The Bison soccer team tied against Texas Wesleyan University on Saturday, recording their second straight tie game and making their overall record now 0-1-2.
According to Ryan Wilhelm, team captain and senior forward, the team is working to improve on and off the field. The team added 11 new freshmen and two transfers this year, for a total of 25 players.
Odie Guzman, former Harding soccer player and now in his second year as the men’s coach, said he is excited about their progress so far, both as individual players and as a team.
“The team is meshing really well,” Guzman said. “I’ve never seen anything like this before. It’s really neat to see these upper-classmen take the under-classmen under their wings and help them not only on the field but off of it.”
The men’s soccer team has not had a winning record since its start in 2000, but the team is hoping to change that this year.
“The next few games will be our opportunity to fix all the small kinks,” junior outside back Gehrig Haberstock said. “We want to be playing our best soccer during conference games. We’re hoping all our hard work will pay off and we can make it to the conference tournament.”
Wilhelm said he expects the Bisons will shock conference opponents with the fresh faces on the team.
“I am most excited to see how we progress and where we end up,” Wilhelm said. “Most of our team is young, but talented. I think we could surprise some teams in conference this year and make it to the tournament.”
The men’s soccer team plays another home game Friday against Northeastern State University at 5 p.m.
The Lady Bisons hosted Christian Brothers University on Sept. 15 and lost with a final score of 3-0, making their record 0-4-0 so far. Greg Harris, who is starting his 13th year as the women’s soccer coach, said he is confident in his team’s ability to work hard and come back from these games.
“This past week we have been fixing our line-up,” Ashley Martin, a senior finance major and captain on the team, said. “We’re working on our offensive runs towards goals since we weren’t able to create as many scoring opportunities in the past few games.”
Harris said the team has the conference tournament written on their board, and after every game, they make a list of things they want to sharpen or improve.
“Conference is really where our mindset is,” Harris said. “We’re really focusing on having a better showing in conference play. I think we are a better team than what we have been.”
The Lady Bisons play today in Denton, Texas, against Texas Woman’s University.
