Oct. 21, 2008

GREENSBORO, N.C. - Maryland's Casey Townsend and Wake Forest's Akira Fitzgerald were named the Atlantic Coast Conference Men's Soccer Co-Players of the Week for the week ending Oct. 19. Townsend scored three goals in a pair of non-conference wins for Maryland, while Fitzgerald, a junior from Baltimore, Md., recorded nine saves as the top-ranked Demon Deacons' goalkeeper, helping his squad to an unbeaten 1-0-1 record for the week.

On Tuesday night, Townsend scored the game-winning goal in overtime to give Maryland a hard fought 2-1 come-from-behind win over Lehigh.The freshman from Traverse City, Mich., then tabbed his ninth and tenth goals of the season in the Terps' 4-0 win over Evansville on Friday night.

The win over Evansville was Maryland head coach Sasho Cirovski's 250th career win. Maryland has now won four straight to improve to 11-3-0.

Townsend, who currently leads the nation in goals for a freshman, was recognized for his performance as the newcomer was named national player of the week by College Soccer News and TopDrawerSoccer.com.

Wake Forest picked up a victory and a tie last week, defeating UNC Greensboro 6-0 on Tuesday evening and playing ACC foe Duke to a scoreless tie on Saturday night. The Deacons are now 13-0-1 on the season and 4-0-1 in conference play. The win and tie extended Wake's home unbeaten streak to 30 games. The streak is tied for the fourth-longest streak in NCAA history, nine behind current record-holder Tulsa.

Following the two shutouts last week, Fitzgerald and the Demon Deacons now have an ACC-best nine shutouts on the season. The nine for Fitzgerald marks the second-best in a single season in Wake men's soccer history, four behind Brian Edwards, who had 13 shutouts in 2007. In addition, the shutouts lowered his goals against average to 0.43, a mark good for second in the ACC.

In 90 minutes of action against cross-town rival UNC Greensboro on Tuesday, Fitzgerald tallied a career-high five saves on five shots faced. The win over the Spartans also gave Wake Forest head coach Jay Vidovich his 200th career victory.

On Saturday, Fitzgerald made four outstanding saves to help the Deacons play the Blue Devils to a scoreless tie. The goalie faced four shots in 110 minutes of action. Fitzgerald has now saved 87 percent of the shots he has faced on the season.

Wake Forest plays its final non-conference regular season game on Tuesday, traveling to Davidson, while the Terps face West Virginia in Morganton. Both games are set for a 7 p.m. ET start.