VIDEO: Richard Moodie Interview

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Carson-Newman head men's soccer coach Richard Moodie has released C-N's 2016 men's soccer slate.

Carson-Newman – the defending South Atlantic Conference regular season champions – will spend much of September on the road before finishing the year with seven of the final nine matches inside McCown Field's gates.

"I guess it's the price we pay for the schedule we had last year where we had a bunch of home games to start the season," Moodie said. "I like our schedule, it's a strong schedule that has some good opponents on us who hopefully will set us up to make another run at the NCAA tournament."

The Eagles open the year at home Sept. 3 against Lees-McRae, but then aren't home for the rest of the month, save for a Sept. 21 meeting with Mars Hill.  In the interim, the Eagles have road matches at Tennessee Wesleyan, a neutral site meeting with Flagler in Florence, S.C. and two more road trips to the Palmetto State to face USC Aiken and Newberry. 

The Eagles open up October at home with four straight matches beginning with a clash with Anderson on the first.  The Eagles hop in and out of conference play the next three matches with a meeting with Catawba sandwiched by out-of-conference contests with King and a Young Harris squad that made postseason play a year ago.

"We've tried to have a strong strength of schedule ever since we narrowly made the national tournament in 2013," Moodie said. "Flagler, Young Harris and USC Aiken are always class.  So hopefully if we take care of business, they can set us up to have another trip to NCAA play."

Carson-Newman closes its season with back-to-back home matches against archrival Lincoln Memorial and Coker.