With 1 chance left, SU seniors eyeing 1st postseason berth
Pete Hill realizes this is his last chance.
Hill and the rest of the Syracuse senior class enter the 2009 men’s soccer season with a now-or-never mentality after missing the Big East tournament during each of his first three years on campus. And because of that, all their energy is exerted toward focusing on reaching the postseason.
‘Each year we heard the older guys say, ‘This is our last year, so do whatever you can to get us into the tournament,” said Hill, a team captain and four-year starter on defense. ‘Now we are those seniors trying to get the younger guys to work their butts off so we can get into the postseason.’
The quest begins on the road tonight at Binghamton (7 p.m.).
One of the main challenges the Orange face this season is a tough conference schedule. Like last year, the conference is stocked with some of the most talented teams in the country: St. John’s, South Florida, Connecticut, Notre Dame and Louisville all rank on the Top 25 of the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA)/adidas pre-season poll.
Hansen Woodruff, the other senior captain, looks at the 2008 results to find assurance for the season ahead. He said that a few of the close losses should help bolster SU’s collective confidence in competing for one of the 12 postseason spots available in the conference tournament.
‘I would say except for the Notre Dame game, we were in every game,’ Woodruff said. The Orange lost to the Fighting Irish, 3-0, on Sept. 21 in South Bend, Ind.
‘Even against St. John’s, when they were ranked second in the country, we were beating them at one point and were tied with them for most of the rest of the game, said Woodruff.’ ‘So if we are able to play like that throughout this season, we should be really successful.’
That success may be contingent upon the Orange finding a way to compensate for the loss of seven seniors from last season, a group including 48 percent of its offense and leading scorer Spencer Schomaker. SU will likely need a strong effort from the younger players to make a serious postseason push.
From what Hill’s seen during preseason training, that won’t be much of a problem.
‘The good news is that we have a lot of guys who played together for three, four years now,’ Hill said. ‘They may not have all been starters last year, but they still had an important role on our team. Instead of trying to get a whole bunch of guys on the same page, we already have a strong number that already know how to play together and know each others styles.’
The Orange fell short of making the Big East tournament last season, losing a tiebreaker to Cincinnati for the final spot. Dean Foti, who enters his 19th year at the helm of SU, said missing out will give the players a chip on the shoulder that will fuel the effort to get back to the postseason.
‘It should serve as motivation for the players that were here last year,’ Foti said. ‘I hope that becomes a rallying point and serves as motivation for getting up for every game and take advantage of every opportunity they get to step on the field.’
Woodruff said the Orange also hopes to have an undefeated mark at home and win ten games on the year. If they can accomplish that, he said the players believe it may be enough for them to punch their ticket to the Big East tournament, a place the program has not been since 2005.
‘Guys tend to know how hard they have to work to have success,’ Hill said. ‘And I definitely think this group this year is putting in all the time and effort.’
