| #23 UCF at #24 Memphis Sat., Sep. 24, 8:00 p.m. ET WATCH (ESPN+) | LIVE STATS |
ORLANDO – The No. 23 UCF men's soccer team is set to face No. 24 Memphis on Saturday at 8 p.m. in Memphis, Tenn. for the Knights' second match of American Athletic Conference play.
The Knights are ranked in the United Soccer Coaches Poll for the first time since the 2021 preseason. UCF has ripped off four straight victories after a season opening 1-0 loss to now No. 1 Wake Forest. Since then, UCF has beaten North Florida, UC Riverside, UC Irvine and Temple, scoring three or more goals in their last three contests. The Black and Gold enter the match with a 2.40 goals per match average, currently slotting them at 24th in the country. Scoring goals is nothing new for the Knights, as they have three top-11 finishes in the nation in scoring in head coach Scott Calabrese's five completed seasons. UCF posted a 2.53 goals per game mark last season, finishing fifth in the country.
Mauricio Villalobos Vega and Gino Vivi come into the match having found the scoresheet in four straight contests. Both enter the match with one goal and four assists on the campaign. Villalobos earned the game-winning goal against North Florida in a 2-1 victory, earned two assists against UC Riverside and one each against UC Irvine and Temple. Vivi assisted in the first victory of the season for UCF before scoring the opener just six minutes into the UC Riverside match. Vivi earned an assist against UC Irvine before tallying two in the team's previous match at Temple. Lucca Dourado has scored in three consecutive matches and has five goals on the season, scoring a brace in two straight matches.
The Knights are looking to extend their winning streak to five and continue the program's best start since 2011 when UCF opened the season with five straight victories and a draw in the first six matches. The Black and Gold have been infamous for big unbeaten streaks during the Calabrese era, piecing together season high streaks of nine in 2018, 16 in 2019, nine in 2020-21 and four in 2021.
UCF and Memphis will both be ranked for a matchup for at least the entirety of the Calabrese era, and possibly longer. The Tigers are ranked 24th in TopDrawer Soccer's poll this week but don't find themselves in the United Soccer Coaches Poll. The Knights are the opposite, checking in at No. 23 in the Coaches Poll and are not listed in TopDrawer's poll this week.
The Tigers found their way into the No. 24 spot in the poll with a win over SMU, who was previously ranked highly in TopDrawer's poll before the 1-0 defeat. Memphis is out to a 4-1-1 start on the year, with their only defeat coming at the hands of Xavier, a 1-0 decision. The Tigers have scored a healthy amount of goals themselves, posting a 2.33 goals per game clip, good enough for 27th in the country. Three Tigers are tied for the team lead in scoring, with Hayden Anderson, Jovan Prado and Lineker Rodrigues dos Santos all tallying seven points.
The Knights lead the all-time series against the Tigers by a count of 15-8-4 with a 7-2-1 mark over the last 10 meetings. Nine of UCF's 15 victories over Memphis have been clean sheets.
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