HIGH POINT, N.C. – The High Point University men’s soccer team and head coach Dustin Fonder announced the schedule for the upcoming 2014 season on Tuesday. The Panthers will once again play a challenging slate of games including matches against teams from the ACC and the Big 12.
“We are very pleased with the schedule we were able to put together for next season,” Fonder said. “We feel that this schedule will challenge us in a variety of ways. The non-conference schedule features two tournaments, which I think are important since the schedule mirrors the Big South Conference tournament. We hope this challenging non-conference schedule will have us prepared for Big South action.”
High Point will play two home exhibition games to start the season. The Panthers will host Catawba College on Aug. 19 and Appalachian State on Aug. 23. Both games will begin at 7 p.m., at Vert Stadium. HPU will then open the season with a home match against UNC Wilmington out of the CAA on Aug. 29. Wilmington won nine games in 2013.
The Panthers will play in the first of two-straight weekend tournaments beginning on Sept. 5 when the team heads to Dayton, Ohio to play in the Dayton Flyers Classic. High Point will take on Dayton on Sept. 5 and Northern Kentucky on Sept. 7. HPU then will return home to host the High Point Plaza Classic beginning on Sept. 12. High Point will welcome Western Illinois, Incarnate Word and fellow Big South squad Radford to Vert Stadium for the weekend tournament. HPU will play Incarnate Word on Sept. 12 and Western Illinois on Sept. 14.
High Point continues its early season home stand on Sept. 20 when the team takes on West Virginia out of the Big 12. The two teams played to a 1-1 draw last season in Morgantown, West Virginia. The Panthers then open conference season with a home game on Sept. 27 against UNC Asheville.
Following the game against Asheville, High Point will hit the road for a three-game road swing, beginning with a game at inter-Triad rival Elon on Sept. 30 in Elon, North Carolina. The Panthers will then play back-to-back conference games at Presbyterian College on Oct. 3 and at Liberty on Oct. 7.
HPU returns home to play Longwood on Oct. 11 before travelling to Blacksburg, Virginia, on Oct. 14 to face Virginia Tech. The Panthers will host Radford in a conference game on Oct. 17 and will then play their second ACC opponent in three games on Oct. 21 when it they head to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to face the Panthers of the University of Pittsburgh.
The game against Pittsburgh is the final non-conference match of the season for High Point. The team will wrap up the season with four-straight conference games beginning with road games at Winthrop on Oct. 25 and at Campbell on Oct. 29. The Panthers will then play their final home game of the season on Nov. 1 against Gardner-Webb before finishing the season on the road at Coastal Carolina on Nov. 6.
The first round of the Big South Men’s Soccer Championship will be played at the home sites of the four high seeds once again this season with the games being played on Nov. 11. The four winners will then meet at Bryan Park in Greensboro, North Carolina for the semifinals on Nov. 14 and Big South Men’s Soccer Championship game on Nov. 16.
High Point returns 10 starters from it’s 2013 squad which went 6-2-2 in Big South action, led by All-Big South selections Mamadee Nyepon, Kody Palmer, Austin Yearwood and Sonny Mukungu.