Clemson and Alabama-Birmingham Will Play Saturday Night in Exhibition Action

Aug. 20, 2010

CLEMSON, SC – The Clemson Men’s Soccer team will play host to Alabama-Birmingham in an exhibition match on Saturday night at 7:00 p.m. at Historic Riggs Field.

The Tigers, under new Head Coach Mike Noonan, will be playing their first exhibition match of the season. The Tigers will travel to USC Upstate on Tuesday for the second and final exhibition match of the season.

“We look forward to our first competition,” said Clemson Head Coach Mike Noonan. “Our players are anxious to play another team instead of scrimmaging among themselves. We are hoping to learn a great deal from this exhibition match. We will play different people in different places and use different systems. We have a lot of internal competition for starting roles and this is a great time to see what we can do in a competitive situation.”

Noonan, who has been at Brown for the past 15 seasons, has 10 returning letterwinners in preseason practice, five of those players were starters for the Tigers in 2009.

Forward Austin Savage returns for his sophomore year after scoring six goals and recording three assists for 15 points in 2009. Senior midfielder Tommy Drake is back. The Chapel Hill, NC native had three goals and three assists for nine points last year.

Clemson will open the 2010 season on Friday, September 3 at South Carolina in Columbia.