The men’s soccer team has been playing solidly since the beginning of the season. At the writing of this article, the players have only lost to four teams and are ranked 18th in the conference.
Unfortunately, the losses came at a large cost because they were in conference play, so Florida Tech and Lynn are ahead of the team in current conference standings. But with the recent victory over Eckerd College, there is a new beacon of hope that the Tars will win the Sunshine State Conference Tournament.
“I think we have done great so far. We are in a good spot to host regionals,” said Rafael Faria ‘14. “We started the season really and then we had a couple touch losses but they helped us learn to be a stronger team.”
The Tars lost to Florida Tech 1-2 in a matchup that could have gone both ways. Florida Tech was also the same team that eliminated the Tars from the Conference tournament last year.
“We have been waiting for this game. They beat us, and now we want to prove who’s the bett er team and one of our goals is to win this conference tournament,” added Faria. “And to do that, we need to beat Florida Tech, so we are confi dent we are going to get the job done.”
Defenseman Matt Bauchle ‘12 stated, “I think we’ve had a pretty successful season so far. Obviously, it was a huge honor for us to be ranked as high as number one during the reason but we’ve had our ups and downs.”
Following the Sunshine State Conference tournament, the Tars came out on top. They defeated Florida Tech in the semi-finals of the tournament 3-0 and defeated Barry 2-1 in the finals.
“The wins were a clear result of all the work we put in during the preseason and summer,” Faria said. “We are excited that we won the tournament championship, something we haven’t done in many years. But we have to move on to Regionals because our goal is to reach the Final Four again.”
Unfortunately, the Tars were unable to defeat Barry in the first round of the NCAA Division II Super Region Tournament in a disappointing 1-3 loss.
Although Rollins was able to defeat Barry in the conference tournament 2-1, the Tars were unable to repeat triumph. This caps the season for the Tars, and although they did not duplicate the success of the prior season, hopes are for the following season to come.
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