ANNAPOLIS, Md. - The Navy men's soccer team closed its spring season with a 2-0 win at Duquesne this past Saturday. Navy went 3-2 overall and 3-1 against NCAA competition this spring.

"It was a good spring for us," said head coach Dave Brandt. "Part of it for me is making sure we play tough competition. We played five very good teams and won three and narrowly lost two, but we did show well in those two games. It's always important for us to gain top-level experience."

Navy opened the spring season with a 1-0 win at ACC-member N.C. State on Feb. 28. Junior forward Jamie Dubyoski scored the game's lone goal in the 88th minute.

Navy fell to USL Pro team Richmond Kickers, 1-0, on March 8. The Kickers play in the third tier of professional soccer in the United States. Both of Navy's losses were by one-goal margins.

In Navy's lone home game of the spring season, the Mids defeated Villanova, 2-1, on March 28. Juniors Derek Vogel and Thomas Shiiba tallied the goals for the Mids.

Navy's only loss to a fellow collegiate team was a 3-2 setback at George Mason on April 4. Navy gave up all three goals in the first half, and Brandt pointed out that it was Navy's only bad half of the entire spring season. Freshman Thomas Moore and sophomore Alex Evans scored second-half goals in the contest for Navy.

Dubyoski and sophomore Sam Bascom scored Navy's goals in its 2-0 win over Duquesne on Saturday.

Although Navy graduates two-time All-American defender Joseph Greenspan, Brandt was pleased with the performance of his returning defensive backline, especially Vogel.

"I made it a point to our back four that they need to take it as a point of pride and a challenge to do well without having Joe back there," said Brandt. "I was very happy with our back four and Derek had a fantastic spring in the back. I thought he stepped up into a leadership role in every way, on and off the field. It was a big spring for Derek."

The spring season is always a time for freshmen to get expanded playing time and the entire class showed improvement.

"Everybody looks at the spring as an opportunity to get your freshmen some time," said Brandt. "By and large all of those guys did well and have certainly gained experience throughout the fall and spring.

"I thought Thomas Moore had a very good spring, as did Daniel Zaremba and Dylan Struthers. Those are just three freshmen who had really good springs, but I think a lot of the guys that you would expect to play well for us did perform well and helped us to a good spring overall."

Returning all-league second-team goalkeeper Jackson Morgan played the majority of minutes in goal, with freshman Mac Burke also seeing some time.

Navy returns nine starters from last year's team that went 11-4-5 overall and spent three weeks ranked in the NSCAA Top 25. Navy's returning starters are Dubyoski, Shiiba, Bascom, Vogel, Morgan, Daniel Camuti, Brock Dudley, P.J. Suess and Michael Parker.