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The University of Dayton men's soccer team will open the 2014 season on the road at Loyola Chicago this Saturday with a start time of 8 p.m. ET. The Flyers (0-0-0) are ready to get the season underway after one of the most successful campaigns in school history in 2013 in which Dayton went 14-2-3.

"We have many new student-athletes this year so there is always small growth each day," said Head COach Dennis Currier. "We still have many areas needed for improvement though and we are working through those.  The team is fit and motivated to begin the season.The heart and soul of the team is our junior class.  We return Chris Froschauer, Amass Amankona, Brian Bates, Rafael Gamboa, Maik Schoonderwoerd and Andrew Lightner who will be the spear of our leadership. If we want to have a chance at an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, the start of the season is critical.  It is where you can gain momentum and really establish your team identity.  However, it is also important to understand that each week is a new opportunity to turn the season around if it is not going as planned."

Head Coach Dennis Currier is in his 10th year at the helm of the Flyers and looks to match last year's perfect 10-0 non-conference mark to start the season. The Flyers have a young team after losing eight seniors from last year's squad, but return a couple of starters including top goal scorer Greg Enstone (10 goals, 2 assists), midfield maestro and All-Rookie performer Amass Amankona (5 goals, 5 assists), and junior goalkeeper Greg Froschauer, who begins his third year between the posts.

The Ramblers (0-0-0) are led by Head Coach Neil Jones, who is just one year into hist stint at Loyola Chicago. Last season, Jones' team went 6-11-2 and 3-2-2 at home. The Ramblers will rely on seven returning starters, including leading scorer Brian Bement and goalkeeper Tim Dobrowolski.

THE SERIES
The Flyers are 5-1-0 in their six all-time meetings with Loyola Chicago. Dayton was victorious in last year's contest 4-1, thanks to a pair of goals by Amankona and another by Enstone. Bement broke up the shutout for the Ramblers.

SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS
LOYOLA CHICAGO
Loyola Chicago has had a mixed preseason with exhibition losses to Michigan (2-1) and Western Illinois (1-0), but managed to come out on top of Chicago 1-0 at home. Dayton will be the Ramblers first regular season contest and the home opener for LUC.

In 2013, Loyola Chicago averaged 0.95 goals per game while allowing 1.79 per game to opponents. After 19 games last year, the Ramblers racked-up 18 total goals, eight of which came from Bement and one each from Ryan Howe and Jake Savino. Goalkeeper Tim Dobrowolski recorded 1570 minutes 1.72 goals-against average, and 63 saves in goal for Loyola Chicago. Zac Brown is the only other goalie with experience on the Ramblers, totaling 187 minutes and nine saves in three appearances.

The Ramblers have six returning starters in the field, their returning starting goalkeeper, and 12 newcomers to bring into the fold. They have five seniors and seven juniors, making up the upperclassmen for LUC.

FLYER SUCCESS
The Dayton men's program has an overall record of 451-385-71 and three NCAA tournament appearances in its history. The Flyers are also 112-77-19 in the Atlantic 10 Conference and have six conference titles between the regular season and league tournament.

DAYTON PICKED 4TH IN A-10
The Atlantic 10 Conference released their preseason poll and tabbed the Flyers to finish fourth in the league behind  2013 regular season champions Saint Louis, 2013 tournament champions George Mason, and NCAA Tournament participant VCU. Dayton was picked ahead of A-10 newcomers Davidson, Duquesne, and La Salle, who eliminated the Flyers from the A-10 tournament last season.

A-10 PRESEASON HONORS
Before the 2014 season, Amankona was named the Atlantic 10 All-Conference Preseason team while freshmen Dillon Nino and Lance Gaspar were named to the All-Rookie Preseason team.

PRESEASON CSM AWARDS
College Sports Madness also released their preseason All-A-10 teams and recognized a couple of Flyers ahead of 2014. Freshman Nick Hagenkord was picked as the Freshman of the Year, coming off his Kansas Gatorade Player of the Year finalist honor. Enstone was named First Team All-Conference and Froschauer was named Second Team All-Conference as well.

INTERNATIONAL FLAIR
The Dayton program has been known to recruit well outside of the U.S. and this year's team is no different. The Flyers have two student athletes from England, three from Ghana, one from Costa Rica, one from Jamaica, one from Canada, and one from the Netherlands, totaling nine international players. This is coming off the 2013 season in which the Flyers had 11 players from overseas.

FANTASTIC FRESHMEN
Dayton's squad is young as far as age is concerned  with 15 freshmen making up the team. The Flyers do have faith in this class though as it is made up of an NSCAA All-American, eight US Soccer Academy participants, and a U16 USSDA National Champion. Two other players are also four-star rated recruits. The Dayton coaching staff will not be shy in letting these freshmen get on the field.

LARA RECOGNIZED AS TOP ASSISTANT
Dayton Assistant Coach Kiki Lara was honored last season as the Mid-Atlantic Region Assistant Coach of the Year. Lara is in his sixth year with the program and joined the Flyers after playing for Coach Currier at Incarnate Word.

CURRIER'S IMPACT
The head coach of the Flyers has had success at every place he has coached. Dennis Currier is in his 10th year at Dayton and holds a career record of 281-104-36 in 21 seasons and a 93-55-24 record with the Flyers. His career winning percentage of .710 ranks fifth in the nation amongst active coaches, ahead of programs like Maryland, Stanford, UCLA, and Virginia.

UP NEXT
The Flyers will return to Dayton for the home opener on Sept. 5 as UD hosts the Dayton Flyer Classic. The weekend begins with a neutral contest between Northern Kentucky and Detroit at 5 p.m. The Flyers will follow that game with a match-up against High Point at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, the teams switch opponents as NKU and High Point square off at 11 a.m. Dayton finishes up the tournament with Detroit at 2 p.m. at Baujan Field.