SAM DITTMANN / The Journal
Senior defender Aaron Belisle maneuvers past Millikin defender Matt Laude in a home loss Sept. 1. WU was unable to head its way past Greenville College Oct. 24.
By ADAM JOHNSON
The Webster University men’s soccer squad sat atop the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference standings throughout the opening weeks of conference play.
However, the Gorloks saw their undefeated 6-0 mark stopped by Greenville College, as the Panthers defeated WU 2-1 on Saturday, Oct. 24.
The Gorloks started the game strong, controlling the first half to go into halftime with a 1-0 lead.
The goal came in the 27th minute by senior Andy Rudroff off a pass from junior defenseman Mike Politte. The score was Rudroff’s team-leading fifth goal of the season.
“Starting the second half, we felt really good about being able to protect the goal and win the game,” assistant coach Alex Fritts said. “In the end, we just didn’t finish enough of our chances and didn’t adequately protect the lead.”
After winning their sixth consecutive conference match against Spalding University on Wednesday, Oct. 21, the Gorloks had beaten the majority of the top teams in the SLIAC, with Greenville being their final barrier.
“The loss definitely isn’t going to bog us down,” senior captain, Kyle Gamache said. “All we can do is learn from this one and do better if we meet them again.”
Gamache aims to keep the team focused for the remainder of the season with hopes of making it past the SLIAC Tournament.
“The goal is to win the conference tournament and make it to the NCAA (Tournament),” Gamache said. “If we play hard, we can beat any team we come up against. One of my jobs as captain is to instill that confidence in all the players.”
The SLIAC conference tournament starts on Wednesday, Nov. 4, with WU still eyeing that No. 1 seed.
They are currently in second-place at 5-1, with Greenville holding a game and a half lead over the two teams at 6-0-1.
“We expect to win our final games and just keep our eyes on the conference tournament,” junior forward Kyle Leifield said. “The loss is a bit of a disappointment, but I think we can still get a high seed in the conference tournament, maybe even number one.”
The Gorloks have one final non-conference match with Westminster College on Tuesday, Oct. 27, before finishing the conference schedule with Eureka College on Thursday, Oct. 29 and MacMurray College on Saturday, Oct. 31.
A No. 1 seed in the SLIAC conference tournament remains possible for the Gorloks.
WU’s season-ending schedule against Westminster and MacMurray, two teams in the bottom half of the standings, could allow the Gorloks to pad their record in the season’s final weeks.
Meanwhile, Greenville, the SLIAC’s current leader, ends its conference schedule against two teams from the top half of the standings (Spalding and Principia).
“Our task is to take care of business this last week by winning the last three,” Fritts said. “If we can earn those final six points, I really like our positioning for the conference tournament. This is just a huge week.”
The Eureka game, held at the Anheuser-Busch Soccer Park, will be WU’s final home contest of the season.
The match will start at 4 p.m.
