Gavin McKinney thought his University of Tennessee at Chattanooga soccer team would have some opportunities for wins in the nonconference schedule.
There were only two, but entering Southern Conference play he's seen the progress.
McKinney's Mocs (2-5-2) start league play this weekend where they've been most of the month of September - on the road, with games Friday at East Tennessee State and Sunday at Western Carolina. Those will be the fourth and fifth in a six-game road stretch that concludes with a visit to Samford next Friday.
The Samford match will be UTC's ninth away game in a span of 10. After that, the Mocs close the season with four of their final six games at Finley Stadium.
UTC struggled away from Finley last season, and McKinney and assistant coach Martyn Blankley put together a 2017 schedule that would include a lot of opportunities to face adversity away from home. The biggest challenge for this year's team has been developing the level of consistency needed to compete at a high level in league play, as on too many occasions the Mocs have looked good for a portion of the match, only to have some misfortune and then a letdown.
That pattern could be behind the young Mocs, though. They were behind 2-0 11 minutes into Sunday's match at 19th-ranked Alabama but started to string together some solid offense. While they weren't able to score, McKinney was encouraged by the effort.
"As the game went on, we got better and better," McKinney said. "We continued to battle for each other, which was great to see. We created a few great chances in the second half and were close to getting it back to 2-1 a few times."
Volleyball Mocs host SoCon foes
In a hilarious video posted to the program's Twitter account, the volleyball Mocs invited fans to Maclellan Gym for their first two SoCon matches of 2017 this weekend. They host Western Carolina on Friday and UNC Greensboro on Saturday, both at 6 p.m.
For "Tweet Like a Pirate" day, Ally Ford, Lindsey Farrell, Mikaela Gauthreaux and Eden Murray did their best pirate impressions, followed by coach Travis Filar, who finished the 24-second piece by exclaiming, "We want ye and yer mateys this Friday night as we Pack the Mack for our season conference opener. Argh!"
The team begins SoCon play with a 7-7 record after falling to three top-35 programs last weekend at Missouri State.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.