The men’s soccer team wrapped up its final road trip of the season with a 2-0 defeat at the No. 11-ranked University of Rochester on Oct. 30 and a 2-1 overtime triumph over Case Western Reserve University on Sunday.

The weekend split brought the Eagles’ record to 11-4-1 for the season and 2-3-1 in against UAA opponents.

To begin the road trip, Eagles fell to Rochester in a match where they were outplayed for a majority of the game. The YellowJackets took 17 total shots, but Emory held off Rochester until they scored off a header in the 64th minute. The YellowJackets sealed the win with a goal in the 79th minute, improving to 11-1-2 overall and 4-1-1 in UAA play.

The Eagles could only produce four total shots, two of which were on goal.
Sophomore goalkeeper Trenton Spindler made two saves on six shots on goal, and freshman defender David Garofalo made two saves on balls that seemed to be headed for the back of the net.

“We played a very strong first half, but in the second half we got away from playing Emory soccer,” Spindler said. “Defensively we were on our game but we played to their strengths. They’re a very good team.”

In the victory against Case Western, junior forward and co-captain Jake Graetz kicked off the scoring with a header in the 39th minute. The goal was scored off of a corner kick from junior midfielder and co-captain Christopher Howie, who earned his team-high seventh assist of the season on the play.

The game tightened up in the second half, as Case Western took nine unanswered shots in the period and came away with a goal in the 62nd minute to set the stage for overtime. Just 39 seconds into the second overtime, Graetz delivered the golden goal the same way he scored earlier in the match, from a header off of a Howie corner kick.

“He’s our leading scorer as a defensive midfielder, and he’s got a good chance of being all-region,” Head Coach Sonny Travis said of Graetz’s performance this season. “I thought our team showed a lot of heart in winning. We were tired from Friday’s game, but we really stepped up.”

Spindler made three saves to improve his goals-against average to 0.84 for the year. Case Western only managed to get four shots on goal despite taking 16 shots during the game, and dropped to 7-8-3 overall and 0-5-1 in the UAA.

“We played really well,” Spindler said. “We played a team today that’s defensive-minded so it was harder to create chances.”

The Eagles sound defensive play has not gone unrecognized. Junior defender Adam Waxman was recently named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District First Team, which is awarded to players for a combination of their athletic and academic achievements. The district consists of five Southern states, and Waxman is in the running for the all-American team.

The 2009 campaign has been a season of hope and disappointment for the team. The team was originally ranked ninth in the national preseason polls, but an early loss against Division II Southern Wesleyan dropped the Eagles out of the national rankings. Their struggles within conference play leave them at fifth in the UAA, with their postseason hopes in jeopardy.

Still, there is plenty of reason for the Eagles to keep their heads up. Emory is currently ranked sixth in Division III’s South Atlantic region.

“For a young team, I was very pleased with them this season,” Travis said. “They all surprised me. We graduated nine starters from last year’s team. It’s like coaching a brand new team.”

The Eagles return home for the final weekend of the regular season to play conference leader No. 9-ranked Carnegie Mellon University (Pa.) on Nov. 7, and then close the year against The University of the South (Tenn.) on Nov. 8. While the team cannot earn an automatic playoff berth, the Travis is still optimistic that a strong performance in its final two games will qualify Emory for postseason play.

“We need an at-large bid,” Travis said of Emory’s chances of making the national tournament. “But when you look at our strength of schedule, if we win both games then we have a very good shot.”

The game against Carnegie Mellon will kick off on Nov. 7 at 11 a.m. at the Woodruff P.E. Center.

— Contact David Michaels.