2018 American Athletic Conference men's soccer season

The 2018 American Athletic Conference men's soccer season was the 6th season of men's varsity soccer in the conference. The season began on August 24 and concluded on November 11, 2018.

2018 American Athletic Conference men's soccer season
League	NCAA Division I
Sport	Soccer
Duration	August 24, 2018 – November 11, 2018
Number of teams	8
2019 MLS SuperDraft
Top draft pick	Emil Cuello, 19th overall
Picked by	LA Galaxy
Regular Season
Season champions	UCF
Runners-up	SMU
Tournament
Champions	SMU
Runners-up	UCF
Finals MVP	Offensive: Emil Cuello Defensive: Grant Makela

2018 American Athletic Conference men's soccer standings

v t e	Conf.							Overall
Team	W		L		T			W		L		T
No. 18 UCF +	5	–	1	–	1			13	–	3	–	3
SMU ‡+	5	–	1	–	1			10	–	5	–	3
South Florida	4	–	1	–	2			7	–	8	–	2
Connecticut +	3	–	2	–	2			12	–	6	–	2
Memphis	2	–	4	–	1			8	–	7	–	4
Temple	2	–	4	–	1			5	–	10	–	4
Tulsa	2	–	5	–	0			6	–	9	–	2
Cincinnati	1	–	6	–	0			3	–	14	–	1
‡ – 2018 American Tournament champion + – Invited to the 2018 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Championship As of December 11, 2018 Rankings from United Soccer Coaches

The regular season was won by UCF, who finished conference play with a 5–1–1 record, and won on tiebreakers against SMU. SMU won the American Tournament, defeating UCF 5–4 in penalty kicks following a 1–1 draw in regulation and overtime. SMU earned the conference's automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament, while UCF and Connecticut received at-large berths into the tournament. In the NCAA Tournament, SMU lost in the first round to Oregon State.^[1][2] Connecticut beat rivals, Rhode Island,^[3] in the first round, before losing to Indiana in the second round.^[4] UCF was one of the 16 seeded teams (seeded 14th),^[5] allowing them to earn a bye into the second round. There, they lost in overtime to Lipscomb.^[6]

Following the season, Cal Jennings won the Offensive MVP award for the conference. Jacob Hauser-Ramsey of Connecticut won the Defensive MVP. Fellow UCF players, Louis Perez, Yannik Oettl, and Scott Calabrese won the AAC Midfielder, Goalkeeper, and Coach of the Year awards, respectively.^[7] Perez and Jennings were also named All-Americans by United Soccer Coaches.^[8]

Emil Cuello was the first AAC player to be drafted in the 2019 MLS SuperDraft, when he was selected by the LA Galaxy with the 19th overall pick in the first round of the draft.

Background

Head coaches

Team	Head coach	Previous job	Years at school	Overall record	Record at school	American record	NCAA Tournaments[9]	NCAA College Cups[9]	NCAA Titles[9]
Cincinnati	Hylton Dayes	Wright State	19	229–229–62 (.500)	131–144–42 (.479)	7–27–4 (.237)	2	0	0
Connecticut	Ray Reid	Southern Connecticut	22	434–124–73 (.746)	288–107–58 (.700)	26–11–9 (.663)	16	2	1
Memphis	Richard Mulrooney	Memphis (asst.)	5	24–32–11 (.440)	24–32–11 (.440)	11–20–7 (.382)	0	0	0
SMU	Kevin Hudson	SMU (asst.)	4	38–14–6 (.707)	38–14–6 (.707)	14–5–3 (.705)	2	0	0
South Florida	Bob Butehorn	Florida Gulf Coast	2	135–100–31 (.566)	6–6–4 (.500)	3–3–2 (.500)	4	0	0
Temple	Dave MacWilliams	Philadelphia KiXX	19	140–161–34 (.469)	140–161–34 (.469)	12–19–7 (.408)	3	0	0
Tulsa	Tom McIntosh	Tulsa (asst.)	22	244–164–48 (.588)	244–164–48 (.588)	15–11–4 (.567)	10	0	0
UCF	Scott Calabrese	FIU	2	93–73–22 (.553)	8–6–2 (.563)	4–2–1 (.643)	3	0	0

