With the preseason drawing to a close and yet another exciting campaign looming on the horizon, the men's soccer team is eager to take the field, especially after its successful 2009 season. Last year, the Polar Bears finished in fourth place in the highly competitive NESCAC with a record of 5-3-1 (11-4-2 overall). The Bears reached the NESCAC Semifinals and received a bid to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2003, but lost in the opening round match against Plattsburgh State when, after an initial 0-0 tie, they lost 6-5 in penalty kicks.
This season, the team hopes to build upon its success from a year ago and produce similar, if not better, results in 2010.
"We've looked good so far," said senior captain Ben Denton-Schneider. "We did well last year, but we cannot feel like we are entitled to anything because we had success last season. We just need to continue to have what brought us success last year—mental toughness and hard work—and hopefully our talent can help us achieve the success that we want this season."
Talent should not be a problem for the Polar Bears this season, as they are returning nine of 11 starters from a year ago. All-NESCAC goaltender, senior captain, and 2009 Team MVP Dan Hicks and All-NESCAC defenseman Call Nichols '12 will again anchor a rock-solid Bowdoin defense that gave up just 10 goals in NESCAC competition last season. On the other side of the field, the team's top four scorers from a year ago—Nick Powell '12, Tim Prior '11, Eddie Jones '12 and Michael Gale '13—will also be back to lead a balanced and dangerous Bowdoin offense that outscored its opponents more than 2-to-1 in 2009.
"We worked well with each other last year," said Denton-Schneider. "Hopefully, our familiarity with each other will help us to get off to a fast start and allow us to continue our success from last season. We want to improve on our finish from last season and finish in the top three in the NESCAC this year. "
Head coach Fran O'Leary expressed similar goals for the season.
"We are looking to build upon last season's success and hope to compete for a NESCAC regular season championship and in turn secure home field advantage for the NESCAC playoffs," he said. "We return a lot of starters who have performed exceptionally in big NESCAC encounters. Their challenge is to replicate and hopefully better their past performances."
The Polar Bears will face a tough conference test right off the bat when they square off against No. 22 Amherst at Pickard Field on Saturday at 1 p.m.
"Amherst finished one spot above us last year, so it will be a tough match-up," noted Denton-Schneider. "They're very physical and always a very good team. We need to match their physicality if we hope to have a victory."
Other noteworthy matchups this season include a home game against No. 14 Wesleyan on October 9, and a pair of tough road matches that take the Polar Bears to Middlebury on September 25 and to No. 3 Williams on October 16.
However, Bowdoin does not want to get too far ahead of itself—the team is currently focused on taking things one step at a time, starting with Amherst on Saturday.
"Our primary goals are to improve every day, compete vigorously and work hard for each other," said O'Leary. "It is vitally important that we focus on the process and not get carried away by outcome scenarios. Consistent competitive performance by our team will afford us the opportunity to compete once again in the upper echelons of the NESCAC. It is a great league from top to bottom and it would be foolish to predict an eventual winner. Our entire focus is on our first game against Amherst."