BETHLEHEM, Pa. - Coming off a Patriot League Championship, the Lehigh men's soccer team opened preseason practice this week as the Mountain Hawks prepare for their season opener on Friday, Aug. 26 at James Madison. Lehigh lost a decorated senior class in 2015, but returns a strong core of players as it eyes a repeat in 2016.
 
"It's the best time of the year for me," said head coach Dean Koski. "Starting all over again with a new team and new beginnings, I love it. This is my 25th preseason at Lehigh, so a quarter century of doing this and I feel like I'm just getting started."
 
The preseason can be challenging physically, but the Mountain Hawks are prepared.

 

"It's always great to come back into the season and see all the guys again," said junior Doyle Tuvesson. "Right off the bat, we have a ton of fitness tests, so everyone's working really hard. It's going to be a really tough preseason on everybody physically, so we'll all have to work really hard to be better than we were last year."
 
Last year, Lehigh earned the program's first Patriot League Championship since 2000. The team knows it can't rest on its laurels; the Mountain Hawks are focused on a new beginning in 2016 and continuing to raise the bar.
 
"We don't see ourselves as defending champions," said Koski. "Whoever created that term, I don't like it at all. We want to go attack another championship. We don't have to defend anything; we have to create opportunities for us to win another one."
 
It's not always easy to put last season in the rearview mirror, but it's been an area of focus.
 
"Even before last spring season, we talked about putting 2015 behind us," said Koski. "It's hard to do because there's always something that lingers about the championship. We're doing our best to say listen, it's a new season, a new team with new opportunities. The Patriot League is tough. We're not guaranteed anything, nor should we look at it as if this is ours to win; we have to earn it."
 
A core reason for Lehigh's success has been a strong team atmosphere.
 
"We're all playing together and working hard for each other and it's not just a group of individuals," said Tuvesson.
 
The Mountain Hawks have approximately two weeks to prepare for the opener, but the foundation will continue to be set early in the season.
 
"The preseason is always about building team, making sure our guys are ready for the beginning of the season," said Koski. "It's unlikely that we're going to be 100 percent; no Division I team is 100 percent on the first whistle. If we can get the team bought into what we're trying to do and build our principles and our foundations by the time we open the season, we'll be off to a good start. It honestly takes us six weeks to really get it rolling the way we want."
 
The Mountain Hawks lost leading scorer Jamie Luchini to graduation, but they do return four of their top five scorers, led by sophomore Mark Forrest who tallied 26 points (11 goals, four assists) in a stellar freshman campaign. Despite the team's returning players, there will be opportunities for a strong freshmen class to contribute.
 
"We want to find a core starting lineup so when we get into the season, we're ready to go with a bunch of starters," said Tuvesson, who recorded 14 points (four goals, six assists) last season. "We obviously have a lot of returning players, but we need some freshmen to step up if we're going to have good success."
 
After winning a championship last season, the team isn't satisfied.
 
"I think there's a combination of confidence and hungriness amongst the group," said Koski. "For the upperclassmen who knew what it took to become champions last year - and it wasn't an easy road to get there - achieving that success gives them a level of confidence that they deserve, but they're also hungry for that opportunity again. I watched them push themselves over the winter, spring and summer. We have to go into the season with humility and understand that we're starting all over again."
 
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