Men's Soccer Heads to Nashville for Tournament at Lipscomb

ASHEVILLE, N.C. - The UNC Asheville men's soccer team will travel to Nashville this weekend for a pair of matches in the Hyatt Place Select Tournament that will be held at Lipscomb University. The Bulldogs are looking to defend their championship as Asheville captured the tourney last season with two thrilling victories over Belmont and Lipscomb.

The matches will be video-streamed and can be seen for a small fee at https://asun.neulion.com/asc/console.jsp. You can also follow the matches with live stats at http://www.lipscombsports.com/media/livestats/msoc/xlive.htm.

Asheville will play Lipscomb Friday night at 7 p.m. CST and Belmont on Sunday at 2 p.m. CST.

The Bulldogs (2-1-0) have won their last two matches but has not played since Sept. 8 when Asheville downed Brevard 3-0 at Greenwood Field.

First-year coach Matt Kern is anxious for his team to play again.

"We have some great memories from last year's tournament and hope to create some more great moments this weekend," declared Kern. "We're looking forward to playing some matches again. We've had a good break, but we need to get back on the field and play again."

Asheville won last year's tournament by beating Lipscomb and Belmont and both matches were by 2-1 scores.

"We won the tournament last year, but it was two very close matches that could have gone either way," commented Kern. "Our guys are going to have to battle and scrap for 90 minutes against both Lipscomb and Belmont."

The Bulldogs are being led in scoring by junior midfielder Jake Hagedorn with three goals. Connor Holzinger has three assists and one goal on the year.

Junior goalkeeper Lassi Hurskainen has two shutouts on the year and not allowed a goal in the last 222 minutes.