2013 SIU Edwardsville Cougars men's soccer team

Preseason

Eleven players returned from the 13-7-0 team of 2012, including three 2012 first team All-Missouri Valley Conference performers: CollegeSportsMadness.com third team All-American and first team NSCAA All-Region forward Christian Volesky, Missouri Valley Goalkeeper of the Year John Berner, and first team NSCAA All-Region defender Matt Polster, plus MVC All-Freshmen defender Brett Lane. They were joined by eight freshmen who were named one of the nation's top recruiting classes of the season, two newly eligible sophomores, and five transfers from other schools.

Both Matt Polster and Christian Volesky were included on the watch list of thirty-four potential candidates for the Missouri Athletic Club's men's Hermann Trophy, college soccer's highest individual honor. Goalkeeper John Berner was named as one of twenty-eight candidates for the Senior CLASS (Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School^®) Award which honors players for athletic success, academic excellence, and community service.

The Cougars received votes in the pre-season National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) coaches' poll, the SoccerTimes.com poll, and the Top Drawer Soccer rankings. In the MVC pre-season poll, the conference's coaches picked the Cougars to win the regular season championship.

In pre-season exhibitions, the Cougars defeated Milwaukee 2-0 and IUPUI 1-0.

Season

Coach Kevin Kalish arranged a challenging schedule designed to help move the Cougars back among the elite teams in NCAA Division I. With only five home games, SIUE visited seven other states, including California and Florida, and met five teams that were in the 2012 NCAA Tournament, all on the road.

Opening in California against a strong Santa Clara Broncos team, the Cougars dominated the first half en route to a 1-0 lead. After an on-field scrap early in the second half left the Broncos short-handed, Santa Clara evened the score on a break-away, then forced the Cougars, who had difficulty finding the back of the net, to go into a second overtime before prevailing 2-1.

Traveling the short distance to San Jose State, the Cougars faced a defense that contained most of the Cougar's offense except for Christian Volesky, who got off seven of the team's nine shots (six on goal) and scored two goals. The defense allowed only eight Spartan shots, and John Berner pulled down five saves in his first shutout of the young season.

In the September 3rd NSCAA polls, the Cougars were ranked 26th in the national poll and tied for 2nd in the Midwest poll. Their opponents in the next two games, SMU and Tulsa, were 6th and 5th in the Midwest poll, respectively, while Tulsa remained ahead of the Cougars in the National poll at #22.

In the first game of Tulsa's Golden Hurricane Classic, the Cougars met SMU, who was 0-2-0 after facing #1 Indiana and #7 Notre Dame in the opening weekend. In the first half, the Mustangs outshot the Cougars, while the Cougars led in fouls, but the score was knotted at nil. Christian Volesky scored his fourth goal of the season only 1:25 into the second half, and SIUE won the statistics battle for the half on the way to their third road win in three games.

A tight, evenly fought defensive match at #22 Tulsa stayed at nil into the second half. The game began to turn against SIUE on a disputed Golden Hurricane goal. After Volesky was sent off, the short-handed Cougars kept pressing on offense, but a second Tulsa goal sealed the match.

After the loss at Tulsa, The Cougars dropped in the September 10th NSCAA polls to #27 nationally and 4th in the Midwest.

Playing without Volesky, the Cougars struck quickly versus Cincinnati, scoring in the second minute, but the longer the game went on, the more the All-American's absence was felt. The Bearcats pushed the action hard in the second half, eventually evening the score and sending the game into overtime. In the extra period, Cincinnati continued to pressure the Cougars, and, after a foul in the box, won the game on a penalty kick.

Following the loss to Cincinnati, the Cougars dropped out of the national rankings completely and dropped to 7th in the Midwest.

In the mid-week game at Omaha, the Cougars played their typical tight defense, although their offense was less effective, being call 14 times for being offside during the game. The first half saw only three shots by each team, none on goal, and ended tied at nil. Omaha tried increasing the pressure in the second half, out-shooting SIUE 12-4, but John Berner saved all four shots on goal. The Cougars took only four second half shots, two on goal, and for the second time in the season, Justin Bilyeu fired a thirty-yard free kick into the back of the net, giving the Cougars the 1-0 win.

