The University of Evansville men's soccer team makes its first appearance at McCutchan Stadium Monday in an exhibition match against the University of Cincinnati at the special time of 5:00 CDT.  It's the only home game for the Purple Aces until the Sept. 10-12 ProRehab Aces Soccer Classic.

Evansville is the favorite to win the Missouri Valley Conference, and is coming off a 1-1 tie on Friday at defending Atlantic 10 champion Saint Louis University.  Cincinnati, picked seventh in the Big East Conference red division following an 8-10-0 season in 2009, opened its exhibition season Friday with a 1-1 tie against Northern Kentucky.  The Bearcats return eight starters from last season, including their top five scorers.

Freshman Philip Manga scored Evansville's goal against the Billikens midway through the first half on assists from Tom Irvin and Aaron Henkle, five minutes after Saint Louis got on the board with a goal from Alex Sweetin.

"It was a great experience for our players to play against a side like Saint Louis and in front of a large crowd like that," said UE Coach Mike Jacobs.  "It really simulated the environment that you expect in a conference game, and for so many of our young players to gain a valuable experience like that was critical for our group as we go forward into our regular season preparations.

"Saint Louis University is a very good side that is well-coached and organized, and gave us a good barometer to evaluate our team.  We held out some key players due to minor injuries, and to play as well as we did for long stretches of the match with four freshmen in key roles was very encouraging.  There were a lot of encouraging signs for this early in the season, and a lot to build from heading into our next exhibition match versus a very good University of Cincinnati team on Monday."