was a big step,” Mustangs head coach Paul Holocher said. “If we had lost tonight, quite frankly, our playoff picture would have been done.”

Mustangs goalkeeper Eric Branagan- Franco had three saves in the shutout, the team’s 10th overall.

Though they remained unbeaten at home, the last time the Mustangs emerged from a contest victorious was a 2-1 win over defending national champion UC Santa Barbara on Oct. 17. At that point, Cal Poly was immersed in the Big West title race.

But the Mustangs went on to record three straight ties — a 1-1 deadlock against UC Irvine and dual shutouts against both UC Riverside and Cal State Northridge—before losing the rematch with the Gauchos 3-1 last Saturday.

With only two Big West games and one nonconference match remaining, the only way to win the title would be for UC Santa Barbara to lose two of its final three games and do no better than a tie in the other.

With that an unlikely proposition, the focus for Cal Poly has turned to making the NCAA Tournament.

For that to happen, the Mustangs would have to get an at-large berth as the second-place team in the Big West. That honor wasn’t awarded to last season’s runner-up, UC Irvine, in a season where the Anteaters finished with a 13-4-3 overall record (6-3-1 Big West) and only one win behind UC Santa Barbara in the final standings.

Cal Poly is currently second with 19 points. The Gauchos lead the conference with 22 points, and the Mustangs’ next opponent, UC Davis, is third with 16.

Holocher said he believes the Big West will get a second team in the postseason this year and noted his team’s RPI ranking of 36th in the nation as evidence.

“We’re in second, but the importance of tonight was to get back on track with a win after the three ties and a loss,” Holocher said. “Psychologically, it was very important for us to get tonight’s result.”

Cal Poly is thinking it needs to win the rest of its games to have a realistic shot at the NCAA Tournament. And winning, Holocher said, should come easier now that the winless streak has been broken.

The Mustangs play at UC Davis on Saturday before returning home to wrap up the regular season with a nonconference match against Portland on Nov. 16 and a league game against Cal State Fullerton on Nov. 18.