Randolph men find themselves in surreal Sweet 16

Randolph College men’s soccer coach Bryan Waggoner described the scene after his WildCats defeated DeSales 2-1 in the second round of the Division III NCAA tournament last Sunday in Newport News as "surreal." That is easy enough to understand considering the brief history of the school’s program.

Tonight, just five short years after Randolph-Macon Women’s College decided to admit men and became Randolph College, the WildCats have kicked the door down and joined Division III soccer elite in the Sweet 16, where they will play the University of Texas-Tyler in Redlands, Cal.

"I was sitting in a cubicle off in the corner, there wasn’t a single male student on campus and I had two months to put together a team," Waggoner said of his first season in 2007. "I wasn’t sure we were going to be able to field a team.

"Had you told me before the beginning of the year that we would be in the Sweet 16 and playing for a spot in the Elite Eight, I would have told you I thought we exceeded our expectations by a little bit," added Waggoner, who on Thursday was named the Old Dominion Athletic Conference coach of the year. "But I knew this is a good group, a special group and once they get rolling they could play with anybody."

One thing that might have concerned Waggoner about his team was its youth. The WildCats start one senior, one junior, who is still sophomore in terms of eligibility, eight sophomores, including ODAC player of the year Cory Sindle at forward and first-team goalkeeper Michael Releford, and one freshman.

"Young teams making their first appearance in the NCAA’s usually don’t fare too well," Waggoner said. "It takes time to learn how to play in the tournament, but they stepped right up to the plate. It’s exciting to see a team this young in the final 16. Sometimes, (when he thinks about this team’s future) I smile."

Since their first season, when the WildCats finished 2-9-1, they have made the ODAC tournament by placing in the top eight out of 11 schools four years in a row, starting in 2008, when they officially became a member of the conference. The first three appearances ended with shutout losses to cross-town rival Lynchburg College — 1-0 in the first round in 2008, 6-0 in the first round in 2009 and 3-0 in the quarterfinals last year, when the Hornets captured the title and advanced to the NCAA Division III championship game.

This season, Randolph got off to a very fast start, winning its first eight games to climb into the D3soccer.com Top 25 poll. The WildCats then dropped three straight conference matches heading into their showdown with Lynchburg. The Hornets, who feature ODAC rookie of the year Luke Moore, were 7-0 against Randolph at that point but the WildCats upset them 2-1 in an overtime thriller and went on to finish to finish fourth in the ODAC standings. They hosted sixth-seeded LC in ODAC tournament championship game, rallying from a 1-0 halftime deficit to end the Hornets’ season with a 2-1 victory and receive the automatic NCAA tournament bid.

"All those tough games in the ODAC really prepared us for the NCAA tournament," said Waggoner, who’s now 43-43-6 overall and 20-16-4 in conference play in five seasons. "Once we won the ODAC tournament, we realized we were representing our conference and the guys took that very personally."

RC was immediately thrown into fire last Saturday with a first-round matchup against one of the tournament’s favorites, Christopher Newport University — on the Pilots’ home field in Newport News. CNU played like a tournament favorite and dominated the game, out-shooting Randolph 28-7, but the WildCats made the most of their seven shots by scoring two goals and withstood the offensive onslaught to hold on for a monumental 2-1 upset.

"Every time this team runs up against an obstacle I think is too big to overcome, they find a way to get a result," Waggoner said. "We stuck to the game plan. We knew we wouldn’t see as much of the ball, but we defended well, and our work rate was tremendous. We out-worked them. Everyone really bought into it. It was unbelievable. There we were on the front page of NCAA.com next to a story about [Duke basketball] coach [Mike] Krzyzewski."

Randolph then faced DeSales in the second round and flexed its muscles a little bit. The WildCats scored early and immediately responded with a goal after the Bulldogs leveled the match to grab a 2-1 triumph.

"We were pretty banged up and missing a starter," Waggoner said. "We scored early and that gave us some confidence. We dictated the tempo of that game."

Now, Randolph faces UT-Tyler, a team that also staged a large upset by knocking off fifth-ranked Trinity (Texas) 2-0.

"We need to keep doing the little things well," Waggoner said, noting they add up to big results. "Set pieces get to be more and more critical because they are chances to attack an opposing team’s goalie."