Written by Stuart Price, Staff Writer

VSU Soccer hosts The University of North Georgia Friday, Sep. 4 at 5 p.m. for a huge first-game matchup.

While UNG finished last season as a nationally ranked Top-25 team, the Blazers are out for redemption this year and Coach Rebecca Nolin is really excited about the matchup.

“Their head coach is my best friend, so it’s a really fun rivalry for us,” Nolin said. “They beat us last year, but this time we’ve got home-field advantage. UNG led the nation in scoring last season, so VSU is planning to tighten up on defense and work on their attacking this time around.”

Practice is going great so far for the Blazers this season according to Coach Nolin. They began practicing a week before classes started and have been steadily improving. Of course, the hardest part of collegiate athletics is balancing training and academics.

“We lost twelve seniors and a lot of leadership over the Summer,” Nolin said. “We have a great group of core players returning and a few experienced transfers coming in.”

VSU won the conference tournament last year and got knocked out in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

This year, Coach Nolin and the team are really pushing for winning the conference outright and representing the Gulf South Conference at the NCAA tournament and get past round two.