Biola Athletics is on the rise. Every aspect of the teams in this organization is seeking improvement and working to be their best and compete at the highest level. Biola’s men’s soccer team was no exception in their 2024 season, as they displayed improvement and a hunger for a bright future.
GREAT EXPECTATIONS
In 2023, the Biola Soccer team finished close to the bottom of the conference, finishing 7th out of the eleven teams in the 2023 conference, and only winning 3 games. This year, the team didn’t want to do that again and came in eager for elite competition. In the PacWest this season, the Eagles finished 7th in the newly expanded 14-team conference.
Junior theology major and team captain Ethan Hardin said that coming into the season, “The goal for this season was to make the conference playoffs and win the conference. We come in with this mentality every year.”
The fact that the team is coming into a season with a mindset this big and not merely wanting to add a couple of wins from last season speaks volumes about the character of this program.
TAKING A STEP
In preparation for this season, the Eagles soccer squad added new talent, and with it came new enthusiasm and vigor. The team had needs to address after that 2023 season that showed them what needed to be done, and they felt poised for big strides forward.
“This year, we gained some really important players in some really important positions,” Hardin said.
The moves paid off, and Hardin said that these players “Were able to contribute greatly to the team.”
While the Eagles finished well off their lofty PacWest championship aspirations, this season had many amazing takeaways and displays of improvement and promise. In a significantly increased PacWest Division, the Eagles finished in the top half, very close to a playoff berth and adding a couple of important conference wins to their performance last year, finishing 5-5-1.
SUCCESS AND CHALLENGE
5-5-1 is not what this team had in mind when the season kicked off way back in August. No player wants to be hanging their jersey in the closet in mid-November when the PacWest tournament goes well into the winter, but this was a special season. The team was led by an exceptional group of nine seniors, super seniors and graduate students, and got to have an exciting season with them, gleaning all they could from their wisdom before bidding farewell.
“I think what made this season special was the trips that we got to share together. We flew all over the country, and world, to play games together. We went to Brazil, Colorado, San Francisco and Fresno, and shared some great moments as a team,” Hardin said.
The Eagles had four athletes named to all PacWest teams, one of which was freshman business student Cruz Navvaro, who contributed 6 goals, leading the team in his first season. The future is bright for this squad.
But Hardin doubled down on the fact that nobody on the squad was satisfied with this.
“[W]e fell short of that goal and underperformed for the talent that we had, Hardin said. “Overall we are disappointed with the way that our season went.”
This mentality will take a program far down a path dotted with trophies and championships. This is a program that won the PacWest only two seasons ago. This season, the team took a big step back in the right direction on that road and is eager to stride further down it in the next championship.
This special season is one that any Biola student would enjoy seeing, and two students are working to share it with their peers this season through the “A Second Shot” documentary. Spread the word and keep an eye out for this as this PacWest season wraps up.
