In only the third D-I Men's Soccer national championship game to ever go into penalty kicks, Virginia finally broke a scoreless tie with top-seeded and undefeated Akron with a 3-2 edge in PK's, giving the Cavs their sixth-ever title and first since 1994. For Akron, a year of unprecedented success ends in cruel irony, with the Zips ending the year without a true loss (although a loss in PK's in the championship game counts as a loss), having not given up a single goal in the entirety of the NCAA Tournament.

Technically, Akron isn't perfect anymore. But the Zips will probably take it.

Officially, Akron's win in penalty kicks over North Carolina in Friday's national semifinals in Cary, N.C., goes into the books as a tie, ending the Zips' NCAA single-season record-tying consecutive win streak at 23 and bringing Akron's record to 23-0-1.

But that'll be 23-0-1 in the national championship game, where the top-seeded Zips will meet second-seeded Virginia, overtime winners over Wake Forest on Friday night. It's the second-ever title appearance for Akron, and the first since 1997 for the Cavaliers, who managed to stand tallest in an ACC and NCAA Tournament that just don't forgive lapses.

As it is, we have the top team in the country -- by far the most dominant club in D-I Men's Soccer this year -- meeting the top team in the nation's premier conference. And it all starts at 1 p.m. on Sunday. Watch it live on ESPN2!

Going into Friday's College Cup semis, Akron's run of 23 straight wins was a feat matched only once before. And for Zips coach Caleb Porter, the feeling's all too familiar.

Three months ago, more than 200 teams opened up the D-I Men's Soccer season. Today, just eight remain. After a Round of 16 that saw the top team in the country set even more records, two unranked teams attack the nets to the tune of 10 goals between them and three ACC teams stay alive, read on for a breakdown of Sunday's action before the Tournament starts again on Friday.

And, as always, for everything you need to know, from quarterfinal info to recaps to highlights to Tournament leaders, check out our Interactive Bracket!

*All pictures below are courtesy of their respective athletic departments.

	No. 2 Virginia 1, Portland 0 The second-seeded Cavaliers got a goal from Ari Dimas in the 46h minute, and then held on vice-tight over the final 20 minutes to blank an immensely talented Portland team, 1-0. The goal from Dimas was the very first of his career. Meanwhile, Virginia ran its unbeaten streak to 13 games and posted its 10th straight shutout, pushing goalie Diego Restrepo's shutout streak to 1127:34, breaking the great Tony Meola's school record. Watch the highlights here!
	Maryland 2, No. 10 Harvard 0 Maryland hasn't had to play on the road in the Tournament since 1997. But playing away from Ludwig Field hasn't seemed to affect the defending champs at all, with the Terps downing No. 7 seed Penn State, then blanking 10th-seeded Harvard. It took an epic effort from Zac MacMath in goal to keep the Crimson -- a team that scored three goals a week prior -- off the scoreboard, and goals from Billy Cortes and Casey Townsend to win Watch the highlights here!
	Drake 6, Boston College 4 We should have expected something like this. Two teams coming into the Tournament after torching their late-season schedules. Two offenses that can strike from anywhere. But it would have been nearly impossible to predict this. When the game ended, the Bulldogs were the ones moving on, the winners of a 6-4 offensive explosion. After falling behind early, senior-led Drake rallied back to tie it...and then never slowed. Watch the highlights here!
	No. 5 North Carolina 1, Indiana 0 When North Carolina scores first, few teams still left in the Tournament are better at making the rest of the day miserable for their opponents. And that's just what the Tar Heels did, getting a goal from Alex Dixon and then clamping down on an Indiana attack that had recently found its stride to post the 11th shutout of the season earn he Tar Heels' second straight national quarterfinal berth. Watch the highlights here!
	No. 8 Tulsa 1, No. 9 Northwestern 0 In a rain-drenched match in Tulsa, the hosts finally broke through in the 74th minute, getting a goal off the foot of Austin McNeill -- his team-leading 14th of the season -- and then held off Northwestern over the final 16 to earn the Golden Hurricane's first quarterfinal berth since 2004. They'll be taking on Akron, a team that Tulsa coach Tom MacIntosh called "one of the best teams in college soccer that I've seen in my 15 years of coaching." Watch the highlights here!
	No. 1 Akron 2, Stanford 0 Akron is now just three wins away from the first-ever 24-0-0 season in D-I Men's Soccer history. Of course, the Patriots were a win away from going 19-0-0 in 2007-08. But to date, few teams outside those New England Patriots have looked as dominant as Akron. On Sunday, the record-setting season continued with the Zips controlling the pace from the start, getting goals from stars Teal Bunbury and Anthony Ampaipitakwong and notching their program-record 16th shutout. Watch the highlights here!
	No. 3 Wake Forest 4, Duke 2 In the lone Round of 16 matchup between conference rivals, Wake Forest took another step toward a national championship that it seemed destined for last year, pounding away at the Duke defense all day, en route to the Demon Deacons' fourth quarterfinal appearance in four years. Zach Schilawski led the way with five points on the day, notching his third multi-goal game of the year. Watch the highlights here!
	No. 6 UCLA 2, USCB 1 Three years ago, UCSB ran over UCLA in the national championship game. On Sunday, the Bruins returned the favor, earning a berth in the national quarters for the first time since that year, climbing back from an early 1-0 deficit to move on. After UCSB scored in the 11th minute, two unanswered goals followed for the Bruins -- the first from Fernando Mongo just four minutes later, the second from Ryan Hollingshead in the 37th minute. Watch the highlights here!

