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Men's soccer looks to build upon past progress in 2015

February 20, 2015

After an Elite Eight run in 2013, the men's soccer team was looking to take the next step in 2014. The Spartans had an excellent season but ultimately fell short of their goal, losing in the Elite Eight for the second consecutive season.

The 2015 season will be a key year for MSU as a program, the team is losing several key pieces but the Spartans still have enough talent coming in and returning to be good again.

"We certainly are losing a lot of players but I think we are a pretty deep program, I don't think the goals shift or drop, we're going to have to earn it a lot more," head coach Damon Rensing said.

The team is losing midfielder Fatai Alashe who was selected fourth overall by the San Jose Earthquakes in the 2015 MLS SuperDraft, the earliest a Spartan has been drafted. Forward Adam Montague was also drafted, going in third round 58th overall to the Vancouver Whitecaps. Midfielder Jay Chapman is leaving school early as he signed with Toronto FC as a homegrown player. The team also lost defender Ryan Keener and midfielder and forward Tim Kreutz to graduation.

"Jay (Chapman) signed with the Toronto FC team he's in training camp with them, sounds like he's doing well,"  Rensing said. "I think (these players heading to the next level) shows that we're developing some players, I think it shows that we're recruiting the right players...it kind of reaffirms what we're doing here at Michigan State."

Despite some big names, the team has several experienced players and big names remaining. Goalkeeper Zach Bennett will be headed into his senior year in front of the net for MSU, Bennett already holds the school all-time career shutout record with 28. The team will also get back midfielder Jason Stacy for his senior season, Stacy was tied for first on the team in 2014 in total points with 15 coming from four goals and seven assists.

The team is also welcoming eight new additions as a part of the 2015 recruiting class— Hunter Barone a 2014 all-american from Grandville, Michigan, Connor Corrigan a defensive prospect who spent time playing with the Indiana Fire Academy, Robbie Cort a local product out of Bloomfield Hills that is capable of playing on both sides of the ball. 

DeJuan Jones, an offensive prospect who played for East Lansing High School, led his team to back-to-back state championships en route to being named Mr. Soccer in Michigan and the Michigan Gatorade boys soccer player of the year, Kaden Keller from St. Louis was named as an all-state player in his only two years of high school soccer, goalkeeper Zach Kovan is another local product out of Okemos he will have big shoes to fill coming to MSU as a goalie with the first name Zach.

Luke Menne is a midfielder that spent all four years of high school on varsity, finally there is Ryan Sierakowski a highly-touted offensive prospect out of Illinois who was called to the US U18 national team camp in 2014. 

"It's one of more talented classes I think we've had on paper in some time," Rensing said. "We (lost) some attacking players in Chapman, Montague and Kreutz so I think you look at it with you've got three good attackers in Hunter Barone, Ryan Sierakowski and DeJuan Jones.

"DeJuan Jones was just named the Gatorade player of the year in the state of Michigan, Sierakowski is a U18 National Team player and Hunter Barone has certainly got some dynamic skills and ability."

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