Oct. 13, 2003

The Duquesne University men's soccer team is ranked No. 22 in the country this week by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America in the NSCAA/adidas Top 25 poll. It is the first time in the program's nine-year history that the Dukes have been nationally ranked.

In addition to their national standing, the Red and Blue moved from fifth to third in the Mid-Atlantic region rankings this week, trailing just Farleigh Dickinson and Rutgers which are 10th and 13th in the country respectively. The Dukes went unbeaten this weekend to improve their record to 8-1-2 overall, and 3-0-1 in the Atlantic 10.

Under sixth-year head coach Wade Jean, the Dukes display a stingy defense and balanced scoring attack led by sophomore transfer Steve Mellor (Langhorne, PA/Neshaminy (Appalachian State) and senior Damien Pottinger (Scarborough, Ontario/Mother Teresa). Mellor has a team-best five goals and two assists for 12 points with three game winning goals while Pottinger, the University's all-time leading scorer, boasts four goals (including two game-winners) and one assist for nine points. Freshman goalkeeper Zach Varga (Mountville, PA/Hempfield) has held opponents to just eight goals in 11 games. He leads the Atlantic 10 Conference with a 0.73 goals against average and has posted six shutouts.

The Dukes return home this weekend as they host Saint Joseph's at 7:00 pm on Friday and Temple at 1:00 pm on Sunday.

NSCAA/adidas Top 25 poll (Oct. 13)

Rank School              W-L-T   Prev.  1   UCLA                10-1-0      12   University of Maryland      11-1-0      23   University of North Carolina    10-1-2      34   Old Dominion University         10-0-0      45   Saint Louis University      9-1-2       56   St. John's University       9-3-1       77   University of Washington        8-1-2       88   University of Dayton        8-1-2       188   Wake Forest University      7-3-0       1410  Fairleigh Dickinson University  8-2-1       1111  Florida International University    7-2-2       1012  University of Notre Dame        7-2-3       613  Rutgers University          7-3-1       2514  UC Santa Barbara            8-1-1       2015  University of Tulsa         9-3-1       1216  Yale University             5-3-0       --17  Hartwick College            8-2-0       918  Virginia Commonwealth University    8-4-0       --19  Loyola Marymount University     8-3-1       2420  Brown University            6-3-0       2221  University of Cincinnati        6-1-4       --22   Duquesne University         8-1-2   --  23  Univ. of Alabama at Birmingham  6-3-3       2124  Cal State Northridge        6-1-2       1525  Virginia Tech           9-3-1       16