Senior Arthur Ivo was voted Conference USA Preseason Offensive Player of the Year (photo by SMU athletics).

The SMU men’s soccer team entered the 2010 season with a lot of questions. The Ponies were coming off a disappointing 2009 season in which they finished with a record of 6-8-2 and barely outscored their opponents, 28-26.

But the Mustangs answered most of those questions. SMU won the Conference USA regular season title and advanced to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament. Individual awards rolled in for Mustang players, and the team finished the season with a sizzling record of 16-2-2, including a 7-1 mark in Conference USA games.

“I think I knew we had a good group,” head coach Tim McClements said, “but what we didn’t know was how well they would gel and complement each other. As it turns out, they did a great job.”

The 2010 season was not without its rough spots for an SMU team that relied a core of established veterans, but also got a huge boost from a trio of gifted freshmen last year. The Ponies started out the season by winning their first nine games, but included in that streak were three victories in overtime, and six of the victories were by a single goal.

“We had some rocky moments at the beginning of the year,” McClements said. “Our first game — against Missouri State — we won that one in overtime. It was a tough game, and I think it set the tone for the season. We had to learn to play tough and win close games, and fortunately, we were able to do that.”

The Ponies must replace a gifted group of graduated seniors from the 2010 team — goalkeeper Craig Hill, defenders Leone Cruz and “Pana” Vasquez and midfielders Kekoa Osorio and Josue Soto all moved on — but even while replacing several key cogs in the lineup, the Mustangs are earning national respect; several preseason polls, including the one voted on by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (nscaa.com) have the Ponies ranked fifth in the nation. That ranking will be put to the test early, as the Mustangs start the season with a brutal non-conference schedule; early-season foes UCLA, Connecticut, William & Mary and Duke all are in the NSCAA’s preseason top 25.

“Our schedule is really difficult — there’s no question about that,” McClements said. “It’s going to test us, and that’s exactly what we need. When we play in the NCAA Tournament — and our goals are to win Conference USA again and get back to the NCAA Tournament — our players, after playing this schedule, won’t look at any team and say, ‘wow — we haven’t seen any teams like that.’ This schedule is extremely tough, but it will prepare us to play some tough opponents when we get to the conference part of our schedule, and hopefully beyond.”

Finding a new netminder to replace Hill is critical to the team’s success. Four players — returnees Juan Robles and Jaime Ibarra, as well as highly-touted freshmen Alex Blanton and Devin Cook — are competing for the position.

“We have to give the position the respect it deserves and go into this with an open mind,” McClements said. “It would be a mistake to go into camp saying, ‘this guy will start, that guy is a backup.’ We have four talented goalkeepers, and they’ll push each other to get better, so when the season starts, we’ll have a talented, confident guy in there.”

The most versatile player on the SMU roster, head coach Tim McClements said he would feel comfortable playing junior T.J. Nelson at any position other than goalkeeper (photo by SMU athletics).

The defense brings back three of the four starters from last year, and each of the three will be a senior in 2011: captain Adam Still, Diogo de Almeida and Ian Kalis. McClements said the fourth defender, whether it is a returning player or new comer, has not yet separated himself from the pack.

Two of the Mustangs’ midfielders figure to be sophomores Robbie Derschang and Zach Barnes, who formed two-thirds (along with forward Juan Castillo) of a 2010 trio of freshmen who opened a lot of eyes — and played a major role in winning a lot of games — in their debut season on the Hilltop.

“Those guys had some success last year, which was great to see,” McClements said. “What we don’t know is how they’ll follow that up — that’s going to be interesting to see. We had a lot of talented freshmen last year, and they had a good year, and they’re working really hard this summer. It’s not just those three — other guys, like Max Rockwell and Chris Sendejas and Damian Rosales and Tyler Engel also played a lot this spring, and will get their chances, too.. Some of the guys have been training with professional (Major League Soccer) teams. They have taken a very professional approach to getting ready for the season.”

In Castillo and senior forward/midfielder Arthur Ivo, the Mustangs have their top two scorers from 2010 back. Despite coming off the bench in half of the Ponies’ 20 games, Ivo led the team with 25 points on 10 goals and five assists; Castillo had 24 points, on 10 goals and four assists. Derschang was fourth on the team with 14 points (five goals, five assists), while Barnes added 10 points on five goals.

Ivo is Conference USA’s most decorated player. The 2010 Co-Offensive Player of the Year and Co-Most Valuable Player starts the 2011 season with a spot on the preseason all-conference team, and was voted by C-USA’s coaches as the preseason Offensive Player of the Year.

The wild card in the lineup likely will be T.J. Nelson, the team’s most versatile player.

“T.J. is a great guy to have on our team, because he can do so many things for us,” McClements said. “As long as we don’t play him in goal, he can play anywhere. He could replace Leo (Cruz) in the back, and you’d think he’s a full-time defender, or we can put him up front and you’d think he’s a full-time forward. He’s just a very good soccer player.

Now entering his fourth season at the helm, McClements welcomes a heralded recruiting class that includes two Gatorade State Player of the Year winners: defender/midfielder Aaron Simmons won the award in Texas, while midfielder/forward Will Smith won the award in Oklahoma. The two are both at least six feet tall (Simmons is listed at 6-1), but McClements said they were not recruited solely for their size.

Senior Adam Still returns as one of the anchors of the SMU defense and will serve as team captain in 2011 (photo by SMU athletics).

“We needed one or two more players on the roster who could add to our athleticism, but I wouldn’t say we went out looking for tall players,” he said. “At SMU, we play a very good brand of soccer. A lot of our guys are 5-10 or below, but they’re very skillful and quick. When we play big, rugged teams, we overcome that with our level of skill, and we have to be able to match teams’ intensity and physical play, and I think we can.”

McClements said he expects his team to be in the mix again for another conference title, competing with the traditional C-USA heavyweights like UCF, Tulsa and South Carolina.

“What we want to do is do the things we do well and do them better than we did last year,” McClements said. “We want to be a better defending team — that’s not pointing at the defenders … I mean better with our entire team defense. We need to be better on set pieces, and bring more into the attack.”

McClements said he also wanted his team to be more resilient — an interesting goal for a coach of a team that went 6-1-1 last season in games in which the opponent scored first.

“That’s a great stat,” he said, laughing, “but those games gave me a few more grey hairs on my head.”

McClements said his team's outlook for the 2011 season is as high as it ever has been, which means a lot with a program with a history as rich as SMU's.

"We're really excited," he said. "There is a lot of excitement around the program. It's nice to see our community of alumni being so successful on and off the field — we'll have our Jordan Mann Alumni game Aug. 20, Luchi Gonzalez got inducted into the SMU Hall of Fame this year and we have alumni doing really well in MLS like Daniel Hernandez, Ugo Ihemelu, Bruno Guarda with FC Dallas and Colin Clark tearing it up with the Houston Dynamo."

The ultimate goal, of course, is winning, which leads to a return to the NCAA Tournament and perhaps a chance at the national championship.

“Getting to the Elite Eight last year just created an appetite in these guys for more,” McClements said. “We lost to a good North Carolina team that made it to the final four, so we’re not that far off. We have made a few additions, and we hope, a few improvements.

“If we get a little luck to go our way, hopefully we can get to the final four and make a run at it.”