Men's soccer team: finishing where they left off

By: Courtney Burchett

Posted: 9/28/06

The 2006 season has already proven to be a challenging one for the Wittenberg men's soccer team. After finishing 7-6-6 overall, and 4-2-3 in the NCAC during the 2005 season, the Tigers have a lot to prove this season. So far, the Tigers have faced such foes as Otterbein, DePauw, Muskingum, and Cedarville. Posting a record thus far of 4-5-1 and 0-1 in the NCAC, the Tigers know that they have a lot of improving to do, in order to win a conference title. In order to do this, the Tigers must defeat conference rivals, and the competition is pretty steep.

Senior defender Kenny Proops has high hopes for the rest of this season, and looks forward to the game against conference opponent Ohio Wesleyan.

"I am looking forward to the game against number four ranked Ohio Wesleyan," Proops said. "Ohio Wesleyan is our toughest opponent, and we have to beat them in order to fulfill our goals of winning the conference and advancing into the NCAA tournament."

Sophomore forward Matt Borland utters similar remarks as his teammate Proops.

"I really am excited to play Ohio Wesleyan," Borland said. "They are a very deep team and they always provide us with a challenge. Also, it would be nice to beat them and win the conference championship. That has always been a team goal of ours."

In addition to playing Ohio Wesleyan, the Tigers have already faced tough competition this season.

"The most challenging game so far this season was the one against Calvin," Proops said. "We ended up in a 0-0 draw, but Calvin was a final four team last season, and that was a pretty good outcome."

Borland has other ideas on what game provided the Tigers with their greatest test so far.

"The Wilmington game was a really tough one," Borland said. "We ended up losing 2-6, but I know that we could have played a lot better, and provided them with a better challenge."

One of the main reasons that the team has succeeded thus far, and improved over the course of many years is because of the strong chemistry that the team has.

"Our team is one of the most tightly knitted teams on campus," Proops said. "The bonds of friendship that I have formed playing soccer at Wittenberg are far more important than what any win-loss record could show."

Borland strongly agrees with Proops's remarks.

"The team has a great chemistry," Borland said. "It is a nice mixture of grades and people. Everybody tends to get along really well."

Along with being closely bonded, the seniors also help the team's success.

"We have six seniors on the team," Proops said. "All of which provide a good deal of team leadership and guidance for the rest of the team."

Borland echoes Proops's comments.

"There are some younger leaders on the team," Borland said. "But, the seniors set the tone a lot of the time, and helped to get us focused at practice and at games."

The Tigers hope that this season they can finish higher than fourth in the conference like they did a year ago. Just recently losing in their first conference match against the Big Red of Denison, the Tigers have to step up their play in order to do this. Their next game is another conference game against Oberlin, on Saturday Sept. 30 at 7p.m..