The Oklahoma City University men's soccer team runs into 2018 with their hopes high and loaded with veteran experience.
OCU finished the 2017 season 14-3-2 overall, the program's best record since 2009. The Stars ended last season in the Sooner Athletic Conference Tournament quarterfinals, ending their season for the second consecutive year by penalty kicks. This season, OCU returns 12 players from last year's team, including six seniors, four juniors and one sophomore. Combine that with three junior-college transfers and six freshmen, the Stars are set up for another solid season.
Brian Harvey enters his 33rd year as Oklahoma City coach. He has guided OCU to a 418-197-41 mark. Oklahoma City opens the year 1 p.m. Tuesday against Bethany (Kan.) in Lindsborg, Kan. The home opener for the Stars will be 3 p.m. Saturday against Our Lady of the Lake (Texas).
"Our expectations are again to hopefully win all of our home games, be competitive on the road and also obviously make the playoffs having home field advantage," Harvey said. "The long-term goal is always to go to nationals. Concentration is a big factor in a season. It's 20 games. It's three months. Overall, the big picture is focus and concentration and the ability to win your home games and impose yourself on the opposition."
The Stars are being led by a trio of all-Sooner Athletic Conference players in Alex Buckley, Henrik Verolet and Aboubakr Diallo. Harvey believes that there is plenty of support around these guys to assist in the year's success.
"You don't know how first-year players are going to react, but everybody is working very hard in our training camp and preseason," Harvey said. "I think that some are emerging. There is about three or four other boys that I feel will do very good."
Other players Harvey expects to make a difference this year are Nick Stremel, Dan White, Petar Djurdjevic, Andrew Flores, James Beattie and Dario McDaniel, a freshman who has come in and is competing.
Now a position-by-position look at the Stars:

Forward

The Stars offensive attack will be led by Beattie and Diallo. Diallo, a senior from Oyem, Gabon, scored six goals with five assists last year while starting 17 games and being selected all-SAC. Beattie, a senior from Glasgow, Scotland, appeared in 19 games, scoring seven goals with four assist.
Also competing for time at the forward position is junior Namory Sidibe and sophomore Joe Jolly.

Midfielders

Djurdjevic has all-conference talent, and Harvey expects good things from him again this year. Djurdjevic scored two goals last year. Flores and Kian Rahmanzadeh are two returners who are expected to man the midfield this season.
Junior-college transfers Fernando Toledo and Andrija Sreckovic both are vying for time at midfielder. Sreckovic, a junior from Kragujevac, Serbia, scored two goals while appearing in 16 games for Cowley County (Kan.). Toledo, a junior from São Paulo, Brazil, appeared in 14 games and scored two goals for Cowley (Kan.).
Incoming freshmen Austin Ehlers, from Edmond, Okla., and McDaniel, from Puyallup, Wash. will also be competing for minutes this season.

Defenders

OCU's back line contains of a group of returners led by two all-SAC members in Buckley, Verolet and White, all of whom started all 19 games last season.
Stremel and Kevin Chissoe are returners to the defense looking to make an impact this season.
Looking to make an impact for the defense is a trio of freshmen – Gustavo Mendes, from São Paulo, Brazil, Everardo Solis, from El Reno, Okla., and Dylan Thomas, from Manhattan, Kan.

Goalkeepers

OCU comes into the season without the reigning Sooner Athletic Conference goalkeeper of the year Vladimir Kalajdzic. "I feel very confident in Andre Salvador, a transfer from Cowley (Kan.), I feel that he is a quality keeper, quality person, and I feel he will really help us," Harvey said. "Along with our other goalkeeper as well, Danilo Vilani, I feel both of them will be competing to see who will get the starting position.
Vilani, a freshman from Carrollton, Texas, became Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools 1-6A goalkeeper of the year and first-team all-district.
Salvador, a junior from São Bento do Sul, Brazil, joins the Stars after being at Cowley (Kan.) last year. He was the Jayhawk East co-defensive player of the year during the 2016 season after allowing only 0.55 goals per game. He was named a first-team all-conference selection as a freshman. "Andre is the best goalkeeper to ever play here," said Ruy Vaz, OCU alum and Cowley (Kan.) head coach.

SAC coaches predicted the Stars to finish fifth in the league this year. OCU aims to exceed those expectations.
"When you put on that OCU shirt it's something to be proud of. It's something that you really want to represent the university the best possible manner that we can," Harvey said.