HARROGATE, Tenn. — Lincoln Memorial University men’s soccer coach Robert Spain will begin his first season at the helm when the Railsplitters kick off the 2019 season with a pair of out of conference road contests Sept. 6 and 10.

LMU will open its season Sept. 6 with a trip to University of North Georgia. The Railsplitters will continue on the road with at contest against Lee University on Sept. 10.

The home opener is slated for Sept. 14 when Young Harris College visits the LMU Soccer Complex.

Prior to the openers, LMU will play three preseason games starting Aug. 18 at Division I Appalachian State, Aug. 27 versus Division II power University of Charleston in Huntington, W.V. and home against King University Aug. 31.

Lincoln Memorial will play 16 games in 2019, with six coming against out of conference opponents and 10 against South Atlantic Conference foes. The conference opener for LMU will come against rival Carson-Newman on Sept. 18 in Jefferson City.

“I’m happy with the way all of the pieces of the puzzle worked out regarding putting this schedule together,” commented Spain. “We had a small window of time to reach out to other coaches to get this schedule finalized, and I appreciate all of the other program’s flexibility in working with us.”

LMU will open the home portion of its SAC schedule Sept. 21 when it hosts Queens and will follow-up with a non-conference tilt against Shaw University Sept. 24.

After a quick trip to Wingate Sept. 28, LMU will return to Harrogate for two home games against Alabama-Huntsville Oct. 2 and Lenoir-Rhyne Oct. 5.

The schedule then takes LMU to Salem University in West Virginia on Oct. 8, followed by a home date with Catawba Oct. 12.

It will be all SAC play from that point on with back-to-back road dates at Tusculum (Oct. 16) and Anderson (Oct. 19). Newberry comes to Harrogate for an Oct. 26 match. LMU closes out the regular season at Coker Nov. 2 and home against Mars Hill Nov. 6.

SAC Tournament dates are Nov. 9 (Quarterfinals), Nov. 14 (Semifinals) and Nov. 16 (Championship).

“One of the things that we want to make very clear to our current players and to our recruits is that we won’t hide from challenges…we want to go out and be pushed to be better so we try to seek out those opportunities to play the best teams,” said Spain. “That’s the only way to become a better version of yourself and I believe this schedule does that. In preseason, after only two days to prepare, we are going away to play at App State, who have quickly developed into a D1 program capable of beating anyone in the country.

“Then we turn around and go on the road again to play arguably the best DII program in the country over the past five years in Charleston. Our final preseason game is at home against King, before we have three of four road games to start the regular season,” he continued. “Our only home game during that stretch is Young Harris, who was in the Sweet 16 last year and is expected to be one of the top teams in the Super Region every year. So, needless to say, our first month will provide us the opportunity to play one of the most challenging schedules in the country and we wouldn’t want it any other way.”