Tidbits from around the country, teed up just for you every Thursday.

Three conference tournaments start this week, with 16 more (sixteen...more) kicking off between now and Friday the 13th. For more, check out our always-evolving Conference Tournament Hub.

Photo Courtesy of Akron

We'll start with The Akron Watch this time around, after the Zips barely escaped a surging Michigan State team with a 2-1 win on Wednesday night. Despite Teal Bunbury's 15th goal of the season less than four minutes into the game, Akron couldn't score again until the 75th minute, when Blair Gavin sunk a penalty kick. But the Spartans, who have been scorching lately, put up one of the best fights the Zips have seen this year, tallying the first first-half goal Akron's allowed all season in this one. Said Akron coach Caleb Porter: "'We haven't been through much adversity and I think you can tell a lot about a championship-level team in the moments of adversity." Another dominating fun fact about Akron this year: the Zips have outscored their Big Ten opponents, 14-2 on the season.

A week after being profiled by NCAA.com, Monmouth set an all-time program record for wins with a 2-0 win over former NEC leaders Quinnipiac on Sunday. With a 15-1-1 record on the season, the Hawks broke the record of 14 wins set by the 2006 team. The win came after another victory on Friday, over CCSU, which followed Monmouths' first loss of the season two Sundays ago -- a loss that some expected to jolt the Hawks. But, a record-setting season for Monmouth looks very much back on the right track.

Michigan earned its 100th all-time win as a varsity program with a 2-1, double-overtime win over No. 12 Northwestern on Sunday. The Wolverines now close up their regular season with a game in Columbus against an Ohio State team that just took down Indiana, playing live on the Big Ten Network.

After tallying North Carolina's first hat trick in four years, the Tar Heels' Alex Dixon was named to the College Soccer News and Top Drawer Soccer Teams of the Week. It's impressive enough to notch a hat trick, especially for a power like North Carolina; it's a whole other thing to do it like Dixon did, with all three goals coming in a seven-minute stretch. Going into the Tar Heels' final two regular season games this week, it'll be interesting to see if the sophomore can keep it going. 

Connecticut, a team that fell out of the top-25 after opening at 2-2-2, clinched the Big East Blue Division title with a 3-0 win over Marquette on Monday. The win gave the Huskies their 18th Big East title in 27 years in the league, along with a first-round bye in the conference tournament -- they'll open with a quarterfinal match against Providence in Storrs on Nov. 7.

