Akron solidifies #1; Indiana's Bruin POTW

Akron has gained the top spot of the TopDrawerSoccer.com Men’s Tournament 48 National Ranking following their 3-0 win over North Carolina and a 2-0 victory against Wake Forest on the road. The Zips have thrown down the gauntlet to the rest of Division I men’s soccer, and on the first weekend of the season at least, didn’t get much of a response, with 7 of the preseason top 10 teams either losing and/or drawing. Only Tulsa, with a single win, and Virginia with a pair of impressive shutout victories, made it through the opening week unscathed among the top 10 programs.

Judging by the first set of games, the recent volatility of the men’s college game from week to week will only be greater this season. The parity in the men’s game, brought about in part by its extremely physical style (as allowed by most referees), is almost comprehensive among 200-plus men’s DI teams.

The ranking is a running effort to project the 48-team NCAA Tournament field, including all automatic conference and at-large bids to the field. It is updated every Monday through the season. Click here to see this week's rankings!

Meanwhile Indiana’s Will Bruin has been named TopDrawerSoccer.com Player of the Week following his goal-scoring exploits for the Hoosiers in their opening week, including a hat trick against the UCLA Bruins on Sunday. Bruin also scored a goal in IU’s 2-1 loss to California Friday.

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The full TopDrawerSoccer.com Men’s Team of the Week for Monday Aug. 30 through Sunday Sept. 5 is as follows.

GK – David Meves, Akron
D – Greg Monaco, Virginia
M – Austin Neil, Tulsa
M Ethan Finlay, Creighton
F Corey Hertzog, Penn State
F Deion Jones, Florida Gulf Coast
F – Emery Welshman, Siena College
F – Nirav Kadam, UMBC
F -  Cameron Cooksey, UCF
F – Logan Huff, Presbyterian
F- Will Bruin, Indiana

Player of the Week: Will Bruin, Indiana

The TopDrawerSoccer.com team is chosen after consulting match reports from all DI matches played in the preceding week.

Click here to read our weekly College Review