New players and a new field will define the Georgetown men’s soccer team as it strives to repeat past successes. The team’s season opens today at noon on North Kehoe Field against local foe George Washington University.

In addition to the new field, which was resurfaced and improved during the summer, the Hoyas will count on the four incoming recruits to aid the returning core of veterans. Head Coach Keith Tabatznik needs all of his players to fill the void left by the seven graduating seniors from last season’s team.

“You never deal with the loss of people, you only deal with who you have,” Tabatznik said. “What we did lose was a lot of goals. Yet we do have enough players that are capable of scoring goals.”

Those seven seniors accounted for 22 of the Hoyas’ 29 goals last season, including 11 by forward Nate Port (MSB ’02). Coach Tabatznik says that this season the scoring is likely to be better diversified.

“I’m not sure that there’s going to be a go-to person. There are certain people that have the ability to win games and score a lot of goals. As the year goes on, scoring is likely to be where you see the most improvement in this team,” Tabatznik said.

Tabatznik also said he expects scoring to increase as the season goes on. In their preseason scrimmages, the Hoyas have shown that they are a defensive-minded team at every position from goalie up to forward. While the strong defense is certainly a positive, the scoring drought is evident as the Hoyas have not scored a goal in two scrimmages. Tabatznik attributes the still-improving offensive power to his team’s youth. But he maintains that the youth is not a disadvantage.

“We are young and talented and the deciding factor on just how well we do or how quickly we do well is going to be how sharp the learning curve is,” Tabatznik said. “If the guys really put lessons together quickly then I think we have the makings of a solid team in all areas.”

Another key factor in determining the team’s success this season will be the ability to keep players on the field and off of the injured list. Last season the Hoyas were plagued by injury. Sophomore forward Kaiser Chowdhry was hampered by an ankle injury last season, and junior defenseman Greg Freeburg returns from an injury this season after playing only two games last year and being granted a redshirt.

The Hoyas find most of their experience in the net. Junior Tim Hogan and senior Brian O’Hagan will share the goaltending duties again this year. The combination of veteran leaders who have experienced the Hoyas’ tradition of winning ways, combined with the talented youth will make this season’s team a strong one. Most of all, Tabatznik credits the team’s developing skill to the dedication his players have shown.

“I think one of the biggest strengths of this team is their work rate. They are a very focused and intense team, probably more so than any team I’ve had in a few years. That’s very exciting to have a young team that’s very focused and eager to get out there,” Tabatznik said.

Even this early in the season, Tabatznik and his team have their goals mapped out. They also, however, have their work cut out for them. Last season the Hoyas defeated conference foe and defending national champion University of Connecticut and fell just shy of beating St. John’s. This season their schedule is just as tough, if not tougher. The Hoyas again face UConn and St. John’s, ranked third in the NSCAA poll, as well as Boston College, Rutgers and Syracuse.

“We have a schedule that is easily one of the toughest schedules in the country,” Tabatznik said. “So there’s no use in putting one team above another team, because each one’s going to be pretty tough. The only competition that matters to us right now is George Washington on Friday.” He said the team plans to take on the entire season focusing on one game at a time.

In addition to the team’s short-term goals, Tabatznik also mapped out his hopes and expectations for the coming season. “Our goals are pretty straight forward and clear – we want to return to the NCAA Tournament, we want to return to the Big East Tournament, we’d like to win the Big East Championship,” Tabatznik said.

“Those goals are very clear.”