For the first time in UCF Athletics history, the Knights are No. 1.
Riding a five-match win streak, the UCF men’s soccer team has claimed the first No. 1 national ranking in a regular-season poll by a team in school history in the United Soccer Coaches’ week nine rankings released Tuesday, garnering seven of eight first-place votes.
The latest ranking comes on the heels of three consecutive weeks with the No. 2 spot, and represents the seventh straight week with a top five national ranking, as well as the ninth consecutive week with a top 15 spot in the organization’s poll. The Knights (9-1-2, 5-1-1 SBC) also overtook first place in the Sun Belt table with their latest win over the South Carolina Gamecocks Sunday, vaulting past Marshall and the West Virginia Mountaineers with a conference-best 16 points and two matches remaining in the regular season.
While UCF went 2-0 with wins over South Carolina and the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers over the past week, the previously top-ranked Marshall Thundering Herd suffered back-to-back losses to then No. 5 West Virginia and the Kentucky Wildcats. Marshall fell to No. 6 in the United Soccer Coaches’ latest release and the Mountaineers jumped to No. 2.
Rounding out the Knights’ 2023 opponents to be represented in the latest poll, the Clemson Tigers earned a share of No. 10 with North Carolina, and Florida International slotted in at No. 24.
The top-ranked UCF Knights will look ahead to their penultimate match of the regular season, a road contest at the Georgia State Panthers Oct. 27, before returning home for their regular season finale against James Madison Oct. 31.
