It was a rough start to the season for the Billikens men’s soccer team. After the homecoming loss to Tulsa the Bills were dealing with a 3-4 record, a disappointed head coach, and a young team that was still hesitant on the field and unsure of themselves off of it. SLU had dropped from their Top 25 national ranking, and was facing their conference schedule with an uneasy feeling of dissatisfaction in the locker room.
But since that homecoming six weeks ago, the Billikens have caught fire. Outscoring their opponents 21-6 in conference play, and winning 9 of their last 11, Saint Louis has never been stronger than they are right now, and never been more ready for tournament time.
“We’re playing our best soccer right now,” says sophomore Mike Roach. “We didn’t start the way we wanted to, but we rebounded well, won some big games, and now we’re peaking at the right time.”
Roach leads the team with 8 goals in his 13 games, but was plagued with an early injury that kept him out of a handful of early season losses.
“We’ve had to deal with injuries all year,” says head coach Dan Donigan. But he echoed Roach’s sentiment that the Billikens have hit their stride at the right time. “Now, the team is healthy, and things are aligning well for us.”
The Billikens head into this weekend’s Atlantic 10 Conference Tournament as the number 2 seed with a 7-2 record in the A-10 and a 12-6 mark overall. By clinching the 2-seed, SLU also has the privilege of enjoying a first round bye this weekend in Rhode Island.
The tricky thing is, the Billikens could play any number of three teams on Friday evening, and they won’t even know the time of the game until the night before. With Dayton as the number 1 seed, they are guaranteed to play the lowest seed in the tournament at all times. This leaves SLU with either Fordham, Charlotte, or Rhode Island in the Conference Semifinals on Friday.
Freshman Nick Maglasang likes where the Billikens are, though. “It was a big help to get that first round bye,” says Maglasang. “We’ll get a great scouting report on whoever we play because we get to sit in the stands and watch them the night before.”
Coach Donigan and his players are not concerned with the color of the other jerseys. “We don’t care who we play,” says Donigan. “We know we can beat anybody in this conference, and we like where we’re sitting.”
“We’re ready for whoever we play, whenever we play them,” says Roach. Saint Louis’ two conference losses came to Charlotte and Dayton, but every member of the team will tell you that they are ready to compete again, and they are confident in themselves this weekend.
“The team has a great, competitive attitude,” says Donigan.
Even young guns like freshman goalkeeper Mark Pais display that attitude going into this weekend. “You have to have a mindset of one game at a time,” says Pais. “But our ultimate goal is to win the conference championship, and we have a good enough team to knock down whoever stands in our way.”