The Bears took the title with a 2-0 win against the University of Chicago. Case Western Reserve University took home the other half of the conference championship and the automatic NCAA tournament bid associated with it because of a 2-1 victory over Wash. U. on Oct. 30.

“We had most of our players back from injury, so that helped,” head coach Joe Clarke said. “We came with the mindset knowing we had to win, and Chicago is a good team despite what their record says.”

Starting goalie Jonathan Jebson returned to the lineup after leaving the previous game because of injury; midfielders Michael Flowers and Jeremy Kirkwood also returned from injuries. All three played important roles in the victory.

“[Jonathan Jebson] made a lot of saves,” Clarke said. “[Sophomore] Michael [McCarthy] did a great job in his place last game, but [Jebson] is a special goalie.”

Jebson, a sophomore, made four saves on Saturday, recording his eighth shutout in the process and bringing his goals against average down to 0.56. Wash. U. was second in the UAA with just 13 goals allowed.

“We knew we needed to win coming into the game,” Jebson said. “We were rattled the week before with two losses, but we only have three losses on the season, so we knew we just needed to play our game.”

Kirkwood scored the game’s first and winning goal in the 39th minute. Despite a tight angle, he managed to beat the keeper to the upper corner. Senior Cody Costakis was credited with the assist. It was Kirkwood’s fifth goal of the season and Costakis’ eighth assist, giving him the team lead with 18 points.

Freshman Pay Estakhri scored the game’s second and final goal in the 72nd minute, clinching the victory. Costakis was involved again with a long ball that beat the Chicago defense. This time Brian Wright was credited with the assist. It was Estakhri’s second goal of the season.

“I’ve been trying to find time for Pay [Estakhri] to play this season,” Clarke said. “He’s gotten a lot of time due to injuries, and he’s done really well during the time he’s been on the field.”

Despite being outshot 16-12, Wash. U. was able to control the ball and the tempo, leading Chicago in corner kicks 7-1. Wash. U. has scored a number of goals off corner kicks this season, and Clarke said corners were something they did rehearse a lot in practice.

“We won because we played hard and worked really hard,” Clarke said. “Chicago put a lot of pressure on us, but we managed to control the flow of the game.”

The NCAA tournament starts on Nov. 10, and the seeding will be released later today. It is a 60-team single-elimination tournament. The top four seeds receive first-round byes.

“We want to build off the Chicago game and ignore the losses. Our first tournament game is huge,” Jebson said. “Definitely we need to close up the spaces, stop fouling and block shots. It’s all about putting your body on the line and seeing who will sacrifice for the win.

“We want to prove to the country how good we are.”

The Bears are now 6-0, and Roman has scored in five straight games, with six goals overall this season. The Panthers’ only goal of the game came in the last minute and snapped a 438-minute shutout streak for the Red and Green.

“I thought Greenville was the most challenging opponent we’ve had so far,” head coach Joe Clarke said. “They were very organized defensively and tried to force turnovers in our end of the field and launch counters…They also exposed themselves because they would commit a number of players in our half to defend, and then we went through them. Tonight we converted our chances well.”

After conceding the first shot of the game and a few deep throw-ins, sophomore forward Jeremy Kirkwood put the Bears ahead six minutes into the opening half. The play began with senior co-captain Michael Chamberlain weaving through the Panthers’ defense and passing the ball to junior Zachary Query at the top of the box. Query proceeded to lay it off to Kirkwood, who one-timed the ball into the back of the net.

“They pressed us really hard at the beginning; we got a goal that wasn’t really with the flow of play,” Roman said. “Afterwards we kind of held our own.”

After the goal, the Bears began to dictate the rhythm of the period, outshooting the Panthers 12-6 and winning the edge in corner kicks 4-0. Despite a penalty appeal, some dangerous crosses and a number of blocked shots for both sides, the halftime score remained 1-0 in favor of Wash. U.

Sixteen seconds into the second half, the Bears doubled their lead. Sophomore midfielder Michael Flowers slid a through ball into the path of Roman, who toe-poked it into the bottom left corner of the net.

