TYLER, TEXAS – The University of Texas at Tyler men's soccer team will travel to Oklahoma City, Okla. for their 2021 season opener against Oklahoma Christian on Saturday night at 7 p.m.
The Patriots will get their 2021 season started fresh off of the program's first ever Lone Star Conference Postseason Tournament appearance in the 2021 Spring LSC Men's Soccer Championships earlier this spring. The squad finished that abbreviate 2021 spring season with a record of 4-5-1, but will be riding a three-game regular season winning streak into tomorrow evening's battle with Oklahoma Christian.
The contest between the two Lone Star Conference foes will be designated as a non-conference match.
BY THE SKIN OF THEIR TEETH
UT Tyler came on strong in the shortened spring schedule earlier this year, after the traditional fall schedule was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Patriots took full advantage of the opportunity, and developed into one of the better defensive units in the Lone Star Conference at season's end.
That stellar defensive output allowed the Patriots to claim victories in three straight matches to close out the regular season, all by 1-0 final tallies, and earned the program the tiebreaker winner for the fourth and final seed into the LSC Postseason Tournament.
Sergio Sola's golden goal with 55 seconds remaining in the first overtime period against DBU in the season finale, pushed the Patriots into the postseason with the tiebreaker win over UT Permian Basin.
The win set up a meeting with eventual 2021 Spring LSC Champions West Texas A&M in the opening round of the tournament, a match that the Patriots fared well in, but ultimately lost by a 2-0 final score. The abbreviated rescheduled season served it's purpose for head coach
Kenny Jones' squad despite the 4-5-1 record, as a host of new faces gained some familiarity with each other and the program as a whole gained it's first taste of postseason experience in the Lone Star Conference.
PRESEASON POLLS
The 2021 LSC Preseason Men's Soccer Poll held true to that fourth-place finish in the league last season for UT Tyler, as the Patriots were tabbed fourth in the LSC Preseason Poll heading into the 2021 season. West Texas A&M was selected as the presumptive favorite after claiming the 2021 Spring LSC Regular and Tournament Championship just a few months ago, while Midwestern State and St. Mary's came in at no. 2 and no. 3 in the poll respectively.
The league will feature just seven conference games in 2021, while the 2021 LSC Men's Soccer Championships will feature the top six teams in the league standings at season's end. UT Tyler will face a total of 13 LSC affiliated foes throughout the course of the year, but only seven of those matches will count towards the league standings as designated conference games.
HISTORY WITH THE EAGLES
Oklahoma Christian finished the 2021 spring schedule with a 1-7-1 overall record and a 1-7 record in Lone Star Conference play. UT Tyler is 2-0 against the Eagles all-time, including a 2-0 win in Oklahoma City last spring.
The inaugural meeting between the two teams back in 2019 ended in overtime as the Patriots secured the 2-1 victory. Both of the two Patriot wins over Oklahoma Christian have come on the road for UT Tyler.
KING KENNY
Head coach
Kenny Jones will enter year number 20 as the first and only head coach of the men's soccer program at UT Tyler, and was recognized for what may have been one of his finer coaching jobs in his storied career this spring. He was named the 2021 Spring Co-Lone Star Conference Coach of the Year after guiding a roster full of essentially all newcomers to the program's first LSC Postseason Tournament despite being in the final year of the mandatory three-year transition period to full-fledged Division II status.
The accolade was the sixth time Jones has been awarded with his league's Coach of the Year distinction throughout his career. Year number 20 for Jones and the Patriots will be the first as full-fledged Division II members, allowing the Patriots the opportunity to compete for a bid into the NCAA Division II National Tournament.
UT Tyler men's soccer sports a 238-106-45 overall record in 19 years as a program, all under the direction of Jones, and will look to qualify for the NCAA National Tournament for the fifth time after qualifying at the Division III level in 2008, 2010, 2011 and 2017.
THE TOUTED TWO AND MORE
Senior
Thierry Assamoi and junior
Birkir Eydal emerged as top competitors in the Lone Star Conference last spring, and are set to return to the pitch for UT Tyler this fall. Assamoi and Eydal were both named to the 2021 Spring LSC All-Tournament Team for their play in the semifinal loss at West Texas A&M, while Assamoi was named a First Team All-LSC selection and Eydal a Second Team All-LSC selection at season's end.
Assamoi delivered the cross to the feet of Sola that put the Patriots into the postseason, and Eydal consistently worked as one of the league's best midfielder.
Other key returners for the Patriots to the 2021 roster from last spring include Sola, who was named to the 2021 Spring LSC All-Academic Team, keeper
Mathias Eriksen and defenders
Todd Fuller and
Gerardo Ramirez. Fuller was named to the 2021 Spring LSC All-Freshman Team, while Eriksen saw the majority of time in net for the Patriots and was named the LSC Goalkeeper of the Week on four different occasions throughout the spring.
ACADEMIC CHAMPIONS
The UT Tyler men's soccer team has had a long standard of academic excellence, and this spring was no different despite the challenges the COVID-19 pandemic posed. UT Tyler earned the 2021 Men's Soccer Lone Star Conference Academic Championship with the highest cumulative team GPA in the league.
The men's soccer program was a key contributor to the overall academic success of the department, as UT Tyler claimed both the Men's and Women's Lone Star Conference Academic Excellence Awards at season's end, becoming the first institution to win the award outright on both sides in the same season.
