BUFFALO, N.Y. – After coming off a historic 2024 season, the D'Youville University men's soccer team will look to build upon that success going into the new season.
The Saints are coming off a 5-8-4 season a year ago and were awarded the No. 4 seed in the ECC Championship Tournament after posting a 3-2-3 record in conference play. This was the highest the team has ever been in the postseason and was the first they have hosted a playoff game.
"We're looking at the same goals as last season," said head coach
Sean Hallas. "Can we progress, can we perform within the conference. Our preseason poll was slightly better than last year, and we'll use that for fuel moving forward. We'll take it game-by-game and see where we end up after November 1st."
D'Youville was picked to finish fifth in the 2025 East Coast Conference Preseason Coaches Poll while also receiving one first-place vote
DYU returns 18 players from last year's playoff team including the likes of ECC All-Conference members
Ethan Robinson,
Shawn Richardson, and
Conor Livingstone.
"Shawn has a captain's armband on this year and Conor has also taken a lot of the leadership role this season," Hallas said about two of his all-conference players from a year ago.
In terms of newcomers, D'Youville brings in eight freshman and a pair of transfers. The two transfers that came into the fold are
Jonas Driesch by way of Kentucky Wesleyan College and
Jonathan Ghobrial by way of Fairleigh Dickson University. Between the two, they have seen action in 48 collegiate games and will bring in a strong veteran presence to the young team.
"Jonas will be a big addition to this team as well as freshmen Will (Carroll-Baigrie) and Alex (Ward), they have all been positive so far," said Hallas. "It's about getting all the newcomers integrated. They feel like they are at home already which is credit to the returners. Doing things off the field is just as important off the field as it is on the field. We are in a great spot right now."
The team will have strong schedule throughout the year including games against Slippery Rock University to start the season, Mercy University who was ranked a year ago, and Gannon University who are receiving votes in the preseason United Soccer Coaches Poll.
"We've stacked the nonconference away heavy to start the season," Hallas said. "Gannon will always be tough, and these are the teams this program needs to be playing. There's no reason these boys can't test themselves. Mercy was ranked last year, and Queens has a very good coaching staff and roster. These are the games we look forward too and to get us ready for conference play."
The Saints start the season with a pair of road games first at Slippery Rock at 4 p.m. on September 4th and at Pace on September 7th at 2 p.m. DYU will host American International on September 10th in the team's home opener.
