The Drury men's soccer Panthers took a major leap in terms of national reputation last season with their greatest season in the program's history, including a final 21-2 record, a national ranking as high as No. 2, their first Great Lakes Valley Conference championship and first-ever trip to the NCAA-II Sweet 16.
But all that came as a team that burst out of the pack of very good programs in the Midwest into one of the country's best.
This season, the Panthers will start as the GLVC preseason favorite and the No. 9 team in the preseason national distributed by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America.
Which is just fine with second-year head coach Ryan Swan and his DU squad, which relishes the opportunity to try to do it all over again from the start as the team with the target on its back.
It all starts on Friday when they open at Ashland (Ohio), a returning NCAA-II regional participant, and on Sunday at No. 3-ranked Lewis, which ended DU's season last year with a 1-0 win at Harrison Stadium in the NCAA-II Tournament's Round of 16. The Flyers, who'd lost to DU 3-0 during the regular season, then advanced to the NCAA-II Final Four.
"I think our guys are ready for the challenge," says Swan, the GLVC and Midwest Region coach of the year honoree after a brilliant rookie season of calling the shots. "We have a veteran team with a lot of players who felt we didn't go as far as we wanted to last year, so they are excited about the opportunity to do it all over again."
Swan has a veteran squad returning, one with 12 seniors, including 10 who either started or played in at least 20 matches last season. That number was reduced by one in the preseason when senior midfielder Taylor Stacy went down with a broken ankle that will likely keep him out at least two months.
There were some graduation losses that hurt, without question. They include First Team All-GLVC forward Steve Wilczewski, who led the Panthers with 17 goals, and forward Andrew Bordelon, a Third Team All-GLVC choice and the squad's third leading scorer with nine goals and six assists who's now the team's graduate assistant coach.
But the returning group is both impressive and well-decorated, led by senior forward Micah Whorton, who set a single-season record with 45 points (15 goals, 15 assists) while earning Second Team All-GLVC and Third Team Daktronics All-America honors in addition to All-Midwest Region status; junior keeper Stephen Conner, the GLVC Defensive Player of the Year and a Second Team Daktronics All-America choice after posting a school-record 14 shutouts and allowing just 11 goals in 22 matches; and senior defender Ben Taylor, who was a First Team All-GLVC and also a Second Team Daktronics All-America choice after scoring seven goals - including three game-winners - and adding five assists last season.
Taylor, senior Grant Bowden (Third Team All-GLVC), senior Connor McClellan (Third Team All-GLVC) and senior Blake Wilson, a Second Team All-GLVC honoree, give the Panthers one of the most talented and experienced defensive back lines in the country in front of Conner, with seniors Alex Palmer and Mason North adding quality depth as well..
That school-record low goals allowed and shot total is helped, in large part, but Drury's attacking, control-the-ball style designed to create more scoring opportunities for the Panthers and fewer for the foe.
With the graduation of Wilzcewski, Whorton is sure to receive plenty of attention after his record-setting junior campaign, which also included a DU single-season record with those 15 assists. Swan believes seniors Adam Peterson, Danny Collins and David Emnett along with freshmen Matt Hutchison, Alec Nagel and Matt Baker can help provide the punch needed to keep the Panthers at an elite level.
"We've brought in some of the freshmen that I expect over the years to contributea lot of goals, including some who could contribute double-digit goals this year," Swan said. "All three of those guys (Hutchison, Nagel and Baker) have shown they can contribute goals at the collegiate level in the preseason."
The midfield group lost two talented seniors to graduation in Ben Nabers and Allison, but is led by First Team All-GLVC choice and senior Peter Higgins, who'll likely be joined on the field by Peterson at times and several new faces, including freshmen Michael Yuede, Brendon Langford and Adam Ligienstein, among others.
"The freshmen have a chance to step up and challenge," Swan says. "The talent is there, it's just a matter of how long it takes them to adapt to the college game."
A season shortened by a week due to new NCAA Division II regulations means the Panthers will hit the ground running against top regional and conference foes. After the Ashland and Lewis road matches, Drury will visit GLVC foes Illinois-Springfield and Quincy before returning home to open against perennial MIAA power Truman State (Sept. 17) and GLVC rival Rockhurst (Sept. 19).
A date also circled on their calendar: Their first trip in four years to GLVC foe Northern Kentucky (Oct. 17), the No. 2 pick in the league's preseason poll, No. 19 in the NSCAA preseason national rankings and one of just two teams to beat the Panthers a year ago. Drury avenged a regular season loss to NKU and high-scoring forward Steven Beattie by beating the Norse in the GLVC Tournament finals and, a week later also at Harrison Stadium, the NCAA-II Regional opening round.
The Panthers would just as soon finish their careers participating in that same post-season excitement.
"Because we got off to such a fantastic start last year, I think some teams were expecting us to falter eventually," Swan says. "We set high expectations, and we want to keep doing that. We're happy to be the (GLVC) No. 1 pick. There's pressure that comes with it, but that's the expectation here ... we want to be the top team in the conference."
Swan would like to see such a finish not only for the program, but this group of seniors.
"I think you look at the success of the program the last few years, and those 12 guys have been a massive part of it," Swan says. "They've all contributed, all been fantastic on the field and in the classroom and they are going to be a tough class to lose. But I also think they're setting the bar for the freshmen to try to meet in the future."
And the present as well.
Coach Ryan Swan's Season Preview On The Panther Podcast