N.C . State will be playing in the Duke Classic this weekend, battling it out against some tough opposition in the form of No. 17 Southern Methodist University from Texas and No. nine U.C . Santa Barbara from California.

For the 27th straight season, the Wolfpack will travel to Duke to play in this tournament in what should prove to be an ideal curtain raiser before the start of ACC play.

Redshirt freshman forward, Nazmi Albadawi   thought it was a nice opportunity to test the mettle of the team ahead of the games against the conference opponents.

“Both are top teams, so it will be a really good test for us,” Albadawi said. “Especially before the ACC comes up, because the ACC is the strongest conference in the country and these two teams are really good teams to test us out and to see how good we really are against them.”

Nazmi ,who also assisted one of the two goals during the Pack’s win against VMI , felt proud of his contribution and admitted how that goal helped the team win the psychological battle.

“It felt good, I have been creating chances,” Albadawi said. “When our team scored, it felt great, it kind of got us off that block cause we had trouble scoring earlier but once we got the first goal, I thought ‘awesome, more to come now.'”

Nazmi wasn’t slow to compliment his fellow team members on being heralded as the team playmaker .

“Its pretty easy, my teammates are all so good,” Albadawi said. “It’s easy to give them the ball and its easy to play with them.”

Senior midfielder, Farouk Bseiso , has had fond memories playing in the Duke Tournament before.

“When I was a sophomore, we won it; we won the two games,” Bseiso said. “In the past, it proved to be real important because we play teams from out of conference that are usually ranked. It usually proves to be a great test for us and prepares us for league play.”

Bseiso , who has previously also played under now retired coach George Tarantini , had a lot of positive things to say about current coach Kelly Findley .

“He came in and he’s hungry to make a change,” Bseiso said. “We got brand new locker rooms, brand new stands, a brand new training ground, he just came in right away and started making a lot of changes to help the program to move up and progress for the future.”

Bseiso also felt that the upcoming games against SMU and U.C . Santa Barbara were key towards qualifying for the post season.

“U.C . Santa Barbara and SMU are two great teams,” he said. “I think it will be important for us to come out strong and get those results and I think it will really help us to get into the NCAA tournament at the end of the year.”

On being asked about the freshmen, Bseiso was excited about having all of them in the team.

“Well they are a big group, a few international guys, a few guys from all over the place but I think they have come in and acclimated great and they are real players,” Bseiso said. “We need all of them, they come to practice, they work hard, and they continue to progress every single day. The future of this program looks bright because they are a great group of guys.”

Coach Kelly Findley , who is in his first season, on being asked if he had any different plans for the two strong opponents, admitted that they would stick to the basics.

“We don’t really approach any game differently depending on the opponents,” Findley said. “Our job is to know what we do well, stick to our game plan, and make sure we are confident going into the game and just kind of do what we do.”

Findley confirmed that they were watching tapes of the games of their opponents.

“We actually got a video from William & Mary,” Findley said. “It gives us ideas of not only what they do on restarts but what their strengths are, what their weaknesses are, to make sure we can maximize our strengths and minimize our weaknesses.”

Findley felt self-belief was important when it came to getting a result from a game.

“We have every expectation that we have a good enough group to get both results this weekend,” Findley said. “I think the guys believe in themselves and I think we are more than good enough to come up with a championship win this weekend at Duke.”

The coach also emphasized the importance of playing well and how that meant more to him than just getting a result.

“I was a little frustrated that we hadn’t scored goals in pre-season,” Findley admitted. “But I wasn’t worried because we were creating plenty of chances. To be fair, I rather tie 0-0 and create a lot of chances than play terrible and win 1-0.”

Findley also declared his thoughts about the football team, who’s first game against Liberty is going to be sandwiched by the men’s soccer team’s fixtures.

“I want our football team to win the national championship, so the better they do, the better it is for everybody,” Findley said. “What’s important is that Wolfpack athletics is moving in the right direction”