“We run passing patterns all the time in practice, so I knew Michael Flowers would be looking for the overlapping ball,” Roman said. “He slipped it in, and I managed to toe-poke it into the back of the net. It was good because not only was it left footed, which I never do, but it also was an important goal to go up 2-0, especially that early in the half.”

Eight minutes later, Wash. U. went up 3-0 as Roman bagged his second goal of the night. The Greenville defense failed to clear a deflected shot from its penalty area, and Roman hit a right-footed volley into the roof of the net from 18 yards out.

“I’ve had that chance in the past and whiffed completely,” he said. “This time I was able to learn from my mistakes, and this time I was able to turn myself around and hit it with power on goal.”

After the third goal, Clarke took out a number of key starters, including defenders Jon Geremia and Kenji Kobayashi. The Bears were outshot 7-4 for the remainder of the game and conceded a goal on a free kick with 24 seconds remaining. The 30-yard, left-footed effort curved around the wall and inside the post, past backup goalkeeper Michael McCarthy.

“We’ve really been working on pressing the ball all over the field, putting them under pressure,” sophomore Jack Fischer said. “They got a goal with [24] seconds left which was a little unlucky, but I think we played really well overall.”

Wash. U. hopes to continue its unbeaten start under the lights of Francis Field on Wednesday, Sept. 21, at 7:00 p.m. against Westminster College. The Blue Jays are coming off a 1-0 loss to Birmingham Southern College and have posted a 3-2-2 record this season.

With a 3-0 win over Rhodes College on Saturday night in Memphis, Tenn., the Bears have moved to 4-0 on the season and are outscoring their opponents 8-2 so far.

Senior forward Dylan Roman scored in his third straight game, coming in the 36th minute against the Lynx, already eclipsing the two he scored all of last year.

“[Senior] Kevin Privalle broke down the left-hand side, and he cut past the defender and crossed it in,” Roman said. “I gave a little shake-and-bake to my defender and cut in front of him and just volleyed it in.”

Aside from his new neon yellow cleats, Roman attributes his move from outside midfielder to forward and the increased number of crosses to his increased tally this season.

“I’m in the box a lot more, and I’ve had a lot more chances to score than in years past,” he said. “People have just [been] playing good balls into the middle, and I’m lucky enough to finish them.”

Head coach Joe Clarke has been using his leading scorer in a substitute’s role: Roman has played in all four games, but not started in any.

“I guess what happens is I come on later in the games, when the other teams are tired, and I’m supposed to run past them and score,” Roman said. “As long as I keep doing that it’s good, as long as it’s good for the team.”

Despite a six goal differential, the Bears have not been satisfied with the score lines of their first four games. Backline communication and finishing chances are two areas the team wants to improve upon.

“We have dominated most games, but we’ve struggled in breaking down defenses in the final third,” senior co-captain Cody Costakis said. “Some of it has been a lack of finishing, but I think more so we haven’t made ourselves quality scoring chances.”

However, Costakis believes the Bears did show improvement in the final third against Rhodes.

Converted center back Brian Wright, a junior, has been growing more comfortable in his new role alongside fellow midfield convert junior Kenji Kobayashi.

“We’re pretty close and really good friends,” Wright said. “He can yell at me, and I can take it, I can yell at him, and he can take it.”

Both Kobayashi and Wright feel more comfortable on the ball than many center backs because of their experience playing up-front and in the middle. This fits in well with the possession-oriented mentality of the team as whole.

“Some teams will just kick it long and chase after it and they’re more athletic and not as skilled,” Wright said. “But we just try to ping the ball and keep the ball. We have possession much more then the other teams do.”

Despite the new backline and dissatisfaction with creating and finishing the chances, the Bears moved up 12 spots in the national rankings from No. 19 to No. 7 during the first week of the season.

“We all really want to do something special,” White said. “We’ve seen what we could do last year, we made the tournament and had an unlucky break. This year I think we can [do] just as good and even better.”