Preseason

Preseason poll

The preseason poll will be released on August 14, 2018. UCF was picked to win the regular season.^[10]

	Team Ranking	First Place Votes	Raw Points
1.	UCF	4	46
2.	SMU	3	43
3.	Connecticut	1	38
4.	South Florida	0	34
5.	Tulsa	0	26
6.	Temple	0	19
7.	Cincinnati	0	11
8.	Memphis	0	9

Preseason national rankings

Two of the programs were ranked in one of the five major preseason polls. CollegeSoccerNews.com and Hero Sports use a Top 30 ranking throughout the season, while United Soccer, Soccer America, and Top Drawer Soccer use a Top 25 ranking throughout the season.

	United Soccer[11]	CSN[12]	Hero Sports[13]	Soccer America[14]	TopDrawer Soccer[15]
Cincinnati	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR
Connecticut	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR
Memphis	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR
SMU	8	10	6	7	6
South Florida	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR
Temple	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR
Tulsa	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR
UCF	NR	NR	26	NR	NR

Preseason All-Conference teams

Honor	Recipient
Preseason Offensive Player of the Year	Garrett McLaughlin, SMU
Preseason Defensive Player of the Year	Jacob Hauser-Ramsey, Connecticut
Preseason Goalkeeper of the Year	Christian Knight, South Florida

Preseason All-AAC Team

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player — GK  USA Christian Knight (South Florida) — DF  NOR Andreas Steineger (UCF) — DF  USA Dylan Greenberg (Connecticut) — DF  USA Jacob Hauser-Ramsey (Connecticut) — DF  ENG Ben Roberts (Memphis) — MF  ISR Yoni Sorokin (UCF) — MF  VEN David Zalzman (Memphis)

No. Pos. Nation Player — MF  GER Adrian Billhardt (South Florida) — MF  USA Emil Cuello (SMU) — FW  USA Cal Jennings (UCF) — FW  USA Austin Smythe (Cincinnati) — FW  SEN Abdou Thiam (Connecticut) — FW  USA Garrett McLaughlin (SMU)

Regular season

Players of the Week

Week	Offensive			Defensive			Goalkeeper		Rookie
	Player	Position	Team	Player	Position	Team	Player	Team	Player	Position	Team
Aug. 26[16]	Louis Perez	MF	UCF	Mitchell Cashion	DF	Tulsa	Cooper Clark	Tulsa	Felix Metzler	DF	Connecticut
Sep. 2[17]	Cal Jennings	FW	UCF	Pierre Cayet	DF	Temple	Harrison Devenish-Meares	South Florida	Gilles Kuhler	FW	Tulsa
Sep. 9[18]	Tomasz Skublak	FW	UCF	Koray Easterling	DF	Tulsa	Yannik Oettl	UCF	Jalen Campbell	FW	Temple
Sep. 16[19]	Cal Jennings	FW	UCF	Jacob Hauser-Ramsey	DF	Connecticut	Tyler Hofmann	Memphis	none announced
Sep. 23[20]	Lukas Fernandes	MF	Temple	Talen Maples	DF	SMU	Simon Lefebvre	Temple	Lane Warrington	MF	SMU
Sep. 30[21]	Rex Epps	FW	Cincinnati	Jacob Hauser-Ramsey	DF	Connecticut	Yannik Oettl	UCF	Ibrahima Diop	FW	Connecticut
Oct. 7[22]	Cal Jennings	FW	UCF	Jacob Hauser-Ramsey	DF	Connecticut	Harrison Devenish-Meares	South Florida	Edgar Alaniz	MF	Memphis
Oct. 14[23]	Tomasz Skublak	FW	South Florida	Jacob Hauser-Ramsey	DF	Connecticut	Grant Makela	SMU	Gilles Kuhler	FW	Tulsa
Oct. 21[24]	Abdou Mbacke Thiam	FW	Connecticut	Ben Roberts	DF	Memphis	Yannik Oettl	UCF	Gurman Sangha	MF	Memphis
Oct. 28[25]	Lukas Fernandes	MF	Temple	Philip Ponder	DF	SMU	Simon Lefebvre	Temple	Thomas Haney	DF	SMU
Nov. 4[26]	Louis Perez	MF	UCF	Philip Ponder	DF	SMU	Noah Lawrence	Cincinnati	Emilio Ycaza	MF	South Florida

