Key Matchups abound in weekend college action

It’s only the 2nd full week of play in men’s college soccer, and just the 4th on the women’s side, but a number of key matches are in the offing for this weekend.

Atlantic Coast Conference league play gets underway this weekend on the men’s side, and there is a pair of heavyweight matchups right out of the chute. #5 Boston College will host #8 Maryland on Friday night, while on Saturday, #3 Virginia travels to #7 Duke. In other ACC games, #10 Wake Forest will play Clemson, with #4 North Carolina meeting #37 NC State.

Other men’s games between ranked programs include #28 Notre Dame hosting #22 Drake, #12 Connecticut vs. #26 Harvard, #18 Penn State vs. #41 Bucknell, #2 Tulsa vs. #47 Western Illinois, #25 Loyola Marymount vs. #32 Butler, #27 UNC Wilmington vs. #48 Winthrop, #31 New Mexico vs. #19 Portland, #41 Bucknell vs. #6 Ohio State, #13 Stanford vs. #45 Sacramento State, #20 Indiana vs. #22 Drake (at the Notre Dame Tournament) and #17 St. John’s(m) vs. #39 Boston University.

Already this week, #35 Creighton has beaten #9 UC Santa Barbara.

Remember, TopDrawerSoccer.com’s Tournament 48 National Ranking is a running attempt, updated weekly, to project the teams to qualify for the postseason NCAA Tournament, and as such includes the would-be automatic qualifiers from every DI conference. Click to see the men’s ranking and the Tournament 64 women’s ranking.

On the women’s side, the biggest matchups include #7 UCLA vs. #3 Notre Dame in an encounter between two programs who have repeatedly qualified for the final 4 of the tournament (College Cup). A heated in-state rivalry features #9 Florida State vs. #11 Florida.

Other weekend women’s games between ranked programs includes the Thursday night affair between #24 BYU #38 LSU.  On Friday, #51 Denver faces #39 Washington State, #45 James Madison plays #23 Georgetown, #8 Virginia meets #33 Texas, #5 Portland faces #22 Rutgers, #25 UCF goes up against #42 Harvard and #54 Cal Poly plays #1 North Carolina.

#24 BYU plays #34 Marquette on Saturday. On Sunday, #12 Santa Clara meets #36 Georgia, #5 Portland takes on #27 Penn State, #8 Virginia faces #48 Boston University, #9 Florida State takes on #25 UCF, #43 Purdue meets #6 Texas A&M(w), #19 USC plays #58 Northern Arizona, #41 Long Beach State meets #21 California, #26 Washington takes on #22 Rutgers.

Remember scores for all DI college soccer matches are updated every night and match reports will be posted here continuously over the weekend. TopDrawerSoccer.com also has a complete set of conference standings and national and conference players rankings in our College Players To Watch section.