The UCSB men’s soccer team took a hit just before making its trip to ACC Country.
Senior fullback Peter McGlynn suffered a sprained ankle in the team’s final practice before it departed to North Carolina for games in the Duke/Nike Classic against Duke on Friday night and North Carolina State on Sunday.
“Ten minutes into practice McGlynn turned his left ankle,” UCSB soccer coach Tim Vom Steeg reported. “It’s the same ankle he’s had problems with before.”
It’s a big loss for the Gauchos because McGlynn had been tearing it up on the right side of the field. He had assists on goals by David Opoku in the wins over Westmont and Seattle. Ironically, McGlynn escaped a serious injury after a late challenge on a 50-50 ball in the Seattle match.
Vom Steeg said he plans to move Matt Glodack into McGlynn’s spot. Glodack played solidly at left fullback in last Saturday’s win over Seattle.
The coach said he’ll probably use Fifi Baiden at the left fullback position.
Besides McGlynn, forward Michael Nonni and midfielder Christian Vasquez didn’t make the trip because of injuries suffered in the Seattle match.
The Gauchos will have playmaking midfielder Luis Silva back in the lineup. He was suspended in the season opener for a red card he received in the NCAA Tournament loss to Cal last year.
“Silva will add an entire different dimension to the field,” said Vom Steeg.
The Gauchos will face a Duke squad that split its first two games, losing the opener 3-2 at North Carolina Greensboro and beating Furman 1-0.
Vom Steeg said the team is very young and very skilled.
The Blue Devils will be missing one of their young standouts, as defender Sebastian Ibeagha is suspended for getting a red card in the Furman match.
The marquee player for Duke is Andrew Wenger, the ACC Defensive Player of the Year in 2010. He scored two goals in the first game as a forward, but he may drop back to defense due to Ibeagha’s absence.
UCSB will be looking for its fourth straight win against Duke. The Gauchos beat the Blue Devils 2-0 at Harder Stadium last year.
Vom Steeg noted that playing ACC teams is important for his team’s RPI ranking. The conference is considered the toughest in college soccer.
“It’s difficult to get ACC teams on your schedule because they play every single Saturday. They start conference next week, so this is the only weekend you can get them on the schedule, unless you want to play them midweek,” he said.
Vom Steeg considered taking a job in the ACC. He was contacted by Sunday’s opponent, North Carolina State, during the spring. The Wolfpack eventually hired Kelly Findley from Bradley.
“I did have conversations with them, they reached out,” Vom Steeg said of NC State. “I think the interesting thing about their program was they had a new athletic director and that athletic director was coming from Maryland; it was a person who was interested in growing and developing the sport on campus. It was the ACC and the school was making a commitment to playing catch-up with other ACC schools. It was something you would look at.”
He said Findley built a good program at Bradley. In five years, his teams compiled a 59-25-15 record with two Horizon Conference titles.
“He’s a coach who has developed a program and done things. This was a chance for him to step up to the ACC level,” said Vom Steeg.
