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Thursday, July 23, 2015
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
SPORTS

Soccer getting ready 
for upcoming season

By TED JANES 

Daily Sports Writer

The Michigan men’s soccer team 

reunites in Ann Arbor this week 
ahead of the upcoming season. The 
Wolverines begin captains’ prac-
tices July 28, a full 20 days before 
the opening exhibition against 
Butler in Ann Arbor.

The two captains, fifth-year mid-

fielder Colin McAtee and senior 
forward James Murphy, will lead 
these training sessions as a means 
for the team to get back into rhythm 
before the preseason exhibitions. 
The incoming freshmen will begin 
to move into players’ houses, where 
they’ll reside before moving into the 
residence halls.

The team has only made a few 

changes to the roster over the 
course of the offseason. Three 
important seniors, midfielder Tyler 
Arnone, goalkeeper Adam Grinwis 
and Marcos Ugarte all moved on 
to minor league teams. Former 
freshman Ahinga Selemani trans-
ferred to UC Santa Barbara, where 
he joined one of the nation’s top 

recruiting classes. Selemani was 
the Wolverines’ starting center for-
ward, but an unexceptional debut 
season left Selemani with little rea-
son to stay.

While Grinwis was a strong 

keeper, 
sophomore 
goalkeeper 

Evan Louro earned many minutes 
last year as a highly-touted fresh-
man, and will certainly be ready 
to step in as the team’s number one 
shot stopper.

A strong, eight-person incom-

ing class that includes two inter-
nationals from Ghana and Chile 
is expected to make an immediate 
impact and fill any gaps.

Michigan’s 
first 
exhibition 

against the Bulldogs is followed 
12 days later by the first preseason 
game in Omaha, Nebraska, against 
a Creighton team that finished the 
season ranked in the top 10.

Winning games against reputable 

non-Big Ten schools is crucial for 
Michigan, a team in its 16th season 
that has still yet to achieve consis-
tent success. Despite one trip to the 
NCAA Tournament College Cup, 
soccer’s equivalent of the Final Four, 

the 
Wolver-

ines have only 
made a scat-
tered number 
of tournament 
appearances, 
the last in 2012, 
and have yet to 
win a Big Ten 
regular season 
title.

As someone 

who has now 
had time away from Michigan, for-
mer captain Arnone is beginning 
to see how the Wolverines stack up 
on the national grid, playing for the 
Real Monarchs of the United Soc-
cer League.

“In the professional ranks, peo-

ple ask, ‘Where’d you go to school?’ 
They know the name Michigan, but 
in terms of soccer, it’s not as much 
respected,” Arnone said. “(Michi-
gan) is not UNC or UCLA. Those 
are the big schools. Is (Daley) the 
guy to bring Michigan to that level? 
That’s the question for me.”

Arnone, part of previous coach 

Steve Burns’ last recruiting class, 

felt that the 2014 was hyped to be 
“the season” that would bringing 
Michigan up to the next level, but 
the team was radically inconsis-
tent, losing to teams it was predict-
ed to dominate.

“Last season, we were, on paper, 

one of the best teams in the coun-
try, and surely one of the best in our 
conference,” said senior forward 
Will Mellors-Blair. “We thought 
we could just show up on a Tues-
day night and mull over teams like 
Bowling Green and Western Mich-
igan, and that’s got to change.”

While Michigan is often con-

sidered a favorite in many of those 

matchups against less nationally-
renowned programs, it has yet to 
truly earn its place in the cham-
pionship conversation among the 
likes of the Tar Heels and Bruins.

“We have all the infrastructure 

we need, it’s just a matter of having 
that one season which will define 
Michigan soccer on the national 
track,” Mellors-Blair said.

The Wolverines need more time 

than just one season to become a 
definitive, consistent contender on 
the national level, but they’ll need 
to start somewhere.

And the 2015 season is just 

around the bend.

LUNA ANNA ARCHEY/Daily

Senior forward and team captain James Murphy will lead the team after a disappointing 2014 season.

