Cole Frazier-

Last Sunday, the Gustavus Men’s Soccer season came to an unfortunate end with a loss to the University of Wisconsin-Platteville Pioneers in the round of 32. This loss came after defeating the Northern Atlantic Collegiate Conference Champions, the Milwaukee School of Engineering, 2-1 on Saturday. 

The Gusties lost to the Pioneers 1-0 from a goal scored in the seventh minute of the match by the Pioneers. That being said, the Gusties did not go down without a fight. After a first half where there were only four shots, all of which were by the Pioneers, the Gusties mounted an impressive 14 shots in the second half. Not only did they create 14 shooting opportunities, they were able to muster five of these shots on target. Unfortunately, all five chances were denied by the Platteville goalkeeper.

It would be easy to discuss how the Gusties feel as though they had been robbed of their NCAA run in this match, but that would do no good. Instead, it would be much better to recap their remarkable season instead of recapping this unremarkable match.

First: this team made history by becoming only the third MIAC team to ever go undefeated both in and out of conference for the entire regular season. Furthermore, they were also one of only four NCAA DIII teams in the entire country to perform this difficult feat this year.

Second: this team won the MIAC conference with an impressive record of 8-0-2. They only conceded six goals in conference games while scoring 22 goals. 

Third: this team was ranked in the Top 25 nationally after their first weekend of games. Their highest ranking this season was #5 in the entire country. For the entirety of the regular season, they were ranked #1 in the region.

Fourth: there were many individual awards given to Gusties on this team. The individual awards this year include: Fifth-year Jared Hecht (MIAC Men’s Soccer Defensive Player of the Year, MIAC All-Conference, MIAC All-Playoff Team, Men’s Soccer Defensive Athlete of the Week), Fifth-year Owen Johnson (MIAC All-Conference, CSC Academic All-District Team, and now holds the all-time assist record for Men’s Soccer at Gustavus), Fifth-year Brian Brown (CSC Academic All-District Team), Senior Egan Bedwell (CSC Academic All-District Team), Junior Spencer Skjeldestad (MIAC All-Conference, CSC Academic All-District Team, MIAC All-Playoff Team), Sophomore Joe Flory (MIAC All-Conference, CSC Academic All-District Team, Men’s Soccer Defensive Athlete of the Week), and Sophomore Simon Woods (CSC Academic All-District Team). There are still MIAC Academic All-Conference, Academic All-Region, and Academic All-American to be potentially awarded to players on the team.

Despite a disappointing end to the season, Gustavus Men’s Soccer has a lot to be proud of while successfully representing Gustavus Adolphus College both on and off the field. The future looks bright for the program, as they hope to continue to compete at the highest level next year.