UMBC's all-everything duo of Andrew Bulls and Levi Houapeu, the No. 1 and No. 2 scorers in the nation in terms of points-per-game, were named the America East Striker and Midfielder of the Year, respectively. The Retrievers, who have trailed off ever since reaching the top-25 midway through the year, scratched out a No. 5 seed in the America East Tournament, where they'll play at Binghamton in a quarterfinal match on Saturday.

With a 1-0 win over Navy on Tuesday night, Maryland snapped a two-game scoreless drought. After being shut out in a loss to Wake Forest and a tie with Virginia, the Terps got back to their winning ways with a 10th-minute goal from Kaoru Forbess. Maryland closes up its regular season on Friday with a 7:30 p.m. match against The College of Charleston at Ludwig Field.

Tidbits from around the country, teed up just for you every Thursday.

For virtually every conference with a postseason tournament, only two weekends remain in the regular season. For the always-packed BIG EAST, this weekend's the final one before tourney play begins on Wednesday. Keep an eye on action this weekend, especially in the Red Division, where nobody's secured a postseason berth yet, with five teams within seven points of each other.

Akron's Teal Bunbury scored two more goals on Wednesday night, as the top-ranked Zips rolled over Penn State, 3-0. The sophomore has now scored a goal in nine of his last 11 games and has put up four multi-goal games this year. Akron is very, very good. And in the second installment of the Akron Watch, the Zips' defense has allowed just three goals in 1,440:00 of play for a team goals-against-average of 0.19, which out-paces Evansville's NCAA single-season record of 0.24, set in 1990. Also, because we missed it earlier in the week, Darlington Nagbe was named MAC Player of the Week after notching a seven-point day against Michigan last week.

In another Story We Wish We Wrote, Santa Barbara News-Press senior writer Mark Patton takes a look at two stories of perseverance on the fourth-ranked Gauchos, where Waid Ibrahim is playing with a pacemaker that revived his soccer career and David Walker just got the rods removed from his broken wrist. Neither of the forwards, Patton writes, has missed a game this year.

Photo Courtesy of Ohio State

In another Photo Gallery Of Current Varsity Soccer Players In Their Childhood Halloween Costumes And Telling Traumatizing Childhood Stories, Ohio State ran a feature this week called 'Trick-or-Treating with Ohio State Men's Soccer.' The first story? From senior defender Doug Verhoff: "My dad use to always take the chain off his chain saw and then run the chain saw across his chest.  Everyone would always freak out. He's a wild one so I'm sure this does not surprise many people."

UMBC once again features the No. 1 and 2 scorers in the country, after Levi Houapeu was named America East Player of the Week following his second hat trick of the year. The goals came as the Retrievers clinched a spot in the America East Tournament with a win over Albany on Saturday. Houapeu sits just below teammate Andrew Bulls and his 2.67 goals per game with a ledger of 2.60 a contest. UMBC, who's gone through a few rough patches this year after starting the season undefeated at 9-0-0 (the Retrievers are only 3-4-0 since then, with all but one of those games conference clashes) can finish no lower than fifth in the conference.

Michigan State, which had taken a mid-season tumble, downed Notre Dame on Wednesday for the Spartans' fourth straight win. The Spartans' notched their 10th win of the year, given them 10 wins for the ninth time this decade, while Cyrus Sadee scored the game-winner for the second straight MSU game.

Louisville tied the school record for wins on Wednesday, downing Cincinnati to improve to 12-2-2. The Big East Red Division leaders wrap up the regular season at Villanova on Saturday, Oct. 31 at 1:00 p.m.

Tidbits from around the country, teed-up just for you, every Thursday.

Photo Courtesy of Tulsa

Tulsa's seven-game unbeaten streak came to an end against unranked SMU on Wednesday night, with one of the strangest goals of the year sealing the deal for the Mustangs. After SMU went up, 2-1, Ryan Rosenbaum added another when his clear from 70 yards out bounced over Tulsa goalkeeper Andy Aguilar's head. The unbeaten streak had seen Tulsa take wins over UAB, Kentucky and Saint Louis (among others) and had shot the Hurricane into the 16th spot in the NSCAA poll. The loss also ended another streak for the Hurricane, as they took their first C-USA loss in 21 games.

