JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn – One year after earning a share of the South Atlantic Conference regular season title, the Carson-Newman men's soccer team is ready to get back at it in their season opener.

Head Coach Richard Moodie's crew will open their season at McCown Field at 7:30pm on Saturday night against Lees-McRae.

"We've got so many leaders on our team." Moodie said. "We've got a lot of quality players returning. The new players have stepped in and done well. It's difficult to say [right now] based on limited opportunities, but I think we look as good as we ever have."

Last season's team posted a 9-2 SAC record and went 15-3-2 overall. That conference mark tied them with Wingate for the best in the regular season. They were also given a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

While several players did graduate, there is still a lot of talent remaining, led by preseason All-American midfielder Tom Read (London, England). Read was named first-team All-SAC both at the end of last year and in the 2016 preseason after leading the league with 16 assists and 32 points in 2015.

Also back is forward Marius Staalby (Trondheim, Norway), who's looking to have an impact on the scoresheet in much the same way he did last year, when his eight goals were the fourth most in the SAC. Sophomores Thibault Mathorez (Graces, France) and Bruno Andrade (Sao Paulo, Brazil) both had outstanding debut seasons, each totaling 11 points and being selected preseason All-SAC.

Unlike Carson-Newman, Lees-McRae has already begun their 2016 campaign, as they fell 2-1 to Anderson (S.C.) in double overtime on Thursday. They scored first on a shot by Thomas Deeley, but were shutout for the rest of the night. They also had two players pick up yellow cards and received a team red card in overtime.

Last year's team went 11-7 overall and 7-3 in Conference Carolinas, which placed them third in the league. Their season was ended in the conference semifinals by Limestone, who knocked them off 2-0.

The Bobcats did return their leading scorer in Thomas Deeley, whose nine goals and 7 assists gave him 25 points for the year and helped him earn a spot on the Conference Carolinas second-team.

Last season, Carson-Newman visited Lees-McRae and left with a 2-0 victory, although the Eagles are just 4-6 in the series history.

Full coverage of the match will be available on cneagles.com/live with live stats and HD video. Mark Inserra will have the call and stats and a full recap of the action will be available on cneagles.com after the contest. The game will also be preceded by a sky-diving show, which is set to begin at 7:15pm.

-CN-