Matt Lee | Student Life

Freshman Nik Patel dribbles the ball up the field on Oct. 21 against Principia College, a game that the Bears won 4-1. Patel and seniors Alex Neumann, Harry Beddo and Randall Schoen anchor a Bear’s defense that has allowed opponents only six goals in 15 games, and the team is currently 11-3-1 on the season and is ranked 15th in the nation.

With 10 shutouts so far this season, the Washington University men’s soccer team has a defense whose talent is hard to ignore. With a .40 goals against average, the Bears have outscored their opponents 28-6 in their first 14 games and have jumped out to an 11-1-3 record. Anchored by senior captain Alex Neumann and fellow seniors Harry Beddo and Randall Schoen, the Red and Green defense welcomed freshman Nik Patel to its back line this year. Student Life sat down with Neumann, Beddo and Patel to talk about the 2010 season.

Student Life: So, what goes into making a successful defense?

Nik Patel: I think defensive members are usually strong leaders of the team.…I’ve gotten a lot of help from [the seniors], learning my position, how to get into the Bears style of play. I feel that we’re constantly making improvements, and we want to continue to improve all the way to the tournament.

SL: You mentioned the “Bears’ style of play.” What does that entail?

NP: We like to play the ball a lot. We work on it all the time at practice, and coach [Joe Clarke] likes to build from the back. He doesn’t like the standard, just as soon as our defense gets the ball to send it straight up field. We tend to look for passes, give-and-gos and especially wingbacks—he likes to get them into play, have them bring the ball up and start attacks. I think it’s been working out really well so far in the season.

SL: What do you think when you look at the stats this year?

Alex Neumann: I think it’s pretty good. It can always be better, obviously. That’s kind of what we’re striving for. Every day in practice [we ask], “What can we do to get better and allow zero goals in every game?” Getting back to the fundamentals, at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how many shutouts you have if you’re not winning games, advancing in the tournament, doing well in the conference. Getting defensive plaudits is great, but I’d rather our team do well than our defense do well.

SL: Alex, Harry and Randy have been playing together for four years. What kind of dynamic does that create?

Harry Beddo: When I was a freshman, the center backs were here for four years, and it just seems like, on this team, the center backs are always the more experienced players. That’s what Joe always tries to put in his main focus, starting at defense and working from there. So our freshman year when we came, me, Randy and Neumann learned to play together. It’s also important, you need freshman on the team like Nik to keep the team going in the future.

AN: It’s also helped that Randy, Harry and I have been roommates for the past three years. I think that probably helps a little bit with our chemistry.

SL: What is the toughest offense you’ve faced this year, and why?

HB: I guess Rochester was the hardest just because of the field they play on and the style they play…They could chuck the ball into the box from 30 yards near the goal every time. They would just crash and crash again until the ball either went out for a goal kick or into the goal.

AN: I would agree with that, and then I think from a playing perspective, probably the hardest to deal with was Wheaton. They made a lot of good runs that we had a bit of difficulty tracking, and they also had some really talented, physical forwards.

SL: Do you approach each offense separately, or do you try to go in with the same game plan every time?

AN: There’s a little of both. There are obviously parts of our games that we think we’re really good at that we don’t change and we try to keep and take advantage of. For example, earlier Nik was talking about working the ball out of the back and really helping to build our attacks. That’s something that we don’t really change. But every offense has something new about it, and they all have their own intricacies. We spend a lot of time in the days leading up to a game trying to mimic the other team’s attacks so that we can practice and know how to defend them when it comes to game time.

SL: How does a back line work with a goalie or, in your case, goalies, to execute a good defensive strategy?

NP: I think that [Andrew] Serio being a senior and Jonathan [Jebson] being a freshman, they communicate a lot with each other to know what each of them want out of the defense. Serio likes to take leadership out of the back, letting us know where we have men, where he wants us to be positioned. I think he’s also helping [Jebson] out a lot and slowly, but surely, Jono [Jebson] will soon start helping lead us out of the back, too.

