On November 1, 2009, Missouri S&T's men's soccer team walked off the field at Northern Kentucky after losing to the Norse in the opening round of the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament for the second straight year.  Unlike the previous year, this was a particularly heartbreaking setback, as NKU overcame a 2-1 deficit in the final 10 minutes to win the game … but it also helped set the course for the Miners' 2010 campaign that would see them returning to this same location to play in the NCAA Division II Tournament for the first time in program history.

Joe Ahearn, the head coach of the Miners during this era, is like all coaches in knowing that player development is an integral element of the off-season.  So after that game at NKU -- with most of that 2009 roster coming back the following fall -- the development in the off-season that followed was vital if the Miners were going to take that next step forward the following fall. 

That process started not long after the team returned from the Cincinnati suburbs.

"We didn't wait until the second semester," Ahearn said.  "The boys had a week off and we went back to work.  We were a program built on developing players."

The Miner team heading into the 2010 season certainly had experience under its belt, with eight of the 11 starters in that NKU match still on the roster as well as four reserves that saw action that afternoon.  That helped propel the players' own expectations heading into that year.

"Each year I was here, we got a little bit better," said Kenny Gravlin, a senior on the 2010 team.  "We knew we had some good freshmen coming in and good upperclassmen coming back, so we expected to compete for a conference title."

"We knew defensively we were good, said goalkeeper Pat McNamee.  "We weren't going to give up a lot of goals, so we could get a couple ourselves in key moments, we could pick up a few more wins."

Pick up a few more wins they did.  The few more wins they got helped the Miners win their first GLVC regular season title, their first conference title of any kind since 1998 and earn a berth to the NCAA Division II Tournament for the first time in program history.

The makeup of the Miner roster in 2010 included two players – Gravlin and McNamee – whose older brothers had previously played in the program.  Gravlin's brother, Dan, played the 2007 season together as Dan completed his four-year career and had led the team in assists in two of his four seasons in a Miner uniform as a midfielder.

McNamee's older sibling, Mike, was a goalkeeper as well and their careers also intersected in 2007 at S&T.  While Mike was wrapping up a career in which he set the school record for career shutouts, Pat was spending the year as a redshirt and would take over as the primary starting goalkeeper a year later and would be named as the GLVC's Freshman of the Year in 2008.

McNamee was coming off a season in which he recorded a 1.11 goals against average and had four shutouts as he played all by about 16 minutes of the entire 2009 season.  But despite giving up just 17 goals during a year where it finished at 7-7-1 (7-5-1 in GLVC play), S&T scored only 21 itself.  It was a balanced 21, however, as 13 different Miners scored goals during the year, led by Peter Vaccaro's three.

The team also had veterans in the program that were key components to the back line and midfield in Sam Shaffer, who wound up settling in as a wing by 2010, as well as midfielders Trent Doerner and Ryan Muich and defender J.J. Bilyeu, all of whom had played in more than 30 games during their first two seasons as Miners.

The Miners also had a couple of other seniors that had transferred into the program who became key players in the mix in Mario Calderon, a forward who had scored six goals over the previous two years and David Kekec, a playmaking midfielder that led the Miners with four assists in 2009.

It was the sophomore class, however, that was ready to provide some impact as that group now had a full season of collegiate soccer experience under its belt.

The Miners had recruited in two high scoring forwards from Parkway West High School in the St. Louis area in Peter Haw and Peter Vaccaro, the latter of whom had scored 54 times in his high school career.  Another St. Louis-area product, Kyle Schraier, became a big piece to the puzzle in the midfield and front line, as was Jervis Atagana, who came to S&T after helping his Scott Gallagher club team win the Missouri State Cup in 2008.

Caleb Collier was a member of that recruiting class and eventually earned a spot in the lineup on the back line, while Brian Seawright, who was redshirted in 2009, became part of the front line rotation.  One additional member of that 2009 recruiting class wound up making a significant impact on both ends of the field.

Spencer Brinkmeyer, who like many of his teammates chose Missouri S&T due to its academic programs, turned into one of the defensive anchors as a center back along with Gravlin and would become an offensive force on set pieces, an element that became a bigger factor as the season progressed.

"Kenny quietly shut all of the other team's top forwards down," McNamee said.  "Spencer would win all of the balls in the air and Kenny would shut it down on the ground, so not much got back to me in goal."

With all of that in place, the Miners arrived for pre-season practice in August of 2010 as a group that was ready to go from day one.

"The boys came to camp fit," Ahearn said.  "That was a good starting point because we were able to build out tactics and team cohesion immediately."

