EVANSVILLE — Things couldn't have gone much more to script for head coach Marshall Ray and his University of Evansville men's soccer team in 2016 as the Purple Aces experienced the second-largest single-season turnaround in school history.

The Aces, who ended the year with a 10-8-3 overall record, improved by seven wins from Ray's first year at the helm of the program in 2015. Buoyed by an experienced group of veterans and an even larger newcomer contingent, UE proved a difficult task for every opponent the team faced over the course of the season.

Led by midfield dynamo Ian McGrath, the Aces were the second-highest scoring team in the Missouri Valley Conference this season. The junior out of New Lenox, Ill., finished second in the league with 11 goals, in the process becoming the first Ace to log double-digit goals in a single season since Dan Broxup in 2003. Following the campaign, the All-Missouri Valley Conference honoree became the first UE player to nab first team all-region accolades since 2013. He was also named a Scholar All-America.

McGrath was far from the only Aces player to pick up recognition following the season as he was joined on the all-region list by the duo of Jared Robinson and and Simon Waever. Robinson, a senior out of Powell, Ohio, finished second on the team with seven goals and four assists, and Waever, a freshman from Denmark, ended the year with a goal and three assists.

Robinson would also take home first team honors in the Valley, and Zac Blaydes, who tied for the league lead in assists with 10, grabbed a spot on the second team. Waever and Ryan Koenig, who was the only other senior on the roster for UE, picked up honorable mentions.

In a season that would by highlighted by late UE goals, the scoring couldn't have started much quicker for the Aces as Robinson found the net just 95 seconds into the season in a 3-1 loss at Xavier. UE would rebound two days later with a trip to Northern Kentucky, where freshmen Ian Gammon and Ben Weber each scored their first career goals while goalkeeper Frederik Reimer earned the first of his five clean sheets on the season.

Gammon, Weber and Reimer were just three of an impressive nine UE newcomers to see action in 2016.

Following a 4-2 slugfest with No. 16 Utah Valley to open September, UE bounced back with another shutout victory as a single Robinson goal proved the difference against Fairleigh Dickinson.

The next weekend, the stage was set for one of the more dramatic stretches of the regular season as UE drew with visiting Portland on the opening night of the ProRehab Aces Soccer Classic. An 88th-minute penalty for the Pilots made it 2-2. Two days later, UE picked up second-half goals from Robinson, Waever and Caleb Williams over an 11-minute span on the way to a 3-1 win, but their hopes for the elusive tournament crown came up short as UP scored a third goal with just 57 seconds left against Bradley in the ensuing contest to go ahead on the tiebreaker.

The Aces would exact revenge on Bradley six days later with a 2-0 victory in Peoria to open Valley play.

After falling to 10th-ranked Butler, the Aces moved to 2-0-0 in the league with a dramatic win over Central Arkansas at Arad McCutchan Stadium. After playing just four minutes against the Bears, Kyle Brown scored his first career goal in the 103rd minute. It marked the first time the Aces enjoyed a perfect two-game start to MVC play in nearly 20 years.

A win over Marshall would precede a three-match winless streak to start off the month of October, but the Aces would regain their form with one of the more impressive results of the season, upending 13th-ranked Loyola's push for a perfect league season with a 1-1 draw.

The Aces got back on the winning side of things three days later with a pair of goals at Belmont, and the team would follow up with one of the best matches of the year at Drake. After trailing 2-0 and 3-2, two goals from McGrath inside the final nine minutes made it 4-3.

UE would avenge an early season loss with a 2-1 win over Missouri State. McGrath once again struck late for the Aces as his 86th-minute winner highlighted the first win for an opposing team in Springfield in more than two years.

Following a draw with SIUE to end the regular season, UE returned to Springfield in November for another classic game with Drake. A fifth-minute goal put the Bulldogs ahead, and McGrath would answer just eight minutes later, and things would stay level into overtime, where a Zac Blaydes free kick brought the game to an end just 19 seconds into the extra period, handing the Aces their first postseason victory since 2009.

The season ended two days later in equally dramatic fashion in the conference semis. After an 81st minute McGrath goal cut SIUE's lead in half, the junior talisman nearly equaled the match in the dying moments as he directed a Jesse Stafford Lacey 90th-minute corner towards goal, but it was saved impressively by a diving Kyle Dal Santo to preserve the 2-1 score line.

With the graduation of just two players, the Aces will have an impressive foundation to build upon as the clock transitions to 2017, and preparation will begin this spring when practice opens up on the other side of winter break.

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