Season ends on sour note

Towson hands Dukes tough 4-1 loss in NCAAs first round

Sir Isaac Newton would have called the unfortunate conclusion to the men's soccer team's stellar season "gravity." What kept going up finally came down Friday night, as the same team that saw their coach reach a historic 350th career victory, won the Colonial Athletic Association championship and was ranked 21st in the nation abruptly ended its season with a devastating loss in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

"To go out like that is kind of a bummer," senior forward Mike Godwin said. "But I had a blast this season. I have no regrets."

Friday night, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Fetzer Field, the Dukes lost their NCAA first-round match to unranked Towson University, 4-1, thus ending their remarkable 12-5-1 season.

Most of the team agreed it was their worst effort all season. "It was kind of sad," senior midfielder Reggie Rivers said. "It just wasn't our night."

Senior defender Levi Strayer said, "That was probably the worst game I've played in my four years here. We should have been ready to play, but we didn't show up."

This year's NCAA tournament has seen several other upsets, in addition to JMU's defeat. Undefeated No. 2 University of Virginia lost in the second round to Seton Hall University, and both Harvard University and the University of Notre Dame were knocked out in the first round.

"Everyone expected us to win that game, and losing it 4-1 was not a fun experience," Godwin said. Although Towson was unranked, it was rolling through its most successful soccer season in the school's 80-year history.

JMU's only goal came when they were down 0-3, with only 10 minutes remaining on the clock. After being awarded a penalty kick, the Dukes knew that they didn't have a chance to win, so they made the most of the opportunity. Strayer called up senior goalkeeper Josh Kovolenko to take the kick.

Rivers joked, "He's probably our strongest penalty kicker."

So in his last JMU game, the Dukes' goalkeeper scored his first goal at JMU, saving the Dukes from a shutout by the Towson Tigers.

"They came out and played harder than we did," senior defender John Ambridge said. "And we missed some chances to level it up. They scored some lucky goals."

Fox said, "Everything they were hitting was going in. It was a tough night."

Another one of Newton's laws could have explained how the Dukes surpassed all the odds throughout the season. Newton's first law of motion stated, "an object in motion tends to stay in motion." Despite facing defeats to No.1 Southern Methodist University, followed by No. 2 Wake Forest University, in its first two games, the team stayed in motion.

In addition to facing 2000 NCAA semifinalist SMU and 2000 NCAA quarterfinalist UVa., their 2001 opponents included 1999 NCAA runner-up Santa Clara.

Kovolenko said, "Looking back on the season, our team was very persistent and consistent. It would have been easy to pack things up after we were 0 and 2 in the first two games."

During this season, which was Martin's 25th year coaching, he reached a milestone of 350 career victories. Only 11 NCAA Division I soccer coaches in history have accomplished this feat. Coming into the 2001 season, Martin had the fourth-highest winning percentage of all the coaches in the NCAA Division I, and the seventh-highest victory ranking.

"I think it's a great milestone," Kovolenko said. "I was happy to be a part of it. He's been around the game for a long time."

Rivers said, "It's an impressive milestone. I'm glad I was a part of that. Not many coaches are going to reach that goal."

The team agrees that the biggest goal they achieved was winning the CAA championship, automatically earning a bid to the NCAA tournament.

The Dukes successfully avenged their crushing defeat last year in the championship to the College of William & Mary. This year the Dukes trounced the two-time defending champion Tribe, capturing the CAA championship for the first time since 1994.

"It's the first title we've won in a while," Martin said. "I'm just really happy for the kids, especially the seniors."

Rivers added, "That's the biggest achievement I've had since I've been here."
At one of the practices during the preseason, the coaches handed out pieces of paper to each of the players, to write down a list of their goals for the season. "That's the big goal every year," Ambridge said about winning the CAA championship tournament. "It's a great goal to achieve. It was good to finally win it."

Kovolenko, the CAA tournament MVP, said, "That's definitely what we all were focusing on. We went down there (to Virginia Beach) and played two big teams and won two big games."

Although the first-round loss devastated the team, making it to the NCAA tournament was another big goal that many players listed, and another goal that the team succeeded at accomplishing, for the second year in a row.
Godwin said, "There's no greater feeling than making it to the NCAA tournament."

Among the bittersweet memories, the team cherishes the experience and all the accomplishments this season. "Although it ended earlier than we thought it would end, I'm still proud of the season I had with these guys," Kovolenko said. "We don't want to forget about the good season that we did have. I'd go to battle with any of those guys any day."

"We had the potential to go a lot further," Strayer said. "It was a disappointment. But overall we had a good year."

Rivers said, "I just hope the rest of the guys can learn from the experience and go further next year."