Drake men’s soccer coach Sean Holmes hopes a tough non conference schedule will have his team battle tested this season. The Bulldogs will face six teams that played in the NCAA Tournament a year ago.
“We wanted to challenge our guys, we wanted to go out and get good games, and so we’re playing good teams from the Big East the A-10, from the Big Ten,” Holmes explains. “We want to set ourselves up ourselves up for success. If it doesn’t kill us, we’ll be pretty awesome.”
Holmes says the players enjoy taking on a challenging schedule. He says players want to play in front up big crowds and against good teams.
Holmes says the non conference slate should have them ready for the start of Missouri Valley Conference play at the end of September. He says the MVC is one of the top conferences every year with Creighton, Bradley and Evansville, and he says being tested early should make them better for conference play.
The Bulldogs will get their first taste of action this evening when they host Nebraska-Omaha in an exhibition game. UNO is a new division one program coached by a former Creighton coach. The Bulldogs open the regular season next Friday when they play the University of Cincinnati in St. Louis.