STOCKTON, Calif. - The Pacific men's soccer team will travel to La Jolla on Thursday to take on UC San Diego to kick off the 2023 season at 7 p.m.
On Tuesday, in a vote of the head coaches in the West Coast Conference, the Tigers were picked sixth.
The roster is full of an arsenal of weapons including second team all-WCC selection Samuel Saiz-Herraiz, who led the team in shots with 31 and was one of four Tigers to start every game this season. He will joined on the pitch by
Derick Roque, who led the team in assists with a career-high four in 2022. Another promising returnee is Samuel Villata, who played and started all 17 games from his midfield position. He registered 15 shots – six of which were on goal.
Another key component that returns is
Brian Lanier, who saw action in six contests as a reserve goalkeeper where he earned four starts. Lanier made 30 saves, facing 73 shots in 2022. Lanier will reserve support on the defensive side by senior
Javier Chavez, who logged a team-high 1482 minutes of action as a starter in all 17 games last fall.
UC San Diego, who went 1-0-1 in the exhibition portion of the season with a tie against UNLV, won the last meeting between the two teams, 3-1 on August 25 in the season opener, last fall. The Tritons posted an 8-8-2 mark last year including wins over #22 Santa Clara, UNLV, Sacramento State and Cal Poly. In the Big West preseason poll, UC San Diego was picked to finish eighth. The Tritons return 18 letterwinners and add 11 newcomers, including five transfers.
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