After a hard-fought three months, the fate of the University of Tampa men’s soccer team rested in one game – the one game that happened to end the squad’s season prematurely.
On Nov. 12, the team traveled to Winter Park, Fla., to face Barry University in the South Region Semifinal match. Tampa had defeated Barry one week earlier in the SSC Conference Semifinal, and the team was certainly striving for revenge.
During the first half, both teams were silent. It was not until the 53 minute mark that Barry made the first strike.
The ball was shot hard and curved around Tampa’s goalkeeper David Niepel.
Barry took a 1-0 lead.
Frustration seemed evident towards the end of the game when Tampa received a yellow card; Barry then responded with one of its own.
The score remained 1-0 at the last whistle of the match and Barry advanced to the region final while UT returned to Tampa with their season over.
The UT squad’s hopes for a National Championship had been postponed for another year.
Lister Warren commented on the team’s game versus Barry.
“In the last game I think we did an excellent job,” Warren said. “We just couldn’t finish our chances.”
Warren’s statement proves itself true when comparing Tampa’s three shots on goal to Barry’s six.
“I know it’s hard to lose such an important game, but I feel like we did great this year. A lot of people didn’t really fancy us to have such an impact in a conference like the SSC.”
Coach Adrian Bush also shared his thoughts on the loss.
“Losing in the NCAA Tournament is devastating, and my heart goes out to all of our players and staff. Barry is a quality opponent that has been up in the top of our conference and region all year,” said Bush.
“It was a tough game that could have gone either way. The ball just did not seem to be going [in our favor] and this was the first time all year we were shut out.”
Although the Spartans were chosen third in the SSC and fifth in the nation during preseason, it may have been easy to denounce them as they dropped two of their first three games and lost their spot in the national ranking for a total of three weeks.
The Spartans finished their season with a record of 14-8-1 and 4-3-1 in conference.
During those games, a few players were able to use their skills to their advantage and become a great threat to opposing teams.
Warren totaled 12 goals on the season, while Ryan Griffin had seven and Kemal Malcolm tallied six. Niepel started 21 of Tampa’s 22 matches and collected a total of 79 saves.
Coach Bush noted the impact this team had on him this season.
“For me, it was a fantastic year and I am so proud of how the team grew each week.
“Not many people gave us a chance with us losing so many players last year, but we believed in the guys coming back and new players coming in.”
Unfortunately, the team will be losing yet another set of seniors, including Daniel Bergstrand, Andrej Gulan, Lister Warren, Chris O’Brien, and Juan Rivas.
Coach Bush has trained most of these men for the past four seasons.
“I want to thank this special group of seniors who have meant so much to UT men’s soccer; four straight NCAA appearances, four SSC Tournament championship games [and] 2008 Final Four and two South Region titles. You can’t ask for much more than that in a four year career.”
Although the Spartans did not reach their goal of a National Championship, they remain very encouraged by the quality of players returning to the squad next season with hopes to re-establish their spot as a national power.
Coach Bush mentioned that the pros of this 2010 group have most certainly outweighed the cons.
“It was one of my most enjoyable seasons as a coach; they are winners and gave this program everything you could ask for and more.”
Maya Todd can be reached at mtodd@spartans.ut.edu.