Pirates Open IU Classic Against Ohio State on Friday

Bloomington, Ind. – The Pirates hit the road for the first time this season on Friday evening, traveling to Bloomington, Ind. to take part in the IU Classic. The Hall will play a pair of matches over Labor Day weekend in the Hoosier State, beginning with a showdown with Ohio State on Friday at 5 p.m.

LAST TIME OUT
The Pirates used a pair of early goals to pull ahead of Air Force in an eventual 3-0 victory. Tim Ströbeck (Hasselholm, Sweden) put the Pirates on the board in the 9^th minute, followed by a penalty kick goal from Andrea Borg (Sliema, Malta) just 92 seconds later. James Boote (Southampton, England) would add his second goal in as many matches later on in the 65^th minute to help ice the victory.

NEWS & NOTES

This will be the first ever meeting between Seton Hall and Ohio State.
The Pirates have opened the season with back-to-back shutouts for the first time since 2005. Coincidentally, the second of those two shutouts during the '05 campaign also came against Air Force.
Boote has scored goals in back-to-back matches after entering the season with just one goal scored in his previous 65 career games.
Seton Hall has started 2-0 for the first time since 2018 and just the second time since 2008.
With Thursday's win over Rider, the Pirates improve to 5-0-3 in season openers dating back to 2016.
A win would give the Pirates their first 2-0 start to a season since 2018 and just their second since 2008.
Mats Roorda (Groningen, Netherlands) was named BIG EAST Goalkeeper of the Week for his efforts in posting a pair of shutouts last week. Boote was named to the BIG EAST Weekly Honor Roll after his five-point week.
The Pirates face another challenging slate of matches in 2023, highlighted by five teams who made the NCAA Tournament last season. Included in those are matchups with Indiana and Creighton, both of whom made it all the way to the College Cup last fall.
The Hall welcome 12 new faces to the program, including several potential impact transfers: Rikard Cederberg (Bellarmine), Mats Roorda (Binghamton), Jared Smith (Quinnipiac) and Tim Strobeck (Clemson).
Three Pirates are capitalizing on their extra year of eligibility to return to Seton Hall as graduate students in 2023. James Boote, Andrea Borg and Hugo Keller will all suit back up for The Hall this season. All told, 19 players from last year's squad are back for the Pirates in 2023.
Starting this season, the Pirates will be vying to finish inside the top-eight in the BIG EAST standings. With the addition of Akron to the league as a men's soccer affiliate member, the now-12 team conference has been split into an East Division and Midwest Division. Each division winner will qualify for the BIG EAST Championship, with the next six best teams based on conference points solidifying the remaining berths.
Seton Hall was picked to finish fourth in the East Division. The Pirates received 36 points in the poll and sit behind third-place St. John's (40 points), second-place Providence (56 points) and first-place Georgetown (66 points).
The Pirates finished last season in second place in the BIG EAST standings after amassing 17 points during conference play. The second place finish in the program's best since winning the regular season title back in 1991, while the 17 points in league action were the program's most since 2006.