UCF men’s soccer earns school’s first No. 1 ranking
Scott Calabrese seemed surprised at the size of the crowd that had gathered in a conference room at The Venue on Wednesday. The UCF men’s soccer coach must have wondered if he wandered into the wrong room.
No, he was in the right place.
It was a special occasion as Calabrese and the Knights claimed their first No. 1 national ranking, earning the top spot in the NCAA Division I United Soccer Coaches top 25 poll this week. It’s the first No. 1 ranking by a UCF sport in school history.
“It means a lot,” said Calabrese, who has been in charge of the program since 2016. “We’ve got a group of young men committed to working incredibly hard, a staff with assistant coaches, and a support staff that have worked incredibly hard.
“It’s something where you get a lot of motivation and validation from it and it feels really good.”
A five-match winning streak helped propel UCF (9-1-2, 5-1-1 Sun Belt Conference) into the top spot in this week’s poll after spending the previous five weeks ranked in the top five.
The Knights were No. 2 during the past three weeks before moving up after then-No. 1 Marshall (12-2-0, 5-2 SBC) dropped back-to-back matches against West Virginia and Kentucky.
“We’re very happy and everybody is proud, but at the same time, everybody was just saying the job’s not done,” said senior forward Lucca Dourado.
Added senior defender Anderson Rosa: “When I decided to come to UCF, I came here to make history. It’s an amazing feeling, but we’re not done yet. We want more.”
The Big 12 doesn’t have men’s soccer as a sanctioned sport, so when UCF moved to the conference in July, the Knights had to find a home for their soccer program. They chose the Sun Belt.
“The Sun Belt made a lot of sense,” said Calabrese. “That’s where the other P5 [schools] without a home play. South Carolina and Kentucky in the SEC and West Virginia in the Big 12, as well as Marshall, which won the national championship a few years back, as well as several good teams. It was the right fit and the right move.”
UCF sits atop the Sun Belt standings with 16 points, ahead of Marshall (15) and West Virginia (15) with two regular season games remaining. The Knights travel to Atlanta to face Georgia State (5-5-5, 2-3-2 SBC) on Friday before returning home to host James Madison (6-3-5, 2-2-3 SBC) on Tuesday night.
Players credit the team’s cohesiveness as one of the reasons for the strong performance.
“Everybody plays as one,” said Rosa. “It’s one team, one family and that’s what makes us better ever.”
Adds Calabrese: “We have players from 12 different countries and they get along so well. There’s such different personalities within the group and it’s more celebrated and embraced than anything else.”
Along with the different personalities on the team, there are many different playing styles and the challenge has been meshing into a cohesive system that’s worked.
“Everyone’s embraced this way of playing,” said Calabrese. “They all bring the individual qualities that they’ve developed in their environments to our team and we try to harness that.”
It’s paid off for the Knights, who are third in the Sun Belt in average shots on goal (13.17) and fifth in assists per game (1.42). Dourado is second in the conference in shots on goal (41) and third in points (20).
As the new No. 1, UCF realizes it has a giant target on its back moving forward.
“I love the feeling,” said Rosa. “At the beginning of the season, I said I would love for us to be the team to beat. Everybody wants to beat us now. We have to keep working even harder.”
Email Matt Murschel at mmurschel@orlandosentinel.com or follow him on Twitter at @osmattmurschel.
