soccer_center
A younger and revamped Virginia Tech men’s soccer team will be tested this season with a challenging schedule.
The Hokies will face off against eight opponents ranked in the top-20 preseason poll, including St. John’s and defending national champion — and in-state Atlantic Coast Conference rival — University of Virginia.
“The rankings came out again and the ACC competitors are stacked up,” said Michael Brizendine, head coach. “All league games are dog fights. I think that we have some underdogs (on the team) like we did last year.”
The Hokies will look to new faces this season to improve upon a 5-12-2 campaign in 2009. There are 15 newcomers to the team this season, 12 of whom are freshmen.
Despite their inexperience, the freshmen will see significant playing time right away, including forward David Clemens, midfielder/forward Mikey Minutillo and midfielder Jose Velazquez.
“I think as the young guys get more comfortable you’ll see more out of them,” Brizendine said. “We have some exciting attacking players and most of those guys are young, so we have to get those freshman nerves out of the way as quick as possible.”
The team played the College of William & Mary Saturday in a friendly scrimmage. Although the Hokies lost 4-1, Brizendine was proud of the way they performed.
“From a learning perspective, I thought it went very well,” Brizendine said. “The score doesn’t obviously reflect it. But it gives us something to build on.”
A number of underclassmen received substantial playing time in the scrimmage, including Clemens — who played for 60 minutes.
Even with so many new faces, the team will still receive contributions from returning veterans.
“Clarke Bentley, Jon Snyder, Greg Cochrane and Dave Fiorello will be essential pieces to the puzzle, and they’re going to have to do well for us to have some success,” Brizendine said. “All those players play up the middle, so they’re always involved in what’s going on.”
The season goal for entire team, from the head coach all the way down the to players, is one thing: improvement.
“We want to do better in our league, we want to do better in our out-of-conference results,” Brizendine said. “Ultimately this will lead us to the NCAA tournament which is a goal.”
A version of this article appeared in the Aug 26 issue of the Collegiate Times.
Leave a comment 0 Comments Write a letter to the editor
All letters to the editor must include a name, e-mail, daytime phone number and affiliation to Virginia Tech. Affiliation includes: year and major for students; position and department for faculty and staff; current city for alumni and parents.