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by BRYAN LAIL
Intern Sports Reporter
Appalachian State head coach Shaun Pendleton entered his second season at the helm of the Mountaineers’ young soccer program fully ready to endure the trials and tribulations that come with rebuilding a struggling program.
Early on those trials were often and pronounced.
The Mountaineers were teetering on the brink of falling completely out of playoff contention as they went on the road to face Davidson Oct. 14.
It was that 1-0 win
against the conference-rival Wildcats which pulled the Apps off their
downward slope in the competitive Southern Conference and left a dim
playoff hope alive.
“Even
though we were hitting a bad run, we really had confidence going into
games because we knew what we were capable of doing,” senior forward
Arie Muniz said. “Eventually, it’s going to come through.”
Ten days
later, their playoff hopes ended with a bitter loss to College of
Charleston, the same team which knocked the Mountaineers out of the
SoCon playoffs in a first-round loss last November.
But unlike last November, the Mountaineer drive did not end there.
Their
season may be over, but Pendleton’s three-year plan towards winning the
SoCon and earning an NCAA tournament bid is still on schedule, and it
is a plan that Appalachian’s players appear to be buying in to.
“If they
keep plugging away, they can get it done [next season],” Muniz said.
“We just finished up a tiny bit short. The conference tournament might
have been a little bit different with us peaking at the right time
[this season]. We definitely could have shook things up in there.”
Pendleton’s
plan may even be a bit ahead of schedule after the Mountaineers ripped
off four consecutive wins in closing what was originally perceived to
be a very disappointing season.
“I think
we all kind of realized we needed to step up and play better as a
team,” forward Sean Dreybus said. “We fought through a lot of injuries
at the beginning of the season. These last four games we were just
really strong, everybody was there and accounted for. We ended up on a
good note, too bad it happened so late.”
The Apps
will only lose two seniors to graduation this off season; Muniz, their
leading scorer and defender Kenny Orelaja will be missed, but not to a
crippling degree.
Young and exciting faces have begun to emerge through the Mountaineers final stretch of 2009.
Dreybus and defender J.J. Elder led the team this year in goals scored behind Muniz’s 17 with 5 apiece.
Freshmen forwards Nate Latigue and Tyler Regan also displayed flashes of offensive potential earlier in the season.
“It’s
nice because J.J. also plays on the left side,” Dreybus said. “I guess
that kind of shows that the left side held up their end of the bargain.
It’s a building block, we all want everybody to get on the board.”
Next
season marks the crowning point of the plan which Pendleton put in
place during his first year as head coach at Appalachian.
But reaching that mountaintop will depend more on the players than the coach.
Which Appalachian team will show up next season, the one from the first half of 2009, or the second?
“We’ve
got a great base to work from, our number one goal next year will be to
have a winning season, win the SoCon and then get in an NCAA playoff
spot,” Pendleton said. “That would be a wonderful three-year
progression for us, it would turn this program upside down.”
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