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Wake Forest wrapped up an undefeated spring schedule with a 5-0 win over ACC foe Virginia this past weekend, and yesterday the fall regular season schedule was released.
The 2017 schedule features five (of the other 7) Elite Eight teams from last year’s NCAA Tournament, including home games against Providence, Virginia Tech and Clemson. The Deacs will hit the road to take on UNC and Louisville.
The season kicks off with two exhibition games @Furman, and hosting UNC-W before the regular season begins with weekend games vs. Rutgers on Friday, August 25th, and Providence on Sunday, August 27th.
The eight ACC opponents are:
Home: Pittsburgh, Clemson, Virginia Tech, and Syracuse
Away: Louisville, N.C. State, North Carolina, and Boston College
The home game against Pittsburgh will be a homecoming for Panthers head coach Jay Vidovich, who coached Wake Forest for over 20 years and led it to the only National Championship in school history in 2007. Vidovich left Wake after the 2014 season to take over the Portland Timbers 2 squad for a year before joining Pittsburgh.
Last year, second-year head coach Bobby Muuss led the Demon Deacons made it to the National Championship game, where it tied Stanford, but fell 5-4 in Penalty Kicks.
Wake finished the year 19-3-3, with a 5-1-2 ACC record, including 14-1-1 home record.
Muuss has won ACC Coach of the Year both years at the helm of Wake Forest soccer. He is one of three coaches to win that award in consecutive years (Jay Vidovich, and Bruce Arena).
The Demon Deacons have more shutouts (26) in two years than they have allowed goals (25).
Expectations will remain sky-high for the team this year, as the Deacs return midfielders Jon Bakero, and Steven Echevarria. Manning the goal will be Andreu Cases-Mundet, who took over in the NCAA Tournament after an injury to Alec Ferrell.