Cal had a tough two-game stretch last weekend, falling to UCLA on Friday and then San Diego State on Sunday. Well, the Bears get a shot at redemption this weekend with what amounts to a re-set. Except this time, both games are at home. The Bruins come to town on Friday, with the Aztecs following up on Sunday in Berkeley. For Cal, a team that slipped to No. 20 after the losses, these will be huge points to pick up in the Pac-10.

In another Story We Wish We Wrote, Louisville's Freddie Braun writes about yet another freak phenomenon to happen during a Cardinals soccer game. This time, during the Cards' massive rivalry game with Kentucky (which Louisville ended up winning), the lights turned off at the 40-minute mark. Braun's blog is always a great read, so check it out.

In Maria Burns-Ortiz' weekly notebook at ESPNU, she features Loyola (Md.) senior Tennant McVea, a Hermann nominee and Lowe's Senior CLASS finalist. After a romp through the regular season last year, the Greyhounds have struggled in the '09 campaign. But with a 3-0 record in the MAC, the Greyhounds look to be turning things around under McVea's leadership.

A new feature touches down at Set Pieces this week: the Akron watch. Now one of just two undefeated teams left in the top-25 (Monmouth is the other), after Brown lost to Harvard last week, the Zips stand at 14-0-0. Off to the best start in program history, Akron's coming off its first-ever win over Michigan, a 5-1 drubbing on Tuesday in which Darlington Nagbe tallied his first career hat trick. Michael Nanchoff, featured on NCAA.com a few weeks back, added another goal. The Zips now lead the country in scoring offense (2.77 goals/game), goals-against average (0.15) and shutout percentage (0.85).

St. John's (N.Y.) continued its semi-resurgence on Tuesday with a 1-1 tie with No. 18 Brown. The Red Storm are now unbeaten in their last seven games, although five of those games have been ties (four of them 1-1, one of them 0-0).

  

Tidbits from around the country, teed-up just for you, every Thursday.

Photo Courtesy of Northwestern

The first D-I RPI was released this week, and not without a whole lot of surprises (at least to this guy) -- most notably in the No. 1 spot. Akron's dominated this year, roaring out to a 12-0-0 start, but the Zips took No. 2 in the RPI, behind a somewhat shocking No. 1 Northwestern. But, the Wildcats are playing some fantastic soccer and, as they say, the numbers don't lie.

Maryland players wore a white arm bands with "A.L. #18" written on them in Wednesday night's 2-1 win over Georgetown, in honor of teammate Alex Lee, who was hit by a car in Washington this weekend and was just released from the hospital on Wednesday afternoon.

Three teams remain undefeated in the NSCAA Top-25, and they've all taken very different routes to get there. For top-ranked Akron, the Zips have rarely been tested this year, blowing out to a team-record 12-0-0 start and posting a 35-2 scoring margin. That's 35 goals in 12 games. And only two goals allowed. Moving down to No. 8 Monmouth, the Hawks -- now at their highest ranking ever, in any sport -- are just a little less perfect, at 11-0-1, with only three goals allowed on the year. Brown, the highest-rated team in the Ivy League, has battled out to a 6-0-4 record, including a stretch of three straight ties between Sept. 25 and Sept. 30.

In her weekly notebook, ESPNU's Maria-Burns Ortiz writes about the ACC's continued position as Nation's Premier Conference, and who stands tallest in the league. Always a great read, Burns-Ortiz still isn't convinced that any team's risen above the rest in the conference.

Staying with the Atlantic Coast Conferece, coaches often talk about the ACC Tournament being almost as intense (and tough) as the NCAA Tourney, if a lot shorter. Well, it'll be even easier this year to draw similarities, as the conference tournament returns to Cary's WakeMed Soccer Park for the second straight year, as it was announced on Wednesday.

N.C. State's Ronnie Bouemboue scored both goals in the Wolfpack's upset of Duke in Durham last year, then came back to score the game's lone goal with just 49 seconds remaining in N.C. State's win last weekend. For his efforts, the man who currently leads the ACC in goals (6) and points (17) was named conference Co-Player of the Week.

