Wake Forest Athletics
Men's Soccer Completes First Training Session
8/15/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
Aug. 15, 2009
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - The Wake Forest men's soccer team began its preseason with a two and a half hour training session on Saturday morning at the Spry Stadium practice fields.
"It was a great day to get started with the weather cooperating like it did," head coach Jay Vidovich said. "The team put out a lot of work. It was good to get out and actually see what we had."
The Demon Deacons will have a two-week preseason camp, including a pair of exhibition matches, before beginning the regular season on Tuesday, September 1, at 7 p.m. at home against William & Mary. The first exhibition match is at home on Saturday, August 22, at 7 p.m. against Liberty. The Deacs take to the road for the second exhibition match against Furman on Thursday, August 27.
"There's a lot of things we need to accomplish during preseason," Vidovich added. "We need to get people healthy. We have to decide what system we're going to play and how we're going to use people. We have to build a foundation for the team because we lack experience."
Wake Forest returns four starters from the 2008 team that advanced to the program's third consecutive College Cup and finished the year with a 21-2-1 record. However, one of those starters, sophomore Danny Wenzel, is out for the year while recovering from knee surgery.
Senior forward Zack Schilawski is the leading returning scorer from 2008. Schilawski scored 11 goals in his junior season and enters his senior campaign eighth all-time in career goals at Wake Forest.
Junior Corben Bone returns in the Demon Deacon midfield. The M.A.C. Hermann Trophy candidate led the country in assists in 2008 with 17 and was third on the team in points with 31. Also returning in the midfielder is senior Austin da Luz, who had three goals and eight assists in 2008.
ACC Defensive Player of the Year Ike Opara returns on the back line. Opara helped the Deacs to 14 shutouts in 2008 and also contributed five goals. Redshirt senior Justin Lichtfuss and senior Nick Courtney also saw significant minutes last season and will be an important part of the Demon Deacon defense in 2009.
Senior Akira Fitzgerald returns in goal for the Deacs. Fitzgerald tied the school record for shutouts in a season in 2008 with 13 clean sheets. He compiled a 0.63 goals against average and had 68 saves.
