Last year, the UW-Eau Claire men’s club soccer team finished fourth in the nation. This season, 10 of the team’s 11 starters are returning from last year’s squad.

Normally, this would be cause for excitement for a team.

However, the club team is showing guarded optimism for this year.

“It will be a lot more difficult to make it to nationals this year,” coach Stan Williams said. “And that’s the way it should be.”

Last year, more than 20 teams were invited to the national tournament. This year, only four teams will go – one team from each region.

Another factor that could stand in Eau Claire’s way to nationals is the improvement of rivals within its conference.

The University of Minnesota’s club team is expected to be better than last year, when Eau Claire was the only team to beat the club team.

Eau Claire got a sneak peak at its competition last weekend with a series of friendly matches at Bollinger Field. The team beat Stout’s club squad 1-0 and tied teams from La Crosse and The University of Minnesota.

“Minnesota is a much better team than last year,” junior captain Tim Schoonenberg said.

Minnesota could be looking for payback this season after last year’s 3-1 loss to Eau Claire, Schoonenberg said.

Another rival Eau Claire will have to deal with this year is Stevens Point, which also went to nationals last year.

Eau Claire hosts Stevens Point at 2 p.m.on Sunday.

“Stevens Point has a great program,” Williams said. “We’ve had our problems with them.”

One thing on Eau Claire’s side this year is what Williams called veteran wisdom.

“We have a more intelligent team,” he said. “Other clubs may have better athletes, but we have a better team approach. Teams playing us can’t mark just one player; they have to mark the whole team.”

Eau Claire will be a more offensive team this year with typical games being 5-4 instead of 1-0, Williams said.

“Last year, there were some holes on the bench,” he said. “This year there are none. The second team is just as good as the first team.”

Part of that improvement may come from the attitude of the team

Schoonenberg and Williams said the team is run more like a varsity sport than a club sport.

That is reflected in the practices, which he describes as very hard, conditioning-oriented practices, Williams said.

“We’re starting to treat this like a varsity sport,” Schoonenberg said. “This is the best level of men’s soccer in the Chippewa Valley.”

The team had an incredible fan base the last few years and is hoping even more fans get out to games this year, Schoonenberg said.

“It’s fun to watch,” he said. “We play a lot of talented teams.”