Soccer team's rollercoaster season ends on a low point

After a season of highs and lows, the men's soccer season ended last Sunday on a low. The team was defeated 2-1 by Amherst in the first round of the NESCAC tournament.

The Jumbos fell behind quickly to the Jeffs and were unable to overcome the lead despite strong play throughout the majority of the game.

"We played well besides the first 20 minutes, which was the general trend of the season," senior tri-captain Matt MacGregor said. "We fell behind early and we had to fight our way back."

In a season that started with high expectations turned into an uphill battle, after being plagued by an elongated slump. The Jumbos tried desperately to get back on track before the start of the conference tournament, but were unable to regain the strengths they had displayed early in the season.

"At the beginning of the season we were on a roll," junior Brian Mikel said. "The ball was bounding our way and we were getting lucky scoring."

After opening the fall with a 4-0 record, the Jumbos topped the NESCAC and were ranked fourth in New England and 16th in the nation. The Jumbos beat several out-of-conference opponents, such as MIT and Lassell, and also overcame tough conference opponents as well, including Amherst.

Even with their highs, the men were stifled by an inability to get started offensively within the first minutes of the games, often allowing opponents such as Lassell to create a match-up that was tougher than the Jumbos had anticipated.

This inability to quick-start the offense threw the team into its three-game skid, which began with a homecoming shut-out loss to Bates, followed by a loss to Wesleyan the next day.

The mid-September skid seemed as if it would come to an end during the Jumbos match-up against Bowdoin in early October. After falling behind Bowdoin, the Jumbos played a second half that was arguably their best performance of the season. The game went into overtime in thee end and the Jumbos lost, but the team built from its performance to get back on track.

"At Bowdoin, we really dominated the game and it just showed us that we could be one of the better teams in the conference," Mikel said.

The men did get back on track, going 5-2-1 in the season's final seven games.

Despite a roller coaster season, the Jumbos experienced several high points during the season that they hope to build on for next fall.

"Our experience will be the thing to build on," Mikel said.

Along with the freshmen, the men return their core starters next season as only two seniors, Garrett Dale and MacGregor, will graduate.

The team is aware of the holes that Dale and MacGregor will leave behind as the two seniors led the team with 17 and 15 points, respectively.

"We're gonna need a lot of people to step it up next year," junior tri-captain Jesse Dinner said. "It's going to be a big loss because of their skills on the field and off the field as leaders."

But despite the loss, the Jumbos believe that their returning starters will be able to lead the team to a more successful post season run next year.

Two new sophomores, Mike Guigli and Todd Gilbert, both started in some games and played a large role in the team's success.

"Those two guys will be able to do a lot next year," MacGregor said.

As team members look back on the season just completed, they appear ambivalent.

"It was disappointing overall but there were some successes along with way too," MacGregor said. "We didn't accomplish everything we wanted."