Welcome back for the 2010 Division III Soccer Season! September 1st marked the official start to regular season play around the country, lets take a quick look at some interesting results...

In the West Region, UC Santa Cruz tied Menlo College 2-2. While the Banana Slugs held a 26-8 advantage in shots, they managed to give up the lead twice in the match. Menlo is coming off a 7-11 season in 2009, so you have to believe that UCSC was not too pleased with this result, especially considering they don't play a full schedule of Division III opponents.

In the North Region Augsburg defeated Luther 1-0 in the first IIAC vs. MIAC battle of the season. Augsburg held an advantage in shots, 12-7. The IIAC vs. MIAC match ups continue this weekends as arguably the two best teams from the IIAC head to Minnesota.

Also in the North Region, UW-Oshkosh defeated their Central Region foe, Aurora University 2-0. The match was the first game for the titans under their new head coach.

Dominican University handled North Park University by a score of 3-0, and outshot NPU 12-4, which comes as a bit of a surprise. While DU is a well respected team, one would have thought that NPU would have made it more of a game. However, it appears that Dominican is back firing on all cylinders after being sent home in the final four last year.

Out East the Stevens Ducks pulled of a 1-0 Overtime win against a tough NYU side. The closely contested match saw the Ducks with an edge in shots, 18-12. It will be interesting to see how Stevens fairs in their non-conference matches throughout the year as they have assembled a cast of some pretty solid opponents. 

A bit of a shocker coming from the East Coast...Montclair State tied Marine Merchant Academy 1-1, in what appears to have been a highly competitive match. USMMA held a slight advantage in shots 15-13, with both goals coming in the first half. With all they hype around how strong the NJAC is, one might have expected the Montclair to defeat USMMA, but that is why we play the games!

Finally, a traditionally strong York College side defeated Susquehanna 1-0 in overtime. While York had clear control of the match, and a 15-5 shot total, the Spartans struggled to the find the back of the net. With the return of their 2009 leading scorer, it should only be a matter of time before York is putting teams away by a larger margin.

There are lots of matching coming up this Labor Day Weekend, after which every Divisions III team should have played at least one game. So get yourself out to a match or two!