August has arrived, and so has practice for West Virginia men’s soccer.
West Virginia is entering year four of the Dan Stratford era and is coming off a season where they finished 7-7-4, 3-1-4 in conference play, and finished in the semifinal round of the Sun Belt Conference Championship.
The Mountaineers saw the departure of players such as goalkeeper Jacob Castro, defender Alex Clayton, defender Aaron Denk Garcia, defender Malo Blondeau, forward Ciro Bourlot Jaeggi, forward/defender Ike Swiger, defender Elijah Borneo, midfielder Sam Morgan, forward Adam Burchell, and defender Bjarne Thiesen.
Most of the departing players exhausted out their eligibility while Alex Clayton has transferred to Belmont University and Ciro Bourlot Jaeggi has transferred to Queens University of Charlotte.
West Virginia added transfer players with defenders Brayden Borutskie from Liberty, Max Broughton from LIU Edwardsville, Carlos Hernando from William Carey, and Thomas Decottignies from UConn.
The Mountaineers have also added six freshman with defenders Sam Clark and Ryan Vaubel, forwards Sam Nyenka, Luke Lenz and Jake Ross, and midfielder Andrew O’Neill.
Fifth-year midfielder Luke McCormick is back after earning All-Sun Belt Conference honors a season ago. Midfielder Otto Ollikainen is also back after starting in every game last season for the Mountaineers.
Other returning players that started at least 11 games include midfielder/defender Dyon Dromers, midfielder Ryan Baer, forward Marcus Caldeira, goalkeeper Jackson Lee, defender Frederik Jorgensen, midfielder/defender Sergio Ors Navarro, and midfielder Ryan Crooks.
West Virginia men’s soccer opens up with an exhibition match at College of Charleston on Saturday, August 12. Their first home match is an exhibition match with Charleston (W.Va.) on Saturday, August 19.
The season opener comes at home against California Baptist on Thursday August 24. The team opens Sun Belt play with a road matchup against UCF on Friday, September 15.
