Sept. 24, 2002
The Duquesne University men's soccer team has climbed from eighth to sixth in this week's National Soccer Coaches Association of America's NSCAA/adidas Middle Atlantic Regional rankings dated Sept. 23. It is the highest ranking for Duquesne since 1999, the only other time Duquesne was regionally ranked. The Dukes were ranked as high as fourth as the team advanced to the Atlantic 10 championship game.
Fifth-year coach Wade Jean's squad is off to its best start in school history with a 5-0-2 mark, equaling the University record for longest unbeaten streak of seven from 1999. During the streak, Duquesne has won the Bowling Green and Colgate Invitationals.
Defense and goalkeeping have propelled the Red and Blue to the strong start led by senior goalkeeper Terry McNelis (Reading, PA/Exeter Twp.). McNelis and the defense have allowed just three goals in 713 minutes of play, giving McNelis an Atlantic 10 best 0.39 goals against average as well as a .897 saves percentage. McNelis was named to the All-Tournament teams of both invitationals.
Also providing stellar defense are seniors Steve Olivarez (Pittsburgh, PA/Mt. Lebanon) and Nathan Salsi (North Huntingdon, PA/Norwin) and junior Jason Kutney (Freehold, NJ/Freehold Borough). Kutney was named the Most Valuable Player of the Colgate Invite while Salsi was named to its All-Tournament team and Olivarez was named to the Bowling Green All-Tourney team.
Jean has seen seven different Dukes score the team's 14 goals, led by junior Damien Pottinger (Scarborough, Ontario/Mother Theresa) with five and senior David Gingrich (export, PA/Penn-Trafford) with four. Thirteen players have assisted on goals led by junior Dan Hartung's (Reading, PA/Wilson) four, senior John Bechke's (Strongsville, OH/St. Ignatius) three and sophomore Derek Mackenzie's (Carnegie, PA/Chartiers Valley) three. Pottinger was named the MVP of the Bowling Green Invite and to the All-Tournament team at Colgate while Hartung was on the All-Tourney team at Bowling Green.
The Dukes return to action on Sunday, Sept. 29 as they travel to Canisius for a 1:00 pm contest then return home on Friday, Oct. 4 as they host Richmond in the Atlantic 10 opener at 7:00 pm.