Two Fridays ago, Maryland looked to be ready to set the pace in the ACC, with the then-No. 4 Terps dropping No. 2 North Carolina, 1-0. Today, the Terps find themselves out of the top-10, coming in at No. 11 as the recipients of two tough losses last week -- the first to unranked George Mason on Tuesday, then another to No. 14 Duke on Friday night.

But, after a poll last week that looked like a tornado hit it, this week's looks relatively tame. Only two teams exited the top-25, with two more -- Drake and previously ranked Dartmouth -- taking their spots at No. 22 and 24, respectively. Two more left the top-10, with Indiana also falling after a 3-0 loss at UCSB on Friday night. In their places climb those Gauchos (up to No. 7 after taking No. 11 last week) and Duke, with the not-so-surprising-anymore Blue Devils firing five spots up to No. 9.

Photo Courtesy of Duke

Meanwhile, Akron maintained its hold on the top spot, despite scoring only six goals and posting two shutouts in two wins last week against Ohio State and Florida Atlantic. In doing so, Michael Nanchoff, who -- along with his legendary Akron family -- was profiled by NCAA.com last week, earned a spot on his third straight Team of the Week, this time on the College Soccer News squad, after two straight weeks on the Soccer America team. The Zips earned a total of 575 points, including all 23 first-place votes.

Just below the Zips sits North Carolina, who rose up from No. 5 after a huge ACC win over Virginia, which the Tar Heels took, 1-0 in OT. South Florida's in third now, up from No. 6 last week, thanks to a shutout win over Cincinnati.

UCLA stood firm in the No. 4 spot, after a weekend that saw the Bruins go 1-0-1, downing Oregon State and tying Washington. The win marked Kyle Nakazawa's sixth straight game with a goal and pushed UCLA's unbeaten streak to six games.

Into the fifth spot slides Pac-10 rival Cal, whose conference win over then-No. 20 (and now No. 23) Stanford moved the Golden Bears up one spot in the polls.

A 5-1 win over Virginia Tech couldn't offset Wake Forest's loss earlier in the week to Charlotte, as the Demon Deacons fell to No. 6 after standing at No. 3 last week. For Charlotte, who snapped Wake Forest's nation-leading non-conference win streak and tacked on a win over Furman on Saturday, the 49ers made the biggest jump up, now finding themselves at No. 15, up seven spots from No. 22.

Rounding out the top-10 are No. 8 Harvard and No. 10 Monmouth, who both hung onto their spots from a week prior with wins over Yale and Fairleigh Dickinson, respectively.

In the second stratus, the big risers included N.C. State (up six spots to No. 18), Portland (up four to No. 17) and Northwestern (who dropped Ohio State in its Big Ten opener to shoot up to No. 21).

UMBC led teams taking the biggest hits, as the Retrievers plummeted seven spots to No. 25 after taking its first loss of the year in its first game in America East play, falling 3-1 at Vermont. Higher up the poll, but falling five spots, was Indiana, whose loss in Santa Barbara trumped a 3-0 win over then-No. 20 Kentucky earlier in the week.

Tidbits from around the country, teed-up just for you, every Thursday.

Monmouth now sits at No. 10 in the country, the highest-ever ranking for the Hawks in any sport. Heading into Northeast Conference play -- where the Hawks have dominated the past few years -- Monmouth still hasn't lost, opening the season at a perfect 8-0-0 clip. This, after top-seeded Monmouth was upset in the first round of last year's NEC Tournament, crashing to the ground after its fourth straight regular season conference title. ESPN Soccernet's Maria Burns-Ortiz opened her notebook this week with the great story coming out of Jersey.

No. 1 Akron handed No. 15 Ohio State its first loss of the season on Wednesday, blanking the Buckeyes, 3-0 at home, after OSU had shot out to the best start in program history. The Zips, playing reasonably good soccer, have allowed one goal this year. In eight games. The shutout streak now sits at 484:00. Oh, also, they've outscored their opponents 21-1 in their last six games and out-shot their opponents 135-32 this year.