SL: Is there anything you learned playing defense as a kid that still holds true today?

HB: One thing I learned on my club team was that when the ball is up in the offense, that’s the time to start organizing the defense. That’s what Joe has stressed here, too: just continually talking at all times and never taking a break.

AN: I didn’t start playing defense until pretty late in my career, so I always used to do this move called “the disco inferno,” where when a guy got by you, you would just stick your other leg out behind your front leg, and when I got to actually playing defense, especially here, I realized that was not a good move. I guess what I did learn when I was younger was that it’s always important, even when it looks like you’ve already given up a goal, to never quit on a play. I think a lot of times here, it’s looked like an attacker is about to score a goal for sure, and then one of us will run back and make a clear tackle off the ball or goal line and save a goal.

Emory, one of Wash. U.’s biggest rivals, forced the Bears to defend early. The Eagles began the game with three corner kicks in short succession.

“We had a little bit of a scare in the beginning,” sophomore midfielder Brian Wright said. “We played well and defended, got everything out. We weathered the storm in the beginning and then started to pick it up.”

The Red and Green had several threatening chances to score as the first half closed but was not able to capitalize on any opportunities. Sophomore forward Zachary Query led the Bears with six shots.

“We knew they’re a very fast team, a very physical team, so our style of play is we like to knock the ball, play it in the middle and look for our playmakers in the middle and distribute well,” freshman defender Nik Patel said. “Technically, I didn’t feel they were as strong as us—so technically, we wanted to take advantage of them…we started building momentum, but we just couldn’t find that one, quick put-away.”

Patel, along with senior captain Alex Neumann and fellow seniors Harry Beddo and Randall Schoen, compose a back line that has made the Bears difficult to attack. In combination with their goalies, senior Andrew Serio and freshman Jonathan Jebson, the Bears defense has allowed just three goals in 10 games this season.

“Randy, Harry and Alex are the backbone of our team defensively,” head coach Joe Clarke said. “They’re experienced, and they bring the other guys along.”

In the second half, the Red and Green threatened on a free kick from senior midfielder Cody Costakis.

“[The play was one] we’ve been practicing where Cody can either serve [the ball] or play it to Nik,” Wright said. “Nik played a great ball over the top to Zach [Query] which was unfortunate—it just went wide. We’ve been working on those plays a lot.”

In contrast to the Bears, whose game strategy focused on passing and movement, the Eagles’ strength relied on long throw-ins and set pieces.

“They are really good in the air, especially their center midfielders and their center backs—they were really good at knocking everything back down and coming right back at us,” Wright said. “Their size is definitely a big threat on free kicks, corner kicks and the long throw-in. The is probably the most dangerous part of their game.”

After two scoreless halves, the teams continued for two overtime periods. While each team had offensive opportunities, neither could achieve the final touch for the win.

“We had periods where we were putting a lot of pressure on them, and they had periods where they were putting a lot of pressure on us—certainly in the latter part of the game,” Clarke said. “Both teams had some really good chances. I think it was a great effort by our team against a top team.”

The Bears continue play on Wednesday in a non-conference game against Westminster College in Fulton, Mo. at 7 p.m. They continue conference play on Sunday in a match-up against No. 2 Carnegie Mellon University (8-1-0).

Drew Koch

Sophomore Zachary Query maintiains possession against a Webster University player in a game on September 2 scoring one of the goals that night, he also scored the first goal in a game against Sewanee on Monday, Sept. 6.

Wash. U. 7, Webster 0

In the Bears’ rainy home opener, the story of the night was offense. The Bears scored three goals within the first 20 minutes of play and did not let up.

“We’ve been pumped for this game for a couple months now,” senior defender Harry Beddo said. “We knew that we wanted to get on them right away, and if we hadn’t scored early they would have had more and more confidence, but we had three goals on them relatively quickly.”

Six Bears scored: Beddo, sophomores Zach Query, Matthew Shelton and Brian Wright, and junior Pat McLean each tallied one, while junior Kevin Privalle doubled his goal total from last season, connecting with the back of the net twice.

