It was a tale of two seasons for the Cal State San Marcos men's soccer team. The Cougars got out to a rough start with just one win in their first nine games, but rebounded to win five of their last six regular season contests. CSUSM earned a trip to the Association of Independent Institutions Championship Tournament where the team fell to top-seeded Ashford in the semifinals to finish out the season at 6-7-3 overall.

The Cougars put together a huge comeback in their first game of the season at Holy Names, coming back from two goals down in the last 10 minutes to force a 3-3 draw.  Scott Rice scored in the 85^th minute before Sullivan Tobin added another with just under three minutes remaining.

After a pair of losses to Pomona-Pitzer and Fresno Pacific, CSUSM earned its first win of the year in the home-opener against The Master's College. Jake Kaiser provided the game's only goal on a flick off a long throw combination from Alex Rodriguez and Alex Brunsell. 

A week later, the Cougars forced a 1-1 tie with No. 18 Biola at the Multipurpose Field, as senior Tyler Spitznagel took advantage of an Eagle mistake at the back to pound home the first goal of his career.

The Cougars snapped a five-game winless stretch with a 5-2 drubbing of Marymount College on Oct. 10 behind Ryan VanDenburg's hat trick. VanDenberg scored the first three goals for the Cougars and tied the school record for goals in a game. He was also named the A.I.I.'s Student-Athlete of the Week.

CSUSM followed the big win with a 2-0 shutout of NCAA Division II foe Point Loma Nazarene before falling 2-1 to La Sierra.

However, the Cougars rattled off three consecutive shutouts to round out the regular season. VanDenburg scored his fifth goal in three games in a 2-0 win over SOKA University before the Cougars downed Westminster 3-0 in the annual Homecoming Game on Oct. 27. Scott Rice scored twice and tallied an assist in the game. Brunsell set a single-season school record with his seventh assist on Warren Ashcroft's first goal of the year.

The Cougars honored graduating seniors Andrew Podruski, Cary Cousineau and Spitznagel with a 2-0 victory over visiting Bethesda on Oct. 30. Tobin and Brunsell scored the goals off assists by Eric Lopez and Rodriguez, respectively.

CSUSM was granted the fourth seed as hosts of the A.I.I. Tournament, Nov. 9-10. The Cougars surrendered two first half goals to Ashford, but Thor English cut the deficit in half in the 61^st minute, despite the Cougars being down two men because of red cards. However, CSUSM could not find the equalizer as the Saints moved on to the AII Final.

Head coach Ron Pulvers' squad was honored with a handful of postseason awards. Kaiser and Eric Mueller were named to the All-A.I.I. Conference First Team while Brunsell and Rice were named to the Second Team. Cousineau was selected as the Cougars' All-A.I.I. Tournament Team respresentative.

Mueller was also honored as a CoSIDA/Capital One Academic All-District 8 Team, which is awarded to recognize the nation's top student-athletes for their combined performances athletically and in the classroom. He and Panos Kotselas were also named Daktronics-NAIA Scholar Athletes.