Men’s Soccer Begins With Memphis at Rose Park Thursday Night

 
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Kicking off its 2026 campaign, the Belmont University men's soccer team hosts in-state adversary Memphis on opening night Thursday at E.S. Rose Park in Nashville. Match time is set for 7:30 p.m. as the second contest of a doubleheader with Belmont women's soccer taking on Chattanooga at 5 p.m.
 
The regular season opener will be broadcast on ESPN+ with Carter Gledhill on the call. Live stats of the match can be followed by visiting BelmontBruins.com.
 
Admission at Rose Park is always free and cooling towels will be given away to fans in attendance while supplies last.
 
What's Bruin

• The Bruins take on the Tigers in the regular season for the fourth-straight year.
• Belmont welcomed 10 newcomers this year, including eight over the summer and two in January – senior forward Nathan Ferguson and freshman defender Judah McCloud.
• The Bruins' 2026 class is comprised of six freshmen and four transfers.
• Belmont returns 16 from 2025, including 12 letter winners.
• Only four returning Bruins started matches last season – sophomore midfielders Paul Claes Nielsen (16) and Nzuhri Biggar (10), graduate midfielder Ethan Schlegel (9) and senior forward Lucas Wolthers (6). Four other returners also have starting experience from the 2024 season – junior midfielder Caleb Robertson (5), senior defender AJ Elliott (3), fifth-year defender Nate Mefford (3) and senior defender Dru Stanton (1).
• After finishing just one point shy of claiming its first Missouri Valley Conference regular season title last year, Belmont was picked fifth in the league's preseason poll as voted by the Valley's head coaches.
• The Bruins went 3-2-2 in MVC play in 2025 and finished 8-3-6 overall.
• Finishing fourth in the final conference standings last fall, Belmont hosted an MVC Championship match for the first time in program history. The fourth-seeded Bruins hosted fifth-seeded the University of Illinois Chicago at Rose Park for the opening round of the postseason tournament.
• Belmont has reached eight victories in three of the last five seasons.
• The Bruins went undefeated through their first 11 matches last season (6-0-5) for the first time in school history.
• Belmont put together a program-record 13-match unbeaten streak from Oct. 29, 2024, through Oct. 7, 2025.
• Once again, the Bruins had one of the best defenses in the nation in 2025. Conceding just 13 goals the entire season, the fifth fewest in the country, Belmont posted the 18th-best goals against average (0.765) nationally. Allowing multiple goals only twice during the year, the Bruins recorded six road shutouts.
• Claes Nielsen, an MVC All-Freshman Team selection last fall, was named to the Preseason All-MVC Team. The Copenhagen, Denmark, native started all but one match his freshman season and led Belmont in assists (5).
• Eighth-year head coach David Costa is 4-1-2 in season openers, and the Bruins have gotten a result in each of their last four season openers (3-0-1). Belmont opened its 2025 campaign with a 2-1 home win over Wright State.
• The Bruins have won five consecutive home openers, going 5-0-1 since the unique 2020 season, which was played in the spring of 2021.

Bruins at Home

• Belmont has earned a result in 38 of its last 47 matches at Rose Park, outscoring its opponents 67-35 during that stretch.
• Since the start of the 2018 season, the Bruins are 32-15-13 at home.
• Belmont has finished .500 or better at home for eight-straight seasons.

Versus Memphis

• Thursday night will be the 22nd all-time meeting between the Bruins and Memphis.
• The Tigers hold an 18-2-1 lead in the series.
• Last August, Belmont defeated Memphis 2-0 on the road. It was the Bruins' first-ever win at Memphis. In his collegiate debut, then freshman forward Jaxon Stokes scored in the 35th minute for Belmont's second goal of the first half.
• In their last visit to Rose Park on Oct. 1, 2024, the Tigers claimed a single-goal win behind a 39th-minute score.
• The Bruins' last home result against Memphis came on opening night in 2017, a scoreless draw following double overtime at Rose Park.
• Belmont's lone win over the Tigers in the Music City was on Sept. 21, 1997, a 2-1 victory.

About the Tigers

• Memphis was picked eighth out of nine teams in the American Conference Preseason Coaches' Poll.
• Both sophomore forward Miller Lashlee and redshirt senior forward Eben McIntyre were named to the American Preseason All-Conference Team.
• The Tigers went 4-8-3 overall last year and finished eighth in the American with a 3-5-0 conference record.
• Memphis is only three years removed from back-to-back NCAA Championship appearances, including reaching the second round of the national tournament in 2023.

Up Next
The Bruins travel to Wright State Sunday. Kickoff from Alumni Field at Rinzler Student Sports Complex in Dayton, Ohio, is slated for 5 p.m. CT/6 p.m. ET.
 
How to Follow
Follow Belmont men's soccer on social media – @BelmontMSoccer on X, formerly Twitter, @belmontmsoccer on Instagram and Belmont University Men's Soccer on Facebook – for complete coverage of the Bruins. Stay up to date with all of Belmont's athletic programs via the official app of the Belmont Bruins, available both in the Apple App Store and on Google Play.