Through five non-conference games, men’s soccer sits at fourth in the Summit League with its 2-3 record.

Omaha leads the conference this far into the season with its five wins and one loss. Denver has yet to lose in regulation and owns a 4-0-1 record, putting them at second in the standings.

Indiana-Purdue University at Indianapolis and Western Illinois still have yet to win a game, but each have a tie.

With Omaha and Denver’s respective records brings the first time in Summit league history that two men’s soccer teams are ranked nationally in the same week. Denver is ranked at No. 20 while Omaha is right behind them at No. 22.

This is the first time in Omaha’s program history that they have been ranked nationally while Denver is entering the rankings again for the first time since 2014.

The Summit League players of the week were junior Chandler Crosswait of Denver and senior Jesus Perez of Omaha.

Crosswait was the offensive player of the week, while Perez had the best defensive performances.

This was the first time for both players that they have been awarded this honor.

Crosswait totaled three points on the week and played a role in both of Denver’s goals in their game against St. Johns that they won 2-1 on Saturday. He currently leads Denver in goals and is second in the Summit League with seven points.

Perez helped a strong Omaha defense lead the team to its best start in school history. This past week, he helped limit Marquette to nine shots with only three of them being on goal. He also assisted two of Omaha’s three goals in the 3-2 win against DePaul.

Leading the Summit League in goals, shots and points up to this point in the season is Mark Moulton who is also from Omaha. He has four goals and nine points while totaling 20 shots. The leader in assists is Reagan Dunk from Denver with four.

For goalies, sophomore goaltender Mike Novotny of Eastern tied for first in saves with 26 already this year. Joseph Ghitis of Omaha is on top of all the other goaltending stats, having the best totals in save percentage, goals against average and goals against.

Conference play will begin Sept. 26 as Denver will play Western Illinois, Oral Roberts visits Eastern and Omaha will take on IUPUI.

Last season Denver, Omaha, Western Illinois and Oral Roberts all finished with identical conference records at the end of the season.

Eastern will only have one more non-conference game at Kentucky before conference play opens up at home against Oral Roberts.

Mark Shanahan can be reached at 581-2812 [email protected]