LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Bellarmine University men's soccer team will open its 2017 campaign with a familiar nonconference opponent and one that is for the most part an unknown.

The Knights will kick off the regular season by hosting Cedarville at 7:30 p.m. (ET) Thursday at Owsley B. Frazier Stadium before welcoming in Davenport for a 2:30 p.m. match on Saturday.

This is the third straight season Bellarmine will meet Cedarville, which defeated the Knights 3-0 in 2015 and 3-2 in double overtime last season, both at neutral sites. The Yellow Jackets (12-8-3 last season) have been picked to finish third in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference. They were the G-MAC Tournament runner-up last season after winning the title the previous three years.

"Cedarville is a disciplined team that plays a good style of soccer," Bellarmine Coach Tim Chastonay said. "They always seem to have good attacking players that can score goals. Their movement off the ball is very good which makes them a handful to defend. I'm expecting them to be very good."

Davenport has transitioned to Division II this season after being a powerhouse program in the NAIA ranks. The Panthers (20-2-3 in 2016) won an NAIA national title in 2014 and made the Elite Eight the last three seasons. Davenport joined the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

"I'm expecting Davenport to be a solid team as well," Chastonay said. "They have been very successful at the NAIA level, and I'm sure they will want to make an early mark at the NCAA DII level. We really don't know much about them, and this can definitely cause problems."

Bellarmine's lone exhibition match of the preseason couldn't have produced a much better result. The Knights scored five first-half goals in a 5-1 romp over Spalding. Five different players registered the goals, Bellarmine held a 27-6 advantage in shots and the Knights limited the Golden Eagles to two shots on goal. Another plus was a healthy division of playing time: 21 Knights amassed over 20 minutes of action.

"It's always good to win and score goals, so the Spalding game was a success," Chastonay said. "It was probably a bigger success because we played a good number of players, and we were able to evaluate these guys against someone other than ourselves."

Chastonay is pleased with how the Knights have progressed from their first practice to the opening of the regular season.

"We definitely have achieved many of the goals we had for preseason training," he said. "We've been using the word commitment with this group, and the staff feels like we have the guys committed to all areas of being a soccer player here at Bellarmine. The lack of preseason games is a concern at this point (the Georgetown College exhibition was cancelled due to poor weather). We have not been met with much adversity up to this point. The games this weekend against Cedarville and Davenport will certainly paint a clearer picture regarding our team and where we need to improve."

Prior to Bellarmine's match with Davenport, Cedarville will meet Indianapolis at noon Saturday at Frazier Stadium.

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