Drake soccer coach Sean Holmes expectes his Bulldogs to show improvement this season. After making it all the way to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament in 2009 a young Bulldog squad posted an 8-8-1 mark last year.

Holmes says they knew they would lose 7 seniors, but they still went out and scheduled several top schools as he says that’s what they want their program to do. Eight starters are back from last year’s team and the Bulldogs expect to generate more scoring chances this season.

He says they have a lot of Iowa kids and all of the attacking half of the team are seniors. Holmes says a tough early schedule was the reason Drake started slowly a year ago. Holmes says with Michigan, Indiana and Notre Dame on the road, it was tough, but this year he thinks they will be more ready for the tough start.

Drake hosts Loras in an esxhibition on Wednesday. The Bulldogs open the regular season August 29th at Western Illinois.