Aug. 25, 2011
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By Jordean Matthews
UCFAthletics.com
ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFAthletics.com) - After concluding one of its most successful seasons in 2010 and advancing to the second round of the NCAA Tournament, the UCF's men's soccer team will begin its regular season this Sunday night at Jacksonville. The game was moved from Friday night and will begin at 7 p.m. at the Ashley Sports Complex.
"JU is going to be a tough test," head coach Bryan Cunningham said. "They are very well coached and I am certain they are looking forward to getting their season underway. We have to go up there prepared to be under a lot of pressure for 90 minutes."
In last year's season opener against JU, the Knights defeated the Dolphins, 5-0.
The Black and Gold netted three first half goals to give UCF a comfortable lead behind the efforts of players like midfielder Nik Robson (Auckland, New Zealand) and forward Cameron Cooksey (Marietta, Ga.) . Robson had one goal and a pair of assists and Cooksey finished with two goals and an assist.
"We are ready to begin the regular season, the young players have come in ready to play and to contribute and the returners have come back in shape and mentally and physically ready for the challenges that lie ahead," Cunningham said.
The Dolphins finished last season 9-9-2 and advanced to the semifinals of the Atlantic Sun conference after defeating Mercer 2-1.
"We will look at JU and what we need to do to win up there Sunday night. After that we will look at what we did right and what we did wrong and then we will look to the next game," Cunningham added. "We are taking every game for what it is one game at a time. Each one will be treated with great detail as we go in preparing to win every match."
UCF ended last season 12-5-3 and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history after defeating in-state rival USF 3-0.
The Knights, recently ranked No.19 in the nation by Soccer America, begins the 2011 season with many honors including rankings by TopDrawerSoccer.com and CollegeSoccerNews.com.
UCF was picked to finish second in C-USA and had three players voted onto the Preseason All-Conference Team including junior Nik Robson (Auckland, New Zealand) and seniors Kevan George (Roxborough, Trinidad) and Warren Creavalle(Acworth, Ga.).