Junior goalkeeper Nicky McCune is leading the Big West in almost every statistical category for his position in his first season as a starter at Cal Poly, but his journey to dominance has not been straightforward.
McCune leads the Big West Conference in shutouts, gives up the eight-least goals in the nation, and ranks in the top 15 nationally in save percentage.
He is the heart of a Cal Poly defense that gave up 48 goals just two years ago but now ranks among the most elite backlines in the nation.
His performances have been instrumental to Cal Poly’s resurgence this season, and he’s been recognized with the Big West Defensive Player of the Week award three times this season.
The Journey
But during his first two years with the team, McCune had trouble finding success.
He sat behind two upperclassmen in line for the goalkeeper position and conceded eight goals across four matches in 2022-23.
After these games, he remembers Gabe Penner, Cal Poly’s alumni goalkeeper, and other Cal Poly veterans helping him stay positive and bringing him up after the tough outings.
With his teammates support, and his own non-stop work ethic, which has shown up in his consistency and perseverance in 2024, McCune said that he always had ultimate trust in the Mustang process.
“With goalkeeper it’s hard to get your time to come,” McCune said. “It’s a next player up mentality, and I would just always stay ready, be alert and work hard and know that my day would come.”
Unlike the 10 outfield positions in soccer, there is only one goalkeeper. Mistakes between the posts most often result in goals for the opposition, and consistency is key.
According to Cal Poly head coach Oige Kennedy, McCune has always had the physical attributes of an elite goalkeeper. Consistency and a good run of results were the only missing pieces.
“You do whatever you can, you learn from the guys above you, and you just keep putting in the work and hoping that your day will come,” said McCune.
Coming into the 2024 season, McCune was the only Cal Poly keeper to see playing time at the collegiate level, in line for the starting spot and the chance to prove himself between the goalposts.
Junior goalkeeper Andreas Rosales was McCune’s main competition for the starting job, and according to Kennedy, the competition between the two elevated both of their play leading into the year.
“As a coach, if the players are giving you headaches to solve and who to pick, then it means everybody’s pushing and doing all the right stuff,” Kennedy said.
McCune won the job over Rosales in the spring and continued striving for improvement to less refined areas of his game both with the help of new-this-season Goalkeeper Trainer and Assistant Coach Zach Watson, and on his own.
McCune has spent the last two years preparing for the opportunity, working both on and off the field.
During the offseason, he balanced repetitions with his old club team, San Ramon FC, in the Bay Area to prepare for Cal Poly’s season, handling classwork and working 40 hours a week.
“There are days where you don’t want to work, but you have to, because you got a group of guys back out there working just as hard as you,” McCune said.
During this time, support from the veterans and newcomers on the men’s soccer squad has been pivotal to his journey.
Much of the Cal Poly roster, like McCune, is from the Bay Area. The team routinely meets in the offseason to ensure that each player is the best they can be going into 2024.
“We always text and group chat, and get each other out there and push each other just to get better…,” said McCune. “There’s no other group of guys I’d rather be around out of soccer.”
Rapport and habits developed off the field also play a vital role in the Mustangs’ successes.
The Results
The Mustangs are having their best season since 2015, and while no players on the team played almost a decade ago, veterans can see how a shift in mentality and communication has pushed the team forward in 2024.
“If he makes a bad read, or has a play, or he makes an incredible save, he’s focused on the next play already,” senior midfielder Nate Colley said. “Having that quality is really important as a goalkeeper.”
A strong team culture and resilient mentality have been key factors in the 2024 season, as the opening road trip left the Mustangs with a 0-3-1 record to start the season.
Looking back on those games, McCune was confident that even though wins weren’t coming through yet, the team had put in the work and was prepared to win.
Much like McCune’s journey at Cal Poly, faith in the program and each player’s ability paid off, with the Mustangs rattling off a nine-game unbeaten streak, catapulting them to the top of the Big West Conference.
“We place a lot of value on defending and how hard you work as a defender,” Kennedy said. “So I think that mindset has been instilled in the whole group.”
The team’s focus on defense has created the best defense in the Big West, giving up just four goals over its last ten games.
Before their most recent defeat to UC San Diego, McCune had gone 514 minutes, approximately 5.7 games, without giving up a goal.
Consistency, the missing piece to McCune’s puzzle in previous seasons, is the main strength of his season, with result after result and shutout after shutout racking up over the past month.
“He’s been really reliable when called upon. I think that’s something that, you know, was probably always there, he just didn’t get the run of games to show it, and now he’s getting to do that,” Kennedy said.
Throughout the streak, McCune has consistently credited his outfield team throughout the 2024 season.
“It’s not just me, it’s my backline as well,” McCune said, “They’ve made my job really easy… putting their bodies on the line to get in front of the ball.”
According to Kennedy, defending cohesively as a unit is an approach followed and supported by each player on the team.
McCune and the 2024 Mustang team have approached the season by putting in every bit of effort on the field.
“I say the number one thing is work rate. Everybody putting their body behind the ball, going balls out, basically, to get there,” McCune said.
The strategy has manifested itself in multiple players stepping up on both sides of the field this year.
Multiple defenders have rotated in and out of the back line this season.
Still, a core group of defenders, sophomores Parker Owens and Joaquin Torres, junior Nico Baltazar, and graduate Jack Muoio, have solidified themselves as the main defensive unit.
Communication between McCune and the backline is necessary not only to stop opponents from scoring but also to build up to Cal Poly goals.
“He knows our tactics, he knows how we want to set up, and having him alongside our backline, communicating that from the back up is really important and really instrumental in our success,” Colley said.
McCune has risen to the top of an elite Cal Poly defense that has been the deciding factor in their 2024 campaign.
“We’ve still got the conference to win, then the Big West Tournament,” McCune said. “All the hard work that me and my teams are putting in is finally paying off, but it’s not done yet.”
