Club Soccer Beats Rival JMU

By Meghan Cahill

April 27, 2009

The Virginia Tech men's club soccer team defeated rivals, James Madison University Dukes, 2-0 in the final leg of the Route 81 Cup early Sunday.

"JMU is our biggest rival," said Virginia Tech midfielder Matt Smith. "I was very excited to play JMU today."

Although the Hokies regular season takes place in the fall, Smith says the men utilize the spring games to give new players a look and work on tactics.

"We usually use the spring as a springboard for the following fall season," said Corey Leggett, president of the club team.

After losing the first game of the tournament 4-0 in Harrisonburg, Va. on Friday, the Hokies were ready to redeem themselves on their home turf.

"I look at the game Friday night in Harrisonburg and I wonder if we were too pumped up," said Virginia Tech coach Ben Hubbard. "That may not be the reason, but we really made a lot of mental errors and had poor execution on some simple plays."

However, the Hokies were able to come out with a win on Sunday. Freshman Ryan Sullivan tallied the first goal for the Hokies off of a header in the 43^rd minute of play.

"We came out firing in the game today," said Leggett. "After digging ourselves into quite a deficit in the first leg...we knew we would have to put maximum effort and pressure to force the issue."

Although the Hokies led 1-0 at half, Smith and Leggett both felt they did not capitalize on scoring opportunities.

"The finishing needed to be better," said Smith. "We easily had three golden chances that would have made the difference in the series and won us the Route 81 Cup."

The two teams fought hard, but the Hokies maintained possession for the majority of the first half. Tensions ran high between the opposing teams, but Leggett admits it's just a friendly rivalry.

"Over the past few years, we have played JMU several times and each time it is a competitive match," Leggett said. "We play them more frequently than other teams due to relative location, but the quality of their program makes for competitive matches."

"It's a situation where we are evenly matched and very talented, said Hubbard. "So both teams really look forward to playing each other knowing it's going to be a tough, physical and tactical game."

Although the Dukes had multiple scoring opportunities, Virginia Tech goalie Wally Al-Kakhan was able to hold them off.

At the other end of the field, Smith was able to create another scoring opportunity for the Hokies. After he was tripped in the box by a JMU defender, the referee rewarded the Hokies with a penalty kick.

Tech's Andrew Evans buried the shot into the bottom right corner of the Dukes goal.

"While we only won 2-0, I think anyone watching would admit that we had six or seven great chances to score," said Hubbard. "We wanted to win the Route 81 Cup and to do so we had to win by four goals, which in soccer is a very tall order."

While it was disappointing to Smith that the team was unable to win the tournament overall, he looked at the positives.

"We are happy with the victory and want to thank all of our fans for coming out to support us."

Hubbard also left the game happy and was proud of his team.

As for next fall, Hubbard looks forward to continuing the success of the club soccer program which he started five years ago.

"The thing I look forward to most as of today is just getting the returning players back together and starting work all over again."

The men's club soccer team holds tryouts the second week of school in the fall.

For more information on the men's club soccer team check out their website at http://www.freewebs.com/vtsoccerclub/ or contact Leggett at cleggett@vt.edu.