Since coming to ETSU in 2007, Buccaneer men’s soccer head coach Scott Calabrese had a vision to create a program that would be one of the best in the Atlantic Sun and would compete on a national level.In only the program’s second year, the Buccaneers have already clinched an A-Sun tournament berth and will host the school’s first ever tournament match on Saturday at 2 p.m.

“Overall the program has made great strides from its inception,” Calabrese said. “We made incredible strides in the spring to get the program where we are now. You can see how this team is putting the work in. The guys really have bought into the goal of elevating this program to the top of the conference.”

The men’s soccer team had four goals coming into the season: to play a tougher schedule and compete against those teams, to finish the season with a winning record, to finish in the top six of the conference and to bring in a new and effective style of play.

“In terms of those four goals which we established three years ago, we are still on track to meet them all,” Calabrese said. “You have to give credit to the players because they believe in the goals and they worked hard to achieve them.”

The Bucs faced tough non-conference opponents in 2009, going on the road to Virginia Tech and North Carolina. ETSU got a 1-1 draw against the Hokies, and had the second-ranked Tar Heels on the ropes before falling 2-1 in overtime.

The Bucs are 5-8-3 overall and 4-4-1 in conference, and are still on track to achieve their second goal of finishing the season with a winning record if they can win the conference tournament.

“I think making the conference tournament is exciting,” Calabrese added. “But these guys have loftier goals than just to be in the conference tournament. It’s nice to have made it, but we want to see if we can go all the way to the NCAA tournament.”

The Bucs have won four of their last four matches coming into the weekend. This success is in part due to the final goal of bringing a new and effective attacking style of play. After overcoming early struggles with the new system, over its last six games ETSU has averaged 1.7 goals, posting three goals in three home matches.

“It was a process early on as a team because we had brought in new players and the style of play had changed completely from last year,” Calabrese said. “We have been able to switch from a defensive and counterattacking style to a team that attacks more and holds possession. We are starting to find that playing in this new style we are getting results even though early in the season we would dominate games and not get the result we deserved.

Author