Reinaldo Llerena // Staff Writer
After a breakout season in 2015, the FIU men’s soccer team hopes this season will be better than their last.
Before 2015, the Panthers were 20-14-1 in the NCAA tournament. Last season, for the first time since 2004, The Panthers made the NCAA tournament; however, the team was taken out in the first round of the tournament in an overtime loss to Tulsa University.
“When we were eliminated in overtime, I lost many nights of sleep,” said senior defender Marvin Hezel. “It was definitely hard to practice in the weeks after the match. It felt like we were heading deep into the tournament, but it wasn’t meant to be.”
In the 2015 season, the soccer team also went 12-7-1 on its way to winning the Conference USA Championship, with an average of 2.05 goals per game while allowing its opponents to score only 1.30 goals per game.
Heading into the 2016 season, the Panthers have garnered several preseason awards. Hezel and teammate Luis Betancur were named to the preseason All C-USA team and Hezel was picked as the preseason favorite to win C-USA’s Defensive Player of the Year. The Panthers are also ranked No. 23 in the National Soccer Coaches Association of America’s preseason poll.
“I’ve been working hard on my agility,” said Hezel. “I have been working with Coach Jacob doing plyometrics, box jumps and running ladders on the floor. The drills have made me more explosive and quicker to react to the ball.”
But, the aforementioned awards are not the only awards the Panthers have received in the preseason.
Freshman midfielder Esteban Calvo, whom FIU signed over the summer, was tabbed as Florida’s “Gatorade Player of the Year” back in June. The Costa Rican athlete will more than likely debut in the Panthers’ first game at the Nike/Aaron Olitsky Memorial Soccer Classic in Charleston, South Carolina on Aug. 26.
“Esteban is a great player,” said head coach Scott Calabrese. “Him being named ‘Gatorade Player of the Year’ shortly after signing with FIU reinforces that we have a really deep pool of talent here.”
According to the NSCAA’s preseason polls, the Panthers some of the best players in C-USA and the awards to prove it. With what seems as a budding star in Calvo and a defensive standout in Hezel, there is no doubt they will go far into the post-season like they did last year.
The Panthers will play NCAA-tournament regulars Furman University to begin the season and will compete against C-USA rivals Charlotte University, University of Kentucky and Florida Atlantic University over the course of the season.
“As long as we can stay together on defense and keep the field as compact as possible, there is no team in college soccer that can tear this team apart,” said Hezel.