SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — The UC Santa Barbara Men's Soccer team will look to make their first homestand of the season an unbeaten one on Friday, when they host Cornell at Harder Stadium. Both teams are coming off of 2024 NCAA Tournament appearances and, more recently, Saturday wins, but otherwise enter Friday's contest with little similarities between them. Friday will be the Gauchos' fourth competitive match of the year, their third against a fellow 2024 NCAA Tournament participant. For the Big Red, Friday will only their second match of the year, with their first having been against a Le Moyne team that tallied just seven wins and bowed out in the first round of its conference tournament last season.
LAST TIME OUT
Santa Barbara's Saturday win was in the Community Shield against Westmont, a 4-3 victory, though it was an exhibition match. Still, the Gauchos are officially riding a two-game winning streak after downing the Atlantic Sun Conference Finalists from a year ago, Central Arkansas and North Florida, in that order last week. They capitalized on opportunities, made defensive stands and got a huge save from goalkeeper
Luke Skinner late to secure their first win of the season by a 2-1 margin against the Bears, then dominated the Ospreys with a committed press resulting in a 3-0 win on Thursday.
GAUCHOS TO KNOW
Zac Siebenlist scored in all three of Santa Barbara's fixtures last week and is one of the hottest strikers in all of college soccer coming into this week. An intelligent and opportunistic striker, the sophomore pounced on a defensive error by Central Arkansas for his first goal of the season, then put home rebounds against both North Florida and Westmont to keep his scoring streak going.
Mateos Carvalho joined Siebenlist on the scoresheet Thursday night, and The Big West named the Gaucho rookie their Freshman of the Week on Monday. Carvalho had come close to scoring against both Oregon State and Central Arkansas before finally opening his account against North Florida as the recipient of a nifty passing move in the final moments. At the other end of the pitch,
Jacob Blach joined Carvalho among the conference's weekly honorees, being named The Big West Defensive Player of the Week. The Dane stepped in as a center back against Central Arkansas and North Florida, keeping Santa Barbara's back line strong while also helping the Gauchos bolster their presence in the middle of the park, with
Calle Mollerberg stepping forward into the defensive midfield. With Blach next to
Drew Kamienski in the center of defense and Mollerberg next to
Ramses Martinez in the defensive midfield, Santa Barbara enjoyed much more control of the game against both the Bears and Ospreys.
SCOUTING THE BIG RED
Where the Gauchos have had to re-tool from last season, Cornell returned 27 members of its 2024 squad for this year, including the entirety of the defense which Santa Barbara's new-look attack will be tasked with picking apart on Friday. The Big Red deploys a back five ahead of senior goalkeeper Ryan Friedberg, who collected his 15
th career clean sheet against Le Moyne. A member of that back five, sophomore Aidan Martin, was Cornell's impact player in Saturday's win, assisting their first goal and scoring their second. The performance netted him Ivy League Defender of the Week honors, which he can add to his 2024 Ivy League Rookie of the Year award.
Martin is one of four all-conference players returning for the Big Red, joined by Friedberg, center back Andrew Johnson and midfielder Connor Miller. Miller was an All-American after leading the Ivy League with nine assists in 2024, and Johnson played on the international level with St. Vincent & Grenadines in CONCACAF Gold Cup Qualification and World Cup qualification games. Johnson was also selected in December's Major League Soccer SuperDraft but elected to return to Cornell. He scored in the win over LeMoyne as well.
In that season-opening win, the Big Red out-shot the Dolphins, 17-3, with an 11-0 margin in the first half. Forwards Calvin Momanyi and Giorgos Diakos were the leading shooters, with three each, though neither found the net. The freshman Momanyi and senior Diakos are two of the forwards tasked with filling the void of Alex Harris and Alioune Ka, both of whom were picked in the MLS SuperDraft and joined the professional ranks, taking a combined 27 goals from 2024 with them.
FOLLOW ALONG
Kickoff from Harder Stadium is set for 7 p.m. on Friday, and tickets are on sale now at ucsbgauchos.com/tickets. Fans can also catch all the action from anywhere live on ESPN+ or by following along with live stats.
