SMU junior defender Leone Cruz takes the ball upfield against St. Louis in 2007. (John Schreiber)
The SMU men’s soccer team will officially start their season this weekend as they are set to play in the University of Virginia Soccer Classic. The tournament, which will take place in Charlottesville Virginia, will also feature Old Dominion, St. John’s and Virginia.
The Mustang’s weekend will start as they play host in a game against Old Dominion on Friday. Old Dominion is ranked 27th in country by collegesoccernews.com and has 11 returning letterman including the pre-season Co-CAA Player of the Year Trevor Banks.
Though the Monarch’s are returning a good portion of last year’s team, they lost leading scorer A.J. Kulp along with defensive standouts David Horst and Yomby Williams. The Mustang’s will also get their shot at a young goalkeeper as ODU has two underclassmen battling for the spot after starting goalkeeper Evan Newton was lost for the season when he injured his elbow in a exhibition game against Virginia on Sunday. Newton, a junior, got the honors of pre-season All-CAA after leading the conference with 11 shutouts last season. This battle of ranked teams will get started at 3 p.m. Friday afternoon.
The Mustangs will finish up the weekend with a game against host Virginia on Sunday. Virginia returns 14 letter winners from last season, when the Cavaliers went 12-8-2 and advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament. Virginia is a young team though, returning only two seniors and having a roster that features 12 newcomers. The Cavaliers also lost leading scorer and All-ACC pick Yannick Reyering.
The Cavaliers will likely show up for the match ready for revenge as the Mustangs beat them mightily last year, 5-1, in the Mi Cocina Tournament at SMU. This match is set for 7:00 p.m. on Sunday.
While the team will have new faces on the field, the most notable newbie will be on the sideline- Tim McClements will coach his first game as the Mustang’s head coach. While the face may be new, McClements says he did not make any major changes in the pre-season or the game plan “the biggest difference was the heat, it was so mild that our guys were able to get more work in and more fitness.”
As for the play on the field, McClements said that what happens with the other teams will not effect what they do “This is just the first phase of our season, the tournament phase, which normally you would think comes at the end but we have four tournaments on four different weekends, our goal is simply to win and prepare our self for conference play.”
The Mustangs are ranked 12th nationally by collegesoccer.com and 17th by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America poll.
