The 2016 men’s soccer season has almost drawn to a close. With only three remaining games in the regular season, the Tigers will look to use fall break as a momentum builder, winning some of their final games and building momentum for the rest of this year.
The Tigers currently sit seventh in the Ivy League Standings with a league record of 0-3-1. However, in each game that they have played this year, they have been competitive, forcing teams down to the wire and never backing down.
“I think this team has showed a lot of heart over the season,” commented senior goalkeeper Josh Haberman. “We have fought in every game and we showed that we can compete with any team any given day.”
While hopes for a regular season championship may be gone, the Tigers still have lots to prove over the final weeks of the season. Princeton’s final three games are against Cornell, Penn, and Yale, all of whom also sit toward the bottom of the league standings. Princeton can still make a rapid climb up the standings with some wins over these final three games.
Princeton will travel to Cornell this Saturday, Oct. 29. The Tigers will then have a full week to rest, recover, and prepare for their final home game of the season against Penn on Nov. 5.
For many of the Princeton players, the game against Penn will be a bittersweet moment. It is most likely the last time these seniors take the field, many of whom have had great careers and lifelong memories made at Roberts Stadium. These seniors include: keepers Steffen Seitz and Josh Haberman, midfielders Vikram Pothuri, Brian Costa, and Bryan Windsor, and defenders Patrick Barba, Greg Seifert, and Mark Romanowski. All of them will step on the field for one final regular season home game.
With the season entering the home stretch, Princeton and the rest of the Ivy League will be watching closely to the scoring race. Currently senior defender Greg Siefert leads all Ivy League players with nine goals this season. He will look to continue scoring to bring home the scoring title for his team, as he leads the league by one goal over Penn’s Alec Neumann.
Seifert's teammates, as well as his coaches and fans, are all hoping he brings home the scoring title, since he has worked so hard throughout the year.
Something else to look for is the final games of freshman midfielder Benjamin Martin’s season. He has had one of the best performances of any freshman across this Ivy League this season. He looks to be back next year as a cornerstone for the Tigers as they will look to move on from the departure of a large senior class.