When the season began for the Miners on Sept. 5, they played to a 1-1 draw against perennial GLVC power Wisconsin-Parkside, then went on the road and ended up in a scoreless tie on a muddy field against Illinois Springfield – a team in just its second year as a member of the conference.  So with the two ties to start the year, S&T went to Lewis to complete the weekend road trip and came away with a 2-1 win, then followed that up with an impressive 3-0 win over Rockhurst at the S&T Soccer Field.

Following that win over Rockhurst, the Miners dropped their next two games and carried a 2-2-2 overall record and 2-1-2 conference mark into a road game at Drury.  In a game where S&T was outshot by a 12-2 margin and a 10-0 differential in the second half, a goal by Collier – a Springfield native -- in the 30^th minute held up for a 1-0 win that started one of the most impressive runs in Miner soccer history.

"We had most of the group returning from the previous season, which really helped strengthen the cohesion," Ahearn said.  "We used 15 to 18 players a weekend.  There were weekends where some players would get a few minutes in the Friday games, but would start on Sunday and bring loads of energy.

"At that time, Drury, Rockhurst, Lewis and Parkside were the perennial powers," Ahearn added.  "We built a little bit of confidence through each result against those teams.  The mentality grew with each result and we expected ourselves to win every game."

S&T did not allow a goal in the final 15 minutes of a loss at Truman State that preceded the Drury game, or another one until Northern Kentucky scored in overtime five games later.  McNamee and reserve goalkeeper Donny Gesell had held the opposing teams off the scoreboard for a school record 570 consecutive minutes and in doing so, S&T had run off five straight wins to move to the top end of the GLVC standings.

Not only did the Miners have that run of 570 minutes without allowing a goal, they did not allow another one over the rest of their conference season after NKU broke the first shutout run.  They finished the year with consecutive shutouts of Bellarmine (a scoreless tie), Saint Joseph's and Indianapolis – resulting in a run of 860 minutes of play with only one goal being scored against them -- and gained a share of the GLVC regular season championship.

"Good team defense takes the stress off the offense," Ahearn said.  "When we kept teams off the scoreboard, we had confidence that we would earn enough opportunities to score and when the opponent doesn't score – we would only need one.  We took pride in 'team goals.' We shared the ball, could score in different ways and celebrated each other's success."

"This was the only year that I was involved in which we had the same group on the back line from the start of the season to the end," Brinkmeyer said.  "Having that continuity back there all season really played a big part in our success and the midfielders and forwards also helped in that regard, so it wasn't just those of us on the back line."
 

Not to be forgotten...
While Missouri S&T's men's soccer team had the opportunity to play in the NCAA Tournament in 2010, the S&T women's team hasn't been as fortunate.  It's not to say, however, that the women's program hasn't had its memorable seasons as well.  Three years in particular stand out: 1997 – The Miners had their top season ever during this year, finishing 15-3-1 and outscoring their opponents 61-17 during the season, including 20-0 over the first five games of the year.  Natalie Sanders, the all-time leading scorer in Miner history, scored 24 of her 75 career goals that season, while Michelle Johnson finished with a 0.87 goals against average.  But with fewer teams being eligible to play in the NCAA Tournament at that time, the Miners were not selected for the regional.  A late season overtime loss to Truman, who reached the national quarterfinals, kept S&T from making the regional that season. 2014 – S&T finished this season below the .500 mark at 9-10-1, but was 8-7 in the GLVC and proceeded to make the program's best post-season run ever in November.  The Miners, paced by Sabrina Hostler's 11 goals and eight shutouts by goalkeeper Kaitlyn Deister, got into the GLVC Tournament as the seventh seed and proceeded to knock off No. 2 seed Bellarmine 2-0 in the opening round.  In the semifinals, S&T and Quincy played to a scoreless draw over 110 minutes to send the game into a penalty kick shootout, where Deister made a save in the fifth round and Alex McCord scored for a 4-3 S&T win in the shootout.  The Miners would fall in the championship game to fourth-ranked Wisconsin-Parkside.
2021 – In arguably their best season in the last two decades, the Miners parlayed strong defense (a school record 12 shutouts) and timely goal scoring to a 7-4-3 record in GLVC play and the sixth seed in the conference tournament.  S&T's 12th shutout came in the opening round of the tournament, as Kristin Steins made five saves in the nets and the Miners got goals from Ally Hasken and Sydney Gratz – a first-team All-GLVC selection along with Steins – in a 2-0 win over Truman State.  Unfortunately for S&T, the ride ended on a penalty kick goal in overtime at Drury in the semifinals, but not before the Miners closed the year at 9-6-3.