Indiana's Andy Adlard scored twice in the Hoosiers' win over Kentucky on Tuesday. Photo Courtesy of Indiana

No. 9 Indiana looked every bit the top-10 team it started the season as -- before falling to No. 13 in last week's rankings -- blanking No. 13 Kentucky, 3-0, on Tuesday night. The Hoosiers looked a little different in the win, as Indiana coach Mike Freitag took his players' advice and switched to a 4-4-2 look.

After two games in group play at the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Cairo, the U.S. National Under-20 sits at 1-1 and in second place in Group C after a 3-0 loss to Germany and a 4-1 win over Cameroon. More importantly, the Americans -- with a roster full of eight NCAA players -- sit just a draw away from qualifying for the Round of 16. A win, combined with a few other results, would guarantee the U.S. the top spot coming out of Group C. For the full release from USA Soccer, click here!

In another Story We Wish We Wrote, Cal State Northridge Athletics writes about how the 'international flavor' of the 2009 version of the Matadors has helped them to the program's best start since 2005, at 5-2-1. With seven international players this year, CSUN continues the tradition it's had over the past decade of sporting at least three foreign-born players on the team. It's a great read, and you can check it out here.

UC Santa Barbara's looking to break the all-time D-I regular season attendance record on Friday, when the No. 11 Gauchos take on No. 9 Indiana at Meredith Field at Harder Stadium. The existing record of 12,224, was set on Sept. 27, 1987, when Fresno State took on San Francisco. The second-best mark ever? UCSB's match against Cal Poly on Oct. 17, 2008. Read the full story here...and if you happen to be driving down the PCH, stop on by. The last time these two teams met on the West Coast came in the 2004 College Cup final, which Indiana won in PK's.

This is supposed to be a D-I blog, but we've got a cross-divisional story out of Montclair State, where the Red Hawks broke the NCAA All-Division Men's Soccer record for consecutive home wins on Wednesday night, taking their 41st straight win at Sprague Field.

No. 18 Portland's off to the best start the Pilots have had since 2000, jumping out to a 5-1-1 record thanks in large part to goalkeeper Austin Guerrero, who made 10 saves and allowed one goal in the Pilots' Husky Fever Classic win last weekend. Blanking Cal Poly, 2-0, and holding Creighton to just one goal in a 2-1 win on Sunday, the junior earned his third shutout of the season to take home WCC Men's Soccer Player of the Week honors.

The string of upsets didn't stop when the weekend did, with the second- and third-ranked teams in the country falling hard. Elsewhere, in a big non-conference matchup, No. 9 Indiana got two goals from Andy Adlard to send the Hoosiers past No. 13 Kentucky, 3-0.

In Fairfax, Va. No. 2 Maryland fell to George Mason, 2-0, on the road, despite playing up a man for more than half the game. It was the Patriots' first win over the Terps since 2001.

"It was a very un-Maryland like performance tonight and I take full responsibility for not having us ready today," head coach Sasho Cirovski said after the game. "We just weren't very connected today."

In Winston-Salem, the nation's longest non-conference winning streak came to an end, as No. 22 Charlotte upset No. 3 Wake Forest, 3-1. The win was the 49ers' first over a top-5 team since 1994.

"This was a tremendous result," Charlotte coach Jeremy Gunn said after the win. "We played great soccer tonight and we showed people what we are capable of as a soccer program. Wake Forest has been one of the bench mark programs in college soccer. We expected Wake Forest to attack us since they pass the ball better than any team in the country. I am just so proud of how our players fought and battled tonight." 

Staying in the ACC, Boston College lost to Siena, 1-0, giving the Saints their first-ever win over an ACC team.

On the schedule for Wednesday night are two big regional clashes between top-25 teams, as newly ranked No. 15 Ohio State hits the road to take on No. 1 Akron (Click here for live stats or here to watch the game, live online [with subscription]) and No. 16 BU takes on No. 23 Brown, with the Terriers looking to win their fourth straight and Brown looking to stay unbeaten (Watch Live or Listen).  

