The Emory University men’s soccer team persevered through the loss of 11 seniors entering the 2009 season to record the squad’s eighth-consecutive season of double digit wins, finishing the campaign with a 12-4-2 record.

A number of Eagles were able to immediately step in and fill the void of some of the graduated players.  Junior midfielder Jake Graetz emerged as the team’s top offensive threat during the season, scoring a squad-best 10 goals, including game winners against Methodist and Case Western Reserve.  Sophomore midfielder Zach Samuels stepped up as well, finishing the season second on the team in goals (five), assists (six) and points (16), while leading all Eagles with three game-winning goals and three game-winning assists. Junior Christopher Howie led all Emory players with eight assists, including one game winner.

Defensively, sophomore goalkeeper Trenton Spinder started all 18 games for Emory, playing all but 80 minutes of the season, while making 67 saves and recording five shutouts.  His 0.85 goals against average and 12 wins were both the 10^th-best single season marks in the program’s history.  Aiding in Spinder’s efforts were second team all-UAA honoree Nathan McKeever and Jewish Sports Review all-America honorable mention Adam Waxman, in addition to freshmen Andrew Natalino and David Garofalo, who each started at least 16 games on the Emory backline.

Highlights from the campaign for Emory include an early-season win at the Sonny Carter Invitational for the second-straight year, and a perfect 2-0 record at the Soccer for a Cure Classic in Fayetteville, NC.  Later in the season, the staged a dramatic comeback against UAA-rival and 11^th-ranked Carnegie Mellon University, scoring two goals in the final nine minutes of regulation to force a 2-2 tie.  The Eagles also put together a seven-match winning streak, stretching from September 5^th through September 30^th.

The Eagles finished the regular season ranked sixth in the South Atlantic Region and tied for fifth in the University Athletic Association (UAA) with a 2-3-2 record in conference play.  During the season, Emory was second among all conference teams in goals, assists and points.

The Eagles ended the year ranked 56^th out of the 377 NCAA Division III squads in won-lost-tied percentage (0.722), 75^th in team goals against average (0.92), and 83^rd in save percentage (0.813), in addition to 118^th in scoring offense (1.94 goals per game) and 128^th in shutout percentage (0.33).  Individually, Spinder finished 66^th among all Division III competitors in goals against average (0.849) and 78^th in save percentage (0.817), Howie was 64^th in assists per game (0.44), Samuels was 113^th in assists per game (0.38) and Graetz was 120^th in goals per game (0.56) and 213^th in points per game (1.11).

The following Eagles earned honors during the 2009 season: