Wake Forest Athletics
Wake Forest Men's Soccer Announces 2012 Schedule
5/15/2012 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
May 15, 2012
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2012 Wake Forest Men's Soccer Schedule
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - The Wake Forest men's soccer program officially announced its 2012 regular season schedule on Tuesday, May 15. As expected, the Demon Deacons will pull no punches, facing 10 NCAA Tournament teams from 2011 and their typical rigorous eight-game ACC slate.
The Deacs will also take on the defending national champions, North Carolina, and Louisville - a team that reached the NCAA Quarterfinals - on the road and meet a handful of other programs on the rise over the course of the 18-game schedule. Spry Stadium will host 11 matches in 2012, a decrease of one from last season.
Opening up with a pair of exhibitions, Wake Forest will host Radford on August 14 before heading to South Carolina to take on Furman four days later. The Paladins were an NCAA Tournament participant in 2011, falling in the first round to eventual national runner-up Charlotte 3-1 after a 14-3-4 regular season.
The regular season begins at Spry on Aug. 25 with visits from Wofford and Boston University (Aug. 31), as well as West Virginia on Sept. 2. The Mountaineers will be making the transition to the Mid-American Conference in 2012 after representing the Big EAST in the 2011 NCAA Tournament and fell 1-0 to the Deacs on April 14 during the spring schedule.
For the second straight year, ACC play will open up with Clemson. This year, the Deacs will head to Riggs Field to face the Tigers on Sept. 7 before undertaking perhaps the toughest two-game stretch of the season at Louisville (Sept. 11) and at North Carolina (Sept. 15). The Cardinals are coming off a NCAA Quarterfinals appearance, while North Carolina won both the ACC and national title in 2011.
After an arduous road swing, the Deacs will return to the confines of Spry to face Georgia Southern (Sept. 18) and Appalachian State (Sept. 25) bookending another ACC contest against Duke (Sept. 21), which made an NCAA Second Round appearance last season but must find a replacement for departed Hermann Trophy winner Andrew Wenger.
Following visits to Virginia Tech (Sept. 28) and Davidson (Oct. 2), the Deacs will host another ACC match against Boston College on Oct. 6. The Eagles are coming off an NCAA Second Round appearance in 2011.
Road matches versus ETSU (Oct. 9) and Virginia await (Oct. 12) after the brief homestand, as the Deacs will kick against ETSU for the first time in program history. Virginia, of course, has much more history with Wake Forest and the Deacons will be looking to defeat the Hoos in the regular season for the third straight time.
On Oct. 19, the Deacs will return home to face NC State before playing their final road match of the regular season just down I-40 at Elon four days later.
The regular season wraps up with two consecutive Spry Stadium tilts, each a rematch of two of last year's most exciting matches. South Carolina comes to town first on Oct. 27 looking for revenge after losing 4-3 in penalty kicks to Wake Forest in last fall's NCAA Tournament First Round.
Following the Gamecocks, Maryland will visit Spry Stadium after the two sides battled to a 1-1 draw in double overtime last season at Ludwig Field.
The ACC Tournament will kick off with a play-in match on Nov. 5 before first round action begins the following day on campus sites. The semi-finals and finals will be held on Nov. 9 and Nov. 11 in Germantown, Md.
