Men's Soccer Opens Home Slate This Weekend

Friday, September 2

Memphis, Tenn.

5:00 PM

University of Memphis

Belmont

Photo by: Matthew Smith

Sep 01, 2016 | Men's Soccer

Tigers welcome Belmont and Missouri State to the Mike Rose Soccer Complex

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – After beginning the season with a pair of matches on the road, the University of Memphis men's soccer team will welcome Belmont and Missouri State this weekend to open the home slate at the Mike Rose Soccer Complex.

Friday's contest against Belmont is scheduled for 5 p.m. and will be the first half of a doubleheader with the women's soccer team. The match against Missouri State Sunday afternoon is scheduled for 2 p.m.

Friday night will be a special night at Mike Rose with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in attendance to recognize two cancer survivors that are special to the Memphis soccer family. Alyssa de Jong, daughter of men's goalkeeper coach Remco, and her cousin, Tyler, were both diagnosed with cancer and have since raised $200,000 to fund and raise awareness for St. Jude. As part of the evening there will be donation tables set up for the families.

GAME 3 INFORMATION:
Friday, September 2 | 5 p.m. CT
Memphis vs. Belmont
Location: Memphis, Tenn.
Venue: Mike Rose Soccer Complex
Twitter Updates: @MemphisMSoccer
Video: Memphis Tiger Network
Live Stats: Live Stats

GAME 4 INFORMATION:
Sunday, September 4 | 2 p.m. CT
Memphis vs. Missouri State
Location: Memphis, Tenn.
Venue: Mike Rose Soccer Complex
Twitter Updates: @MemphisMSoccer
Video: Memphis Tiger Network
Live Stats: Live Stats

The Tigers opened the season with a 1-0 shutout against UAB before suffering their first setback against Georgia State Sunday. Jackson Morse's goal in the 12^th minute proved to be the game-winning goal to lift Memphis to its first victory in Birmingham since 2003 and head coach Richard Mulrooney's first-ever win over the Blazers.

"We went out and competed, I thought we showed well," said Mulrooney. "We got a shutout which is important for us as defensively last year we conceded a lot of goals. I was pleased with a bunch of the individual performances on Friday night."

The setback against Georgia State dropped the Tigers to 1-1 overall. Chandler Klemm tallied his first score of the year with an equalizer in the 52^nd minute. Three more goals, however, by the Panthers in the following moments distanced themselves from the visiting Tigers.

"That first win of the year is always the hardest one to get," said Mulrooney. "We got confidence from that and at the same time, there are still many matches to play and we learned our lesson on Sunday. It was a hard lesson to learn that early, but at the same time, it's a lesson learned that you can't just win on Friday and not show up Sunday."

Goalkeeper Jake Leeker has seen all 180 minutes in goal thus far. His shutout against UAB was the third in his career at Memphis after registering two in 2015.

Belmont enters the weekend fresh off a victory against Florida Atlantic at home. The Bruins' Jack Driscoll scored his first goal of the year in overtime to give Belmont the 2-1 advantage. Overall, Belmont sits at 1-0-1 with a draw against Western Illinois in its home opener. In addition to Driscoll, three other players have each scored a goal this season.

"That's not going to be an easy game. At 5 o'clock it's going to be a little warmer than a 7:30 p.m. kickoff. We're looking forward to the crowd that's going to be out there and I know that the guys are as well," said Mulrooney.

Missouri State will come into Sunday's game with fresh legs after a night off on Friday. The Bears opened the season with a 2-0 victory over Green Bay last weekend with goals scored by Conor Ingram and Mike Lightbourne. Liam Priestley earned the start in goal against the Phoenix and posted one save for Missouri State.

"(Missouri State) is just a challenging game. We need to make sure that we take care of business Friday and turn over some minutes for some people so we don't go into Sunday fatigued."

Friday night will be a special night at Mike Rose with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in attendance to recognize two cancer survivors that are special to the Memphis soccer family. Alyssa de Jong, daughter of men's goalkeeper coach Remco, and her cousin, Tyler, were both diagnosed with cancer and have since raised $200,000 to fund and raise awareness for St. Jude. As part of the evening there will be donation tables set up for the families.