Pretty cool:
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – The Marshall men’s soccer program was picked No. 15 overall in the College Soccer News Preseason Top 30 poll this week. The Thundering Herd is the highest tabbed team from Conference USA with Kentucky at No. 21 and Charlotte right behind at No. 22.
Head coach Chris Grassie in just his third year, pushed the Herd in to the national conversation.
“We’re very excited to get started,” coach Grassie, the 2019 Conference USA Coach of the Year, said. “Hopefully we are able to get the virus under control in this country and we can get this season going in the spring. While it’s always nice to be mentioned in the top 25 with some storied college soccer programs, when we do get going, I think we can use this ranking as motivation to prove to everyone that we can surpass last year’s achievements.
“We have brought in some outstanding recruits to fill the big shoes left by our graduating class. However, we bring back nine of our top 10 goal-scorers and we have also added to that group, so we have the potential to achieve great things.
“From the first day I got here, the goal has been to win a national championship, and we feel we are a step closer to that goal going into this season.”
Marshall is coming off its best season in program history. The Herd entered the Top 25 national poll for the first time since 2001. The squad then went on to win the Conference USA Regular Season Championship and the Conference USA Tournament Title to advance to the NCAA Tournament for the first time. Marshall entered the postseason as the 11th-ranked team in the country and hosted a second round match against West Virginia. After defeating the Mountaineers, the Herd moved on to the Sweet Sixteen. Marshall ended the season with a 16-3-3 overall record as well as 5-1-1 in C-USA action, and a final ranking of 11th.
Along the way, coach Grassie’s squad picked up numerous individual accolades from Player of the Week selections, to all-conference awards, all-region honors, Southeast Region Coaching Staff of the Year, a CoSIDA Academic All-American (Jonas Westmeyer), a United Soccer Coaches Academic All-American (Illal Osmanu) and a United Soccer Coaches All-American (Milo Yosef). In all, 41 total honors were handed out to the C-USA double Champions.
Marshall returns all-conference performers Milo Yosef, Jamil Roberts, Pedro Dolabella, Jan-Erik Leinhos, and Max Schneider as well as featured starters Vitor Dias, Collin Mocyunas, Vinicius Fernandes and Ryan Sirk. This group combined for 40 of the Herd’s 45 goals, 33 assists and 14,683 total minutes on the pitch.
The biggest shoes to fill will come on the defensive side with the graduations of goalkeeper Paulo Pita and centerbacks Illal Osmanu and Carlos Diaz-Salcedo. However, with coach Grassie’s abilities to keep bringing in great talent, the Herd will have players ready to step up and assume a bigger role.
For all of the latest information on the Marshall men’s soccer team, follow the Herd on Twitter @HerdMSoccer, Facebook at Marshall University Soccer and on www.herdzone.com.
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – The Marshall men’s soccer program was picked No. 15 overall in the College Soccer News Preseason Top 30 poll this week. The Thundering Herd is the highest tabbed team from Conference USA with Kentucky at No. 21 and Charlotte right behind at No. 22.
Head coach Chris Grassie in just his third year, pushed the Herd in to the national conversation.
“We’re very excited to get started,” coach Grassie, the 2019 Conference USA Coach of the Year, said. “Hopefully we are able to get the virus under control in this country and we can get this season going in the spring. While it’s always nice to be mentioned in the top 25 with some storied college soccer programs, when we do get going, I think we can use this ranking as motivation to prove to everyone that we can surpass last year’s achievements.
“We have brought in some outstanding recruits to fill the big shoes left by our graduating class. However, we bring back nine of our top 10 goal-scorers and we have also added to that group, so we have the potential to achieve great things.
“From the first day I got here, the goal has been to win a national championship, and we feel we are a step closer to that goal going into this season.”
Marshall is coming off its best season in program history. The Herd entered the Top 25 national poll for the first time since 2001. The squad then went on to win the Conference USA Regular Season Championship and the Conference USA Tournament Title to advance to the NCAA Tournament for the first time. Marshall entered the postseason as the 11th-ranked team in the country and hosted a second round match against West Virginia. After defeating the Mountaineers, the Herd moved on to the Sweet Sixteen. Marshall ended the season with a 16-3-3 overall record as well as 5-1-1 in C-USA action, and a final ranking of 11th.
Along the way, coach Grassie’s squad picked up numerous individual accolades from Player of the Week selections, to all-conference awards, all-region honors, Southeast Region Coaching Staff of the Year, a CoSIDA Academic All-American (Jonas Westmeyer), a United Soccer Coaches Academic All-American (Illal Osmanu) and a United Soccer Coaches All-American (Milo Yosef). In all, 41 total honors were handed out to the C-USA double Champions.
Marshall returns all-conference performers Milo Yosef, Jamil Roberts, Pedro Dolabella, Jan-Erik Leinhos, and Max Schneider as well as featured starters Vitor Dias, Collin Mocyunas, Vinicius Fernandes and Ryan Sirk. This group combined for 40 of the Herd’s 45 goals, 33 assists and 14,683 total minutes on the pitch.
The biggest shoes to fill will come on the defensive side with the graduations of goalkeeper Paulo Pita and centerbacks Illal Osmanu and Carlos Diaz-Salcedo. However, with coach Grassie’s abilities to keep bringing in great talent, the Herd will have players ready to step up and assume a bigger role.
For all of the latest information on the Marshall men’s soccer team, follow the Herd on Twitter @HerdMSoccer, Facebook at Marshall University Soccer and on www.herdzone.com.
