UConn Men’s soccer defeats Temple 1-0 during the conference opener at Morrone Stadium, on Saturday, Sept 24, 2016. Game winning goal was scored by #11 Adbou Thiam. (Jason Jiang/The Daily Campus)
The UConn Huskies (7-3) will seek to win five matches in a row for the first time since winning six matches consecutively in 2014, this upcoming Saturday when they travel to conference foe Tulsa (5-2-2). After winning Wednesday night 1-0 over Providence, the Huskies will seek to start 2-0 in the American Athletic Conference and try to earn a conference best eighth win.
On Wednesday night, UConn 1-0 behind sophomore Abdou Mbacke Thiam’s seventh goal of the year and fifth in four matches. Reigning American Athletic Conference Goalkeeper of the Week Scott Levene grabbed his seventh win in the net and was able to turn in his fourth clean sheet of the season in the victory.
This victory moved the Huskies to 33-6-2 all-time against Providence and to 2-2 on the road. In their last meeting with Tulsa, the two sides drew 1-1 on October 24th, 2015, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The Huskies own a 2-0-3 all-time mark against Tulsa in a series dating back to the 2008 campaign, as they played twice and drew on both occasions.
Tulsa coming into the matchup is on a three-game winning streak and is 1-0 in the conference with that win coming 3-0 at SMU. At home, Tulsa is an impressive, 3-1, as they have outscored their opponents seven goals to three. Two of the three wins on their current winning streak have been at home, as they beat Santa Clara 2-1 in overtime and dispatched Missouri State 1-0. The Golden Hurricanes have outscored opponents this year by a margin of 15-8 and their top goal scorer and assist leader is Ray Saari who has four and three respectively.
Defense has been a key to Tulsa’s early season success as their goalkeeper Jake McGuire has accumulated four shutouts, 26 saves and has posted a 0.84 goals against average. The Huskies as a team have posted a .069 average which is currently good for 23rd in the nation. Senior Kwame Awuah is tied for fifth in the nation with six assists as the Huskies have been able to score 1.60 goals per match.
The match will be kicking off Saturday, Oct. 1 at 8 p.m. and will be available to be streamed free-of-charge on The American Digital Network with radio coverage on WHUS.org, 91.7 FM.
Matt Kren is a staff writer for The Daily Campus, covering UConn volleyball. He can be reached via email at matthew.kren@uconn.edu.