While students bid adieu to their summer vacations with one final hoorah, the men's soccer team has been hard at work in preparation for the upcoming fall season.
With Friday night's game against Pittsburgh starting the season, head coach John Astudillo and the Bulls enter the year looking to follow up on a strong 2008 campaign.
After finishing the regular season with an 11-3-4 record, Buffalo rolled through the opening round of the Mid-American Conference tournament before falling to Northern Illinois 1-0 in the semi-finals. Being ousted from the tournament has become very familiar to Astudillo and the Bulls since they joined the MAC in 1998.
Entering his 21st season as the Bulls head coach, Astudillo is the winningest coach in school history since taking over the program in 1979. He has compiled 176 career wins with a .530 career winning-percentage.
Despite advancing to the MAC Tournament semi-finals each of the past five seasons, Buffalo has yet to capture a conference championship.
With summer training camp now complete, the Bulls expect nothing less than a MAC Championship trophy in November.
'Every year you go in with the expectation to win,' said senior midfielder Alex Marrello. 'We set team goals every year and this year we expect to win the MAC Championship and qualify for the NCAA Tournament.'
While expectations are high in the locker room, the Bulls are surrounded by questions on the field.
Robert Shuttleworth, last year's starting goalkeeper, opted to leave school early for the New England Revolution of Major League Soccer, leaving a significant void between the pipes. Shuttleworth gave up just 13 goals in 20 games last season and was the backbone of the team.
Shuttleworth leaves big cleats to fill, but Astudillo believes sophomore goaltender Nick Fetterman is the right man for the job.
'Nick Fetterman is going to do a good job for us,' Astudillo said. 'He's been looking for his chance and is coming along very well. We're going to rely on his hands and he's very, very capable.'
Along with Shuttleworth, the Bulls lost top scorers Dan Gwyther and Dominic Oppong, as well as starters Lee Catchpole, Justin Fredsell, Dezi Lara, John Martin and Marc Stencel. Stepping into contributing roles will be senior midfielders Mateo Escobar, Alex Mihal and Rich Wilson, junior forward Juha Kaartoluom, and freshman defenseman Akil Howard.
With a young nucleus of players coming in to fill the vacant positions, the Bulls have yet to find their identity. But that hasn't changed Astudillo's expectations.
'We're trying to find out exactly what type of team we are going to be, but my expectations are quite high,' Astudillo said. 'What we're going to get, we'll obviously have to wait to find out. We've had two exhibition games. We've played well and not so well. So I think the outcome is going to be a little bit uncertain right now.'
The success of the team ultimately lies with its captains. Marrello, along with senior forward Dan Bulley and defenseman Steffan Thoresen, are the unquestioned leaders of the Bulls. Their performances on the field and guidance in the locker room could decide how the season plays out.
'[Marrello, Bulley and Thoresen] are [the] heart and soul of this team,' Astudillo said. 'How they go and what they set out to do is going to determine how we do.'
Buffalo opens its season Friday night in the West Virginia Tournament against Pittsburgh and follows with a game against host West Virginia. The Bulls will then travel to Marquette and DePaul to conclude a stretch of four-straight games against Big East teams.
'It's absolutely essential we get off to a quick start and don't have any letdowns early on. The hard part of our schedule comes at the beginning,' Marrello said. 'To get that NCAA bid we absolutely need to start well and can't have any hiccups in the beginning. Those are tough teams and we need good results to be able to get where we want to go.'
E-mail: spectrum-sports@buffalo.edu
Photo: Breadchastick / Wikimedia Commons
