Saturday will mark the first time in two weeks that UMBC has played a game. It will also mark the day the Retrievers settled on one goalkeeper.
Senior Kevin Kohri will start against No. 19 Stony Brook (5-3) at UMBC Stadium, and barring an injury or complete ineffectiveness, he will remain there through the season, coach Don Zimmerman confirmed Thursday afternoon.
"You can't make predictions, but I'm also not going to have all of our goalies looking over their shoulders, wondering if the next goal is going to have them coming off the field," Zimmerman said. "We decided to go with Kevin because he's our senior, and he has been as solid as anybody in the goal. We just felt like for our goalies' sake and for our team's sake, we needed to make a decision on who our starter was going to be, and it's going to be Kevin. But it's like any other position. I'll make a move if I need to, but I don't intend or expect to make any moves during the game. We're going to go with him."
Kohri has two starts under his belt: the season opener against Delaware and the team's most recent game against No. 5 Maryland. He has made 20 saves and surrendered 24 goals in those starts. For now, Kohri has beaten out sophomores Brian McCullough and Matt Holman and freshman Adam Cohen for the starting job.
"I made the decision to go with the senior," Zimmerman said. "He's been practicing well for us. It's not a game-by-game decision anymore. We've decided to go with Kevin Kohri as our starter."
In addition to settling on a starting goalkeeper and giving injured players time to heal, the Retrievers (1-5) used the extra week to place an emphasis on finish among the top four teams in the America East Conference and qualifying for league's season-ending tournament.
"It really does separate our out-of-conference schedule from our in-conference schedule with the exception of Towson, which is a mid-week game," said Zimmerman, who has guided UMBC to three of the last four America East Tournament championships. "But from here on out, it's the America East Conference, and we realize that's our ticket to advance to the NCAAs. We've always focused on our conference, we understand the importance of it. I think the week off has really allowed us to focus on this second season – so to speak – and to allow some of our guys who have been banged up to get healthy."