The Notre Dame men's soccer team is set to play a pair of matches in Fort Wayne this weekend as part of the ShindigZ National Soccer Festival.
The Irish, who are playing three preseason matches this season after opening with a 3-2 win over Illinois-Chicago on Monday, take on Ohio State at 8:10 p.m. Saturday and face IPFW at 2 p.m. Sunday at Hefner Fields.
Notre Dame coach Bobby Clark said he will use the matches to sort out his playing rotation and figure out which freshmen will be able to contribute this season.
"You can look at players and then decide who you will feature as your starters and whose going to be your redshirts," Clark said. "The big thing about these games is in some ways they are a little bit like these preseason friendlies we've been watching like Real Madrid and Manchester United, everyone's going to play between these two games. Nobodies not going to pretty well play a full game. Everybody that is fit is going to be playing a full game. It let's you see where you all are. You got to make decisions because the next weekend, as they say, you are playing for real.
"We are looking at this as a very important tournament to look at where are players are."
In other Irish soccer news, Aaron Maund and Dillon Powers were named Soccer America Preseason All-Americans on Friday. The publication also released its preseason rankings and the Irish debuted at No. 18.
Maund, a junior defender, was tabbed as the Big East Preseason Defensive Player of the Year and named to the All-Big East preseason team earlier this month.
Powers, a sophomore midfielder, was also named to the All-Big East preseason team.
Also, Notre Dame forward Jeb Brovsky was named one of 30 candidates for the 2010 Lowe's Senior CLASS Award in the men's soccer division. To be eligible for the award, a student-athlete must be classified as an NCAA Division I senior and have notable achievements in four areas of excellence – classroom, character, community and competition.
The list of 30 candidates will be narrowed to 10 finalists midway through the regular season, and those 10 names will be placed on the official ballot. Ballots will be distributed through a nationwide voting system to media, coaches and fans, who will select a candidate that best exemplifies excellence in the four Cs of community, classroom, character and competition
Soccer America Men's Preseason All-Americans
Goalkeepers
Jeffrey Attinella, South Florida, Sr.
Zac MacMath, Maryland, Jr.
Diego Restrepo, Virginia, Sr.
Defenders
Aaron Maund, Notre Dame, Jr.
Karl Reddick, Boston College, Sr.
Kofi Sarkodie, Akron, Jr.
Indy Smith, UNC Wilmington, Sr.
Zarek Valentin, Akron, So.
Bobby Warshaw, Stanford, Sr.
Midfielders
Anthony Ampaipitakwong, Akron, Sr.
Danny Barrera, UC Santa Barbara, Sr.
Michael Farfan, North Carolina, Sr.
Ethan Finlay, Creighton, Jr.
Cole Grossman, Duke, Sr.
Daniel Keat, Dartmouth, Sr.
Ashley McInnes, Tulsa, Sr.
Dillon Powers, Notre Dame, So.
Forwards
Will Bates, Virginia, So.
Matt Eliason, Northwestern, Sr.
Ryan Kinne, Monmouth, Sr.
Samson Malijani, Fairleigh Dickinson, Sr.
Darlington Nagbe, Akron, Jr.
Austin Neil, Tulsa, Jr.
Colin Rolfe, Louisville, Jr.
Billy Schuler, North Carolina, Jr.
Soccer America Men's Preseason Top 25
1. Akron (23-1-1 last season)
2. North Carolina (16-2-4)
3. Virginia (19-3-3)
4. Maryland (15-6-2)
5. UC Santa Barbara (17-5-2)
6. Tulsa (15-5-2)
7. Wake Forest (17-4-3)
8. Duke (14-7-0)
9. Boston College (14-9-0)
10. Connecticut (11-4-4)
11. UCLA (12-4-4)
12. Monmouth (18-2-2)
13. Stanford (12-6-2)
14. Ohio State (12-5-4)
15. St. John's (9-3-9)
16. Northwestern (11-5-4)
17. Penn State (12-8-2)
18. Notre Dame (11-8-4)
19. South Florida (14-4-3)
20. Louisville (13-3-4)
21. Indiana (12-10-1)
22. Portland (12-6-5)
23. Michigan State (11-8-2)
24. UNC Wilmington (14-3-5)
25. Saint Louis (15-7-0)
2010 Lowe's Senior CLASS Award Men's Soccer Candidates
Anthony Ampaipitakwong, Midfielder, Akron
Jeff Attinella, Goalkeeper, South Florida
Phil Bannister, Forward, Loyola (Maryland)
Michael Boxall, Defender, UC Santa Barbara
Jeb Brovsky, Forward, Notre Dame
Andres Casais, Defender, Penn State
Matt Eliason, Forward, Northwestern
Akira Fitzgerald, Goalkeeper, Wake Forest
Matt Gold, Defender, Ohio State
Sam Hayden, Goalkeeper, UC Santa Barbara
Jason Herrick, Forward, Maryland
Clint Irwin, Goalkeeper, Elon
Zach Johnson, Goalkeeper, West Virginia
Daniel Keat, Midfielder, Dartmouth
Ryan Kinne, Midfielder/Forward, Monmouth
Kyle Knotek, Defender, Northern Illinois
Dylan Leslie, Midfielder, Saint Mary's (Calif.)
Robby Lynch, Midfielder/Defender, Evansville
Samson Malijani, Forward, Fairleigh Dickinson
Alex Mangan, Forward, DePaul
Jimmy Maurer, Goalkeeper, South Carolina
Ashley McInnes, Forward, Tulsa
Michael Perry, Defender, Denver
Indy Smith, Defender, UNC Wilmington
John Bayron Sosa, Midfielder, UMKC
Jeremy Vuolo, Goalkeeper, Syracuse
Josh Walburn, Defender/Midfielder, Princeton
Bobby Warshaw, Defender, Stanford
Tommy Watkins, Defender, Dayton
Alex Wood, Midfielder, Michigan
