Despite an early first-round exit from the NCAA Tournament, the Saint Louis University men’s soccer team put together another strong season under coach Bob Warming, going 13-3-3, 6-1-1 in Conference USA.
The 2000 season in review:
Team Achievements
C-USA League Champions: The Billikens clinched the conference title outright by winning their final three games on the road. At Marquette, Brad Davis’ goal in the 86th minute gave SLU a 1-0 victory over the Golden Eagles. In Memphis, John Politis posted his sixth straight shutout, and Nick Walls scored in overtime to lead SLU to a 1-0 win. Against South Florida, SLU needed a win or a tie to capture the league title. The Bills came back from a one-goal deficit and tallied two goals in the final 16 minutes, to defeat the Bulls, 4-3.
C-USA Tournament Champions: SLU earned the number one seed and the right to host the C-USA Tournament with the victory over South Florida. In the semifinal, SLU defeated Memphis 3-2. In the championship, the Bills held off UAB, defeating the Blazers 2-1 and earning an automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament.
NCAA Tournament: The Bills hosted Kentucky on Nov. 18 in a first-round game at Robert R. Hermann Stadium. Despite controlling the tempo for the whole game and outshooting the Wildcats 21-7, Warming’s squad failed to find the back of the net. After four, 15-minute sudden-death overtime periods, Kentucky ended SLU’s season in penalty kicks. It was a record 39th appearance, since the inaugural tournament in 1959.
Season Highlights
Goalkeeper John Politis’ scoreless streak of 645 minutes in six straight shutouts helped lower his goals against average to .57, third all-time on the SLU single-season list.
Jack Jewsbury led the Bills with 31 points on 13 goals and five assists. The sophomore forward netted the game winner in overtime at Rutgers and notched a hat trick at South Florida.
Brad Davis was second on the team with 28 points on 11 goals and six assists. Davis scored the game winner against Marquette, St. John’s, Cornell and UAB.
The Bills finished the regular season with a five-game winning streak.
SLU led C-USA in goals against average at .81, with the defense posting nine shutouts.
Vedad Alagic ended his career at SLU with 40 points, on 13 goals and 14 assists. His seventh career game winning goal came against UAB.
Paul Nagy finished third all-time on SLU’s list for most wins, with 30. Nagy had a career goals against average of 1.09 with 13 shutouts.
Personal Accolades
Jack Jewsbury: Jewsbury was named C-USA Player of the Year and first-team All-Conference in addition to being selected to the Rutgers adidas Classic All-Tournament Team, Vanderbilt Puma Classic All-Tournament Team and SLU’s Nike Classic All-Tournament Team.
Brad Davis: Davis was named C-USA Freshman of the Year and first-team All-Conference along with being chosen as the Most Valuable Midfielder in the C-USA Tournament and the Offensive MVP at the Rutgers adidas Classic.
Joe Hammes: Hammes was named first-team All-Conference, and the junior was selected as Most Valuable Defender in the C-USA Tournament. He was also named to the Rutgers adidas Classic All-Tournament team and Vandy’s Puma Classic All-Tournament team.
John Politis: Politis was named second-team All-Conference and was twice named Defensive Player of the Week in C-USA.
Mike Hill: Hill was selected second-team All-Conference and he was also named to the All-Tournament teams at Rutgers, Vanderbilt and SLU.
Jason Cole: Cole was named second-team All-Conference and was selected as the C-USA Defensive Player of the Week. The sophomore was chosen for the All-Tournament team in SLU’s Nike Classic.
Marty Tappel: Tappel was third-team All-Conference and made the Rutgers All-Tournament team.
