UNLV men’s soccer coach remains optimistic

UNLV men's soccer coach Rich Ryerson finally has faced reality.

When his program was on the verge of falling victim to athletic department cutbacks last summer, he believed he could save it. When the Rebels opened their season with a roster depleted by uncertainty, he believed they could still win the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. And when they entered last week with a 3-11 overall record, he believed they would sweep weekend play to qualify for the league tournament.

Only the first of those goals materialized. Ryerson managed to raise enough money to save men's soccer at UNLV.

The coach now realizes that the odds were stacked against his team all along, but that hasn't prevented him from entertaining one final dream.

"The highlight of our season is going to be when we beat New Mexico on Saturday," said Ryerson, whose squad will play its final game in Albuquerque. "I really believe we have a chance to upset the No. 1 team in the country."

Indeed, the Rebels have played the Lobos well over the past three seasons, and they're due for a breakthrough win.

Though Ryerson's quest for a season-ending victory might sound unrealistic to some, it's not altogether unthinkable. The Rebels have lost by two or more goals only five times, and they've had a lead in seven of the games they've lost.

"I think we're a better team than our record shows," Ryerson said.

On the other hand, UNLV failed to win a home game in seven tries. The Rebels closed out their home schedule with losses to San Jose State and Sacramento State last weekend, so they don't exactly have momentum on their side.

No one can really blame Ryerson for the team's woes. He lost 13 players and all of his recruits last year when the program faced elimination.

"Not one other team has had to deal with rebuilding while the team was in jeopardy," said Ryerson, who is finishing his second year at the helm. "There were a lot of distractions. We were able to get the funding we needed in July, but we never had the opportunity to recruit the way other programs get to recruit."

But Ryerson thinks his team is in position to rebound next season.

"I'm hopeful for 2012," he said. "I hope we get our first true recruiting class and put our own stamp on the program. I think there's just a maturing process we need to go through as a group. With that, we should start winning those games when we have a lead."

Ryerson also is optimistic about the fact that he will lose just one starting senior at the end of the season. He'll return current juniors Mike Mota, Zach Kupfer, Jonny Espinoza and Nick Marshall. Forward Salvador Bernal, a candidate to win the league's freshman of the year honors, also will be back.

"I have very high expectations for those guys," the coach said. "They're going to need to be our leadership next year."

Ryerson said there's nowhere to go with the program but up.

"I'm optimistic about next year," he said. "Even though our win-loss success hasn't been that good, we have a bunch of guys who never gave up, even with all the internal conflict. It's easy to point fingers when things are going wrong, but our guys never did that."

So Ryerson will enter the offseason with the same high hopes he had in August. But he insisted a win over New Mexico (15-0-2) on Saturday is the foremost thing on his mind for the moment.

"That would make my season," he said.