Asheville Men?s Soccer Travels To VMI Thursday To Open 2016 Preseason

THE MATCHUP
Teams: Asheville (0-0, 0-0 BSC)
VMI (0-0, 0-0 SC)
Location: Patchin Field, Lexington, VA
Time: 4 p.m.

Lexington, VA – The UNC Asheville men's soccer team opens its 2016 season with an exhibition match on the road against Virginia Military Institute Thursday, August 17 at 4 p.m.

The matchup will be the first of two exhibition games for the Bulldogs, with the second falling on Saturday, August 20 at Georgia Southern at 2 p.m. It was originally intended to be a 7 p.m. home match, but due to possible bad weather, the site was flipped.

NOTABLES

The Bulldogs are led by second-year head coach Mathes Mennell, who led the team to a 6-12-1 record last year, including a 3-6 mark in the Big South Conference. The team advanced to the quarterfinals of the Big South tournament before falling to Winthrop.

“We're very excited to start our 2016 campaign,” Mennell said. “We've had a good preseason. We're very excited about the new players we have coming in. The returners have done a great job in continuing our great progress that we've made over the past year with our program. The match against VMI will give us a great opportunity to see exactly where we are and also a chance to see what it looks like against a very capable Division I opponent.”

This year's squad has been selected to finish seventh in the Big South preseason coaches poll. The team returns senior forward Zach Joens, an Asheville native who led the team in goals scored (9) and points (19) last year. Additionally, Joe LaCasto, a sophomore midfielder from Huntington Beach, Calif., returns after leading the team in assists (5) last season. In fact, the team returns its top six producers in points last year. In goal, Tyler Moore, a redshirt sophomore goalkeeper from Brookfield, Wisc. returns after starting three games and seeing action in eight overall last year.

Mennell has added two new assistant coaches this year in Matt Tellez and Tyler Krumpe.

In February, Mennell welcomed a recruiting class that featured eight freshmen and one transfer.

QUOTABLES

“We have to remain patient with our young players,” Mennell said. “We think we have some nice attacking options going forward, and we're excited to see how they adjust to the college level. Again, it's a great preseason game on Thursday. Then we turn around and play a very good Georgia Southern team on Saturday. We think that will provide us a lot of great learning opportunities to then apply as we open our season against two very talented teams in Elon and Duke.”

UP NEXT

Following Thursday's exhibition, the Bulldogs will travel to Georgia Southern on Saturday, August 20 to face the Eagles at 2:00 p.m.