The Bears effectively controlled possession the entire game. Few shots threatened the Red and Green net, and the ball remained in the Gorloks’ half.

“We’ve been focusing a lot more on attack this year,” Privalle said. “We’re returning lots of starting defenders and then we have some new freshmen defenders coming in, and all of them are skilled, so in practices we can focus a lot more on finishing and shooting drills and I think it definitely showed.”

Each player who dressed for the game saw playing time, which head coach Joe Clarke noted how substitutions kept Webster at a disadvantage.

“We worked really hard with the first group, we have a lot of depth,” Clarke said. “The second group came on and played with just as much fire and intensity and I think that kind of wore the other team down.”

Wash. U. 0, Birmingham 0 (OT)

After an evening of offense in their first game of the season, the Bears had trouble finding the net in the second game against Birmingham Southern. The team recorded only 11 shots, four coming on goal.

According to junior midfielder Michael Chamberlin, the Pumas’ formation made offensive opportunities difficult to find.

“They play with five guys in the midfield, it was more of a challenge to knock the ball around,” Chamberlin said. “Both sides had some chances, some good chances, obviously neither team put any chances away.”

Query added that Birmingham Southern’s talent was at a higher level than teams Wash. U. had previously faced. “They were very physical, very fit. They for sure were the best team we’ve played thus far,” Query said. “That kind of game, that kind of physical game is what we’re going to face later in the season, so it was a good early test.”

Two goalies, senior Andrew Serio and freshman Jonathan Jebson, continued to split time in the net. Serio played the first half, while Jebson was in the game for the second half and the duration of both overtime periods. In their first three games, the Bears have allowed only one goal in 290 minutes of play.

“Defensively, we’re very solid this year. [On our back line]…we have a lot of studs,” Query said “If we can just score this year, we’re set.”

Despite the draw, the Bears the team resolved to improve performance with a day of practice. Query noted that the team spent the ensuing practice day focusing on technical improvements.

“There’s a lot of things tactically that [coach] Clarke has been really emphasizing. It’s early in the season so we haven’t had a lot of time to put them into practice,” Query said. “We were just a little bit sloppy in the first game…in the next game we had a full day to focus…it really came through.”

Wash. U. 3, Sewanee University 1

In the final game of the tournament, the Red and Green jumped to an early lead. Query opened the scoring in the 17th minute, and Privalle, recently named University Athletic Association athlete of the week, followed with another goal just over four minutes later on an assist from sophomore Brian Wright. Query described that most of the goals came off of pattern plays discussed in practice.

“[An early lead is] really important, it’s really nice, it’s something we’re trying to do this year is jump out on teams we should be able to beat,” Chamberlin said. “Our forwards have been doing a great job helping to get those goals in early when we’re getting those chances.”

The Bears allowed one goal in the 55th minute when senior forward John Duncan was charged with a yellow card, allowing the Tigers a penalty kick. Tiger Samuel Edoung-Biyo failed to convert his shot, but capitalized on the rebound to cut the Bears’ lead to one.

Less than five minutes later, however, the Bears sealed the game when a pass from Duncan connected with Chamberlin in front of the net. The score was Chamberlin’s first for the season.

“The first goal is always special, to break the ice a little bit. It was a play that we’ve gone through in practice a few times,” Chamberlin said. “Duncan crossed an excellent ball in a perfect spot and I was able to beat the keeper to it, and that was all I really had to do.”

Ending the tournament with a win gave the team a positive impression of its play for the weekend.

“We were very pleased with the results,” Query said. “We learned a lot about ourselves…last year we would have played well but tied or lost. This year it’s nice to have the results on our side as well.”

The Bears are back at home for this weekend’s games; tonight they face Greenville College at 7 p.m. and Sunday’s game against Rhodes is set for 3 p.m.

