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As Louisville men's soccer prepares to play their first official game tonight as members of the ACC, let's take a statistical look at how far the program has come since the Tony Colavecchia (the program's second winningest coach) era started in the mid-1990s:
|
Year |
Adj. RPI |
Record |
Conference Record |
Conference Finish |
Conference |
NCAA Tournament |
Coach |
|
1996 |
N/A |
6-11-2 |
1-7 |
8 |
C-USA |
n/a |
Tony Colavecchia |
|
1997 |
N/A |
7-12-1 |
3-4-1 |
6 |
C-USA |
n/a |
Colavecchia |
|
1998 |
96 |
9-11-0 |
2-6 |
8 |
C-USA |
n/a |
Colavecchia |
|
1999 |
66 |
9-8-2 |
4-4 |
4 |
C-USA |
n/a |
Colavecchia |
|
2000 |
66 |
12-9-1 |
3-4-1 |
6 |
C-USA |
n/a |
Colavecchia |
|
2001 |
98 |
7-11-1 |
3-6-1 |
7 |
C-USA |
n/a |
Colavecchia |
|
2002 |
104 |
9-11-2 |
6-3-1 |
3 |
C-USA |
n/a |
Colavecchia |
|
2003 |
47 |
11-7-3 |
5-2-2 |
3 |
C-USA |
n/a |
Colavecchia |
|
2004 |
121 |
5-10-4 |
2-6-1 |
7 |
C-USA |
n/a |
Colavecchia |
|
2005 |
128 |
5-11-2 |
2-7-2 |
13 |
Big East |
n/a |
Colavecchia |
|
2006 |
98 |
5-10-3 |
4-5-02 |
10 |
Big East |
n/a |
Ken Lolla |
|
2007 |
26 |
11-7-04 |
6-3-2 |
4 |
Big East |
2nd Round |
Ken Lolla |
|
2008 |
29 |
11-8-02 |
5-5-1 |
7 |
Big East |
2nd Round |
Ken Lolla |
|
2009 |
38 |
13-3-4 |
8-2-1 |
1 (tie) |
Big East |
n/a |
Ken Lolla |
|
2010 |
2 |
20-1-3 |
9-0-0 |
1 |
Big East |
Runner-Up |
Ken Lolla |
|
2011 |
11 |
14-7-2 |
3-4-2 |
11 |
Big East |
Elite Eight |
Ken Lolla |
|
2012 |
10 |
14-6-1 |
7-1-0 |
1 |
Big East |
Elite Eight |
Ken Lolla |
|
2013 |
33 |
11-5-04 |
5-1-2 |
1 |
AAC |
2nd Round |
Ken Lolla |
Tony Colavecchia did a pretty good job with the limited resources he was given combined with the absence of soccer tradition at the university. This is a program that didn't exist until 1979 and lost to Asbury College (NAIA) twice in 1980, its second season.
I knew of Tony through my close friend who played under him in the Javanon club system in Louisville and was later recruited by Tony to play at U of L. He chose Bellarmine instead. The program saw a significant bump under Tony after Cardinal Park opened in September, 2000, but the momentum wasn't sustained and the university went in another direction with the hiring of Ken Lolla ahead of the 2006 season. That decision has worked out okay.
If you haven't seen the new soccer facilities at Lynn Stadium, you can see them and your #9 Louisville Cardinals in action tonight vs. #2 Maryland on ESPN3 at 8 pm ET. Below are the lineups; feel free to treat this as your open thread.
