SAN ANTONIO – The Pacific men's soccer program does the Texas two-step into the 2025 campaign on the road, kicking off the season at the University of the Incarnate Word on Thursday at 5 p.m. PST at Gayle & Tom Benson Stadium.

The Tigers (0-0) will begin their non-conference slate with a pair of opponents from the Ohio Valley Conference, facing the Cardinals (0-0) in the season opener before squaring off against Houston Christian on Sunday.

Senior Jose Maria Barrera returns as Pacific's leading scorer from the 2024 campaign. The native of Stockton, California started 14 matches, pacing the Tigers with seven points after notching two goals and three assists. Barrera tallied his first career multi-point performance in a 2-0 win at Gonzaga on Nov. 9, 2024.

Senior Luca Baltzer was among a group of 11 men's soccer student-athletes named to the West Coast Conference preseason team last week. The native of Oberstenfeld, Germany is the Tigers' leading returner in minutes played, carrying over 1,350 minutes from his first season with Pacific. In 15 games from a season ago, Baltzer collected one goal, four points and four shot attempts. Baltzer scored a penalty kick on Sept. 22 at Sacramento State last year.

With the graduation of Joshua Moya, the Tigers will look for a new leader in goal with redshirt Juan Martinez and junior Mateus Ruiz-Hurst as candidates to take on the starting role at the forefront of the new year.

Last year, Pacific was a strong defensive team, carrying a 1.31 goals against average across 16 matches. The Tigers recorded four shutouts over the year, including three in its first four matches of non-conference action against UC Davis, UC Riverside and CSUN.

Incarnate Word enters the 2025 campaign with a 6-6-6 record from a season ago. At home, the Cardinals were 2-2-4, including wins over Our Lady of the Lake and Western Illinois. 

UIW traveled to Gonzaga as part of its 2024 slate and dropped 2-0 decision to the Bulldogs in Spokane, marking its lone contest against a WCC school last year.

The Cardinals were projected to finish fourth in the OVC preseason poll with Rochaine Baker as a representative on the OVC preseason team. Baker was named to the OVC All-Newcomer Team and OVC All-Conference Second Team last year in which he scored a goal and played all 18 matches on the backend as a junior.

Thursday's contest will mark the first all-time meeting when the two programs take to the pitch.

The match will be streamed will be streamed live on ESPN+ with a kick-off time scheduled for 5 p.m. PT.

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