Bears midfielder Zach Hendrickson works past a Carnegie Mellon defender. Hendrickson, a sophomore, had one shot on goal in the soccer team’s 2-0 loss to the Tartans. (Nora Jehle | Student Life

“Coming into it we knew this was going to be a big test for us. Carnegie Mellon is a great team,” junior co-captain Alex Neumann said. “They came at us hard, they were aggressive, really from the get-go, and that posed a few problems.”

Carnegie got ahead early; forward Ricky Griffin scored his first goal of the day off a corner kick in the fifth minute and followed up with another score 16 minutes later. The goals added to Griffin’s total of 15 for the season thus far.

“I’m not happy with the goals that we gave them,” head coach Joe Clarke said. “We need to make teams score better goals than we made them score today, but they got them and we really put ourselves in a hole.”

The Bears began to counter following the Tartans’ second goal and finished with 10 shots for the half. Despite several threatening attacks at the goal, Washington University was unable to score.

“We created some chances, and we weren’t able to finish them. Their goalie made a good save or two, and we just didn’t do what we needed to do when we got into great positions,” Clarke said. “We played much better after the first 25 minutes. We’ve just got to continue to improve; that’s all there is to it.”

Neumann said adjustments and advice from Clarke helped the Red and Green respond. After coming into the game, sophomores Patrick McLean and Kevin Privalle combined for six shots, while sophomores Zach Hendrickson and David Kanoff each had one.

“It was a combination of a few things: I think our subs that came in off the bench provided us with a ton of energy, they did a really good job,” Neumann said. “At halftime Coach Clarke gave us a really fiery pep talk and told us that he knew we could beat this team.”

Ultimately the Bears’ improved play could not overcome the early two-goal deficit.

“We’re a very slow starting team,” McLean said. “We always pick it up…But we picked it up too late.”

After allowing two goals in the first half, senior John Smelcer shut down the Tartans with four saves in the second half.

The loss was the first for the team since playing Sept. 22 at Principia. Both the Panthers and Tartans are currently ranked in the nation’s top 25.

“I think Carnegie is very good, and I think we need to be able to beat a team like that,” Clarke said. “We are good enough players to win against a team like that.”

McLean explained that starting games stronger will help the Bears’ chances in future games.

“[We need to] start strong. I’m not sure exactly what we’re lacking; it might just be the warm-up, but we always start weak,” McLean said. “We just need to get pumped up before the game better.”

The Bears face Fontbonne University on Tuesday, Oct. 13, at Francis Field starting at 7 p.m. The team will collect donations for the Sunbeam Foundation, a charity started by Wash. U. soccer alum Jeff LaBoskey that helps raise research funds to help find a cure for childhood bone cancers.

Sophomore David Kanoff passes the ball in a game on Sept. 16. Kanoff scored a goal in a 3-2 loss to Principia College on Sept. 22. (Jared Bullock | Student Life)

After consecutive trips across the Mississippi River, the men’s soccer team finished two games of a three-game road stint with one loss and one win against Principia College and Greenville College.

Both Washington University and Principia came into Tuesday’s contest undefeated. The Panthers, currently ranked eighth in the nation, began the game with a quick offensive attack.

“[John] Smelcer had to make an incredible save on an absolute bullet in the first seventeen seconds, and we faced three corner kicks in a row…after that onslaught, then we took over the game,” head coach Joe Clarke said.

Although Principia outshot the Bears 8-4 and held a 5-1 advantage in corner kicks, the teams played a scoreless first half. Clarke said the team missed crosses that would have allowed the Bears to be a scoring threat.

Wash. U. scored first with a goal from sophomore David Kanoff, his first goal of the season, but Principia countered less than a minute later to tie the game. Clarke explained that a formation change helped the team answer the Panthers’ defense and score.

“They had three in the middle, but we played with a tight diamond. Our two wingers pinched way in so we could try and cover their center three. In the first 15 minutes of the second half, they were finding that extra player too easily,” Clarke said. “We switched to a 4-3-3 of our own and that gave us more players high on the forward line, and I think that helped us get the goal.”

