ASHEVILLE, N.C. ? The UNC Asheville men's soccer team opens Big South Conference play against VMI Saturday afternoon at Greenwood Field starting at 2 p.m. Admission is free. The match will be video-streamed by www.bigsouthsports.com and will be televised tape delay by Asheville Educational TV starting Saturday night at 9 p.m.
The Bulldogs (2-4-2) have played some solid soccer the past week despite going 0-1-1 in that stretch. Steve Cornish's club tied Kentucky 0-0 last Saturday at home and then lost to #12 North Carolina, 2-1 Tuesday night.
“Kentucky and North Carolina are two of the top scoring teams in the nation and for us to hold them down a little bit is a testament to how well our lads played,” declared Cornish. “We played quite well as a team and with a little luck we could have had two big results.”
It's time for the Bulldogs to focus on the Big South Conference. Asheville plays eight of its next nine matches against league foes.
“This is the most important part of our season with our conference matches,” stated Cornish. “It's nice we that we tied Kentucky and played North Carolina tough but now it's time to get going in conference play. We hope playing a tough non-conference schedule and having some success will prepare us for our league matches.”
VMI is 0-7-0 on the season and 0-1 in league play. However, the Keydets have lost four matches by just one goal. Last weekend, they led Big South power Coastal Carolina 2-0 before losing in overtime, 3-2.
“VMI has simply been unlucky for most of the year,” commented Cornish. “They have been right there in most of their matches but just haven't been able to finish. We certainly know how they feel. Our lads must be ready to play from the start on Saturday.”
The Bulldogs lost last year at VMI, 2-0. Asheville out-shot the Keydets 20-10 but the home team scored twice in the final 10 minutes to earn the win.
“We played pretty well last year at VMI but paid the price for not being able to finish,” added Cornish.
