News Release

Grove/McMurry Men Looking to Make More Strides in 2008

Turning around a losing program at any place isn�t easy no matter the circumstances. With two-straight three-win seasons by McMurry�s men�s soccer program, head coach Tim Grove and the team are in a better position to make a move in 2008. After a late hire prior to the 2007 season, Grove had just a few weeks to fill a roster that had just three players returning from 2006. Even so the team still finished 6-9-2 in all competitions. However, for the upcoming fall season Grove is excited about the outlook with a full season of recruiting and working with returning players.

Even though in the latter half of the 2007 season, McMurry played with a short bench, the young and in-experienced team showed signs of promise throughout the year. The team highlight was defeating Mississippi College who was undefeated and in control of the conference standings at the time.

�I felt like we were competitive in all the games,� Grove said. �A lot of our struggle at the end of the season was due to the short bench. We had just 15 field players and suffered lots of injuries. But we were still in a bunch of close games we tied twice and lost in overtime a couple of times.� In fact McMurry took conference Champion Univeristy of Texas at Dallas to overtime and eventually lost though they dominated possession and the shot count.

Five players earned all-conference honors including four of Grove�s freshmen.
Humberto Sepulveda, Nathan Perschke and Marcos Perez were all-conference honorees in their rookie seasons. Sepulveda and Perschke will be back along with Chris Crawford who earned all-conference honors for the second-straight season as a sophomore. Perez was ASC offensive player of the week in week #2.

Along with the all-conference honorees, Chris Ryan, Logan Garza and Kevin Mayhugh plan to play their junior seasons for Grove in 2008. Also, freshmen William Westbrook, Francisco Alvarez, Rodrigo Chiquini, Sheharyar Khan, J.J. Zonker, Michael Dobereiner, and Uriel Benitez plan to return in 2008.

Grove said he is encouraged by the players that plan to return and the effort they�ve put forth thus far in the off season.

�The guys are playing on their own every day, which I think develops good team chemistry,� said Grove. �They have enough self discipline to make improvements and they want to be the conference champs. They saw that they could compete with the best teams in the conference even with a small bench and little experience.�

Just as Grove is pleased with his players coming back, he is equally excited about how recruiting is going for 2008.

�I�ve talked to over 200 recruits,� he said. �I think we�ll have a good recruiting class; we�ve had at least three or four guys in every week for a visit.�

Grove will look to replace Sehested and also said that he hopes to strengthen the forward position and back line.

Another disadvantage the program had last season with the late addition of the head coach was scheduling. Grove said that he has worked to improve the non-conference schedule in 2008.

In fact, McMurry will open the season at the Ohio Wesleyan Adidas Invitational, which features several NCAA Division III nationally-ranked teams each year. They will play Capital University and Ohio Wesleyan.

Submitted 2008-03-10 12:37:10 by McMurry University Sports Information Department