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Men's Soccer Claims First No. 1 National Ranking in UCF Athletics History

by Ryan Ladika
Complete United Soccer Coaches Week 9 Poll

ORLANDO – For the first time in UCF athletics history, the Knights are No. 1.

Riding a five-match win streak, the UCF men’s soccer team has claimed the first No. 1 national ranking in a regular-season poll by a team in school history in the United Soccer Coaches’ week nine rankings released Tuesday afternoon, garnering seven of eight first-place votes.

The latest ranking comes on the heels of three consecutive weeks with the No. 2 spot, and represents the seventh straight week with a top five national ranking, as well as the ninth consecutive week with a top 15 spot in the organization’s poll. The Knights (9-1-2, 5-1-1 SBC) also overtook first place in the Sun Belt table with their latest win over the South Carolina Gamecocks Sunday, vaulting past Marshall and the West Virginia Mountaineers with a conference-best 16 points and two matches remaining in the regular season.

While UCF went 2-0 with wins over South Carolina and the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers over the past week, the previously top-ranked Marshall Thundering Herd suffered back-to-back losses to then-No. 5 West Virginia and the Kentucky Wildcats. Marshall fell to No. 6 in the United Soccer Coaches’ latest release and the Mountaineers jumped to No. 2.

Rounding out the Knights’ 2023 opponents to be represented in the latest poll, the Clemson Tigers earned a share of No. 10 with North Carolina, and Florida International slotted in at No. 24.

COMPLETE UNITED SOCCER COACHES WEEK 9 POLL

RANK SCHOOL PREVIOUS FIRST-PLACE VOTES TOTAL POINTS W-L-T
1 UCF 2 7 199 9-1-2
2 West Virginia * 5 1 193 11-0-4
3 Wake Forest 3 0 184 11-1-4
4 SMU 4 0 172 10-1-2
5 Notre Dame 6 0 168 10-1-4
6 Marshall * 1 0 162 12-2-0
7 Georgetown 8 0 153 9-2-2
8 Duke 9 0 138 8-3-2
9 Portland 12 0 132 9-3-0
T-10 North Carolina 11 0 125 7-2-5
T-10 Clemson * 15 0 125 9-3-2
12 Seattle U 13 0 113 10-2-3
13 Akron 7 0 95 9-1-6
14 Virginia 18 0 94 8-3-3
15 Stanford 17 0 93 7-2-4
16 Michigan State 20 0 77 7-0-6
17 New Hampshire 19 0 70 9-1-4
18 Missouri State 10 0 68 8-2-3
19 Syracuse 22 0 56 7-3-5
20 Pittsburgh 23 0 42 6-4-4
21 Vermont 16 0 36 10-3-2
22 Hofstra RV 0 21 10-3-4
23 Western Michigan NR 0 19 11-1-3
24 Florida International * 14 0 18 8-3-3
25 Bryant 24 0 14 12-1-2

RECEIVING VOTES: Denver (10), Northwestern (7), UCLA (7), Oral Roberts (3), St. John's (2), Charlotte (2), Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville (1), Loyola Marymount (1).

* Denotes 2023 UCF opponent

The top-ranked UCF Knights will look ahead to their penultimate match of the regular season, a road contest at the Georgia State Panthers Friday evening, before returning home for their regular-season finale against James Madison Oct. 31.

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