HCU (0-0-0) vs. GARDNER-WEBB UNIVERSITY (0-0-0)
📆 Thursday, August 22, 2024 - 7 pm
🏟️ Sorrels Field – Houston, Texas
📈 LIVE STATS
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➡️ GAME PROGRAM
HOUSTON – Houston Christian University begins its 2024 campaign on Thursday night when it welcomes Gardner-Webb University to Sorrels Field. The match is the first of three consecutive outings on the home pitch for the Huskies over the next eight days.
Ryan Pratt enters his eighth season at the helm of the Huskies, leading HCU to a 4-8-6 overall mark and a 2-2-4 finish in last year's inaugural season of Ohio Valley Conference play.
HCU was
tabbed to finish fifth in the OVC preseason rankings, garnering 59 total points and receiving two first-place votes in the poll voted on by league coaches and sports information directors.Junior midfielder
D'Alessandro Herrera was selected as one of eight OVC "Players to Watch" for 2024, the second straight season to be selected.
Herrera was also named by Total Football Analysis as one of 11 NCAA Division 1 "Players to Watch". The team was selected using an aggregate of data compiled from the 2023 season and players were identified primarily based on having the highest position-specific metrics.
The Houston native was voted the OVC Midfielder of the Year last season after scoring six goals with a team-best seven assists for 19 total points in the Huskies inaugural campaign in the league. Herrera's seven helpers tied for the 10
th most in a single-season for the Huskies, moving him into a tie for 10
th all-time in assists.
Six seniors are gone from the 2023 squad but 17 players return, including the top eight point scorers. HCU welcomes a 14-player incoming class which includes seven transfers.
In addition to Herrera, HCU also returns OVC Freshman of the Year
Ryan Okerayi, who led the team in goals with seven and was second in total points with 16.
Both Herrera and Okerayi were selected to the All-OVC First team.
Ricardo Garcia returns for his sophomore season after picking up two goals and four assists, good for ninth in the OVC. He was one of four players with a pair of goals last season, along with senior
Ethan Giwa-McNeil and sophomores
Hans Leza and
Curtis Dunn.
Also returning for the Huskies is goalkeeper
Alex Aitken and a solid returning backline trio of seniors
Sam Zeeman and Sander-Brauer Ersoy along with Leza.
Aitken, who ranked first in the OVC in total saves and saves per game. He registered 71 saves last season, his second straight season to place on the all-time single-season top 10 leaderboard.
The durable Zeeman scored a goal and had three helpers while playing full-time in 17 of 18 matches, missing just a single minute of time on the pitch for the season.
Gardner-Webb comes to Houston for the first time as part of a two-match trip through the Lone Star State. The Bulldogs will travel over to Incarnate Word in San Antonio on Sunday, while IU-Indianapolis (formerly IUPUI) does the two step at UIW on Thursday night before hitting Fondren Road on Sunday night.
The Huskies and Bulldogs have met just once, a 3-1 win for HCU in Boiling Springs, North Carolina on September 10, 2017. GW had two players selected to the Big South preseason All-Conference team in defenders Max Fisher and Leo Andrade. Also returning is Jaylen Orr, a junior forward from Gastonia, North Carolina who tied for the team lead with four goals for the Bulldogs, who finished 4-9-4 overall and 2-2-3 in Big South play in 2023.
HCU played two exhibition matches in the preseason, a 2-2 draw at preseason No. 10-ranked SMU followed by a one-all finish against cross-town foe University of St. Thomas at Sorrels Field last Saturday night.
After the Gardner-Webb season opener and the Sunday evening tilt versus IU-Indy, the Huskies will conclude the home-opening trifecta against North American University next Thursday night.
#DawgsUp
