LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Bellarmine University men's soccer team will open the 2021 season on the road with a 7 p.m. (ET) contest Thursday at Evansville.

This campaign marks Bellarmine's second in Division I. The Knights went 4-4 overall and 3-1 in the ASUN Conference last season, earning the North's top seed in the conference tournament and finishing with a No. 9 Atlantic Region ranking from the United Soccer Coaches.

LAST TIME OUT
Bellarmine's preseason consisted of exhibitions against two quality opponents in Northern Kentucky and Dayton, hosting the former and traveling for the latter.

Coach Tim Chastonay said the exhibitions were productive and helpful as primers for the regular season.

"The preseason exhibition games were very good for our team," he said. "We challenged the team by playing two very good opponents who achieved a good amount of success last year in their conferences. Results were not the primary focus of these games. We were hoping to find areas of our game needing improvement and hoping to find a good rotation of players for the start of the regular season. In the end, we were able to get a good number of players time in these games and were able to find things to focus on in training."

ABOUT EVANSVILLE
From a program standpoint, Evansville, located just a couple hours away, is relatively familiar to Chastonay and Bellarmine, which in past years scrimmaged the Purple Aces when the Knights were a member of Division II.

Evansville opened the preseason with an exhibition at No. 14 Kentucky, which advanced to the Sweet 16 last season. The Purples Aces went into halftime tied 1-1 with the Wildcats and held strong for 70 minutes until UK put away the go-ahead goal and then scored twice more in the last five minutes. Evansville then concluded the preseason with a commanding 4-0 home win over Hanover, scoring twice inside the first 10 minutes.

Sophomore midfielder Pablo Guillen was named to the Missouri Valley Conference's preseason first team after being recognized as the MVC Freshman of the Year and second-team All-MVC last season after scoring a team-best four goals.

Evansville went 0-9-1 last season, but Chastonay believes the Purple Aces are poised for a turnaround.

"I think Evansville is ready for a breakthrough season," he said. "They have been very young over the past couple of years and now have a great deal of experience. Marshall Ray is a very good coach and he always has his teams prepared well. Evansville is a program that has enjoyed a good deal of success in the past. They have a winning tradition, and I expect them to be very good this year."

A LONG JOURNEY TO START
Bellarmine's season opener against Evansville marks the first of four straight road games to start the season. The Knights are set for five consecutive road matches if you throw in the Dayton exhibition.

The good news is Bellarmine is a seasoned squad, but life on the road is always challenging, even for the most experienced teams.

"Our schedule is definitely road heavy early," Chastonay said. "It was important for us to have that away game at Dayton, so we could travel and play the same day. Playing on the road is never easy, so we are hoping to rely on some of the veteran players and their experiences over the last couple of seasons that have brought us success." 

READY TO ROLL
While Bellarmine counts All-Decade Team center backs Jonas Skulstad and Eddie Williamson among its losses to graduation, the Knights do bring back eight returning starters.

Senior midfielder Micah Linscott, junior midfielder Haziq Zed and junior forward Juan Ballas were each second-team ASUN All-Conference selections last season. Zed earned an ASUN Preseason All-Conference nod heading into this year.

Senior Greg Fischer and junior Camden Dunne are also returning starters in the midfield, senior Nate Girao and sophomore Max Vinberg are on the back line and senior Connor Range is in goal.

"The guys seem ready for the start of the regular season," Chastonay said. "Although our team lost several key players from last year, we do bring back a number of guys who played key roles in our success last season. We had a good recipe for success last year against good opponents and hope we can follow the same script this season."

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