Oakland men’s soccer team has had much success as of late, and part of the credit belongs to their freshman goalkeeper, Wes Mink.

Mink is a six-foot-six goalie from West Chester, Ohio. He earned multiple accolades in high school, including being a four-time all-conference honoree, All-State Third Team selection and his club team was National Runner-ups and was the USYS National League champion. His decision to come to Oakland was not all entirely about sports, however.

“The key factor was knowing I would have the opportunity to win the starting, but it was also exactly what I was looking for academically,” Mink said.

Being a freshman in college is hard enough, but transitioning from high school sports to collegiate sports makes things even more difficult. Mink said that he’s had an interesting time transitioning.

“I have a lot more freedom but a lot more responsibility as well,” Mink said. “Managing my time efficiently with soccer and school is a part of that.”

One of Mink’s goals coming into this season was to get the starting goalie job on the team, but now that he has done that, he said that he is just trying to get better game after game.

He seems to be doing just that, as he has not allowed a goal in the last five games. Oakland has not allowed a goal in 489 minutes of play, which is the fourth-longest streak in program history according to goldengrizzlies.com.

His play is one of the reasons why the team is 6-0-1 in the last seven games, including a 5-0-1 mark in league play. The team struggled at the beginning of the season, as they started out 0-5, but Mink thinks that the team can continue to turn it around in the latter half of the season.

“I think the biggest thing that has changed is that we are all buying into defending first,” Mink said. “Now that we have a solid line of defense, it is giving us confidence going forward and we have been capitalizing on more of our opportunities.”

The men’s soccer team will play Michigan State at home Oct. 22 and then will face the Michigan Wolverines in Ann Arbor Oct. 29. Their final two games of the season will be against Wright State at home Nov. 1 and then at Valparaiso Nov. 7.