Men’s Soccer Set to Open 2024 Season at UC Santa Barbara - Missouri State (2024)

SPRINGFIELD - Following three exhibition matches earlier this month, the Missouri State men's soccer team sets off to begin the 2024 season on the west coast for a bout under the lights against the University of California at Santa Barbara Gauchos on Thursday, Aug. 22 at 9:00 p.m. CT at Harder Stadium on ESPN+. Tickets are available here.

• Missouri State is coming off back-to-back 12-win seasons under head coach Michael Seabolt, who enters his third season at the helm of the program. MSU has won at least 12 games each season since 2019.

• The Bears have gone 5-0-1 over their last six regular season openers. MSU opened last season defeating No. 14 Maryland, 1-0, on the road to kick off the 2023 season. MoState last lost a season opener in 2017 at Air Force.

• Missouri State men's soccer holds the best DI overall record of 71-11-8 (.833), best conference record of 39-2-3 (.920) and third-best home record of 40-5-4 (.857) since the beginning of the 2019 season. The Bears were tied for the 18th-best win percentage in 2023 (.711).

• MSU has made five straight NCAA appearances, joining Kentucky, Indiana, Wake Forest, Pittsburgh, New Hampshire, Georgetown, Marshall and Clemson as the only nine DI teams in the nation to make every tournament since 2019.

• Missouri State hired former All-American midfielder Kian Yari to the coaching staff in May following a stellar five-year career with the Bears that saw three straight MVC Tournament titles (2020-22) and four straight MVC regular season titles (2019-22). Yari was a 2021 United Soccer Coaches All-American, 2021 and 2022 CSC Academic All-American and the 2021 MVC Midfielder of the Year. He ended his career third all-time in assists as a Bear with 22, including four in 2023.

• Last season, the Bears were fourth in the nation in shot accuracy with 124 of 240 shots being on goal (.517) only behind SIUE (.528), UNC Wilmington (.520) and South Florida (.518). Missouri State outshot opponents 240-124 through 19 games and was tied for 23rd in DI with a 31-14 goal differential (+17).

• Senior forward Jesus Barea returns for a fifth season following a 2023 campaign with career highs in goal (6), points (16), shots on goal (29), game-winning goals (3) and minutes played (1,454). Barea scored the opening goal against UCSB in 2022 in the 34th minute. He is tied for 10th in school history in career points (53) and fifth in career shots (180).

• Senior goalkeeper Harry Townsend also returns for a fifth season at net for the Bears. The All-West Region player has 21 clean sheets since the 2022 season, tied with Denver's Issac Nehme for the most shutouts in that span. Townsend's 23 career shutouts are tied for fourth in program history and is four shy of Michael Creek's record of 27 shutouts.

• Since 2019, Missouri State is 51-0-0 when scoring two or more goals. The last time the Bears scored two goals and did not win was Nov. 9, 2018, in the MVC semifinals vs. Central Arkansas when Missouri State lost in penalty kicks.

• Missouri State played a clean brand of soccer in 2023. The Bears were sixth in the nation in fewest fouls per game (8.89), only behind Boston College (8.12), fellow MVC opponent Belmont (8.56), Jacksonville, Pittsburgh and St. Bonaventure (8.71).

• The Missouri State Bears and UC Santa Barbara Gauchos will play in their third all-time meeting. This is the first time that UCSB has ever hosted Missouri State with the first match being at a neutral site and the second one in Springfield.

• The Gauchos lead the all-time series 1-0-1. UCSB won the first matchup, 4-1, in a tournament hosted by Saint Louis University on 9/15/2002. The teams met again for their season opener in 2022 at Betty & Bobby Allison South Stadium and battled to a 1-1 draw. Missouri State was ranked No. 19 in the nation at the time.

• In 2022, Jesus Barea scored the opening goal in the 34th minute for his 10th career goal as a Bear. UCSB's Salvador Aguilar scored his seventh career goal to tie it up in the 75th minute. MSU's James Jennings and UCSB's Nemo Phillipp each received yellow cards within one minute of each other. All four players remain on their respective rosters in 2024.

• The UC Santa Barbara Gauchos take on the Missouri State Bears for their home opener for the second time in three years. The Gauchos went 10-8-2 last season with a 4-3-2 record in the Big West Conference.

• UCSB finished third in the Big West to earn the No. 3 seed in last year's Big West Tournament. The Gauchos lost to eventual conference champion UC Irvine, 2-1, in the conference semifinals.

• The Gauchos committed the sixth most fouls in 2023 with 302, only behind LMU (305), Clemson (307), Stanford (309), Vermont (316) and IU Indy (324). UCSB also committed the third-most fouls per game (15.10). Only Stanford (15.45) and IU Indy (17.05), averaged more fouls per game.

• Last season, Lucas Gonzales and Nemo Phillipp led the Gauchos with five goals apiece. Phillipp returns to the team in 2024 after finishing 10th in the Big West in shots per game (1.93), 10th in goals per game (.333), 14th in shots on goal per game (0.93), 13th in assists per game (.267), tied for fourth in game-winning goals (2) and eighth in points (14).

• UCSB's regular goalkeeper last season, Leroy Zeller, had 20 career shutouts in three seasons with the team. He started 19 of 20 games in 2023. Senior keeper David Mitzner made one start last season against Kansas City on 9/16/23. He made three saves on 16 shots faced in a 3-2 win.

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