GREENSBORO, N.C. – Take two.
The UNC Greensboro men's soccer team will play an exhibition against Elon on the road Friday night at 7 p.m. weather permitting. The Spartans had their first exhibition contest against Old Dominion cancelled because of storms.
So, this match against Elon takes on added importance.
"The goal on Friday is to the find best combinations and for players to earn themselves a role and responsibility within the group," Rich said. "This is our last and only exhibition game so it's even more important for us as coaches to be able to answer a few questions. Everybody wants to win, but our objective is to use this to prepare us for the more meaningful games down the road."
UNCG was picked to finish first in the Southern Conference preseason poll earlier this week. The Spartans are also ranked 30th nationally in the Top Drawer Soccer preseason poll. They are also receiving votes in the United Soccer Coaches' preseason poll.
The Spartans are a veteran team with numerous key returnees from last season's squad that won the SoCon postseason tournament and hosted a NCAA First Round match. UNCG had
Theo Collomb,
Fernando Garcia, and
Emmanuel Hagan named to the All-SoCon Preseason Team.
In addition, Goalie
Niclas Wild was a member of the All-SoCon Freshman Team last year.
"It's certainly nice to be voted as preseason favorites from our peers in the conference," Rich said. "We understand that last season doesn't mean anything at this point. We're 0-0. Our focus is solely our preparation for our first regular season game against Campbell. Although its nice to get that kind or recognition, at the end of the day, it really doesn't matter. We've earned that respect and position based on our body of work last season. We know we have to go out there and earn every bit of that."