The co-championship with Lewis and Northern Kentucky resulted in S&T getting to host a first round game in the GLVC Tournament as the third seed and playing in front of their largest home crowd of the season, got two first half goals on set pieces from Brinkmeyer – one off a free kick and other off a corner – to take a 2-0 halftime lead over Bellarmine.  Atagana scored in the second half and McNamee preserved the shutout with five saves, including a stop on a shot by Bradley Barracough at point blank range in the second half.

Lewis, the top seed in the tournament, was upset in the first round.  Therefore, the Miners had to head back to Northern Kentucky for the semifinals to take on the Norse and after falling behind in the 19^th minute, got a goal from Peter Haw in the 88^th minute to force the contest into overtime.  But again, NKU pulled out another extra time win when it scored on a rebound to put the Miners' season on hold for at least a couple of days.

On the Monday evening following that loss in the GLVC semifinals, the Miners gathered for the NCAA selection show and got the word they were hoping for – they were going to the NCAA Tournament for the first time ever.

"I was really excited and none of us really wanted to stop there," Haw said.  "We were really excited to have that opportunity and didn't want it to end there."

"My experience was that it was the first time that as the Miners we were playing in something like a 'pro' environment," Brinkmeyer added.  "When we went there, they had a dinner for us, got us tee-shirts; it was first class."

Although they would be heading back to Northern Kentucky for the third time in less than a month, they would not have to open play against the Norse.

It was Ashland, a team several of the Miners had faced in the past, that would serve as the opening round opponent in the NCAA's Midwest Regional.  S&T had played Ashland to open the 2007 and 2008 seasons, winning the matchup 2-0 at home in 2007 and then dropping a 4-3 contest on the road a year later.  The Miners took the lead in the 11^th minute on a Doerner goal, then after Ashland tied it in the 28^th minute, the teams remained tied until under seven minutes remained on the clock.

In the 84^th minute, Schraier – who had scored the decisive goal in the win over Lewis in September – took a cross from Calderon and scored from in front of the net to put the Miners into the lead.  S&T then got an insurance goal just over two minutes later from Kekec to complete the 3-1 win and send it to the regional championship game.

Northern Kentucky, the regional host, had to rally for an overtime win over Quincy in the other semifinal contest to set up the third meeting with the Miners.  And in that title contest, the Norse jumped out to a 2-0 lead within the first 10 minutes of play and carried that lead into the second half.

In a span of just five minutes in the second half, Schraier scored twice, first on a rebound off a shot from Brinkmeyer and the second off a cross from Bilyeu to suddenly tie the game.  After knotting the score, the Miners had six shots and nearly scored again during that span, but with just under two and a half minutes to play, NKU All-America forward Steven Beattie – "our nemesis," as Gravlin described him -- got the go-ahead tally to end the Miners' magical run.

Northern Kentucky would go on to win the national championship after beating S&T and the following year, carried the nation's top ranking into a game in Rolla.  The Miners got a measure of revenge in what would be the last meeting between S&T and NKU – the Norse reclassified to NCAA Division I after the 2011 season – by taking a 2-1 decision that day as Schraier broke the tie with a 69^th minute goal off a rebound and the Miner defense held off NKU in the final moments.

The Miners did earn a number of significant honors after the 2010 campaign, including the program's first two All-America selections in Brinkmeyer and McNamee, who was also chosen as the GLVC's Defensive Player of the Year after posting a 0.67 goals against average and nine solo shutouts.  That duo was also among five Miners named to the All-GLVC team, as they were joined by Kekec, Gravlin and Shaffer.  Ahearn – who currently serves as an assistant coach at Michigan State -- was named as the GLVC's Coach of the Year.

"I don't think anybody that came down here to play soccer expected to make an NCAA Tournament run," McNamee said.  "The fact that we were able to be able to do so at this engineering school taking on some of the bigger powers in the conference and being able to compete with them like we did was really rewarding for the work we put in."

Even though the 2010 season ended with the heartbreaking loss, there is still plenty of pride today among those who were part of that experience over a decade later.

"We're still talking about it 11 years later," Haw said.  "It was really special for all of us.  We worked really hard for that and were grateful for that opportunity." 

"We embraced the process," Ahearn said.  "We were built on selfless, high-character individuals.  The 'team' was the star.  We walked the fine line between confidence and humility.  The boys deserved the success they earned that season."