By Dave Johnson
W&M Athletics
 
Going into the final Saturday of the 2021 regular season in men's soccer, William & Mary faced an interesting pair of scenarios. If all went well, the Tribe would get the No. 2 seed in the Colonial Athletic Association tournament. If it didn't, W&M would fall all the way to seventh and be done for the year.
 
With Elon's 2-1 win that day, the second scenario played out. And nine months later, the Tribe is projected to repeat that seventh-place finish in the conference preseason poll — for whatever that's worth.
 
W&M coach Chris Norris doesn't put much stock into predictions. All he knows is that he's encouraged with how the Tribe finished last fall, how many starters he has returning, and how much they all developed in the offseason.
 
"That's usually a good starting point for a good season," Norris said of returning eight players who started at least nine games last season. "Those guys are, in many cases, our top players in terms of quality and past productivity. They're guys who have been critical in driving our team the last couple of years.
 
"We're not surprised being picked seventh, but it brings a little smile to us because we feel like we're capable of much more than that. Our job is to try to prove that on the field."
 
The experience starts up front, where senior forward Alexander Levengood is coming off an All-CAA season. He led the Tribe with seven goals, six of which came in the eight-game conference season.
 
Seniors Diba Nwegbo and Nathan Messer, who had four goals and 12 points each, are back. So is junior Joe Core, who has started 18 games in his career and scored two goals in the Tribe's exhibition win over Loyola Maryland.
 
"That is a real area of strength for us," Norris said. "Any one of those four guys we can rely on for scoring and creating goals. And that's a big part of winning matches, obviously."
 
There's depth behind them with junior Ian Krajna and freshmen Lucas Caldas and Webb Kosich. The latter two scored in the Tribe's 4-1 exhibition win over American on Aug. 20.
 
In the midfield, W&M returns three-year starter Alfredo Bozalongo, who led team with 1,254 minutes last fall. Senior Marcos Villeda has started 21 games, and Norris can rely on senior John Eberle and junior Augie Cooper.
 
An interesting addition is Diogo Branco, a freshman from Portugal who Norris called "arguably our best technical player from the moment he got here."
 
There's more experience in the back with returning starters Cole Knapp and Theo Biddle in the middle and James Bradley, Zachary Hosseinian and Jack Crocco competing for the two outside spots. Combined, the five have 92 career starts. Norris also likes Valdi Einarsson, a freshman from Iceland.
 
In the goal, the leading candidate at this point is Danilo Nikcevic, a graduate student from Montenegro who is enrolled in the Master of Science in Business Analytics program. He played the last three years for the Montenegro National Team in his age group.
 
"Through a contact, we sort of found each other," said Norris, whose team opens the season Aug. 25 at George Washington. "So far, he's been a great fit. He played 60 minutes against Loyola (in a scrimmage) and looked pretty sharp. We think he's probably the front-runner to be the starter this year."
 
Also in contention is junior Will Stack, who has 10 career starts, along with freshmen Caeden Fong and Jack Gorman.
 
Looking back to last season, in which the Tribe lost three of its first four conference games before winning three of its last four, Norris saw a lack of communication as the biggest issue. He believes that has been solved over the offseason.
 
"When we were able to identify all that stuff and air it out, we realized we had a lot more in common in terms of our goals and how we can achieve them," he said. "It's really been about keeping those lines of communication open.
 
"The guys worked really hard to bridge those gaps. And the sentiment at the moment is a very positive one that seems to have carried over to our preseason camp. We're excited about that and hope it continues."