CMS Men's Soccer Kicks Off 2021 Season Against UC Santa Cruz Wednesday
CLAREMONT, Calif. - The first official CMS sporting event since March of 2020 will take place on Wednesday afternoon at Pritzlaff Field when the men's soccer team entertains UC Santa Cruz for a non-league contest at 4 p.m.
The game will be the first half of a Pritzlaff doubleheader, as the CMS women's soccer team will follow the men's squad with a 7 p.m. contest against the College of the Desert.
The Stags will enter the new campaign ranked No. 14 in the country, but obviously with a lot of uncertainty after losing its 2020 campaign due to the COVID-19 pandemic. CMS earned the high ranking on the basis of its exceptional 2019 campaign, when it swept the SCIAC regular season and postseason titles, and went on to win its NCAA Regional at Trinity (Texas), marking the furthest the program had advanced in the postseason since the 1984 team also won its first two NCAA contests.
Since then two classes worth of players have graduated, and Claremont McKenna alumnus Ryan Fahey '10 was brought in as the program's new head coach, after previously working as the associate head coach at Notre Dame. CMS was looking to build off their success in 2020 before the season was taken away, but All-SCIAC midfielder Samay Rahim feels that the program can pick up where it left off despite the delay.
"We all wanted to get back on the field the next season," Rahim said. "Now with missing this last year and a half with the pandemic, it's nice to get back out there, and we're super excited to do better than we did before and push further."
The Stags still have a lot left in their cupboard, including their top two scorers from the 2019 team, seniors Ethan Tyng (nine goals, two assists) and Will Barton (seven goals, five assists). In fact, Tyng and Rahim accounted for the two CMS goals in its 2019 win over Trinity in the NCAA Regional finals. Tyng was also the MVP of the 2019 SCIAC Tournament after scoring in both contests, 2-0 wins over Occidental and Redlands.
Defensively, CMS lost SCIAC Player of the Year Adam Singer to graduation after the 2019 season, and then lost All-American William Birchard and starting center back Kevin Proudfoot from the Class of 2021. Senior Grant Donaldson returns with starting experience, as does junior Ben Pelz, who stepped in at outside back while Birchard was injured in 2019. Junior Troy Lehenbauer and Evan Kim also started at defensive midfielders as freshmen and could slide back onto the back four.
CMS also adds a few experienced players who will need to shake off some rust. Midfielders Bryan Uribe, Houston Engleman and Harper Rubin were all regulars in the rotation in 2018, but missed the 2019 season and then were unable to come back in 2020 due to the pandemic. Their return will provide some needed veteran presence after the graduation of two classes since the Stags last competed. Juniors Jake Allmon and Justin Blachman were also both sparkplugs off the bench at forward as first-years in 2019, and will look to increase their roles this fall.
After facing UC Santa Cruz, CMS won't wait long for its second game of the 2021 campaign, as the Stags will host Westmont on Friday night at 7 p.m. to finish off a busy opening week.