Later in the half, the teams traded goals once again. But after scoring on a penalty kick to tie the game at 2-2, senior co-captain Nat Zenner was issued his second yellow card of the game. The Bears played the game’s final 19 minutes one man down, and the contest was ultimately decided on a penalty kick by Principia’s Ricky Seaman in the last 30 seconds.

“There’s a need to minimize fouls because fouls turn into goals,” Clarke said.

The Bears rebounded from the loss Friday night against Greenville. Freshman midfielder Brian Wright said the Bears found strategies to create offensive attacks despite strong play from Panthers forward David Dunlop and their power on corner kicks.

“We swung the ball across the middle. We kept the ball and made the other team chase it…which helped us to open up, and we were able to get the ball wide and get it across and score,” Wright said.

The Bears netted the game’s only goal in the 33rd minute with a score by sophomore Kevin Privalle, the first of his career.

“We had the ball in the middle of the field, and then Dylan [Roman] passed the ball to me out on the sideline,” Wright said. “I beat the defender and served…all the way across the ball to Zach [Hendrickson], and he shot it toward the goalie and Kevin tapped it in right before the goalie got there. ”

The Bears outshot the Panthers 13-8, while Smelcer had three saves en route to his fourth shutout of the season. The team continues its road trip with its first University Athletic Association contest of the year on Oct. 4 against Emory University in Atlanta.

A Washington University men’s soccer player takes a shot at the first practice of the season on August 19. (Kivanc Dundar | Student Life)

The Bears, who began practice August 19, have been well trained by their upperclassmen leaders and their veteran coach, Joe Clarke.  Clarke wants to instill in his team a “synergy where it just seems like there is more of you on the field than the numbers.”

Clarke has been stressing fitness and getting in shape before the season because the Red and Green don’t have the height that some of the other teams have in the University Athletic Association (UAA).  Last year, the team used a defensive counter strategy. They gave up space in their opponent’s half until midfield where they double-teamed and trapped their opponent in order to start a counter attack of their own.  It’s still early in the season, however, making it tough for Clarke to pinpoint what type of strategy they will use this year, but the team will continue to run and pressure the ball.”

Senior forward John Hengel, the team’s leader in scoring, assists and points, agrees with Clarke. “We are going to be more prepared this season and watch more tape,” he said.  “While we are pretty small, we are fit.” He and captain Alex Neumann both share the same main goal for this season: “to win a championship.”

With more than a dozen new guys trying out for the team, there are a lot of new faces on the soccer field hoping to make an impact for the Bears. According to Clarke, Cody Costakis, a junior transfer student from Bucknell, is going to be a very important player on the team.

Even with the large number of incoming players, the team still has a backbone of core players who Clarke believes can bring the Red and Green a chance to win the championship. Clarke anticipates that Randall Schoen, Harry Beddo, Hengel, co-captains Neumann and Nat Zenner, along with goalkeeper Johnny Smelcer, will have very good years.

Several games to particularly watch out for are the UAA rivalry games. Sunday, Oct. 4, the team plays ninth-ranked Emory University in Atlanta. Hengel, along with the other four-year seniors, hope that the team can “finally beat Emory after three years of coming up short.” Wash. U. plays five games at home starting Oct. 11. Opponents include this year’s UAA preseason favorite, 18th ranked Rochester, along with No. 21 Carnegie Mellon and Case Western Reserve.

“The two games over the weekend against Case Western and Rochester will be a huge test of where we’re at in terms of fitness and as a team,” Neumann said.

The October 13 game against Fontbonne University is also great for fans to attend.  Clarke hopes that those who attend can donate one dollar to support the Funding

Foundation. A former Wash. U. player started the foundation after his sister passed away from Ewing Sarcoma, a very rare form of childhood cancer that receives almost no funding.

Neumann believes this year’s team is better than last year’s squad because of “a stronger team chemistry …and everyone playing for WUSTLFC, (football club) and not for themselves.” The team’s fan base has been growing “exponentially” since Neumann began his soccer career at Francis Field two years ago and he hopes “the fan base will keep growing this year and cheer us on to a UAA Championship.”