Men’s Soccer
Coach Bryan Davis is taking a one-day at a time mentality to this years men’s soccer team.
“We’ve got a really talented group, but that’s all on paper. Right now we want to come together and gel as a group and have a good comradely. Our goals are always to win a Horizon League Championship, and that doesn’t waiver,” Davis said.
Davis’ approach to being successful is based on being a good person, teammate and athletes first. Some of the players that are on watch for a standout season are Peguy Ngatcha, Eric Lynch, Jake Stovall and Ryan Pignatiello along with many others mentioned.
The Men’s team only has six home games this year and while they feel that it isn’t enough they have to play teams willing to play them Davis said. After beating some teams they don’t want to play Wright State anymore, so we will play anyone that wants to play us Davis said.
Coach Davis finished by saying, “If there was a team to get behind this would be a fun group to get behind. These seniors are what’s good about Wright State.”
The Men’s soccer team has started the season 3-1 and won their home opener on Monday September 5, 3-2 against Duquesne.
Women’s Soccer
The season has already started for our Women’s Soccer team, and they have started 0-2 with both losses coming against top 25 teams in the nation in Ohio State and Notre Dame.
“The goal is always to win the regular season title and the conference championship, and we have a good nucleus of returning players,” Coach Pat Ferguson said.
Ferguson is very high on the lone 4 year Senior Paige Aguilera, Redshirt Junior Niki Romero and sophomore standout Aaliyah Patten, but the nucleus of the team will be made of the large group of juniors. There are 9 juniors on the roster including the fore mentioned redshirted Romero.
Ferguson expects the juniors to show the freshmen what being a Division I soccer player is all about, but he is wasting no time getting the freshmen some experience as there were instances where he had 5 freshmen on the field at one time against the Buckeyes of Ohio State. A game in which WSU tied 2-2 in the second half before surrendering 2 more goals to lose 2-4.
After an unfavorable start to the season starting 1-4 the women look to turn things around and put together a successful season with their youth and experience both playing key roles.
Men’s Tennis
Following the suspension of the season last year Coach Eric Burns is not entirely sure what this season could hold for our men’s team.
“On the Men’s side we’ve kind of rebuilt the team, and we have six newcomers this year. So we’re not really sure what to expect to be honest, but we’re looking to put a good competitive team together,” Burns said.
The men’s team will rely heavily on the transfer students that they have brought in this year. One that Burns mentioned specifically was Marcel Ueltzhoeffer who is a transfer from Murray State University where he was the number one on the singles and doubles before the school shut down the program.
While they have a small roster of only eight Burns is very happy with the eight players he has. Burns thinks that they have a good number on the roster even though it may seem small.
“We’re really excited to start the season with a fresh start in 2016-17 and see what these guys and girls can do,” Burns said.
This season is full of mystery for our men’s tennis team, but with Coach Burns at the helm they look to improve as the season goes.
Women’s Tennis
After a very successful season last year Coach Eric Burns expects nothing less this season as he has everyone from last year returning and he adds 2 more players.
“For the women we are looking to build off the success we had last year. We made the championship in the Horizon League; we have everyone returning from that team and have added a couple players to the roster. It’s a good league, but we feel really confident about the team we have coming back,” Burns said, “we’ve got 2 all conference players returning, but it’s really a solid team top to bottom.”
The fall portion of the women’s schedule will be essential to the rest of the season as they will be playing to determine their roles moving on through the rest of the school year.
“In all my years of coaching, this being year 16 for me and two different schools, this is the deepest team I’ve had from a talent standpoint. That makes every match that they play in the fall critical as far as determining a good lineup in the spring,” said Burns.
This season will be an exciting one for our women’s tennis team as they look to not only get back into the championship but also capture it this time around.
Cross Country
The cross country team will enter into the 2016 under new leadership with Coach Ray Williamson who also serves as the women’s track and field coach for Wright State.
While the new coach expects to improve and see results, Williamson also knows that his new responsibility grows as he gains control of both sports.
“Since I’ve taken over as the coach I’ve tried to deter the best options”, Williamson said speaking on his expertise in distance running and having that be a focus on his track team.
As for cross country, Coach Williamson wants to see better results for the men’s team. The men ‘s team finished last year’s season with last place team finishes in the Horizon League Championships and the NCAA Regionals.
“The men want to climb out of the basement and continue growing,” Williamson said.
With seven opportunities in the next three months to run this upcoming season the cross country team will have opportunities to put up great times and do everything Coach Williamson expects out of them.
Volleyball
Wright State women’s volleyball coach, Susan Clements will be looking for leadership, improvement, and overall team continuity as the team prepares to start their season.
The team, who returns five starters and is coming off of a season where they improved their overall team record from 5-23 to 15-16 and improved their Horizon League record by 2 wins. Coach Clements is looking forward to the season and thinks the players she has coming back will continue the team’s success.
“I think more than most previous seasons we have a lot of veterans who know how to prepare for the season and have experience. It’s very important to have the right team chemistry. It’s important that every kid knows their role and has the same common goal. A lot of them took summer classes together and worked out together so this group is very close”.
Among the players coming back is Rachel Kremer and Katie Klusman who Clements describes as the team’s best offensive player was named to last year’s Holiday Inn Classic All-Tournament Team.
“This junior class has a very strong nucleus and has lots of experience.” Clements remarked about the girls.
Megan Hopkins, Jessie Thornton, Maddie Lohmeier round out what looks to be a talented junior class. The two seniors returning to the team are right side and middle blocker Haley Garr and outside hitter and defensive specialist Alana Smith.
The team will face new challenges this year by playing some new teams. One of those teams is Boise State on September 9 in the Golden Flashes Classic in Kent, Ohio.
“We’ll see a lot of different teams for the first time this season. Boise State will play a different style of volleyball where they will be taller and block more”. Clements said while speaking on the new experiences.
The volleyball team will be looking to improve most importantly their Horizon League record this upcoming season, as Coach Clements knows what this group of young women can achieve by the end of the season.
The volleyball team started the season on a five match losing streak and ended that streak against Eastern Michigan and followed that up with a win at Morehead State making their record 2-5. The next tournament that the Raiders are in is the Butler Classic in Indianapolis on September 9 & 10.
