Dec. 2, 2010

ROCHESTER. Mich. - Believe it and you can achieve it. That was the case for the 2010 Oakland men's soccer team. After crashing out of the league tournament in 2009, the Golden Grizzlies immediately set out a plan that ended with the team celebrating a Summit League Tournament Championship and an NCAA berth at home on the OU Soccer Field. As the seconds ticked down with OU ahead 2-0 in the tournament's championship game, the message was clear: "Mission accomplished."

Despite a 7-11-3 record, Oakland rallied as the No. 3 seed to win The Summit League Title, beating Oral Roberts 2-0 in the Championship game to advance to the NCAA Tournament. Despite eventually falling 2-0 to Michigan State, a team that reached the final 16 of the NCAA Tournament, the Golden Grizzlies proved they were one of the top teams in college soccer by not only facing one of the toughest schedules in the nation, but also by getting the job done when it mattered most.

"We had a very clear vision of where we wanted to be at the end of the season," said Oakland's second-year head coach Eric Pogue. "Ever since last season, when we had to watch another team celebrating on our field, we were focused on being the ones doing the celebrating at the end of this season. Although the season was one filled with ups-and-downs, it was ultimately a successful one because we were able to achieve our primary goal."

In danger of missing the conference tournament for only the second time in school history, the Golden Grizzlies rallied to win three consecutive games at home, starting with a must-win against Centenary in the final match of the regular season. Oakland then went on to beat IUPUI 3-0 in The Summit League Tournament semifinal before downing Oral Roberts by a 2-0 margin in the final. Over that three-match span, Oakland outscored its opponents 7-0 to account for 35% of the team's overall goal total in the three most significant matches of the season.

The team featured just one senior, Makesi Lewis, a striker from Diego Martin, Trinidad. He finished the year as the team's second-leading scorer with two goals and two assists. In his three seasons at Oakland Lewis helped the Golden Grizzlies advance to the NCAA Tournament twice, earning an at-large invitation in 2008, before finally winning the automatic berth in 2010. He also helped OU win back-to-back regular season titles in 2008 and 2009.

"I was very happy that our senior Makesi Lewis was able to finish his career with a Summit League Tournament win and a second trip to the NCAA Tournament," said Pogue. "I am sure he would have liked to finish a few more chances this season, but he was still a key factor for us and demanded a lot of attention from other team's defenses because of his impressive skill set."

To prepare for the stretch-run and conference play, the Golden Grizzlies played one of the toughest out-of-conference schedules. In the second match of the season, OU got an overtime goal from sophomore Johnny Dreshaj to beat then No. 14-ranked Drake 1-0. Oakland faced five teams that made it to the NCAA Tournament including two teams that advanced to the elite eight of the Tournament (Michigan and Akron). OU opponents No. 2 Akron, No. 5 Butler, No. 13 UC Irvine and No. 19 Michigan all finished ranked in the NSCAA top-25 poll.

Dreshaj finished the season as Oakland's top goal scorer with four goals and two assists, including two goals in The Summit League Tournament. He was one of four Oakland players named to the Summit League All-Tournament team along with freshman defender Lucas Diener, junior defender Jon Evans and junior goalkeeper Mitch Hildebrandt. Evans was named as the Most Valuable Player of the Tournament after helping OU earn a pair of shutouts and scoring a goal in the championship match.

The Golden Grizzlies were also awarded with five All-Summit League selections after finishing the regular season with a 2-1-3 record in league matches. Junior defenders Vuk Popovic and Winston Henderson along with Hildebrandt each earned all-league first team honors for OU. Henderson tied for the league lead with four assists from his wing-back position, the duo also helped OU record the fewest goals allowed in the league this season. For Hildebrandt, his four shutouts in league matches were the most of any goalkeeper in the league and he finished the year with nine clean sheets, tying for the league lead. He also had a league-best 94 saves during the year. In addition to the first teamers, freshmen Miche'le Lipari and Andrew Barrett were both named to The Summit League All-Newcomer team. Lipari was third in points on the OU team with two goals and an assist.

For the Golden Grizzlies the season was not just about achieving goals on the field, but also away from the field, where the squad worked to be better students and better members of the community. In an effort to give back to the community the team arranged a memorial match with Butler, which raised funds to support the family of Jonah Chrisman, a 15-year-old soccer fan who had ties to the program and had recently lost his battle with Osteosarcoma a form of bone cancer. While OU was able to donate over $8,000 to the Chrisman family to offset their medical expenses, Jonah also taught the team a lesson that was carried on throughout the year.

"It was important to us that try to help out someone in need, especially someone from the local soccer community," said Pogue. "I think our team took a lot away from that event. Not only a sense of well-being, but an appreciation for how lucky we are to be playing a game we love. I constantly asked our team when they were tired to play with the passion that Jonah would play with if he had just one more game to play."

The Golden Grizzlies also excelled in the classroom, where the team achieved above a 3.0 grade point average. Because of its excellent work in the classroom, Oakland won an NSCAA Academic Team Award.

Oakland will return a talented core of players from this year's team and will look to improve as the 2011 season approaches. During the Winter and Spring the players will play a select number of matches as part of the non-traditional season. For updates on the Winter season and other information about the Oakland Soccer team continue to log on to OUGrizzlies.com.

"The future being bright at Oakland soccer," concluded Pogue. "We are excited about our 2011 recruiting class and the team we are building for next season. Having reached the tournament this season, we are raising our goals for next season. As we move forward we hope our goal is to repeat as league champions and advance even further in the NCAA Tournament."

-OAKLAND-