UTRGV Men’s Soccer to Kick Off Season September 1
EDINBURG – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) men’s soccer team announced on Monday that it will play 16 matches, leading to the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) Tournament, starting with Wofford College on September 1 in a neutral site match.
“I feel good that we have a returning group of players that have been through the whole foundation and building of the team and they know what is required and the expectations,” UTRGV head coach Paul Leese said. “I think we put together a very strong schedule to test them for it. We are very excited for the challenge and we are waiting for preseason to get here.”
UTRGV will remain on the road for the next three matches as it faces off against Stetson on September 6, Central Florida on September 8, and Marshall on September 17 before its first of six matches at the UTRGV Soccer and Track & Field Complex this season starting by hosting Central Arkansas on September 21.
WAC play starts on the road for UTRGV as it visits UNLV on September 28 and then returns home to host Utah Valley on October 4 and Air Force on October 6. UTRGV will travel to Houston Baptist on October 11 and Kansas City on October 13 before hosting Grand Canyon at home on October 19.
“The WAC has proven to be an incredibly difficult conference,” Leese said. “It’s one that we have to be prepared for. The whole purpose of setting up the pre-conference schedule is to hopefully get us to be playing at our best, playing the highest level of opponents we can so when that conference time hits we are hopefully playing at our best.”
UTRGV will follow with a west coast trip visiting California Baptist on October 25 and CSU Bakersfield on October 27. UTRGV then returns home to host San Jose State on November 1 and Seattle U on November 3 before closing out the regular season on November 9 at Incarnate Word.
The WAC Tournament will take place at the United State Air Force Academy with the first round starting on November 13. The winner will earn a spot in the NCAA Tournament.
