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.

Washington's two wins over the weekend -- an upset over No. 5 Cal in Berkeley on Friday and a tie with No. 22 Stanford on Sunday -- showed the country how powerful conference games can be in revitalizing a season, or the exact opposite. Click on for more on the Huskies' run and to see which teams have thrived and which have suffered once the schedule hit league play.

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

The U-20 Men's National Team's bid to take the FIFA U-20 World Cup died on Saturday, after the Americans fell, 3-0, to the Korea Republic in the final game of Group Play. Needing only a tie to guarantee a berth in the Round of 16 -- and a win to secure the top spot coming out of Group C -- Team USA couldn't contain a potent Korean attack, ending the Tournament with a minus-three goal differential after a win over Cameroon and losses to Germany and Korea. With the loss, the eight NCAA players on the roster return to their teams, now all fully entrenched in conference play. See the release from USA Soccer for more.

Goalie Matt Lampson Photo Courtesy of Ohio State

In another Story We Wish We Wrote, Ohio State Athletics profiled its redshirt freshman goalie Matt Lampson, who overcame Stage 4B Hodgkins lymphoma to earn a place in net for the Buckeyes. An extraordinary story. Read it if you have any time. At all.

Michigan State, which started off looking like a team that might pace the Big Ten, has now lost its first two conference games for the first time since 1988. The Spartans opened conference play with a loss to Ohio State on Sept. 27 -- a win that catapulted the Buckeyes to the top-20 -- and followed up on Sunday with a 1-0 loss to Penn State. For the Nittany Lions, who have begun to creep up in the polls, they've started conference play at 2-0.

A man by the name of Two-Boys Gumede scored the lone goal in UAB's 1-0 win over No. 20 Kentucky on Sunday that jettisoned Kentucky from the rankings and slid UAB to the fourth spot in the Others-Receiving-Votes section of the NSCAA poll -- and No. 25 in the College Soccer News poll, the Blazers' first ranking since 2006. As avid fans of great names and great achievements over here at NCAA.com, we salute Gumede, who was also named C-USA Offensive Player of the Week for his efforts.

UCLA's Kyle Nakazawa improved his scoring streak to six games in the Bruins' 1-1 tie with Washington on Sunday. The forward's team-lead seventh goal gave him some stake -- either a goal or an assist -- in nine of the Bruins' last 10 tallies, and pushed his career-best marks in goals (7) and assists (17) even higher.

If you missed it, the 10 finalists for the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award were announced on Tuesday. Click here for the release.

After entering the NSCAA rankings for the first time since 1998, Charlotte leaped from No. 22 to No. 15 with wins last week over then-No. 3 Wake Forest and Furman. Now, the 49ers find themselves ranked in all five major polls and owners of an eight-game unbeaten streak (6-0-2). They open Atlantic 10 play this weekend.

Hofstra freshman Stephan Barea, who scored his first collegiate goal just 62 seconds into his first collegiate game -- a 1-0 Pride win over Stony Brook on Sept. 1 -- scored his third goal of the year in Hofstra's 3-2 win over VCU on Saturday, again early. All three of the freshman's goals this year have come in the first five minutes.