After a weekend that spared only a handful of teams in the top-25 from upsets and saw just five teams in the top-10 emerge without a loss, the NSCAA poll looked understandably...altered on Monday.

Akron, who destroyed Bowling Green, 6-0, hung onto first. Only one other team in the country held its position. Two teams fell out of the top-10, seven dropped out of the top-25 and seven more replaced them - led by now-undefeated Ohio State in the 15th spot.

In the top-10, No. 2 Maryland was rewarded for knocking off then-No. 2 North Carolina with a late goal on Friday night, jumping up two spots, while UNC fell to fifth. UCLA, who took two wins over unranked teams, bounded up from No. 10 to No. 5. Heading back to the ACC, Wake Forest used a win over No. 8  Harvard (still at No. 8) to make its way up to No. 3.

South Florida and Cal fell to No. 6 and No. 7, respectively, after weekend losses, while UCSB's win over UC Irvine on Sunday wasn't enough to offset a loss to San Diego State, as the Gauchos sunk from No. 7 to No. 11. The other team to fall out of the top-10, Louisville, plummeted from No. 9 to No. 17 after a weekend that saw the Cardinals fall, 4-0, to Notre Dame on Friday and tie Marquette, 2-2, on Sunday.

The two top-10 evacuees created room for Indiana to make its way from No. 13 to No. 9 after a win over Wisconsin and for Monmouth to continue its meteoric rise to new heights, surging to No. 10 - the program's highest-ever ranking - after starting the year at 8-0-0.

Other interesting movers & shakers start with the Buckeyes, who downed defending Big Ten champs and No. 21 Michigan State on Sunday to blow out to the program's best-ever start. Look for them to be tested on Wednesday when OSU heads to Akron.

Virginia and Duke didn't suffer too much for losses to Clemson and BC, respectively, falling from No. 11 to No. 12 and No. 12 to No. 14, in that order. But Dartmouth, who fell to Hartwick, and Creighton, who fell to Portland, did, as both the Big Green and Blue Jays dropped from No. 15 and No. 17 to the Others-Receiving-Votes section.

And finally, UMBC cracks the top-25. The owner of two of the nation's top three scorers, in Andrew Bulls (first) and Levi Houapeu (third), the Retrievers are playing great soccer. And oh yeah - they're still undefeated, at 9-0-0.

Ohio State goalie Matt Lampson has put together three straight shutouts, including a blanking of No. 21 Michigan State on Sunday.

A weekend that started with an assault on the nation's elite, with four teams in the top-12 falling to unranked clubs on Friday, became an all-out pillaging of the top-25 by weekend's end.

By the end of Sunday, 11 teams in the NSCAA poll had fallen to teams outside of it. Still more ended in ties. Click here for Friday results or here for Saturday and Sunday's finals.

Meanwhile, in Columbus, Ohio, one of those unranked teams is off to the best start in program history.

After knocking off No. 21 Michigan State, 1-0, in East Lansing on Sunday - MSU's first home loss to a Big Ten team for the defending regular season and tournament champions since Nov. 4, 2007 - the Ohio State now stands at 5-0-3.

A largely untested team learned a lot with the win, said Ohio State coach John Bluem. About how to battle through a conference game. About what it means to go on the road and take three points from a team in a year when the Big Ten changed its bylaws to denote the regular season champ as the official conference champion. And, most importantly, about how to survive.

"We have a fairly young team, a lot of freshmen and sophomores, and they're getting to play for us," Bluem said. "I think this game showed them quite a bit about the difference between regular season games conference game in terms of intensity and desire to win the game. Nobody gives any ground in conference matches."

"I'm a little bit surprised," he said of the undefeated start. "If you looked at our schedule, and you look at how the teams are doing that have been on the schedule, they've been difficult games. They're not Akron; they're not Michigan State, though. I think Michigan State was the first big test for us, and we got past it. They were tremendous in the second half against us, and were very unfortunate to have not scored."

