CHAPEL HILL—Less than four months since making a thrilling run to the NCAA College Cup semifinals that included wins over the No. 4 and No. 5 overall seeds in the field, the University of North Carolina men's soccer team is back and looking to post another strong season in 2021.
 
The Tar Heels return nine of 11 starters and 28 players from last year's squad that went 9-5-4 over the extended Fall and Spring season, including 7-2-3 in regular season Atlantic Coast Conference play. UNC will begin the season ranked No. 4 nationally in the United Soccer Coaches preseason poll.

It's a veteran group for 11th-year head coach Carlos Somoano, one featuring six graduate students and three fifth-year seniors.
 
Somoano and his staff also welcome 13 newcomers to the team, including three graduate transfers and 10 freshmen.
 
The new faces include:
• No. 38 Mark Winhoffer, a graduate transfer midfielder
• No. 39 Gerit Wintermeyer, a graduate transfer forward from Bradley University originally from Wiesbaden, Germany
• No. 41 Chris Sullivan, a graduate transfer midfielder from Bowling Green State University who hails from Naperville, Ill.
 
The 10 freshmen are:
• No. 0 Quinn Closson, a goalkeeper from Fairfield, Conn.
• No. 6 Andres Cardenas, a midfielder/forward
• No. 10 Tega Ikoba, a forward from Madison, Ala.
• No. 18 Matthew Senanou, a defender from Naperville, Ill.
• No. 23 Ken Bellini, a midfielder/forward from Lehi, Utah
• No 26 Matt Edwards, a defender from Apex, N.C.
• No. 27 Andrew Czech, a midfielder/defender from Elmhurst, Ill.
• No. 31 Luc Granitur, a forward from Vero Beach, Fla.
• No. 36 Gui Vivaldini, a midfielder/defender from Itupeva, Brazil
• No. 42 Daniel Kutsch, a forward from Birmingham, Ala.
 
 
After completing the unusual, split season with minimal non-conference games between the Fall of 2020 and the Spring of 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Tar Heels will return to a more typical slate of opponents this Fall. 
 
The season will begin at home in Chapel Hill on the last weekend of August with a game on Thursday Aug. 26 against Bucknell and Sunday August 29 against Virginia Commonwealth. The next weekend, which is Labor Day weekend, Carolina will host Georgia Southern on Friday Sept. 3 and visit in-state foe Davidson on Monday Sept. 6.
 
ACC play will begin on Friday Sept 10 at Pittsburgh, followed by a non-conference tilt against Campbell on Tuesday Sept. 14. UNC's ACC home opener will come on Sunday Sept. 19 against Duke. Other home ACC games on the 2021 slate include NC State (Sunday Oct. 3), Wake Forest (Friday Oct. 8) and Notre Dame (Friday Oct. 29 for Senior Night on ESPNU).  Non-conference home games in the latter half of the season include an Oct. 12 date against Wofford and a Tuesday night matchup with Loyola Marymount on Oct. 19.
 
Road games after the start of ACC play in September include at Virginia (Sept. 25), UNCW (Sept. 29), Louisville (Oct. 15) and Virginia Tech (Oct. 24).
 
The 2021 ACC Tournament will include games on campus sites to be determined for the first round, quarterfinal and semifinal. The ACC championship match will be on Sunday Nov. 14 in Cary, N.C.
 
On Sunday night, Carolina hosted defending NCAA champion Marshall, which edged UNC, 1-0, in the 2020 NCAA semifinals, in a scrimmage at Dorrance Field. The two teams clawed to a 1-1 tie in the exhibition as Ernest Bawa scored for UNC.
 
The Tar Heels will return to action in a scrimmage on Friday night Aug. 20 at Liberty.