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.

A scoring error has forced the Iowa High School Athletic Association to revise the class 3A bracket on the eve of the state soccer tournament. Originally, Bettendorf was the five seed and two-time defending champion Iowa City West was seeded sixth.

Iowa City west coach Brad Stiles says he was double-checking some of the math and it didn’t work out, so they made a phone call and things were switched. Instead of playing second ranked Dowling Catholic the Trojans will now play fifth rated Cedar Rapids Wasghington in the opening round.

West lost to Washington in a shootout early in the season. Stiles says their emotion and nerves got the best of them in the shoot out and that was good learning experience. But he says an early April game is much different than a state tournament game in June.

Bettendorf will now play Dowling. The remainder of the 3A bracket will remain the same.

Glenwood boys soccer coach Mike Artist hopes experience will be a factor when the class 2A fourth ranked Rams take on fifth rated Dubuque Wahlert tomorrow afternoon in the opening round of the state tournament in Des Moines. Glenwood is making a third straight appearance in the tournament.

Artist says they’ve fulfilled all their goals up to now and hopefully they can win the championship. Artist would like to see his team get off to a good start, and hopes the experience of being there before pays off.

Artist says Wahlert will provide a tough test as they have size and speed and a couple of key guys they tailor their gameplan to.

The Holy Trinty Catholic boys soccer team hopes the third time is a charm. The Crusaders make their third straight trip to the state high school soccer tournament this week and after an opening round loss in 2009 they suffered a heart breaking double overtime loss in the 1A title game a year ago.

Both of the losses were to Iowa City Regina. Coach Doug Peterson says the losses have been close ones, and they did play well. The sixth ranked Crusaders open on Thursday afternoon against fourth rated Waterloo Columbus and Peterson believes the first game at the state tournament is the toughest.

Peterson says getting past the first game is a big step for the players and the program. He says it may be a psychological thing.

A victory on Thursday could set up another matchup with Regina in the semifinal round. The top rated Regals open against Nevada.

The Des Moines Menace play their first road game of the Premier Development Soccer League season on tonight at Springfield. The Menace opened the season with a 2-1 victory over St. Louis on Saturday night and coach Laurie Calloway says this year’s club is older and should be higher scoring.

Calloway says they have much more experience than last year, and they should score 48 to 50 goals compared to the 30 they scored last year. The Menace were 6-3-7 in 2010 and Calloway says they were better on offense in their opener.

He says they created chances and the key is to finish those chances with a goal.