Men’s soccer kicked off its season against Oklahoma Baptist University on Aug. 24, defeating its opponent 2-1.

“I was really confident in the work we’ve been putting in and the amount of talent we have this year,” Sebastian Venegas, business management sophomore and midfielder, said. “Winning the first scrimmage was the best way to start out this season.”

Last year, the men closed out the regular season ranked 11 in the National Soccer Coaches Association of America Division II along with qualifying for their 12th NCAA Tournament appearance. They also claimed their first Heartland Conference regular season title and were runners-up in the league’s postseason tournament.

“Every team wants to do better than they did in the past seasons, but we are hopeful that we go beyond our own expectations, and go as far as we can in the postseason,” Head Coach Doug Elder said.

Also in the 2016 season, the men earned the No. 2 seed in the South Central Region after a 16-3-1 season record.

“We had a really good season last year, but this year with the amount of experience we now have, we hope it can carry us even further,” business sophomore and defender RJ Sayler said. “We would love to go further than we ever have as a program.”

On Sept. 1, the men will play their next opponent — Fort Lewis College.

“We built really good momentum by defeating Oklahoma Baptist, so we need to keep taking it game by game, and just keep building by the time playoffs come around,” Venegas said.

The game against Fort Lewis College will be at 7 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 1.