San Diego State men’s soccer has high expectations for the 2017 season after finishing last year 9-4-6 and qualifying for the NCAA Tournament for the first time since the 2005 season.
Behind every great team is a leader.
This year, the Aztecs will rally around team co-captain and redshirt senior goalkeeper Adam Allmaras.
Allmaras has stacked up the accolades during his SDSU career, and is one of the most decorated athletes on the team’s roster.
Allmaras earned All-Pac-12 Honorable Mentions during his sophomore and junior seasons. He was also named to two Pac-12 All-Academic Second Teams, in addition to a Pac-12 All-Academic First Team selection in 2014.
Allmaras did not allow a single goal in the first seven games last season, helping lead the Aztecs to a tie for the Pac-12 lead with 11 shutouts in 2016.
With a .856 save percentage, he led the conference, and was fourth in the nation, and was twice named the Pac-12 Player of the Week.
“On the field his goalkeeping game does the talking,” redshirt sophomore midfielder, Pablo Pelaez, said. “His numbers from last year prove that.”
Allmaras is looking to build on his 2016 campaign this season, and has already collected 14 saves in five games.
Allmaras has proven to be a leader off the field as well as in the locker room.
Senior midfielder Thom Van den Berg said that he is a dynamic personality in the locker room.
“Wearing the armband, he has to be more serious, but at the same time, can still be that funny guy in the locker room,” he said.
Allmaras said he still has a lot left in the tank for his senior season, and hopes that his presence will be felt by the soccer team long after leaves SDSU.
“My optimal goal is to leave the batch in a better place,” Allmaras said. “That means a lot of things; a team with a good attitude, teaching everyone underneath us as much as possible and creating a good culture, a culture of winning.”
Allmaras’ will lead the Aztecs in search of another NCAA tournament berth, but it is going to be no easy feat.
In a stacked Pac-12 conference that includes UCLA, Stanford and Washington, the Aztecs are going to have their skills tested and endurance pushed to the limit.
But Allmaras has handled the pressure before, and he will be expected to again if SDSU has any chance of getting back to the NCAA Tournament.
