SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS—The University of the Incarnate Word men's soccer team begins the 2016 regular season with a pair of games. They host Oral Roberts Friday at 7:30 p.m. at Benson Stadium and then travel to Dallas to play SMU on Monday at 7:00 p.m.

The Cardinals played a pair of preseason games and won both games 2-1 against San Jacinto College and UTRGV last week. They are looking to improve an overall record of 8-8 and 4-6 in the Western Athletic Conference. They were picked to finish ninth in the WAC preseason polls, but they are aiming to finish at the top of the standings.

UIW has an athletic core of players that will lead the team in 2016. Ben Conway (Wigan, Eng/Hawkley Hall HS) and O'Neal Moore (Houston/Alief Taylor HS) were both two of the top scorers for UIW in 2015 with seven and five goals respectively. The team brought in 15 new players, including five transfer student athletes who will contribute to the team right away.
 
Oral Roberts won both of their preseason games and will open the regular season with Friday night's game against UIW. Last year, the Golden Eagles finished the season 7-7-4 and 3-2-1 in the Summit League. This year, the conference coaches picked them to finish in third in the preseason poll. One of their top players in 2016 will be Matthew Rogers, who was a first team All-Conference selection in 2015 after scoring seven goals and collecting three assists.
 
SMU starts the season Friday night when they host Michigan State before hosting the Cardinals Monday night. The Mustangs finished 2015 with an impressive overall record of 15-3-4 and 7-0-1 in the American Athletic Conference. They went on to win the conference championship and were picked to repeat as champs in 2016. Four Mustangs were named to the TopDrawerSoccer top 100 list in 2016: Forwards Mauro Cichero (11) and Nazeem Bartman (18), defender Jordan Cano (87) and goalie Michael Nelson (55) are all on the list.
 
You can follow the live stats on uiwcardinals.com and for all your news and updates you can follow the team on twitter @UIWMenssoccer.