Senior defender Abdul Suleyman wards off a St. Olaf player, while trying to protect the ball. Sports Information.

Men’s Soccer team hoping to utilize added pressure from a subpar season so far in order to make the MIAC playoffs

The Gustavus Men’s Soccer team has struggled to a 4-5-3 overall record halfway through the Conference season, despite being voted overwhelming preseason favorites to win the Conference title.

Last weekend, the team traveled to play games in Iowa and Wisconsin, with the team falling to both Loras College and UW-Whitewater. The Gusties have lost three consecutive games and are now 0-4-1 over their last five matches.

“There is a sense of frustration right now due to the fact that we are playing well enough to win games and don’t,” Senior Captain Bret VanderStreek said. “Soccer is a 90 minute game, and in the second half of the MIAC season we can’t afford to come out and play anything less than a full 90 minutes.”

Junior goalie Luke Strom believes the team has a high level of talent but needs to work on using that talent for an entire game in order to win.

“This year’s team has lots of potential with a good core of returning players,” Strom said. “However, we have not yet played up to that potential for a full 90 minutes, so we still have some work to do.”

Despite returning 13 letter winners from last year’s squad, the Gusties now find themselves in jeopardy of missing out on a MIAC tournament berth.

“Our biggest struggle [has been] putting one game together where every single player on the team comes together and plays their role,” Vanderstreek said. “We have the ability to come back and finish another strong season.”

The Gusties currently find themselves seventh out of the MIAC’s 11 teams. Gustavus has never finished lower in the standings than fifth in Head Coach Larry Zelenz’s 23 seasons with the squad.

“Some of the results we’ve had this year have been disappointing,” Strom said. “However, we know what we are capable of, and [knowing] that is something that keeps us going.”

The Gusties are quick to point out that while their season is over halfway done, their Conference schedule is far from over.

“Another bright spot is that we are playing fairly well against very good opponents,” VanderStreek said. “Unfortunately [the outcomes] aren’t going our way, but we feel very confident we will end the season on a high note.”

The Gusties now look forward to a five game stretch against Conference opponents in which they can narrow the gap and move up in the standings.

“The rest of the MIAC season is going to be very important to us,” Strom said. “We need to get some results in order to make the playoffs, and I think that added pressure is going to help us excel.”