Men's Soccer Falls to No. 2 Seattle In WAC Semifinals

Wednesday, November 13

Phoenix, AZ

6 PM

California Baptist University

6-8-5, 4-4-1

No. 2 Seattle U

11-4-3, 7-1-1

California Baptist

Seattle U

Photo by: Western Athletic Conference

Men's Soccer Falls to No. 2 Seattle In WAC Semifinals

11/13/2024 9:59:00 PM | Men's Soccer

Box Score

By: Daniel Cook, Director of Athletics Communications & Digital Media

PHOENIX - For the first time in its short, but successful, Western Athletic Conference membership, California Baptist men's soccer tasted defeat at the conference tournament. The 3-seed Lancers fell behind early, scored, and threatened in the second half but would eventually fall to 2-seed Seattle U, 3-1. The Redhawks will now face 5-seed San Jose State on Saturday after the Spartans upset top-seeded San Diego State, 3-2, earlier on Wednesday. CBU is now 5-1-1 all-time in the WAC tournament.

Head Coach Coe Michaelson later reflected on the hard-fought loss, "I'm proud of the guys. As much as we felt invincible, at some point, we were going to lose a tournament game. I thought we did a lot of things well tonight, but ultimately, soccer is a game of fine margins, and Seattle executed and made a few less mistakes than us tonight."

Straight out of the gate, Seattle was the aggressor, racking up eight shots in the first 45 minutes. They connected on two of those shots, the first in the 27th minute and again in the 42nd, to take a multi-score lead into halftime.

CBU bounced back after the break, pressing the action, which paid off with a pure hustle goal from Leo Mendez in the 60th minute. Luca Contestabile spotted Mendez's opportunity from behind the midfield line and lobbed a beautiful leading pass to the Lancer striker. While the ball was ahead of him, Mendez's charge forced the Redhawk goalkeeper into indecision, which Mendez took advantage of for one of the easier scores of his soccer career.

Despite getting off five more shots following the score, the Lancers could not find the equalizer. The Redhawks sealed the victory in the 78th minute with a third goal to go back up by two.

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THE 2024 SEASON

Mendez, a five-year Lancer, ends his collegiate career with 19 career goals to go with 11 assists, making him just the fourth Lancer in the Division I era to post double-figures in both categories, joining Bryan Iliohan, Brian Gonzalez, and Luis Mueller on that prestigious list.

David Cordes is the other lifelong Lancer who dawned the Blue and Gold for the final time tonight - closing out a stellar career as an anchor on one of the great defensive backlines in the NCAA over the past four years. The Phoenix native played box-to-box for an average of 75 minutes per game over 71 games since 2021. Despite his defender tag, Cordes often found himself around the goal in decisive situations, contributing five goals and five more assists. Seven Lancer seniors depart after the most challenging season in the Division I era: Mendez, Cordes, Luka Kozomara, Ethan Russell, Alex Henderson, Josh Hallenberger, and Dominic De Almeida.

Michaelson later added, "I feel for the seniors, but they've been nothing but top class. It hurts to know the college career is over, but I'm very proud of who they are as people. We have a group of young guys with a ton of potential, and they have benefited immensely and learned a ton from this group of seniors."

Just a sophomore, but the Lancers' only All-WAC First Team honoree, Stavros Charalampous earned his flowers this season as the only player on the squad to start all 19 games. Charalampous was such a defensive menace for opposing sides it was clear during matches that the game plan was potentially nothing more than to attack the opposite of wherever Stavros was at that time. Though he has drawn much attention from suitors interested in his services after college, the future of Lancer soccer seems secure with Stavros leading the charge. Despite limited action this season due to injuries, Tizian Marth and Michael Mor showed great promise to contribute a great deal on both ends of the pitch.

The phenomenal freshman trio of Blake D'Agostino, Andrew Lovell, and Jiro Uchida played in 56 of 57 games in 2024, gaining invaluable early career experience. Those three, combined with sophomores Luis Borrero and Drew Hardin, recorded 15 goals this season, 60% of the team's scoring. Offensively, the squad looks to be secure for the next few seasons, with the luxury of some much-welcomed depth.

Not a freshman, but first-year goalkeeper Hugo Do Rego burst onto the scene with incredible efforts against some of the NCAA's best offenses and made his presence known with five shutouts and a 1.33 goals allowed average. His 2024 performances were deemed by the WAC coaches worthy of an All-WAC Second Team selection.

The 6-8-5 season record does not fully signify CBU men's soccer's tests and success this season. In total, the Lancers faced nine squads that were either ranked or receiving votes in the national poll at some point during the season, highlighted by hosting the No. 1 team in the country, West Virginia, and nearly pulling off the upset of the year in the thrilling 3-2 WVU decision. The team's 4-4-1 conference record continued the program's streak of finishing above .500 for six straight years, a claim that only Seattle U can match in the WAC over that same timeframe.

Michaelson and his staff have a more than solid foundation to build on for 2025, not unlike the one they started in 2019 with the likes of Mueller, Gonzalez, Antonio Gomez, and Thomas Beecham, which bore so much fruit for CBU in the end.