The preseason and non-conference games are history for another year. The conference portion of collegiate soccer schedules are now underway all over the country.
For the Division I power conferences, being competitive within a conference also means being competitive at a national level.
Not so much different for the top teams in Division III, which offers no athletic scholarships.
Washington & Lee University broke open a scoreless game and handed Hampden-Sydney College a 2-0 loss in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference opener for both teams.
That is not the conference start Hampden-Sydney head coach Josh Laux had hoped for!
Without athletic scholarships as a recruiting incentive, D-III teams routinely bring in large freshmen groups eager to see if success in high school can transfer to the college game.
Laux greeted 18 newcomers when practice began in Hampden-Sydney, Va. He also returned a solid core of juniors and seniors, who had survived the process the last couple of years.
The veteran coach spoke before the season began about H-S soccer in the past and about the future, and about his 2014 team.
“Quite honestly, we need to get the edge back we had from 2005-2010,” said Laux. “Nobody wanted to play us during that time because we were just ultra competitive and outworked everyone.
“We were always ranked toward the top of the region. In 2011, we were a little unlucky because we beat all the top ODAC teams, but fell short in other games. Last year was completely unacceptable by my standards.
“We played well enough to win a ton of games, but we had some very bad mental lapses and lost a number of crucial games by one goal because we squandered easy goal-scoring opportunities and committed fouls in bad areas that led to us conceding restart goals.
“The league (ODAC) is just brutal. There has to be a kind of desperation to win, and we did not show that last season. We need the edge back.”
This year Hampden-Sydney will play its home games at night having moved them to Hellmuth-Pritzlaff Turf Field. Laux feels that will be a boost for the program, and an opportunity for more students to attend games.
“Having night games is a really big deal for us,” he said. “We are hoping to create an awesome soccer atmosphere while also providing our students something extra to do at night.”
Hampden-Sydney got off to a 3-1 start this season, but the loss to W&L dropped the Tigers’ record to 3-3.
Neither early wins, or a conference loss, make a season. There are games to go to get to where Laux and his Tigers have been in the past.
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