After a strong fall campaign, the men's club soccer team has returned to action for the spring and, over its past four games, is undefeated.
The squad, formed in the fall of 2006, played in a competitive Div. I New England league in the fall and took on such teams as BC, Brown and Vermont. Still, Tufts held its own, recording a 1-0 win over Yale and falling just a few plays short of a tie against a nationally ranked BC squad.
The team has built on its fall performances, going 3-0-1 in the new semester. The recent success has also brought them closer to .500 for the year.
In the last few weeks, Tufts has twice defeated Conn. College and also beat St. Anselm 4-0. The lone game that did not end in a victory was a 1-1 finish against the Harvard junior varsity team, in which Tufts allowed an own goal early in the game. The latest display of the team's ability took place last Sunday, when Tufts traveled to New London, Conn. and easily dispatched Conn. College 3-0.
"In the last four games, our team has really come together," sophomore tri-captain goalie Dalton Swing said. "Our defense has been playing amazingly, we have been getting some timely goals and we have dominated the midfield. It's impressive because that strong midfield of ours consists of all freshmen."
The first-years have become the core of the program. The starting midfield quartet of Dirk Fruitema, Louis Virgadula, Adam Cohn and Danny Santarsieri has shown great improvement over the course of the season and has helped stabilize the team. Although there are now fewer players than in the fall, the entire roster has shown a greater commitment, particularly the freshmen, which has paid dividends on the field.
"Last season we couldn't get everybody together every single game, so it made it hard to get a consistent roster," Swing said. "The two most important things are consistency and commitment, so when we got those together, everything clicked. We don't really have practices because it is really hard to find fields, so pretty much our practices are our games."
The Tufts defense, which has only yielded one goal this spring, has been rock solid in the past few games. Primarily composed of grad student Eben Stickney, seniors Doug Mann, Luke Nicholson and John Schonborn, and a trio of underclassmen in freshman Jordan Stutt and sophomores Matt Horder and Jim Frantz, the back line has not conceded a goal in the last 350 minutes of play. Thanks to the stalwart defense and some key saves, Swing has posted three shutouts and a goals-against average of 0.25.
Up front, the offense has outscored its opponents by a 9-1 margin thus far. Sophomore tri-captain Jon Zindman is the team's leading scorer with three goals and two assists and is also the club team's career scoring leader with 11 points in 14 games. Mann has also contributed two goals thus far from his defensive position while fellow senior Jake Gross is also a multiple goal scorer. Senior tri-captain Cyrus Kharas, who along with freshman Adam Cohn netted the other goals this spring, has teamed up with Zindman to lead the team up front.
While the recent success has been a welcome sight for members of the team, they are still struggling to gain some recognition as an official club team. The athletics department has told members of the squad that it would like to lend its support, but there has been little progress on that front. For a group that includes former varsity soccer players at Tufts, they are now finding it more difficult to earn respect as a club team - but at the same time, the club game has its perks.
"I myself did play for Tufts for two seasons," Zindman said. "A lot of the guys who play tried out. It is better to be on club in some ways. A lot of guys came together and a lot of them were rejected from the team. It is not the best system; it is very political and a lot of players come to us because we take everyone and everyone plays on our team. Maybe we aren't the most skilled team, but everyone out there wants to play and everyone is going to play."
According to Swing, members of the Senate have met with the athletics department recently in order to try to push for more recognition of club teams. The captains also met with Assistant Athletic Director Branwen Smith-King two weeks ago to try to gain support for the team.
"The Daily has already written a few articles about club sports' problems with being recognized," Swing said. "Since they came out, we met with the Senate and we met with [Smith-King], who said that the main reasons we can't have a recognized team are medical liability and the fact that they are afraid we would infringe upon the varsity soccer team."
In their minds, the players aren't asking for much: only to be recognized as an official club sport by the school and granted access to the fields for their games.
"The last two years we have been organizing things ourselves, and we can schedule games and are in the process of getting jerseys," Swing said. "It isn't really a funding issue - it is more in terms of recognition. We play for Tufts and we deserve to be respected and recognized as such. We lay ourselves out there every game. Personally I have been to ER twice for the Tufts name, so we would like to be respected and recognized by Tufts and be able to use our fields."
For now, however, the team will carry on and continue to play under its own banner. With possible games lined up against schools such as Northeastern, Holy Cross, Fairfield and Dartmouth, there will be plenty of opportunities to continue to build on the recent string of success. With their play, the members of the team hope to prove to be a competitive team that can be an alternative for athletes who seek an avenue outside of varsity athletics.
"The players themselves love the game and are out there to play soccer," Zindman said. "That is part of the reason we have club - so that everyone who wants to play has the opportunity. They come to us to get a good game in, to get a good team, and we are trying to keep it as professional as possible. We want to keep it as a legitimate team and when we are one hundred percent polished we will see where it goes from there."
Tufts will next take the field Sunday against Northeastern.
