Men's XU soccer kicks off '11 season

To kick off the men's soccer regular season, Xavier will take on the Marshall Thundering Herd at 7 p.m. on Thursday at the Xavier Soccer Complex. The Musketeers played at Marshall University for their home opener last season and tied the Thundering Herd 0-0. Assistant coach Kris Bertsch has high hopes for Thursday's game. "We expect them to be high tempo. We expect them to be energized and ready to go. It's our home opener, so we hope that will exceed their energy," Bertsch said. The men's soccer team is hoping for a strong turnout for this season opener. "Any first game has a lot of nerves. All the great work we've done prior to that doesn't mean anything. This is where results happen," Bertsch said.

There will also be a beer garden featuring $2 beers offered at the game for those in attendance who are of age. The soccer team has plans of offering this at other major home games as well.

The Xooligans plan to be in full attendance at the game. After hosting a rally on the quad on Tuesday, they expect a large crowd. "Our guys are excited. They're ready to get going and play a match that officially matters and counts towards the standings," Bertsch said. "They've been working hard leading up to this." Marshall finished last season with a record of 9-5-4. Bertsch states that despite their record, Marshall was a good team with strong players. This season, Marshall lost both of their exhibition  games, losing 2-1 to Virginia Military Institute and 5-1 to Pittsburgh. The Thundering Herd opened their season against Wright State and fell to the Raiders 1-0, leaving them with a current record of 0-1.

Xavier enters their season opener after finishing 2-0-1 in the pre-season. The Musketeers took Seasontheir game against Ohio Wesleyan last week as an opportunity to give all of their players time to work on their game and prepare for this week's season opener.