LAS VEGAS (UNLVRebels.com) - UNLV men's soccer continues to challenge itself with its scheduling with the Rebels playing five of their first six games of the 2019 season on the road in addition to facing a total of four NCAA teams from a year ago, as the athletic department released the team's schedule Wednesday.
"This is probably the most challenging schedule we've had since I've been coaching at UNLV," said 10th-year head coach
Rich Ryerson. "We are facing teams from the Pac-12, the Big West and the WCC - the strongest soccer conferences in the West. That includes playing a Saint Mary's team that was undefeated a year ago, while Pacific has made the NCAAs the past three years, so we will be tested very early, and hope that experience will pay off when we start conference play.
"We open WAC play against UTRGV, who eliminated us from the conference tournament in 2018 and they return a majority of their starters so that's a key game for us right off the start in conference. It will also be a tough finish to the WAC schedule with a pair of road games in high elevation against Utah Valley and Air Force (2018 regular-season champions) before finishing off against the defending tournament champions in Grand Canyon."
The Rebels begin the season on the road with their first meeting against UC Santa Barbara in 15 years as the teams will face off Friday, Aug. 30 in Santa Barbara. UNLV then returns home to host its season opener against the San Diego State Aztecs for a Sunday, Sept. 2 night contest. That will mark the third meeting in the past five years between the former MPSF rivals.
Up next is back-to-back two-game road weekends, starting with a trip to the Midwest. The Rebels will take on Drake in Des Moines, Iowa, for the first meeting between the two schools since a double-overtime tie in 2007 in Las Vegas. That will be followed by a Sept. 9 contest at Omaha (Nebraska) for the first meeting in program history. UNLV will return to the Golden State the following weekend for a Sept. 13 contest at Pacific and a Sept. 15 meeting with San Francisco. It marks the first meeting against the Dons since 2011, while the Rebels last played Pacific in 2017, and are looking to break a two-game losing streak in the series.
UNLV closes out its non-conference slate by hosting the Johann Memorial Classic Sept. 19 and 22. This time the Rebels will be hosting a pair of California schools, with Saint Mary's as the first opponent while the weekend will close out with UNLV vs. Santa Clara for the first time in 23 years.
The WAC season opener will be at home as the Rebels host UTRGV on a Saturday night, Sept. 28 match. UNLV will play six of its 11 conference games away from home, including a Senior Night contest at 2018 WAC Tournament champion Grand Canyon (Nov. 9). This year's WAC Tournament, which the top seven teams in the conference qualify for, is hosted by Air Force in Colorado Springs, Colorado, from Nov. 13-17.
Highlighting the returnees for UNLV for 2019 are three players who received second team All-WAC honors a year ago - senior midfielder
Timo Mehlich and sophomore midfielder
Marco Gonzalez, while midfielder
Nico Clasen was named to the all-freshman squad. In all, seven starters return from a squad that finished the year at 10-10-1, which marked a school-record tying fifth straight season of double-digit wins.
