Collegiate Times

Virginia Tech's men's soccer team has experienced unprecedented success in recent years. Since 2003, Tech's soccer team has gone to the NCAA championship tournament four times, including last year's trip to the semifinals, where it lost to eventual national champion Wake Forest.

The recent success is in part due to Patrick Nyarko, who was selected seventh in the past Major League Soccer Superdraft.

However, you cannot overlook the tremendous input from the rest of the team as well, including great play from goalkeepers Markus Algner and Brendan Dunn. Once again Virginia Tech faces a difficult ACC schedule, and many around the program are optimistic about the potential of this team.

On the heels of last year's success, head coach Oliver Weiss has put together a good recruiting class, with 15 signed players planning to attend this fall. Weiss expects output from each of these 15 incoming athletes.  Weiss looks for significant playing time from seven. One of the key things Weiss plans to get out of the incoming freshman is offensive production.

Two of the freshman who have planned to help in this effort are forwards Emanuel Akogyeram and Philip Asewah.

Defensively, the team has a bit more veteran presence, but they are also looking to freshman to sure it up. One of the players who is planned to do this is Jan Hausfeld, a defender out of Germany.

Weiss expects all players in his class to make contributions to help the team to achieve success.

"They are hungry, humble, and hardworking - the three Hs," Weiss said. "They are motivated, sophisticated, have the intangibles and a certain cheekiness about them."

With the incoming freshman and the senior leadership from the current team, Weiss and his squad hope to make another run at the NCAA tournament.