Monday Olympic Sport Report

Men's Soccer

After his two goals against Boston College, junior Kyle Fisher was named ACC Co-Player of the Week. Freshman Oliver Shannon was named to TopDrawerSoccer's national team of the week for his assist against BC and game-winning goal against Providence.

The Tigers got back in action on Wednesday against Gardner-Webb.This was a laugher of a game, with Clemson taking it 6-0. The Tigers were in complete control throughout. Goals were scored by Gardner-Webb transfer Iman Mafi, Saul Chinchilla, Thales Moreno, Oliver Shannon, and TJ Castner. While not getting on the scorer's sheet Ara Amirkhanian, Diego Campos, and Manolo Sanchez had assists. Chris Glodack played the majority of the game at goalie, but freshman Michael Zierhoffer got some game time as well. Another freshman, fullback Michael Melvin, was able to get time in as well. From what I've seen of him he should develop into a good player and a reliable option to replace Dia and Amirkhanian next season.

This was just another warm up game before the meat of the schedule. Mafi's second goal was particularly awesome.

Unfortunately, Clemson suffered a 1-0 loss against #14 Syracuse in their conference home opener Saturday. Syracuse's lone shot on goal resulted in their goal. Outside of that one shot given up Clemson played very well defensively. However, Clemson's offensive woes returned only a few days after scoring 6 goals. The Tigers only mustered 6 shots on goal, 9 total, but Syracuse's keeper came up big for the Orange.

There is only one game next week so the team has time to recover physically and work on improving in front of goal. Castner and Shannon continue to show themselves as two of the most important pieces on this year's team. I'm really excited about Shannon's development over the next few years.

The next game is at home on Friday night against Wake Forest. Clemson is now 4-4 overall and 1-1 in the ACC

Women's Soccer

The #17 Lady Tigers went up to Blacksburg this weekend to take on #2 Virginia Tech and came back with a 0-2 loss, their first defeat on the season. This game was fairly even but Virginia Tech was able to convert their chances while Clemson was not. Virginia Tech actually went down to 10 players in the second half when the Hokies were shown a red card. However, rather than being able to press the numbers advantage, Clemson allowed another goal. Clemson is a solid top 25 team but Virginia Tech is ranked #2 in the nation for a reason.

Volleyball

The volleyball team did fairly well this weekend, going 2-1 in the Crimson-White Tournament in Tuscaloosa. Clemson swept San Diego State and FIU, before losing 3 sets to 1 against Alabama. The Tigers are now 11-2 on the season. Niki Collier and Kristin Faust were named to the All-Tournament team. Due to all the non-conference tournaments, Clemson played 13 matches in the first 21 days. Now they will only have 1 match over the next two weeks. The Tigers open conference play Friday against UVA.