CCU men’s soccer opens season at ranked ODU

The Coastal Carolina men’s soccer team opens its season Friday night, and as usual there’s no easing into the schedule for the Chanticleers.

They start on the road against No. 24-ranked Old Dominion, then travel to Virginia Commonwealth before facing two more preseason top-25 teams with No. 17 Charlotte at home and No. 11 Clemson on the road.

“It’s just something we have to do,” Chants coach Shaun Docking said. “Playing in the Big South you’ve got to try to gain good RPI games and we try to play the best games we can get. For us, all [those] games come at the start of the season, so straight out of the gate we have to be very good. The results are important to us if we want to get a [NCAA tournament] at-large bid.”

Coastal Carolina has made the NCAA tournament each of the last five years while winning a tourney game in four consecutive seasons.

Perhaps more impressively, the Chants have totaled an NCAA-best 85 wins overall since 2010 while going 40-4-2 in league play during that time.

That reputation and a 16-6-1 finish in 2014 earned the program a No. 21 ranking in the preseason National Soccer Coaches Association of America poll, but Docking has been quick to reiterate that his team has plenty still to prove this year after key personnel losses, including the reigning Big South attacking and defensive players of the year in Ricky Garbanzo and Shawn McLaws, respectively, and proven veteran goalkeeper Devin Cook-Perales.

“Just a lot of young guys trying to figure their way out in terms of college athletics and college soccer,” Docking said Wednesday, assessing his roster. “[There are] some very encouraging signs long-term. I think for us we’re going to be pretty good over the next few years and it’s just how quickly we can get our legs under us this season and just gain the experience that we need to play against big teams and in big games.

“How quickly we can figure that out will [determine] what kind of season we have in terms of results. But I think performance-wise, we’re going to be OK.”

Highlighting the returning offensive weapons, junior midfielder Sergio Camargo totaled six goals and five assists last year, senior forward Bryce Follensbee had six goals and four assists in 2014 and sophomore defender Elis Bjornsson tallied three goals and seven assists.

Camargo also suggested that junior Tobenna Uzo, sophomore Arnar Geirsson and freshman Jair Espinoza, a newcomer from Guatemala, could emerge as factors on the attack as well.

“I always have a bigger role every year I come back, but I feel we have so many options on the attack that these guys are going to help me out,” Camargo said. “… So I’m not worried at all.”

The back line is the perhaps the biggest unknown with Bjornsson the only healthy and experienced defender. Sophomore Tommy Gudmundsson, who was voted the Big South’s co-preseason defensive player of the year and also tallied six goals last year as a weapon on set pieces, has missed all of the preseason with a knee injury and isn’t expected to return to action until next week at the earliest.

In goal, meanwhile, sophomore Fernando Pina takes over after sitting out last season and joining the program in the spring. He started 18 games for Akron as a redshirt-freshman in 2013 and was an All-MAC first-team honoree.

“I think we’ve got several [promising] new guys that have come in, but again, they’re just going to have to gain experience as quick as possible,” Docking said.

Coastal Carolina played two preseason exhibition games to try to get everybody on the same page. The Chants lost 2-1 at UNC Wilmington and fell 2-0 to North Carolina on a pair of late goals.

Overall, though, Camargo echoed Docking’s optimism in the Chants’ potential.

“Our results may not have shown yet, but I feel we’re farther along than in previous years in the sense of team chemistry, team togetherness,” he said. “We just need to be a little bit more organized in the final third and win out games.”

This story was originally published August 27, 2015 at 5:33 PM with the headline "CCU men’s soccer opens season at ranked ODU."