Elon, N.C.- The Elon Phoenix will open their regular season with a Thursday night contest against the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles at Rudd Field. Elon looks to capitalize on a strong preseason, following contests against NC State and VCU.
 
Elon has been laced with preseason honors to several players with Scott Vatne and Tomasz Wroblewski being named to the Top Drawer Soccer Top 100 players in the preseason. Victor Stromsten and Mac Msabaha also drew preseason noticed being named to the All-CAA Preseason Team and All-CAA Honorable Mention.
 
How to Follow

• Thursday's game with Florida Gulf Coast will be streamed on FloFC, and you can watch the game by CLICKING HERE.
• Live stats will be available for the matchup with the Eagles and will be available by CLICKING HERE.
• Live updates will be available on both X and Instagram during the match @ElonMSoccer.

 
The All-Time Series

• This will be the first matchup all-time between the Phoenix and the Eagles.

 
Preseason Praise

• Senior Scott Vatne and graduate Victor Stromsten were both selected to the All-CAA preseason team while junior Majaliwa Msabaha was an honorable mention. Stromsten makes his first appearance on an All-CAA preseason list following his 13-point season in 2023.
• Vatne makes his second straight appearance on the All-CAA preseason team while Msabaha is featured for a second time on the honorable mention list.
• Stromsten returns to the Phoenix for his fifth season at Elon. The forward came on strong at the end of the season up top for the Phoenix, scoring four goals in his final six conference games. Stromsten saw the Phoenix through to the CAA semifinals with a game-winning goal over the number three seeded Stony Brook Sea Wolves.
• Vatne enters his senior season having amassed a list of preseason and post-season honors over the last year. Following an All-CAA First Team and All-Atlantic Region season in 2023, Vatne returns to the midfield following a 12-point season and leading the Phoenix in assists with four.
• Msabaha makes his second honorable mention side after back-to-back All-CAA Third Team selections. The junior captain led the Phoenix last season in the midfield, making 16 starts in 17 games and picking up an assist in Elon's CAA quarterfinal win.

 
Scouting FGCU

• Florida Gulf Coast University men's soccer senior Lucas Windschauer was named to the Atlantic Sun Conference's Preseason All-Conference Team. As a team, the Eagles were slated to finish fourth.
• Windschauer is a captain and leader of the potent Eagles backline that held teams to one or fewer goals in 60 percent of matches last year. Windschauer led the team in 2023 with 1,173 minutes played, while not leaving the pitch during seven conference matches. Windschauer earned ASUN Second Team honors a season ago.
• FGCU was picked fourth by the coaches. The Green & Blue received 38 points in the preseason poll. Ahead of the Eagles is first-place Lipscomb, who received seven of eight first-place votes, Bellarmine (second) and Stetson (third) were seven and six points ahead respectively. Jacksonville received the remaining first-place vote.

Red Storming Elon

• Head Coach Marc Reeves spent over a decade at St. John's as both a player and a coach for the Red Storm and now has brought some ammunition from the transfer portal.
• Colin Veltri, Connor Mucchetti, and Charlie Kitch all join the Phoenix after playing for the Red Storm last season.
• Both Veltri and Mucchetti joined the Phoenix in the spring with Kitch joining Elon this fall.