Rankings

United Soccer

		Improvement in ranking
		Drop in ranking
RV		Received votes but were not ranked in Top 25
NV		No votes received

Main article: List of NCAA Division I men's soccer teams ranked in the 2018 Top 25 coaches poll

	Pre	Wk 1	Wk 2	Wk 3	Wk 4	Wk 5	Wk 6	Wk 7	Wk 8	Wk 9	Wk 10	Wk 11	Wk 12	Final
Cincinnati	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV
Connecticut	RV	18	NV	NV	RV	NV	RV	20	20	15	20	RV	RV	RV
Memphis	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV
SMU	8	RV	RV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	RV	RV	RV
South Florida	RV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV
Temple	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV
Tulsa	NV	23	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV
UCF	RV	RV	NV	RV	RV	RV	RV	19	19	13	9	7	9	18

Top Drawer Soccer

		Improvement in ranking
		Drop in ranking
RV		Received votes but were not ranked in Top 25
NV		No votes received

	Pre	Wk 1	Wk 2	Wk 3	Wk 4	Wk 5	Wk 6	Wk 7	Wk 8	Wk 9	Wk 10	Wk 11	Wk 12	Wk 13	Wk 14	Wk 15	Wk 16	Final
Cincinnati	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV
Connecticut	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	24	12	13	8	20	NV	NV	25	25	25	25
Memphis	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV
SMU	6	6	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	24	NV	NV	NV	NV
South Florida	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV
Temple	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV
Tulsa	NV	NV	15	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV
UCF	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	24	9	6	6	13	RV	RV	RV	RV

Postseason

AAC Tournament

Main article: 2018 American Athletic Conference Men's Soccer Tournament

The 2018 Tournament will be held at the home ground of the regular season winner.^[27]

• v
• t
• e

	First round Nov. 6					Semifinals Nov. 8					Final Nov. 10
						1	UCF (2OT)	3
	4	Connecticut	3			4	Connecticut	2
	5	Temple	1								1	UCF	1 (4)
											2	SMU (pen.)	1 (5)
						2	SMU (OT)	2
	3	South Florida	1			6	Memphis	1
	6	Memphis	3

NCAA Tournament

Main article: 2018 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Tournament

Seed	Region	School	1st Round	2nd Round	3rd Round	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Championship
14	3	UCF	BYE	L 0–1 (OT) vs. Lipscomb – (Orlando, FL)
None	1	SMU	L 1–2 vs. Oregon State – (Corvallis, OR)
None	4	Connecticut	W 4–3 vs. Rhode Island – (Storrs, CT)	L 0–4 vs. #2 Indiana – (Bloomington, IN)
		W–L (%):	1–1–0 (.500)	0–2–0 (.000)	0–0–0 (–)	0–0–0 (–)	0–0–0 (–)	0–0–0 (–) Total: 1–3–0 (.250)

Postseason awards and honors

Conference honors

2018 AAC Men's Soccer Individual Awards[28]
Award	Recipient(s)
Offensive Player of the Year	Cal Jennings, UCF
Midfielder of the Year	Louis Perez, UCF
Defensive Player of the Year	Jacob Hauser-Ramsey, Connecticut
Goalkeeper of the Year	Yannik Oettl, UCF
Rookie of the Year	Felix Metzler, Connecticut
Coach of the Year	Scott Calabrese, UCF
Team Fair Play Award	Connecticut

