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WFU soccer team prepares for NCAA tournament
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Published: November 21, 2008
Wake Forest, the defending national champions in men's soccer, will have to wait until Friday night to find out its first opponent in the NCAA Tournament.
The Deacons, the top-seed in the 48-team tournament, will play the winner of the William & Mary-Winthrop game on Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Spry Stadium.
Earlier this week Coach Jay Vidovich put the Deacons (18-1-1) through two early-morning practices after giving them a few days off.
The Deacons lost last Friday night 3-2 in overtime to Virginia in the ACC Tournament semifinals.
Forward Cody Arnoux of the Deacons, who is their leading scorer and ranks 17th in the nation, said that having a few days off was good for everybody.
"We feel pretty good right now," Arnoux said. "We took a loss to Virginia in the ACC Tournament and that kind of got us down a little but it also got us motivated to come out and play hard. Not that it was a good thing, but it showed that we are beatable and we're not perfect all the time."
One of the things Vidovich has going for him and his team is experience. The Deacons have scored 68 goals, the most in the nation, and most of that offense is being provided by upperclassmen.
The Deacons have been through the rigors of the NCAA Tournament, winning five games last season including the win over Ohio State in the championship game.
Vidovich has stressed to his team the importance of not looking past anybody in the field.
"It's the tournament of champions," Vidovich said. "Every team that's in it, won their conference or regular season or they are just really, really good. The competition is such that you don't have to be the best team in the country on that day, you just have to be better than your opponent."
Another of the high-scoring Deacons is sophomore Corben Bone, who leads the nation in assists with 14.
"We obviously want to repeat, but we are taking it one game at a time," Bone said. "Coach made it a point the other day in to let us know we aren't worried about the championship or semifinals or any of that, it's one game at a time and that's all we can focus on and that's all we can control."
John Dell can be reached at 727-4081 or jdell@wsjournal.com.
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