Men's soccer wins three to start off flawlessly

The Johns Hopkins men's Soccer team has started their 2001 season off with three impressive wins and an undefeated record. The team won the Blue Jay Classic last weekend, defeating Buffalo State, 6-0, and Virginia Wesleyan, 3-1.

On Saturday, the team, led by two goals and an assist by senior forward Matthew Doran, dominated the King's College Monarchs in a 5-0 shutout. The Jays did not score until 35 minutes into the game, but nevertheless, the game remained one-sided throughout the competition, as the Monarchs seldom got the ball into Blue Jay territory, and only managed to get three shots on goal, compared with theJays' 35. The team is now ranked ninth in the latest NSCAA poll.

Even though the team came away with a one-sided shutout, however, they were not satisfied.

"As a whole, we feel we didn't play that well," senior co-captain Ryan Kitzen remarked. "It's probably a good thing though; we know how well we can do, we know our potential, and we know that we haven't reached it yet."

The team, though it is not satisfied with its performance against the Monarchs, feels that it did pretty well under the unusual circumstances of a few injuries and the fact that senior co-captain Aerik Williams was forced to sit out the game because he was issued yellow and red cards in the Virginia Wesleyan match.

Kitzen and Williams feel that there are many characteristics of this year's team apart from those of previous years.

"This year we have one of the strongest freshman classes that we've had since I've been here," Kitzen says. "That fact has provided for more competitive practices and has made us a better team."

"We expect success, even though we're young," Williams adds. "We have a lot of young kids at a lot of key positions, yet we feel like we have a competitive team that can compete for the Centennial Conference Championship."

Though the team is young, Williams says that a lot of the players were playing together for the first time last year, so they "kind of have a year of experience under [their] belts in terms of the offense and a couple defenders."

Last year, the team went 15-3-2,and made it to the third round of the NCAA tournament. Their expectations are even higher for this year.

"If we got that far playing together for the first time," Williams says, "we should be able to get at least to the Sweet 16 this year."

Yet, the team also realizes that despite the advantages that the team has this season, they must accept that they have new challenges as well. One of the new things that each team in the Centennial Conference must deal with this year is a new playoff setup. Instead of having the winner of the conference go to the NCAA tournament, the top four teams in the conference instead have a mini-tournament, the winner of which goes to the NCAA tournament.

"No matter how we finish up at the end of the season, we have a tournament to play," Kitzen says.

"This year's challenge is to stay focused, because a lot of our division rivals last year have gotten even better," Williams adds.

Both Kitzen and Williams feel confident about this year's season and feel that there are many things that sets the Jays apart from other teams that can help carry them deep into the tournament.

"The fact that we know theres always room for improvement sets us apart," Kitzen says."We're a competitive team and we play to win."

Doran, who leads the team with 11 points this season, was recently named the Centennial Conference Men's Soccer Player-of-the-Week. The Jays will next travel to Swarthmore before returning home for games against Western Maryland and Ursinus.