The No. 26 NC State men’s soccer team is coming off a 2-1 victory in an exhibition match against arch-rival No. 6 UNC-Chapel Hill. The Pack will play in its second exhibition game this weekend against the VCU Rams.
The win over the Tar Heels in Chapel Hill was an impressive feat for a team that struggled on the road last year, and the Pack has the opportunity to prove itself even further by defeating a Rams team that finished 10-6-2 last season.
Now, the Pack will travel back to Dail Soccer Field, where the team finished an impressive 8-0-3 last season. Meanwhile, the Rams finished with a mediocre 2-2-1 record on the road last season, meaning that the Pack will have ample opportunity to turn the tide in its favor.
VCU had a number of players finish on an All-Atlantic 10 team last season, including defenders Ulrik Edvardson and Ryo Shimazaki, as well as goalkeeper Mario Sequeira, all of whom made the All-Atlantic 10 second team. However, the Rams will miss the presence of midfielder Siad Haji, who was named the 2018 Atlantic 10 midfielder of the year in 2018, while also making the All-Atlantic 10 first team. Haji went on to be drafted second overall in the 2019 MLS SuperDraft by the San Jose Earthquakes.
While the loss of Haji will be felt by the team, the squad still has plenty of experience, boasting seven upperclassmen in the midfield. On top of this, the aforementioned touted defenders Edvardson and Shimazaki will likely continue to grow, as Edvardson helped the team to nine shutouts last season and Shimazaki started in all 18 games last season.
The Rams will prove to be hard to score on, but the Pack is bringing back talents such as junior midfielder Brad Sweeney, who scored five goals last season, which ranked second on the Pack. Junior midfielder David Loera is also in that mix, who scored in the exhibition match against Chapel Hill, and finished last season with 13 points.
Loera finished last season on the All-ACC first team and will be the only returning NC State player from that All-ACC team last season.
Junior Leon Krapf, a multi-time winner of the ACC Defensive Player of the Week, will return to the net this season for the Wolfpack. Redshirt senior Vincent Durand saw time in the net in the exhibition against Chapel Hill, where he recorded three saves in the second half, but Krapf will start going into the season. Krapf played every single minute in the goal last season, recording 59 total saves and 71.1 save percentage.
One of the more interesting pieces to watch for NC State will be freshman defender Kendall Edwards, who is joining the team after being ranked the No. 4 defender in the nation, while also being rated as a four-star defender.
Edwards joins a defender group that includes junior David Norris, who started all 20 matches of the season last year for the Pack, and recorded 1858 minutes on the year. The impressive defense all over the field should make for an interesting and scrappy exhibition match.
Kickoff is slated for 7 p.m. at Dail Soccer Field on Aug. 24. After this, the Pack will jump into regular season play, starting against Loyola on Aug. 30.
