There is a new look and a new feel around the 2017 Point Loma men’s soccer team. Fans got used to the familiar faces of the previous team, as many were four-year letterwinners for the Sea Lions, but that all changed with the graduation of coach Wolf’s inaugural recruiting class last May. Now to keep the momentum that the program built, which saw the Sea Lions improve each of the last four years, coach Wolf has brought in seven talented freshmen and seven skilled transfers this year, to combine with PLNU’s 10 returners, as Point Loma strives to make the first NCAA West Regional in program history.
 
Returners
The Sea Lions will return 10 letterwinners and four starters from their 2016 team, including All-PacWest selections Eduardo Gallardo (MF) and Mitch Wheelon (D). Forward Indiana Fuller and midfielder Will Cline are also back as starters. In addition, Chris Reingen, Christopher Tellez, Jorge Navarro, Corey Olson, Paul Sweet and Sean Williams will all be back as well.
“You think of the seniors; Eddie Gallardo, Mitch Wheelon, Will Cline, Sean Williams and Chris Reingen, you’ve got some guys who have been around a little bit and have seen the last few years and the progress of the program,” Wolf said.
 
Newcomers
To supplement his relatively small number of returners, coach Wolf recruited seven freshmen and seven transfers to bolster the Sea Lions’ ranks.
“You also have some older guys who have not been around, who are transferring in as juniors, and a couple grad students,” Wolf explained. “We have some older guys, not your typical freshmen who are going to come in and hit the ground running as guys who have played at a high level in college or internationally. We also have the seven freshmen guys who are learning the ropes of college athletics. This is a really good group.”
 
Offense
Putting the ball in the back of the net is a key to every team’s success, and again this season it should be no different for the Sea Lions. They return five of their top 8 scorers in Eduardo Gallardo, Indiana Fuller, Mitch Wheelon, Jorge Navarro and Chris Reingen. However, the key will be chemistry and rhythm in the final third of the field, as Point Loma looks to top 30 goals in a season for the first time in the coach Wolf-era.
“Offensively, I think we’ve got more weapons in more places, and I think we should be good,” he continued. “I don’t know that we have a big time goal scorer necessarily, but I think we have a bunch of guys who could score five, six or eight goals. I think it will be a little more goals by committee rather than it will be one guy carrying the majority of the weight. Our front group is good with Finn Tiedemann, Eddie, Indy, Tim Siegfried, Chris Reingen and Chris Tellez. Those guys will make up our front group. I think they are going to be able to cause some troubles and they’re going to be able to create a bunch of chances. Hopefully, we kind of hit stride midseason last year really scoring some goals, as we really struggled in the front half of the year. My hope is that we can keep that attacking rhythm that we had in the second half of the year and start that way this season.”
 
Defense
Defense has been the calling card for the Sea Lions in the five years under Phil Wolf. Over the last four years, the team has allowed just 1.08 goals per game, including 0.89 goals the past two seasons. However, Mitch Wheelon is the only starter holdover on the backline. Gone are four-year starters Brady Johansen, Tyler Allen and Josh Eusebio. Coach Wolf hopes he immediately filled that void with the new recruiting class.
“Defensively, we will look a little bit new,” explained Wolf. “The big addition was Fabian Lueders. He is going to be an important player for us. He is a big central defender that can navigate the team and push them the way he wants to push them. Then we have a nice competition between Jacob Skattner and Jake Eisenberg for the left central defender, and I see both those guys playing as well. We have a good competition wide as well, between Mitch Wheelon and Corey Olson. Both are returners, and they are being pushed by Tanner Akol and Jacob Moreno. I think we are going to have some depth there, some flexibility if someone isn’t quite healthy or nicked up, we are going to be able to use some guys. I think we should be a really solid back four.”
 
