Tiger Men's Soccer Preps For Bounceback 2025 Campaign
Wittenberg Men’s Soccer is looking forward to a bounceback season in 2025.
Under the direction of head coach Dwight Burgess, the Tigers return a talented core of players from last year’s team, which finished 4-7-3 overall and 2-4-2 in the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC). Wittenberg will open the season at home at 7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 29, against Heidelberg, and the Tigers are scheduled to kick off NCAC play on Saturday, Oct. 4, by hosting Wabash. The Tigers’ 18-game regular season slate will conclude with a home contest against Wooster at 4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 1.
At the helm since 2016, Burgess is the 10th head coach in the program’s history and is seeing a lot of positive vibes on the field despite the loss of nine seniors from the 2024 team. Several departed players were in the starting lineup for most of the season, including leading scorer Kees Ciric (Loveland, OH / Loveland), who contributed eight goals and four assists en route to all-conference and All-Ohio honors after the season.
The Tigers have plenty of talented returning players in 2025, however, starting with senior forward Jack Pascoal (Liberty Township, OH / Lakota East), who scored six goals a year ago. Junior Collin LaVeck (Carroll, OH / Bloom-Carroll) and sophomore Casey Meltzer (Cleveland, OH / St. Ignatius) both were key contributors in the midfield and scored two goals each a year ago, and they will be joined in the rotation again by senior Christopher Meyer (Toledo, OH / St. Francis).
Defensively, the Tigers return the starting center back pairing of senior Jackson Miller (Westerville, OH / South) and junior Anthony Carpenter (Dublin, OH / Coffman), in addition to senior Ryan Shindeldecker (Findlay, OH / Findlay), who was limited to six starting assignments due to injury. Also returning to the defensive unit after making 11 starts last year is senior Kyler Hagstrom (West Chester, OH / Lakota West).
In goal, junior Peter Adams (Columbus, OH / Hilliard Darby) and senior Sam Nitzberg (Cincinnati, OH / Cincinnati Country Day) are back in the fold after sharing time a year ago and registering 23 and 18 saves, respectively.
Written By: Cindy Holbrook
Graphic By: Ally White '26