After a one-year hiatus, Missouri S&T’s men’s soccer team made it back into the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament last season. The Miners found a way into the tournament by getting a win or tie in eight of their 12 conference games – winning three of the games by a goal – but fell 1-0 in the opening round to eventual national semifinalist Northern Kentucky when the Norse scored late in the contest.

Even though the Miners’ stay in the tournament lasted only the one game, it did underscore two things about the team heading into the upcoming 2009 season – that it could compete on the same level as the top teams in the conference, but it is a team that has a need for more goal scoring.

S&T opened practice for the 2009 campaign on Tuesday.

The Miners will have a good number of players back from last year’s squad, as a relatively young squad gained valuable experience in a conference with three NCAA Division II Tournament qualifiers. Add to that a recruiting class that has several accomplished goal scorers and the Miners appear to be in a position to start moving towards the upper echelon of the GLVC.

“We showed that we can compete with every team in the league last season,” said Miner head coach Joe Ahearn, who is entering his third season at the helm. “But we also showed our youth as were a bit naïve in finishing games late in the season. I have a lot of confidence in this group as we move forward into the season.”

Missouri S&T, which was picked to finish eighth in the GLVC’s pre-season poll, returns three of its top four scorers from a year ago in forwards Mario Calderon and Nick Landon and back Andy Held. Landon and Calderon had four goals apiece in the 2008 season, while Held scored three times.

Calderon and Landon will get some help up front from a number of newcomers, headed by Saint Louis University transfer David Kekec and incoming freshmen Peter Vaccaro, Peter Haw, Jervis Atagana and Mason Morawitz. Kekec, who spent two seasons at SLU, earned all-state honors as a high school senior when he scored 30 points at Ladue High School.

Vaccaro and Haw, both products of Parkway West High School, combined to score 47 times last season while Morawitz  and Atagana – who were also prep teammates – each scored eight times in their senior year at Columbia’s Hickman High School.

Meanwhile, Held will anchor the back line of defense with a number of returners that held their opponents to just 24 goals in 19 games a year ago.

Held will be joined by juniors Kenny Gravlin and Sam Shaffer and sophomores J.J. Bilyew, Jonathan Goecker and Zack Hay. In addition, the Miners have also bolstered this group with the addition of freshmen Spencer Brinkmeyer and Brian Seawright to the corps after both earned numerous post-season honors at the high school ranks in 2008.

They will work in front of a goalkeeping team that is headed by Pat McNamee, last season’s GLVC “Freshman of the Year” after posting a 0.97 goals against average and a S&T single-season record seven shutouts. The Miners also have two returners who will compete for playing time in goal in senior Matt Wilson and sophomore Donny Gesell.

S&T will have a number of players competing for spots in the midfield, which will feature several returners and talented newcomers. Among the returners are seniors Tony Lambropoulos, Brian Tucker, sophomores J.J. Bilyeu, Trent Doerner, Ryan Muich – all of whom played in at least 17 games apiece last season as freshmen – as well as fellow sophomores Joe Jordan and Kyle Sneed.

The class of newcomers includes Nicolas Solano, a transfer from North Carolina State who brings a strong background to the program; Josh Bennett, an all-state selection at St. Charles’ Duchesne High School; Caleb Collier, an all-district performer at Kickapoo High in Springfield; Ben Glover, a top defender at Fort Zumwalt West; and Kyle Schraier, who played for a strong team at Christian Brothers College High School in St. Louis.