Pirates Head West to Face No. 10 Oregon State on Friday - Seton Hall University Athletics
South Orange, N.J. – The Seton Hall men's soccer team begins a two-match west coast swing on Friday night as they take on No. 10 Oregon State. Kickoff is s...
South Orange, N.J. – The Seton Hall men's soccer team begins a two-match west coast swing on Friday night as they take on No. 10 Oregon State. Kickoff is set for 10:30 p.m.
LAST TIME OUT
The Pirates played Temple to a 1-1 draw in their first road contest of the season. The Owls struck first with a goal in the 53rd minute, but Quenzi Huerman (Vannes, France) scored his first Pirate goal just three minutes later to equalize. Seton Hall held the advantage in shots, 13-5, with 10 of those 13 shots coming in the second half. Physicality was a factor in the match as well, as the two teams combined for 40 fouls.
BE THE BEST, BEAT THE BEST
The Pirates face a tough slate of six non-conference matches to begin the 2022 season, four of which will be away from home. Of those six non-league foes, five of them finished last season with a winning record. This year, the Pirates will take on five teams who finished inside the top-25 in RPI last season (Oregon State: 2, Georgetown: 4, Providence: 14, Creighton: 17, Villanova: 23). The Pirates will also face seven teams that reached the NCAA Tournament in 2021, all of which won at least one match.
The Hall will be facing some of the top teams in the country this season. Along with preseason No. 5 Oregon State, the Pirates also have preseason No. 2 Georgetown on their conference slate. This marks the first time since 2010 that Seton Hall will face two preseason top-five teams in the United Soccer Coaches rankings in the same season.
SCOUTING OREGON STATE (14-2-4, 7-1-2 PAC 12 IN 2021)
- Oregon State has started this season at 1-0-1, beating UC Davis in last Thursday's opener before playing Utah Valley to a 0-0 draw on Monday. This will be the Beavers' third straight home match.
- The Beavers were the top overall seed in last year's NCAA Tournament, reaching the program's first ever Elite 8 before falling to eventual-champion Clemson in penalty kicks.
- Oregon State was named the preseason co-favorite in the Pac-12 alongside Washington. The Beavers won their first ever Pac-12 title last season.
- Oregon State enters the match ranked No. 10 in the United Soccer Coaches Rankings, and have been ranked inside the top-10 in each of the last six polls dating back to last season.
- This will be the first all-time meeting between Seton Hall and Oregon State.
- This will be the Pirates' first trip to the west coast since the 2000 season, when they played Stanford and Cal at the Stanford Invitational.
- The Pirates are searching for their first win over a top-10 team in the United Soccer Coaches Poll since beating No. 2 Georgetown to win the BIG EAST title on Apr. 17, 2021.
- This marks the first time since the 2009-11 seasons that the Pirates have played top-10 non-conference opponents in consecutive seasons. Seton Hall played then-No. 10 Virginia Tech to a 3-3 draw on Sep. 6, 2021.
- The Pirates are aiming to start the year 2-0-1 for the third straight season.
- Andreas Lindberg sits just three wins away from 200 for his career.
- Liam Guske (St. John's, Fla.) is the first Pirate freshman to play all 90 minutes in each of his first two collegiate matches since Eden O'Leary in 2019.
- Luca Dahn (Kahl, Germany) has played wire-to-wire in each of his last nine matches dating back to last season, and has also done so in 35 of his 37 career matches.
- Three Pirates return to the pitch in 2022 as graduate students, as All-BIG EAST Third Team honoree Luca Dahn joins JP Marin (Briarwood, N.Y.) and Paavo Riihijarvi (Oulu, Finland). The trio combined for seven goals and 18 points during the 2021 season.
- Fellow All-BIG EAST Third Teamer Johannes Pex (Stephansposching, Germany) enters his senior season, fresh off a campaign where he led the Pirates offensively with five goals, five assists and 15 points.
- Fourteen different Pirates found the back of the next last season. Of that group, nine of them return for the 2022 season.
- This season's roster boasts 12 freshmen, the most since the 2018 team which featured the same number.
- The Pirates also welcome in a pair of transfers: junior Quenzi Huerman (Vannes, France) from Palm Beach Atlantic, and sophomore Tyler Hutchinson (Cliffside Park, N.J.) from Clemson
The match will be available to watch live on OSUBeavers.com. A link to the live stream can be found here.
