No. 20 Duke Opens the 2024 Season at San Diego Thursday

DURHAM, N.C. – No. 20 Duke men’s soccer kicks off the 2024 campaign on the road Thursday, as they take on San Diego. Kickoff is scheduled for 10 p.m. ET and is the first of two contests in the Golden State.
 
MATCHUP NOTES

• Duke and San Diego meet for the fourth time in program history, with the Blue Devils leading the all-time series 2-0-1.
• At Koskinen Stadium, the Blue Devils won the last meeting in 2022, 1-0.
• Thursday will mark the second meeting between the two sides in California, with Duke winning the first meeting 4-1 in 2018.

 
BY THE NUMBERS
14 – The Blue Devils welcome 14 newcomers to the 2024 roster, including eight transfers and six freshmen.
10 – Duke has won 10-plus contests in 10 of the 16 completed seasons under Kerr.
3 – The Atlantic Coast Conference added three new teams this season, as California, Stanford, and SMU joined the league. The Blue Devils will face two of those three, traveling to Stanford and hosting SMU in 2024. 

FIRST TOUCH

• The Blue Devils begin year 17 under head coach John Kerr and post an 8-4-4 record under Kerr in season openers.
• Sophomore Ulfur Bjornsson was selected as the No. 62 player in the country by TopDrawerSoccer.com this week. Bjornsson, a 6-foot-3 forward from Iceland, recorded 1,270 minutes in his rookie campaign for Duke in 2023, finishing the season with 10 goals and four assists. The All-ACC Second Team and All-ACC Freshman Team recipient was named to TopDrawerSoccer’s Freshman Best XI First Team and was No. 8 in TopDrawerSoccer’s final Freshman Top 100 rankings.

 
ALL-ACC PRESEASON PLAYER TO WATCH

• Senior midfielder Ruben Mesalles was named to the 2024 Preseason All-ACC Watch List, following a vote by the ACC men’s soccer coaches on Wednesday.
• Mesalles, a native of Sarasota, Florida, started 17 of the 18 games he appeared in last season for the Blue Devils. In those fixtures, he tallied a career-best four goals and four assists to produce a career-high 12 points. Mesalles finished the season with 1,340 total minutes, playing 90 minutes in three consecutive games.
• The conference also announced the preseason coaches’ poll on Wednesday, with Duke picked to finish seventh in the league. The Blue Devils garnered 122 total votes, while Clemson received 193 votes as the favorite in the league.

 
UNITED SOCCER…