Soccer team heads to nationals
The Utah State men’s soccer team is headed to Memphis, Tennessee, for the National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association Tournament after winning the NIRSA Region-6 Championship for the first time in 12 years.
Pool play for the tournament will start Thursday when Utah State will face an 11-3 Florida State team at 3 p.m. Later that day the Aggies take on Deleware, 8-1-1 on the season, at 8:15. The top two teams from pool play will be placed in the championship bracket.
The tournament will wrap up on Saturday with the semi-final game at 11 p.m. and the National Champion will be crowned at 5 p.m. that day.
“We are big underdogs in everyone else’s eyes but we are fully confident we can win it,” said John Haddock, a junior defenseman for Utah State. “We have the toughest region in the country, and the team that wins our region pretty consistently wins the national championship.”
Head coach Shawn Casey had high expectations for his team this weekend.
“This team has great chemistry, and I believe that we can go all the way,” said Casey in his first season as coach for the Aggies. “I expect the same thing that they gave me all year: passion, intensity and the ability to disrupt other teams.”
The Aggies believe they have the talent but they also have to face the task of playing multiple games back-to-back.
“The biggest obstacle will probably be fatigue,” Casey said. “Playing that many games in a short amount of time, especially with a 20-man roster when other teams are bringing in 25-30 guys.”
Playing multiple games in a row is nothing new to the Aggies, as they played five games in just two days on their way to NIRSA Region 6 title last month. Team captain Andrew Nickerson has high expectations for the tournament.
“We expect to win the whole tournament,” Nickerson said. “We have a really good team this year. I don’t think the teams at nationals know much about us or will expect us to be as good as we are.”
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