Traveling to Chicago, the Cougars might have been deceived by DePaul's 1-4-1 record and appeared to unready for the Blue Demon's quickness and physical style of play (DePaul led the game in fouls 18-9). DePaul struck early, scoring two goals a minute and three seconds apart. Even though the Cougars bested the Blue Demons in shots, shots on goal, and corner kicks, they were not able to find the net as DePaul had six saves, and the Blue Demons prevailed 2-0.

A Tuesday night game at #18 Louisville pitted two young, freshman-loaded teams with similar styles of tight defense and ball control. One result was only two of the night's shots being on goal. In the midst of one traffic jam in front of the Cougar goal, the Cardinals scored the only goal for a 1-0 win.

UIC came into Korte Stadium on a roll, with four consecutive shut-outs and five straight wins. Less than four minutes into the game, the Cougars turned the ball over behind the defense, and the Flames struck quickly, taking a 1-0 lead. Despite dominating play for the rest of the game, SIUE was once more unable to find the back of the net and fell to 4-5-0 on the season and 0-2-0 at home.

The Cougars hosted Central Arkansas for Homecoming and the MVC opener for both 4-5-0 teams. SIUE celebrated as a Kendall-Moulin rebound shot went in, only to have the goal nullified by an offside call. With less than a minute and a half remaining in the first half, Kendall-Moulin found the back of the net a second time, and the Cougars took a 1-0 halftime lead. Once again, the Cougars dominated play, but once again their opponent capitalized on an SIUE turnover, and UCA tied the game twenty minutes into the second half, sending the game into the season's third overtime contest for both schools. The Cougars came out challenging hard in overtime, and Ellis headed in a crossing pass for his first Cougar goal at 91:15, and SIUE took the victory 2-1.

Back on the road, the Cougars traveled to Evanston, Illinois to face 14th ranked Northwestern, their third ranked opponent of the season. As had happened so often this season, the offense dominated play without finding the back end of the goal; nine Cougars took shots, out-shooting the Wildcats 12-6 with five shots on goal saved by the Northwestern keeper. The defense, however, limited NU to only 6 shots, none of them on goal, and after two overtime periods, SIUE gained a draw on the road, moving their record to 5-5-1.

On the Tuesday after the Northwestern tie, the Cougars returned to the NSCAA regional rankings, at 10th in the Midwest.

Traveling to Tampa to face South Florida, the Cougars dominated play in the first half, taking a 1-0 lead even with three regulars not playing. After halftime, the Bulls came out with a helter-skelter, hard pressing attack. While being out-shot, the SIUE defense withstood the assault until again making a careless turnover that helped set up a USF goal to tie the match. When Volesky was taken down in the box while driving toward a second goal, the Cougars objected to no foul being called, and the fourth official took the unusual action of calling a foul on Cougars' head coach Kalish, with the referee then issuing a red card. The game went into overtime, with both teams having opportunities to score in both extra periods, but ended in a 1-1 tie.

Returning to MVC play at Drake, the Cougars, playing without four regulars, yielded only the second early goal of the season as the Bulldogs scored on a rebounded shot in the ninth minute. Drake then outplayed SIUE the remainder of the game, out-shooting the Cougars 9-7, on-goal 3-1, and on corners 8-1 and emerged with the win, dropping SIUE to 5-6-2 on the season.

The Cougars faced Bradley at Peoria in their fourth consecutive road game. An evenly matched game, SIUE led in possession time, the Braves in corner kicks and goals. Bradly scored first on a rebounded shot off a controversial corner kick, then added an insurance goal in the final minute on an escaped save that rolled in.

Returning to Ralph Korte Stadium for the first time in three weeks, the Cougars had more lineup changes due to injuries as they faced Loyola for the first time as conference opponents. Although SIUE once more dominated the ball possession, they did little offensively. Two lackluster offenses went into overtime tied at nil. The Ramblers seemed energized by reaching overtime and pressed the action, getting a breakthrough that resulted in a loose ball being netted in the 99th minute.

