Coming off a 2-1 win over St. Bonaventure on Sunday, the Massachusetts men’s soccer team now finds itself in a position that seemed unrealistic a little more than a month ago – an opportunity to control its own playoff destiny.
While sitting in ninth place in the Atlantic 10 heading into last weekend, and one spot out of the playoff race, Sunday’s win over the Bonnies catapulted UMass into sixth place in the conference.
After starting the season with an 0-8-1 record, the Minutemen (4-11-1, 3-3 A-10) found their stride once conference play began. They look to continue their improved play and clinch a playoff spot as they host A-10 rivals, Dayton and Saint Louis over the weekend to conclude the regular season.
“We still have to get the results,” UMass coach Sam Koch said. “We’re just fortunate that we have to get them and that we don’t have to rely on someone else to get them.”
UMass’ first test of the weekend will be against the Flyers on Friday. Dayton (12-2-2, 2-2-2 A-10) is situated right behind the Minutemen in seventh place in the A-10 and is coming off a 3-2 double overtime win against La Salle on Sunday.
“They’re a team that’s been ranked as high as 18th in the country, and they’re big. Pretty much everyone on the team is over 6-feet except for one or two starters,” Koch said. “They’re a pretty combatant team, so the ball will be in the air a lot and we’re going to have to battle them and make sure we win the second balls and they don’t.”
Due to the Flyers’ height advantage, junior Josh Schwartz said that it will be important to “play big” and especially use their own height advantage in 6-foot-4 inch junior Matt Keys.
“[Keys] is going to be crucial in winning head balls and just competing with their big guys,” Schwartz said. “So as long as we can compete for those second balls, we’ll be fine.”
Koch added that he expects the Flyers, whose stadium will be the site of this year’s A-10 playoffs, to play against them with an extra sense of urgency as they also attempt to lock down a spot in the top eight teams that will advance.
“It’s a big game for both teams,” Koch said. “They’re a wounded tiger in the corner, so we have to be prepared because they’re not going to be holding anything back. They’re going to come right after us.”
Following Friday’s game, UMass will be back in action on Sunday for its season-finale when it hosts the first place Billikens (10-4-2, 4-0-2 A-10), who have only lost once in their last seven matches.
Koch said that St. Louis is a “different team” compared to Dayton and that the game plan against them will be much different. He described Saint Louis as an “inner-passing kind of team” that prefers to keep the ball on the ground more often.
“Saint Louis is a program that has unbelievable tradition as far as winning national championships and playing a really nice style of soccer that I think is really fun to watch,” Koch said.
Despite these sentiments, Koch stressed that his team is solely focused on the matchup against the Flyers for now..
“We go one game at a time,” Koch said. “Once we’re finished with Dayton, then we’ll worry about Saint Louis.”
Freshman goalkeeper Nick Ruiz agreed with Koch’s “one game at a time” mentality, justifying that only one more win would clinch a playoff berth.
“Obviously we want to win both games, but right now, we just have tunnel vision on Dayton,” Ruiz said.
Friday’s game against the Flyers is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. at Rudd Field. Sunday’s game is set for a 1 p.m. kickoff.
Anthony Chiusano can be reached at [email protected] and can be followed on Twitter @a_chiusano24.
