(The 2021 Vulcan men's soccer coaches, from L to R: Roy Stanley, Jordan Zand, head coach Paul Regrutto, Terry Yamane, and James Yamane).

27 men's soccer matches have been played thus far by Pacific West Conference teams in the 2021 season, but none of them have featured UH Hilo.

The Vulcans are the last of the conference teams to hit the field, and they will be chomping at the bit to do so when they hit the road for matches this Thursday (Chaminade) and Saturday (Hawaii Pacific). 

Both matches against conference rivals will serve as the program's annual non-conference games against the Silverswords and Sharks. UHH will host another pair of non-conference clashes the following week against Seattle Pacific (Sept. 22) and Western Washington (Sept. 26).

No fans will be allowed at the Oahu matches or the September matches at home.

The late start is more a function of how the non-conference scheduling worked out this year for head coach Paul Regrutto. While UHH counterpart Gene Okamura and the women's team played a couple of matches in northern California last week, Regrutto scheduled two of the top programs in the Northwest to visit next week, closer to the end of the preseason.

On Sept. 29, both the Vulcan men's and women's teams will open Pacific West Conference play at home against powerhouse Azusa Pacific. 

"The guys are ready to play, to say the least," Regrutto said. "It's been a little rough to wait so long while everyone else is playing but it has also given us opportunity to train harder and work on more things."

UHH will open the season on Thursday on Oahu against Chaminade, who is also chomping at the bit to play. They have had just one match, and it was back on Sept. 4--a 2-0 win over Hawaii Pacific. The Sharks (1-2) await on Saturday. HPU has the loss to the Silverswords on their ledger, a 4-0 loss to Humboldt State and a 1-0 win over Cal State East Bay.

Last spring, the Vulcans played Chaminade twice, winning 4-1 and tying 1-1. The all-time series sits in UHH's favor at 20-7-5. In the short pandemic season last February, the Vulcans lost to Hawaii Pacific (1-0) and tied the Sharks, 0-0. The all-time series runs in HPU's favor at 22-8-3.

Regrutto returns most of that group from last spring, including seven seniors that will provide leadership and experience. Eight starters are back from the 2019 team, the last time that the Vulcans played a full season.

"We had a good spring season that has given us confidence," Regrutto said. "We've added six new guys that give us competition and depth in all positions. We've had a solid preseason. So, all indicators are good for the upcoming year. Ultimately, we need to be good enough to get consistent results against the best teams in the conference. That is truly where confidence comes from. Everybody is working hard to put the team in that position.  My belief is that we will surprise a lot of people this year."

For UHH's full schedule, click here.

For the Vulcan roster, click here.