Hosting high-scoring Evansville on Senior Night, the Cougars came out hungry for a win that would assure them a spot in the MVC tournament. The defense showed its usual strength, limiting the Purple Aces to only four shots and three corners, none in the second half. The Cougars' offense pressured Evansville all game, with thirteen shots and ten corners, and finally scored in the 76th minute, ending a scoring drought of over 420 minutes and earning the victory.

The regular season closer was at Plaster Sports Complex in Springfield, Missouri, home of MVC regular season champion Missouri State, the NCAA's #1 scoring defense. With the Cougars also having one of the nation's best scoring defenses, the game was expected to be a defensive struggle, and it did not disappoint in that respect. Regulation time ended tied at nil, resulting in the Cougars' 7th and the Bears' 8th overtime game of the season. In the 2nd overtime, 106 minutes, 25 seconds into the game, SIUE's Danzy headed a pass from Christianson down to himself and booted it into the net to give the Cougars the victory and the Bears their only conference loss of the season in front of the 4th largest home crowd in their 33 years of NCAA soccer.

The quarterfinals of the MVC Championship Tournament pitted the fourth seed Cougars against the fifth seed Loyola Ramblers, who had gained their first ever MVC victory at SIUE. The Ramblers showed unexpected toughness on both defense and offense at Bradley's windy Shea Stadium. The statistics showed SIUE controlling the first half, although Loyola managed to force more corners, and the teams went to the locker rooms tied at nil at halftime. The Cougars looked more determined in the early second half and scored in the 56th minute. Loyola then pressed harder, but SIUE scored a second goal on a picture-perfect counterattack. Again, the Ramblers stepped up the intensity of their attacking, and the strong Cougar defense turned back Loyola drives again and again but had difficulty clearing the ball from their half of the field. In a traffic jam in front of the net as the seconds counted down, the Ramblers finally managed to score with only 5 seconds remaining in the game, and the Cougars advanced to face the winner of the Evansville vs. Bradley game in the semifinals.

The MVC Awards were announced at the banquet held on the evening between the tournament quarterfinals and semifinals. John Berner repeated as MVC Goalkeeper of the Year and was named to the MVC All-Conference First Team along with forward Christian Volesky and mid-fielder Matt Polster. Defender Justin Bilyeu was an All-Conference Honorable Mention, and defenders Andrew Kendall-Moulin and Austin Ledbetter were named to the MVC All-Freshman Team.

In the MVC Championship Tournament semifinals, the Cougars faced regular season champion Missouri State only six days after handing the Bears their only conference defeat of the season. Missouri State wanted revenge and pushed the action in the first half. A corner kick in the 18th was flicked on, leading to a header off the crossbar with the rebound going straight to another Bear who headed it in for the goal. In the second half, it was the Cougars who pressed the action. Then an SIUE defender made a poor pass that went to a Bear with an unobstructed path toward the goal. Goalkeeper Berner came out of the box to challenge, but the shot struck his arm, resulting in a handball call and an automatic red card in the 74th minute. Playing a man down, the Cougars continued to drive toward the Missouri State goal, but the Bears' NCAA-leading defense held them off again and again to preserve their win, ending SIUE's season far below expectations.

At the conclusion of the conference tournament, midfielders Jabari Danzy and Matt Polster were named to the 2013 MVC Men's Soccer All-Tournament Team.

Cougars' goalkeeper John Berner was selected by the Colorado Rapids as the 35th overall pick in the second round of the Major League Soccer draft.

Roster

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Buff background indicates returning players from 2012. Pink background indicates players "redshirted" in 2012.

= Players "redshirted' for the 2013 season.

Schedule & results

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Visiting team on the left, home team on the right. Rankings from National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) polls.

Season

Post-season

2013 Missouri Valley Conference Men's Soccer Tournament

Statistics

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