2018 AAC Men's Soccer All-Conference Teams[28]
First Team	Second Team	Rookie Team
Goalkeeper Yannik Oettl, So., UCF Defenders Jacob Hauser-Ramsey, Sr., UConn† Talen Maples, So., SMU Ben Roberts, Jr., Memphis Midfielders Louis Perez, So., UCF† Yoni Sorokin, So., UCF Emil Cuello, Sr., SMU David Zalzman, Sr., M, Memphis Forwards Cal Jennings, Jr., UCF† Abdou Mbacke Thiam, Sr., UConn† Tomasz Skublak, Sr., USF	Goalkeeper Grant Makela, Jr., SMU Defenders Avionne Flanagan, So., USF Dylan Greenberg, R-Sr., UConn Robin Lapert, So., UConn Yanis Leerman, Fr., UCF Midfielders Chase Bromstedt, So., Tulsa Lukas Fernandes, Jr., Temple Dayonn Harris, R-Jr., UConn Felix Metzler, Fr., UConn Alex Zis, Jr., USF Forwards Garrett McLaughlin, Jr., SMU Akean Shackleford, Jr., SMU	Defenders Andres Hernandez Betancur, UCF Henrique Gallina, USF Yanis Leerman, UCF† Midfielders Knut Ahlander, SMU Jalen Campbell, Temple Andres Charles-Barrera, Temple Felix Metzler, UConn† Lane Warrington, SMU Forwards Ibrahima Diop, UConn Gilles Kuhler, Tulsa† Gurman Sangha, Memphis

† denotes unanimous selection

Regional honors

National honors

Player	Pos.	School	Honor	Ref.
Cal Jennings	FW	UCF	College Soccer News First-Team All-America	[29]
			USC First-Team All-American	[30]
Louis Perez	MF	UCF	USC Third-Team All-American	[30]

American vs other conferences

Regular Season[31] Conference Record ACC 1–3–1 Atlantic 10 1–2–2 Atlantic Sun 8–1–0 Big East 0–5–1 Big South 0–0–0 Big Ten 3–3–1 Big West 0–1–0 CAA 0–0–0 Conference USA 4–0–1 Horizon 2–1–0 Ivy 1–1–0 MAAC 2–0–0 Mid-American 1–3–1 Missouri Valley 0–1–3 NEC 2–0–0 Pac-12 0–0–0 Patriot 2–0–0 Southland 0–0–0 Summit 0–3–0 West Coast 1–0–0 WAC 2–2–0 Total Non-Conference Record 32–28–10

Post Season Power Conferences Record Big Ten 0–1–0 Pac-12 0–1–0 Power Conferences Total 0–2–0 Other DI Conferences Record Atlantic 10 1–0–0 Atlantic Sun 0–1–0 Other DI Total 1–1–0 Total Postseason Record 1–3–0

MLS SuperDraft

Main article: 2019 MLS SuperDraft

Total picks by school

Team	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Total
Cincinnati	0	0	0	0	0
Connecticut	0	1	0	0	1
Memphis	0	0	0	1	1
SMU	1	0	0	0	1
South Florida	0	0	0	0	0
Temple	0	0	0	0	0
Tulsa	0	0	0	0	0
UCF	0	0	0	0	0

List of selections

Round	Pick #	MLS team	Player	Position	College	Other	Ref.
1	19	LA Galaxy	Emil Cuello	Midfielder	SMU		[32]
2	42	Colorado Rapids	Jacob Hauser-Ramsey	Defender	Connecticut
4	95	Portland Timbers	David Zalzman	Midfielder	Memphis

Homegrown contracts

Main article: Homegrown Player Rule (Major League Soccer)

Original MLS team	Player	Position	College	Notes	Ref.