By Brian Maurer
The top teams like Stanford and Maryland have maintained their strong early season form, but there are several other teams and players breaking through.
Here’s our men’s soccer Week 3 awards:
Team of the Week
South Carolina
South Carolina have swept three on their Carolinas gambit tour. They beat ranked Clemson over a week ago and then followed that up with wins against Charlotte and ranked High Point to begin the 2026 campaign 5-0. They continue their Carolinas tour against UNCG this Friday. Their Sun Belt Conference opener against Old Dominion is shaping up to be a bigtime matchup as well.
Offensive Player of the Week
Elias Taj – Junior – Forward – UTRGV
Elias Taj contributed to four (2g/2a) of UTRGV’s five goals in their 5-0 win over South Florida this past weekend. It was the forward’s first start in Division I and will look to maintain that momentum as UTRGV are unbeaten through their first three games.
Defensive Player of the Week
Matthew Reed – Senior – Fullback – Creighton
Matthew Reed has now scored in four straight games for Creighton. He hit the game winner against Gonzaga and then followed it up with another goal against Santa Clara. Reed’s goal contribution tally is keeping up with attackers as he now has six goal contributions on the season (5g/1a) to add to the two clean sheets he’s helped Creighton keep on their unbeaten start to 2026.
Goalkeeper of the Week
Alex Yagudayev – Junior – Villanova
Alex Yagudayev faced some serious volume this past week against Fordham. Fordham put 43 shots in total and 13 on frame but Yagudayev kept them at bay giving Villanova the cleansheet and helping secure the 1-0 win in a historic defensive effort. He added another six saves in Villanova’s first loss of the season to FDU. The junior goalkeeper now has an astounding 93.9% save rate and three cleansheets to start 2026.
Freshman of the Week
Logan Tsopanoglou – Forward – Stanford
Tsopanoglou has a goal contribution in three straight games as the Stanford Cardinal maintain their perfect start to 2026. The freshman now has five goal contributions (4g/1a) in just over 200 minutes, maintaining a GC per 43 minutes pace.
