Baruch Cats

As the fall semester started, NCAA soccer did too. Baruch College men’s soccer team is looking forward to defend the CUNYAC title, which the team won last year for the third time in its history. Last year the team finished at the top during the regular season and undefeated and the team wants to repeat this achievement and retain its title.

This year the team is consisted by a lot new players that came to fill the position of the seniors that departed. The team is also very diverse, something that characterizes Baruch College. The team has a player from almost every continent.

Assistant Head Soccer Coach Dima Kamenshchik said: “We had some special players that left, like tournament MVP Akhil George, Vincent Cruz and other players who have been on the team for at least four years. We did restock with a group of young players and transfers who have a lot to contribute to our completely new team.”

The team practices on Tuesday and Friday mornings on the Lower East Side under the head coach Ranford Champagnie. He is the coach for nearly a decade and he is the one who led the team to win the championships in 2004, 2006 and 2012.

The home of Baruch Men’s soccer team is the Maspeth Metropolitan Oval in Queens. Baruch played 6 preseason friendly games and won once. The games were against NYU in Gaelic park, which team lost 3-2. The next game was at home and the team won Farmingdale College 5-2. The game against Utica College in Utica ended with a lost 1-2. The next one against Morrisville State College 0-3, the next game was against New Jersey City University which also ended with a loss of 1-6. The last game was at home against The College at Old Westbury which was also a loss of 1-2.

Despite the fact that the preseason results were bad, so far the team performs pretty well in CUNYAC tournament, by winning the first 3 games. The team won 3-0John Jay College and College of Staten Island 3-1 at Met Oval and Brooklyn 3-4 away. This is a big step for retaining the title. The team of course has higher expectations as they aim to become the first CUNY team that will make a run into the later rounds of NCAA playoffs, sophomore Oren Kozlowski. Kozlowski last year scored 13 times and gave 5 assists and earned the award of Rookie of the Year.

“We are usually the road team, which is always a challenge, but there are a lot of unpredictable events that can happen,” Kamenshchik said. “Every team we have is being built for the road ahead. That’s how we look at it in the pre-season. That’s what motivates us to become champions.”

Most of the games are on Saturdays or late Wednesday afternoons, so there is a chance for students to watch the team playing and of course help the players to reach their targeted which is to become National Champions one day.