2025 SEASON PREVIEW: Men's soccer looks ahead with positivity as season nears
DEFIANCE, Ohio - Defiance College men's soccer head into a new season with optimism following a winless season in 2024. Second-year head coach Htut Zar has been busy retooling the roster that has lost 14 graduates from a team that qualified for the HCAC Tournament in 2023. The lone starters from that team are rising juniors Quinn Holtzapple and Griffin Meyer. The biggest holes felt last season were one of the program's best goalkeepers (Orry Killam) and a proficient scorer (Riley Hensley) that led to a 102-13 scoring disparity a season ago.
Click here to view the 2025 DC Men's Soccer Media Guide
Entering this year, the Yellow Jackets retain five starters including team captains Holtzapple and Meyer along with three others who have starting experience. DC will also have to fill the void at keeper as sophomore Tyler Harper brings back the only game experience between the pipes of 52 minutes. Senior midfielder Jacob Saxby and Holtzapple were each responsible for one goal apiece last season while Meyer looks to continue climbing the program's career assists list, starting the year just five off the record.
In the offseason, Zar has added eight freshmen and one transfer student – junior midfielder John Villatoro, who advanced to the first round of the NCAA Tournament last season with Spalding. Additionally, Zar said he is excited to watch Diego Suarez Gomez Sanchez and Nicolas Soliz Alipaz, who are both out of La Paz, Bolivia.
"We are hoping those three have a big impact for us to change our culture," Zar said.
Indiana Tech has won the last six WHAC Tournament titles while Madonna has won two of three regular-season crowns. Both national tournament qualifiers have retained multiple all-conference performers as they seek to continue their successes on the pitch this year. The Crusaders, though, sit atop the conference in the 2025 Preseason Coaches Poll, which was released on Aug. 4. Defiance will begin its slate as the No. 12-ranked team as it looks to bounce back into the win column following a challenging last season.
"It's all about being positive and yes coaching is – involves criticism, but how we give criticism… We've been working on it as a coaching staff, and also we're trying to change the beliefs, values and behavior in the team, so that's the point where we have to start," Zar said. "Last year I got to observe how we play, and our behavior, and we're completely changing it. We're being competitors and even in the practice we compete [against] each other so we can go compete [with] the opponents."
The Yellow Jackets will host their season debut at Winsper-Knobel Memorial Field against the St. Francis Cougars on Aug. 21, and will begin conference play at Siena Heights on Sept. 20. Click here to view the whole schedule.
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