The quest continues

One month ago, the UTRGV Men’s Soccer Club made it a mission to make an appearance at the 2018 National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association Region IV Men’s Soccer Club Tournament in Tulsa, Okla. A lot has happened since then.

Just two months after making its debut in the Texas Collegiate Soccer League South Conference, UTRGV was crowned the 2018 TCSL South Conference Champion with an overall 4-1 record.

UTRGV defeated Trinity University (3-1), the University of Texas at San Antonio (5-1), Texas A&M University-San Antonio (10-0) and Texas State University (4-2), but lost to Northwest Vista College (2-0). 

Soccer Club President Alejandro Garcia, a senior accounting major, said one of the team’s primary goals was to make it to regionals. 

“The goal is to why not try and make it to regionals in our first year in this league because this is our first year in this league,” Garcia said in Spanish. “The results have shown little by little. The men are honestly very excited.”

The Vaqueros’ first-place finish qualified UTRGV to the NIRSA Region IV Tournament hosted at Mohawk Sports Complex in Tulsa Nov. 2-4. UTRGV was one of 18 teams to qualify for the tournament, which included schools from Texas: University of Houston, Lone Star College-North Harris, Texas Tech University, University of North Texas, University of Texas at Austin, Baylor University, Texas Christian University, Texas A&M University and Sam Houston State University. 

Kansas had Wichita State University and the University of Kansas; Illinois, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville; Missouri, Washington University in St. Louis and University of Missouri; Oklahoma, University of Oklahoma; Louisiana, Tulane University; and, Nebraska, Creighton University.

The tournament consisted of six pools, with UTRGV in Pool F, alongside Tulane and Creighton universities.

On Nov. 2, UTRGV fell 1-0 to Tulane. On Nov. 3, UTRGV swept Creighton 4-0, resulting in a second-place finish for the Vaqueros and a pool play record of 1-1.

The Vaqueros then advanced to the men’s single elimination round, where they defeated the University of Missouri (first place in Pool E) 1-0.

The win was enough to earn the Vaqueros a position in the Men’s National Bid game, where only SIU-Edwardsville, Texas Tech, UT-Austin, Washington University and Tulane advanced

Once again, the Vaqueros squared off against Tulane, but this time the results were different. UTRGV came out with a 2-1 win over its opponent.

The victory catapulted the Vaqueros to the 2018 NIRSA National Men’s Championship, which took place last week at the Foley Sports Complex in Foley, Ala.

Head Coach Hugo Zuñiga of Edinburg, a graduate of legacy institution University of Texas-Pan American, said the team is capable of doing many great things.

“It’s a dream coming true for me to be able to coach at the university level,” Zuñiga said. “I think we are doing our best to prepare these kids and support them.”

The tournament hosted 18 teams from Colorado, California, North Carolina, Virginia, Oregon, Illinois, Michigan, Arizona, New York, Pennsylvania, Utah, Texas, Delaware, Ohio, Wisconsin and Florida.

Eights pools were created and UTRGV was placed in Pool E with the University of California, Davis and Michigan State University.

Last Thursday, UTRGV first played UC Davis, losing 1-0.

The Vaqueros were looking for a victory against Michigan State, but fell short 4-0.

Overall, the Vaqueros finished third in Pool E and played last Friday in the consolation bracket against the third-place finisher in Pool A (Colorado State University, San Jose State University and North Carolina State University). Results were unavailable at press time.