The NC State men’s soccer team is set to begin the 2017 season with a vastly different look than it ended with the preceding year. Following the termination of former head coach Kelly Findley in November 2016, new head coach George Kiefer wasted no time in forming his coaching staff and signing recruits and transfers.
NC State added eight freshman recruits and two transfers during the offseason, completely renewing the program. This quality job done by Kiefer and his coaching staff awarded the Wolfpack the No. 10 recruiting class in the nation heading into the 2017 season.
In addition to many other new faces, senior Julius Duchscherer and junior Tanner Roberts return to the lineup. Duchscherer and Roberts led the team in goals scored in 2016, with Duchscherer recording nine while Roberts followed with four.
With all the new coaches and players, NC State will be a completely different team than it was a year ago, a team that went a lamentable 5-12 overall and 1-7 in conference play.
The Wolfpack got its first competitive opportunity in an exhibition match against Appalachian State Sunday night at Dail Soccer Field, drawing 0-0. The team will travel to Storrs, Connecticut, to face preseason No. 24 UConn on Saturday for its second and final exhibition match.
In 2017, NC State will play 17 games, nine nonconference and eight ACC games. As part of its nonconference schedule, the Pack will travel to play William & Mary on Aug. 28 and Elon on Sept. 19.
State will then welcome Florida Atlantic University on Aug. 25, LIU Brooklyn on Sept. 1, Longwood University on Sept. 12, UNC-Asheville on Sept. 26, Belmont on Oct. 3, UNC-Wilmington on Oct. 17 and South Carolina on Oct. 24, all in Raleigh, for its remaining nonconference matches.
Of the nine nonconference opponents, zero were ranked in the preseason NSCAA rankings. These games will be the crucial must-win games for the inexperienced Wolfpack squad because when it comes to conference play, the historically difficult ACC is once again stacked with the best men’s soccer teams in the nation.
Of the top-10 nationally ranked teams in the preseason NSCAA rankings, six hail from the ACC: No. 2 Wake Forest, No. 4 North Carolina, No. 5 Clemson, No. 8 Syracuse, No. 9 Louisville and No. 10 Notre Dame.
NC State will play all of the above teams in 2017, meeting Clemson, Wake Forest and No. 13 Virginia in Raleigh. State will travel to UNC, Syracuse, Louisville and Notre Dame. The lone ACC opponent on the schedule that is unranked is Boston College. The two teams will meet in Raleigh on Oct. 27 for State’s final regular season game.
Just a glance at NC State’s 2017 conference schedule is warrant enough to make the Pack uneasy. Playing in the ACC means facing a potential College Cup team every week. It will be interesting to see how George Kiefer and his young NC State team fare against the might of college soccer’s best.
Ahead of training camp, which began on Aug. 8, coach Kiefer spoke of his expectations for his team heading into the season.
“We just want our guys to be really mature and have a calmness when they play the game,” Kiefer told NC State Athletics. “You can come out too low, too high, or just right. It’s almost like a performance curve. You don’t want to be overexcited, and you don’t want to be asleep. The key is finding that balance. With so many new guys and it being day one, usually there’s an overexcitement. I think we saw that a bit, but I’m very pleased with the maturity of the returning guys.”
The 2017 men’s soccer season will ultimately hinge on how the team performs during its nonconference matchups. With such a young team on the field, mistakes will happen. The important question is whether those mistakes happen against Florida Atlantic and Longwood or against Wake Forest and UNC.
2017 marks the dawn of the Kiefer era at NC State men’s soccer. This first season will be a learning opportunity for his players and will set the tone for Pack soccer for years to come. With all the offseason changes, there is plenty to be excited about.
