2013 Preseason SLIAC rank
• Voted No. 1 by conference coaches
2012 season finish
• Defeated in first round of NCAA National Championship Tournament 2-1 by Dominican University in Illinois.
Returning for 2013 season
• Junior midfielder Mike Wells led the team in goals scored (8).
• Senior forward Pat McCaffery was fourth on team in goals scored (6).
• Junior goalie Brian Woodward led SLIAC in shutouts (8) and save percentage (.791).
Lost from 2012 team
• 11 seniors graduated, seven of which started at least 12 games last year.
• Two of the top four goal scorers: forwards Clint Carder and Carlos Espinosa (7).
• 2012 SLIAC Player of the Year defender Josh Sellmeyer.
• Midfielder Kyle Leonard, who led team in assists (4).
New to the team
• 55 incoming freshmen and transfers from community colleges and a Division II school. Only 22 named to varsity roster.
Season outlook
Head coach Michael Siener takes over for his first season in charge of the team. Siener said he had to ask a couple of the other coaches in the conference, ‘what were they thinking?’
“I know Greenville (College, Ill.), Fontbonne (University, Mo.), and Westminster (College, Mo.) recruited a lot of the guys that I recruited,” Seiner said. “We ended up getting most of them, so maybe they just have a grasp on what we have.”
Last year’s team had a group of seven seniors who were playing in their third year together. Siener believes the 2012 team had chemistry the current team is still searching for.
“We are going to have to wait and see how it all comes together,” Siener said. “Guys are still learning each other’s names and that’s my major concern and we have to get better in a hurry.”
Early results
The Webster men’s soccer team proved they have the endurance. In their first two games of the 2013 season, the Gorloks are 1-0-1 and have played four overtime periods.
Freshman midfielder Jamie Lawrence accounted for Webster’s first goal of the year against Millikin University (Ill.).
The next day the Gorloks tied Illinois Wesleyan University, Lawrence again scored for the Gorloks. The team defense lacked in the second half, surrendering two unanswered goals to tie the game at 2-2.
Reporting by Sam Masterson.
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