M. Soccer Searches for First Win Against Defending National Champs

Formerly an assistant coach at University of California, Santa Barbara, Leo Chappel will be returning on Friday as a head coach—but of the opposing team.

Chappel and the Columbia men’s soccer team will take on the defending NCAA Division I champions tonight as they look to break the Lions’ four-game losing streak and tune up for the start of Ivy League play.

After falling to Northeastern in a 4-0 loss last weekend, the Lions currently sport a 0-4 record on the year and are aiming to work out the kinks that have caused the team’s losses, according to senior co-captain Tom Heinbockel.

“We’ve just got to come out firing so that hopefully we can stay in the game with them,” he said. “We can’t make any little mistakes, like losing matchups, not keeping our marks, letting runners through, stuff like that.”

UCSB, currently ranked 20th in the NCAA national rankings, will provide one of the Lions’ toughest challenges of the 2007 campaign. Senior defender Andy Iro and junior midfielder Eric Avila are returning this season after being named to the NSCAA All-Far West Region First Team. The Gauchos currently hold a 2-2-1 record.

Tonight’s match against UCSB and Sunday’s contest against Loyola-Marymount are part of Chappel’s strategy to expose the Light Blue to tougher competition. The team started its season against Virginia, which finished fourth in the NCAA national rankings in 2006, and will later take on American, another strong competitor. The Lions are hoping to bounce back from their sixth place Ivy League finish last year.

“Nothing really went our way,” Heinbockel said of last season. “We were dominating every game, which was the frustrating part, and it seemed like the one chance that the other team got all game, they came up with some ridiculous goal and we lost 1-0.”

Yet Heinbockel remains optimistic about the upcoming Ivy League campaign.

“Obviously everyone’s a little frustrated with the record so far, but Ivies is all that matters,” he said. “If we can get it together now, by that time we’ll be good to go.”