Goalies
Point Loma will also be trying to replace both Michael Lambert and Dylan Roberts in goal. Lambert was a two-year starter and very solid keeper for the Sea Lions, but coach Wolf is excited about the two that will be suiting up for the team this year with Sean Williams and Wiktor Lasota.
“They are different goalies than we have had in the past,” noted Wolf. “Sean Williams has really developed himself since coming into this program.  He has worked and worked himself into a situation where he is a college starter and can really push Wiktor. (Wiktor) is obviously an accomplished college player, having played in a lot of games in two years. He is going to be a very good goalkeeper at this level. Right now Sean is there with him and pushing him hard. We have some nice depth at keeper. Both of them are real quality, and I would feel really good about having either of them in the goal.”
 
Strengths
As coach Wolf talked about with each position, the Sea Lions are expected to have depth up and down the board. This is good because of the way coach Wolf likes to rotate his guys, and the way the college soccer schedule sets up with two matches in three days.
“It’s a really well-rounded team with talent at every spot and some depth at every spot,” he said. “I think you can expect a good group on Thursday and on Saturday. Even if I have to rotate the team, it’s still going to be a good group. I’m just hopeful that over the whole season we can find our top 11 in our guys and our substitution pattern. The last two years I feel like we deserved a little bit better but didn’t quite get it done. I’m hopeful that this group can take that next step.”
 
Weaknesses
While the 14 newcomers bring tons of excitement to the team, they also bring an element of the unknown. Coach Wolf is hopeful this team can meld together quickly, especially for the tough early stretch of the schedule.
“I think college soccer is a daunting task in that fact that you know you show up and at the end of the third week you are playing your first real game,” Wolf said. “So I think how well we mesh, how quickly it happens, the leadership of the group and, all the intangible type of things are going to determine a lot for us. Those are things that you just don’t know at this point in the season if it is going to happen because games come, and they come fast. We are obviously going to need to be up to the task. Certainly, things like injuries, those type of things can really affect things. Hopefully, by our first game at Cal State, Dominguez Hills (Aug. 31), we will be ready, because it’s obviously a huge challenge to start the season.”
 
Schedule
The Cal State Dominguez Hills match is not the only huge match of the early season for the Sea Lions. Their first six matches are setting up to be one of the toughest stretches in the NCAA West Region this year. [Complete schedule]
“This season is a little bit different because you have an automatic bid in the conference,” Wolf explained. “In the past CCAA games were so important. Obviously, they are still important to show that you are a good team and show the regional committee that you can play at a good level, but I think you had to have a little bit of a fallback plan if it doesn’t go well. But the reality of it is we are always going to play the CCAA or the GNAC in the preseason, and they are all good teams. The west region is the top region in the country for a reason. It is three major conferences made up of really good teams, where so many of the regions in the rest of the country are just one conference. It is a completely different animal out here in Division II, so there is no easy game in this region. You’d like to say you could schedule a little bit easier than the top four teams in the CCAA, but at the end of the day, other teams in the CCAA are not much easier. For us we just play the teams we have on our schedule, we try to be challenged by them and try to learn by them, and hopefully, prepare us for the PacWest.”
 
Goals
The Sea Lions have seen improvement each year under Wolf, but he desires the program to take the next step to be considered an annual threat in the PacWest and the NCAA West Region.
“I always struggle with team goals, but I think the natural progression for us would be to say can you finish in the top two in the league, can you win the league, can you make the NCAA tournament,” Wolf said. “That’s the natural progression, but every season has its own challenges, and it doesn’t happen as clean as that.”
 
Keys
While the ebbs and flows of the season are bound to occur, coach Wolf has outlined some keys to success for the Sea Lions’ season.
“Ultimately I would like to say get better every day,” he said. “If you do that, you don’t need to worry because we are already a decent team. If you get better every day, it takes care of a lot of things. You are just getting better working hard on your game and trying to really clean things up. You look at what we have done so far in my five years here. We have gotten better every and so hopefully that is a step in the right direction here and we can get close to where we ultimately want to be which is a NCAA tournament team.”
 
Conclusion
The previous four years were all about trusting in a process for improvement. No one four years ago would have thought the PLNU men’s soccer team would be picked to finish in the top 4, but credibility and talent has returned to the program. Through hard work and trust in his system, coach Wolf has created a window for this year’s team to move into the upper echelon of teams in the PacWest and the Region; the squad just needs to capitalize on the opportunity.