The University of Evansville men's soccer team begins the season with a pair of West Coast challenges, playing the University of Washington Huskies on Friday at 6:30 CDT and the host University of Portland Pilots on Sunday at 4:30 in the Nike Portland Invitational.

Live stats of the Washington match and live video of the Portland match are available at http://client.stretchinternet.com/client/up.portal#

The Purple Aces have produced four consecutive winning seasons in coach Mike Jacobs' four years as head coach, the longest such streak since 1989-92.  They came away from a trio of exhibition matches with a 1-0-2 record, tying Saint Louis 1-1, beating Cincinnati 2-1 and tying Michigan 1-1.  Evansville has nine starters returning from last season's 12-8-1 team, and is the favorite to win the Missouri Valley Conference.  Seniors Mike Luttrull, Robby Lynch and Tom Irvin were chosen for the Pre-Season All-MVC Men's Soccer Team.

Washington was just 5-7-6 last season, but the Huskies from the Pac 10 played nine teams that were ranked among the nation's top 25.  Washington beat number five California 2-0 and number 25 San Diego State 2-0.  Portland is ranked 22nd nationally in the Soccer America pre-season poll after reaching the third round of the NCAA Tournament last November.  The Pilots have seven starters back from their 12-6-5 team.

This is Evansville's third trip to Portland, but the first since the Aces played the same two teams--Washington and Portland--in the 1999 Nike Invitational. They are 1-4 all-time against Portland and 0-2 against Washington.