If the South Carolina men’s soccer team needed motivation going into a new season, it doesn’t need to look any further than its loss to rival Clemson in the 2016 NCAA Tournament.
Mark Berson's Gamecocks are coming off a 2-1 overtime defeat in the Sweet 16 to the Tigers in November and will look to advance further than the second round of the NCAA Tournament for the second straight season.
After going 5-2-1 in Conference USA play last season, the Gamecocks were predicted to finish fifth out of nine teams in the preseason poll for 2017. They led the conference with three players named to the preseason All-C-USA team: Bjorn Gudjonsson, Peyton Ericson and Julian Veen Uldal.
Uldal started 19 of 21 matches as a freshman. Earning Third Team All-C-USA honors and being named to the C-USA All-Freshman team, the Norway native is on track to have another standout season as a sophomore.
Gudjonsson and Ericson are both entering their junior seasons. Ericson became a consistent defensive presence last season, starting in 16 of 17 matches and earning Third Team C-USA honors. On the opposite side of the field, Gudjonsson led the team with eight goals, which came on just 20 shots in 19 matches (including eight starts).
The Gamecocks welcome 14 new players, including five transfers, this season. They will be without junior midfielder Danny Deakin, who signed with Orlando City SC of the United Soccer League and led the team with 20 points, earning First Team All-Conference USA honors for the second straight season.
Along with Deakin’s departure, eight seniors graduated last year, including Ryan Arambula, who started 20 of 21 matches last season and led his class with 12 career assists.
Forward Tucker Monheimer and defender Matt Morgan are the newest transfers to join the Gamecocks from Northern Kentucky and UNC-Wilmington, respectively.
"Tucker was a prolific scorer in high school and club play. He is a relentless, hard-working forward that comes into our program with NCAA Division I experience as a transfer,” Berson told GamecocksOnline. "Matt is an athletic and talented defender who will strengthen us in the back. He has two years of NCAA Division I level experience, which will be important."
The team also added two new assistant coaches, Justin Cook and Tyler Kettering, to the staff in March. Cook was an assistant coach at Tulsa for 10 seasons, while Kettering spent one season as an assistant coach at Dayton, and seven as an associate head coach at Gardner Webb.
“[Cook] has an outstanding pedigree as a player at Ohio State, where he was one of only two players in history to earn both Big Ten freshman of the year honors and then Big Ten player of the Year honors as a senior,” Berson told GamecocksOnline. “As associate head coach at Gardner Webb, [Kettering] was responsible for bringing in outstanding recruiting classes and helping develop the Gardner Webb program.”
The Gamecocks kicked off fall camp on Aug. 9, and competed in their first scrimmage four days later on Aug. 13, which resulted in a 2-0 loss to Duke.
“It’s the first scrimmage of the year, and that’s the first time our guys have played anything close to 45 minutes at a stretch,” Berson told GamecocksOnline. “We have a lot of work to do. In spite of the score line, there were a lot of positives to build on.”
The Gamecocks open the season by hosting USC Upstate at Stone Stadium on Aug. 25. They will face six preseason nationally-ranked opponents, including No. 2 Wake Forest, No. 15 Charlotte and a regular-season rematch with No. 5 Clemson at 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 1.