HICKORY, N.C. - The 39th season of Lenoir-Rhyne Men's Soccer kicks off Thursday night at the Moretz Sports Complex with a huge test against No. 11 Young Harris. This is a matchup of two NCAA Tournament teams from a year ago, and the Bears will look to avenge a 2-0 defeat at the hands of the Mountain Lions, who were the No. 1 seed in the Southeast Region last year and fell to Auburn-Montgomery in penalty kicks.
 
2021 Recap

• Lenoir-Rhyne qualified for its fourth NCAA Tournament in program history in 2021, receiving an at-large bid after a 10-4-1 regular season and a third place finish in the SAC. The Bears lost a classic double overtime game to league rival Limestone in the NCAA Tournament opener, which was at Young Harris.
• LR had two dramatic overtime wins over ranked opponents in 2021. The Bears defeated No. 4 Coker on the road in double overtime, and also took an overtime win at home over No. 20 Chowan, which propelled the Bears into a strong final stretch that led to the team earning an at-large bid in the NCAA Southeast Regional, which is perennially the strongest region in the country.
• Head Coach Jack Winter won his 50th game as head coach in that aforementioned win over No. 4 Coker, and finished the year with 56 wins, good for second all-time in program history.
• With seven wins in conference play, the Bears tied the program record for SAC wins in a season with the 2016 and 2018 squads.
• Victor Cascon and Carles Montoliu Lobo were named First-Team All-SAC, Dani Fernandez was named Second-Team, and Harri Rowe and Diego Delgado were Third-Team. Several Bears won Player of the Week honors throughout the season as well.

• LR was picked to finish second in the SAC Preseason Poll as voted on by the league's head coaches after a third place finish last year. Reigning regular season champion Carson-Newman was picked first, but LR did receive four first place votes.
• Montoliu Lobo and Fernandez were named Preseason First-Team All-SAC, Jaime Poza and Harri Rowe were Preseason Second-Team, and Juan Basabe was Preseason Third-Team.
• The Bears have several key returners from last year's NCAA Tournament team. Montoliu Lobo, Fernandez and returning goalkeeper Juan Basabe will be the spine of the team at each level. The Bears do lose their top two goal scorers from 2021- Noah Tiefel and Cascon - but have other pieces that should provide offense. Harri Rowe is a defender that can stretch the field, and the sophomore from Wales will look to have a breakout sophomore season.
• Preseason All-Conference selection Jaime Poza will be asked to carry more of the scoring burden this year for LR, and the graduate student from Madrid, Spain, led the SAC in assists in the 2020-21 spring season. Poza also has five career goals.
• Basabe returns for a full season of health after injuring his shoulder on the first day of preseason training last fall. He played in the final six games of the 2021 season and allowed just eight goals with two clean sheets. Basabe has also put up two clean sheets in the preseason games.
• Several other key contributors from last year return as well, including but not limited to Nicolas Bohigues, Miguel Montaño, Xavi Moya, Oliver Gardner, and newcomer Adrian Martiña is also expected to have a large role.

• The Bears added a key piece on offense in Barton transfer Luis Hernandez. Hernandez, a grad transfer from Guadarrama, Spain, scored 10 goals for the Bulldogs last year, leading their team. Hernandez scored the only goal for Barton in a 2-1 loss to Lenoir-Rhyne last year.

• Young Harris travels to Hickory as one of the top men's soccer programs in all of Division II. The Mountain Lions hosted the Southeast Regional last year as the No. 1 overall seed. Legendary head coach Mark McKeever left the program suddenly at the beginning of August to pursue an opportunity in professional soccer after 17 seasons as head coach. McKeever led the Mountain Lions to a 222-72-18 (.726 winning percentage) during his time at Young Harris, and was ranked fifth among NCAA Division II active winningest coaches by winning percentage (.740) and 19th by total wins (222). McKeever was replaced as head coach by Dean Grey, who was McKeever's top assistant for many years.
• This is the 5th meeting all-time between the two programs, with YHC holding a 3-1 edge, including a 2-0 win last year at Young Harris. This is just the second meeting in Hickory between the two; Young Harris beat the Bears 2-1 in Hickory in 2018. LR's lone win in the series came at Young Harris in 2019 (1-0).
• The Mountain Lions return 22 players from last year's team that went 18-0-2 and was ranked No. 11 in the final United Soccer Coaches Division II poll. The Mountain Lions, who were ranked as high as No. 1 in the poll a year ago, captured their sixth Peach Belt Conference regular-season title as well as the PBC Tournament for the fifth time in 2021.

Kickoff is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on Thursday at the Moretz Sports Complex. You can watch the game live on FloSports, and admission is free for all fans.