By Chris Ward
PointParkSports.com Contributing Writer
The Point Park men's soccer team will travel to Beckley, W.Va., this Saturday to take on WVU Tech in the quarterfinal round of the River States Conference Tournament. The Pioneers previously faced WVU Tech once this season, which resulted in a 3-2 loss for Point Park.
Point Park coach Jeroen Walstra, who's in his 11th season, said the team has focused on some technical aspects of the game in preparation for its rematch with WVU Tech.
"We have focused on a couple of things that I think we need to do better in general, and that includes playing through balls in the midfield with our forwards and speed of play in terms of ball possession," Walstra said. "We're also doing a lot of video work on WVU Tech, so we hope that helps us a little bit."
In the first meeting against WVU Tech, the Pioneers scored two goals in the first 10 minutes, but the Golden Bears battled back and scored the final three goals to win the game.
Goalkeeper Ryan Daniels faced 14 shots in that game, a substantial amount of shots for a keeper to face. Walstra hopes this time around that they will be more on the attack, rather than on their heels.
"We always need to get better on the flanks," Walstra said. "It's not really an issue of what areas we have to attack better, it's just taking advantage of the opportunities that you have.
"We have to get more penetration, there's no doubt about it. They got in our penalty area more often than we did in their penalty area in the last meeting, so we have to balance it out."
The winner of the Point Park at WVU Tech matchup will face nationally ranked Rio Grande in the semifinals Nov. 8. Rio Grande, which the Pioneers lost to 3-2 in overtime on Oct. 22, is ranked No. 3 in the NAIA, and is the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament.
"We do think about the fact that if we do beat WVU Tech, then we will have to play against Rio Grande," Walstra said. "But right now our focus is absolutely on WVU Tech."
Point Park junior midfielder Ricardo Dip believes the Pioneers matchup well with WVU Tech, but it will take a complete team effort to come out victorious.
"WVU Tech is a beatable team, but there's no doubt that they're very good," Dip said. "We're just hoping for the best. We have trained pretty well this week, so will have to see what the outcome is. We have to just play our game and hope that the ball goes in more for us than them."
Dip sized up the Pioneers' half of the bracket and also commented on what the team's mindset is going into the tournament.
"Those two teams [WVU Tech and Rio Grande] are beatable teams. I believe we have the players to beat anyone, really," Dip said. "We just hope that we can make it to nationals, that's what everyone wants."
