April 10, 2013

COLUMBIA, S.C. – The South Carolina men’s soccer team concludes a successful spring season when it travels to the Manchester Cup this weekend. The event will be held at the Manchester Meadows Soccer Complex in Rock Hill S.C. The Gamecocks will face Davidson at Noon, before a contest vs. UNC Wilmington at 6 p.m. ET.

South Carolina has enjoyed a successful spring season to date, despite several injuries. The Gamecocks have earned victories over Mercer, Furman and Georgia Southern this spring, while posting a 0-0 draw vs. future Conference USA opponent Charlotte.

“We have put together a very successful spring, in spite of the fact that we have had a number of injuries,” South Carolina head coach Mark Berson said. “Defenders Dan Traxler and Trent Rieflin have both had surgery, midfielder Mahamoudou Kaba is coming back from a broken foot, goalkeeper Robert Beebe has been limited with a bad ankle, and defender Connor Steele is just now beginning to train with the team. These injuries have forced several players to put in shifts at different positions and that can be a good growth experience for them.

“The spring season is extremely important in the overall development of our players individually and collectively as a team,” Berson continued. “In this period we are able to spend more time working on individual improvement. We also have a chance to review and reinforce our system of play here at South Carolina, giving the younger players a chance to show if they can accept more responsibility in the team in the coming season. There is very little time to teach everything we want to cover in the fall pre-season. The matches are upon us quickly and from there we battle through the schedule. We find that our players make tremendous progress during the spring season, especially in their freshman year. We simply have more time to teach, evaluate film and put the individual and team pieces together.”