The Buckeyes shot ahead in the 18th minute, getting a goal from 10 yards out by Sam Scales. And after a first half that saw Ohio State out-shoot MSU, 9-5, the Spartans struck back. Blasting 10 shots in the second half to OSU's five, Michigan State looked every bit the defending champs.

Meanwhile, OSU goalie Matt Lampson looked not one bit like a redshirt freshman who hadn't earned a starting spot until Sept. 18, splitting time with sophomore Ryan Dalton (3 starts, 0.62 GAA, .905 save percentage) to open the year. Now the official starter in net, Lampson hasn't allowed a goal in 322:19 minutes of play this year.

Making four saves and a series of big defensive plays, Lampson out-dueled Michigan State's Avery Steinlage, whose own NCAA-record scoreless streak ended last week. And on Monday, Lampson took home Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week honors.

"Going into the season, we were a little concerned about youth and inexperience," Bluem said. "But Matt and Ryan have been splitting games, and now that we've stuck with Matt for three games, he's had 3 shutouts."

On Wednesday, the Buckeyes head cross-state to show everything they've learned thus far to Akron. Top-ranked Akron. Undefeated, 7-0 Akron. The same Zips team that's outscored its opponents, 18-1 in its last five games, including a 6-0 win over Bowling Green on Saturday. A team that's allowed just one goal in seven games this year. And, finally, a team that's 44-2-4 at home since 2005.

"Going to play Akron at Akron is a big challenge," Bluem said. "They've become a powerhouse.

Ten players have scored goals for Akron. Eleven have tallied points. For Ohio State, those numbers fall to six and nine, respectively. But for an OSU team that's found ways to win - or, Bluem said, at least not lose - a game against the top-ranked team in the country on its own turf represents more than a chance to make a statement: it offers a chance for a benchmark, to see exactly how good this group of young men is.

"We're gonna prepare as best we can to go up there," he said. "But Akron's got a great team. We're gonna go into that match to see what we can do, to see how we measure up."

Sunday Results

Where the top-10 suffered the most at the hands of upset-minded non-ranked teams on Friday night, the rest of the top-25 felt the pain on Sunday. And while teams like South Florida and UCSB responded with big wins, Friday victims Louisville and St. John's could only muster ties on Sunday.

No. 3 South Florida def. Pittsburgh, 2-1
No. 5 California def. Air Force, 3-0
No. 7 UCSB def. No. 23 UC Irvine, 1-0
No. 9 Louisville tied Marquette, 2-2
No. 10 UCLA def. UNLV, 3-0
No. 16 NC State lost to Virginia Tech, 2-0
No. 17 Creighton lost to Portland, 2-1
No. 18 St. John's tied Providence, 0-0
No. 20 Kentucky def. UNC-Asheville, 3-1
No. 21 Michigan State lost to Ohio State, 1-0
No. 22 Michigan lost to Penn State, 2-0
No. 24 Cal St. Northridge lost to Coastal Carolina, 2-1
No. 25 Brown tied San Francisco, 1-1

Saturday Results

No. 8 Harvard's vaunted offense couldn't solve No. 6 Wake Forest, as the Demon Deacons won one of the week's best games, 1-0, in Winston-Salem. Meanwhile, one of the biggest upsets all year happened in Virginia, where then-winless Clemson dropped the host Cavaliers, 1-0 in ACC play.

No. 1 Akron def. Bowling Green, 6-0
No. 6 Wake Forest def. No. 8 Harvard, 1-0
No. 11 Virginia lost to Clemson, 1-0
No. 14 Dartmouth lost to Hartwick, 2-0
No. 19 Boston University def. Rhode Island, 2-1

All times Eastern
Live Stats where available

No. 1 Akron vs. Bowling Green, 7:30 p.m. | Live Stats
No. 6 Wake Forest vs. No. 8 Harvard | Live Stats
No. 11 Virgina vs. Clemson, 7 p.m.
No. 14 Dartmouth @ Hartwick, 7 p.m.
No. 19 Boston University @ Rhode Island, 7 p.m. | Live Stats