The men's soccer team is ready to take the field for its first match of the fall season tomorrow in a scrimmage at Illinois Wesleyan University.
Senior goalkeeper Nate Sprenkel said scrimmaging will release a good amount of pent-up energy the team has been holding back since last year's postseason snub. He said the memory has been heavy on their minds through preseason training.
"We've used it to get through our preseason," Sprenkle said on WGRE's Tiger Talk this week. "It's been very intense and competitive with that attitude, and we're excited to get into the NCAC and show what we can do."
The Tigers will be starting the season without senior defender Andrew Desmarais due to a torn ACL. Desmarais has been attending practices nonetheless and helping the new freshmen acclimate to the college game environment.
"It's definitely been a different perspective," Desmarais said on Tiger Talk. "It's a different type of leadership, in the way I talk to guys. It's just good to be out there with the guys and talk with the younger guys and try and get them in the right spot."
As for Sprenkel, he played overseas this past summer with the Red Star Belgrade of the Serbian SuperLiga. His experience will certainly improve the Tiger backfield with the loss of Desmarais.
"It's a completely different atmosphere over there," Sprenkle said. "Soccer is it over there in Europe, and everything they do is professional. It was very cool to be a part of that."
Having one of the top NCAA Div. III goalkeepers will be important with the transition to a new conference.
"The teams this year are a little bit consistent overall," Desmarais said. "It's going to be a learning experience every game instead of having an intense game and then the next game a break."
With consistent competition every week, the team has the opportunity to develop their players and use their strengths to win games.
"I think right now with the team we have, it's the depth," Sprenkel said. "We would like to increase our goals per game, and we brought in some guys with a lot of speed and can complement the guys up front."
With new guys bringing speed and explosiveness up top and proven talent in the net, the Tigers will look to establish momentum in their scrimmage tomorrow for the official start of the season next weekend.
-Ryan Foutty contributed to this article