Atlanta Soccer News: Art, Music and Culture: Atlanta Fire U18 Elite play Lady Cav's

LOCAL COLLEGE NOTEBOOK: Lady Cavs soccer set to scrimmage top club team in Ga. tonight; men’s soccer starts season No. 6 in nation

ALBANY — With just a handful of practices under its belt, the Darton women’s soccer team will host one of the top amateur clubs in the state tonight.

The Atlanta Fire, a U18 Elite Club, will play the Lady Cavaliers at 8:30 p.m. in an exhibition game, and Darton coach Ken Veilands said the matchup is beneficial to his program for more than one reason.

“It’s really just trying to throw our kids out there to start to get a feel for playing under a little bit of pressure. You are always going to get a little more out of them in a game session than in a training session,” Veilands said.

Veilands then added: “Plus, there are a lot of kids (on the Fire) that I would like to recruit. It’s great to be able to bring them down to our campus.”

The Lady Cavs finished last season 15-3-1, losing in the finals of the NJCAA Region XVII Tournament to Georgia Perimeter College. This year’s Darton squad, which just started practice Monday, is stocked full of returning players and loaded with experience.

“This is probably the soonest we have gone into a game situation,” Veilands said. “I have a lot of returning players, plus several transfer players, so we are a little more mature to begin with. I feel good about it. I think we will adapt very well.”

Darton travels to Valdosta State on Tuesday for another exhibition and then to Thomasville on Aug. 20 for a jamboree. The Lady Cavs officially open their season Aug. 28 at home against Oxford College.

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DC MEN’S SOCCER OPENS SEASON RANKED 6TH:

The Darton men’s soccer team will begin the 2011 soccer season with a Top 10 ranking and targets on their backs head coach Bart Sasnett said Thursday.

The Cavs were recently ranked sixth in the National Junior College Athletics Association preseason coaches’ poll.

“It’s exciting for the program and the school,” Sasnett said of the ranking, which is the highest preseason mark in the program’s history. “But from a game aspect, it’s just putting an X on your back early.

“So everybody is gunning for you early.”

Several young players will be thrown into the fire early this season, as eight starters are gone from last year’s team that placed sixth in the 2010 NJCAA nationals in Tyler, Texas.

Players gone from last season’s squad include First-Team All Americans Mynor Perez and Matias Aristegui. Perez, a forward, had 30 goals last season to become the nation’s second-leading goal-scorer. Aristegui, meanwhile, played a critical role for the team as sweeper.

Sasnett’s three returning starters are all midfielders: Javier Anor, of Caracas, Venezuela; Guilherme Frota, of Sao Paulo, Brazil; and Diego Ramos, of Deerfield Beach, Fla.

However, Sasnett said that each roster spot is still up for grabs.

The Cavs will open the season against ninth-ranked San Jacinto Community College on Aug. 26 in Pensacola. The team will then travel to Douglas the following day to face Region XVII rival South Georgia College.

And Sasnett knows that despite the coaches’ poll, there is a long season ahead.

“It’s a nice gesture,” he said. “But it’s where you wind up at the end of the season (that counts).”