By David McIntyre Staff Writer
Freshman Nicholas Shabino handles the ball for the hornets against Olivet. Photo by Chuck Stull
With the end of the season drawing near, the men’s soccer team hosted Olivet College on Saturday. Olivet played spoiler on Kalamazoo College’s homecoming weekend, winning the game 2–1 in overtime.
The Hornets fell behind early after Olivet scored a goal three minutes into the match. K trailed Olivet until, in the 78th minute, Rory Landis ’13 scored the equalizer off a pass from Jordan Veillette ’16. The score remained tied for the rest of regulation and headed into overtime.
But any hopes for a comeback were shattered before K was able to record a single shot. Olivet scored the game-winning goal just six minutes into overtime.
Goalkeeper Dane Macdonell ’13 made four saves for the Hornets. The team was close to recording an impressive victory against the second-ranked team in the MIAA.
The loss drops the men’s record to 7–4–0 in the MIAA and 9–5–1 overall. This is good enough to earn a share of third place in the conference, tied with Hope College and trailing both Calvin College and Olivet.
With three games remaining in the regular season, it is reassuring to see our Hornets going toe-to-toe with one of the top-ranked teams in the conference. All signs point toward the Hornets getting into the four-team automatic qualifier tournament starting in November, where the four top teams face off to determine which one will represent the conference in the NCAA tournament.
This is a relatively new system compared to the old system where the top-ranked team in the conference would represent the MIAA in the NCAA tournament. It seems to have added more excitement to the end of the soccer season, but not everyone is a fan of the change.
“I prefer the old system of the league with the winner advancing to the NCAA tournament. It seems like a more accurate way of showing which team is truly the best in the conference, since freak results are evened out over the course of an entire season,” said Michael Paule-Carres ’13.
This year it seems like the system will work in our favor. At the moment, it looks like the men’s soccer team will have at least one extra game tacked onto the end of their schedule. Once the four teams enter the tournament, previous records will not matter, so anything can happen at that point.
The Hornets have only won one of their four overtime games. If they hope to enter and advance in the NCAA tournament, the men will have to find a way to win these close games. The Hornets look to regain momentum as they travel to Calvin College on Oct. 24.
After reading your post that sounded like a pretty interesting game. I wished I could have watched it. Hornets all the way!
- Don