Looking Forward: Spring 2021 Season

As the Spring 2021 Season begins soon, here is a look at how the seasons for the Charlotte 49ers will look and how teams will be lining up.

Photo from Charlotte 49ers Athletics

It feels like a long time coming, but we have officially made it to the Spring 2021 season. While a lot of sports such as soccer were canceled this fall, the 49ers will be hitting the track, court, pitch, and diamond this Spring. Looking ahead, here is a review for Baseball, Softball, Mens and Women's Soccer, and Tennis.

Baseball

After a season cut short due to Covid-19 coming off the thrilling 9-8 win against NC State, 49er baseball will be back in action this season in less than a month's time. With a thrilling new roster, coaching, and new training facilities, 49er baseball is looking strong going into this season.

Coaching staff added new assistant coach and pitching coordinator, Austin Meine. He comes from St. Louis with experience with a 49er coaching favorite, Premier Pitching Performance. In the past few seasons, the bats have been hot for the 49ers, but pitching has been a struggle. Adding Meine to the coaching staff has been a solid hire by Head Coach Robert Woodard who look to strengthen the mound.

Along with the strong staffing this offseason, the roster grew significantly adding some 20+ new faces to the program. With transfers from around the state and new Freshman, the roster has taken a new shape under Coach Woodard with three names on Top 100 list for this season's NCAA rosters. This team is starting fresh this season and we should expect an entertaining team with plenty of room for growth moving forward.

As for scheduling, there has been no official schedule that has been released, but expect one to be coming out in the next few weeks.

Softball

After a 14-13 start to the season in 2020, the 49ers softball program will be swinging for the stars this season as new faces and facilities come into the picture. A history of mediocre starts and performances will be a thing of the past for Softball as long as the promise of new power can produce on the diamond.

In November, the 49ers picked up Duke transfer and California native, Amelia Wiercioch . With 55 games player her Freshman year and 45 starts at Duke, Wiercioch will be bringing her stellar ability behind the bat with a .287, 41 hits, and 21 RBIs. Not only her batting is her strongest suit, but in the circle, her 1.95 ERA will definitely put her in a starting position for the 49ers.

Seven new players have signed on from signing day this past season, bringing 2 fresh pitchers, infielders, and catcher to the roster in the coming seasons.

No new schedule has come out yet for Softball as well, but expect one in the very near future.

Men's Soccer

Once the pride of Niner Nation in the early part of the last decade (weird to be saying that already), the Men's Soccer program is looking to dominate C-USA again this season. From new uniforms to 3 Preseason All-Conference players, the Men's team is looking to have yet another strong season this Spring.

Being nationally ranked for the past few seasons, there is always a lot of pressure on the program, but this season, there must come a conference title. After a few seasons of falling short, the Men's team will have to prove their worth in the finishing out the conference season.

Having made the NCAA tournament the past two seasons, the 49ers will be looking to move forward this season with tournament ambitions, but what has hurt them the most in the past has been finishing out games and producing the finishing touches in the box to pull out wins. As long as Coach Langan can keep producing a constant team on the pitch, there is unlimited potential in this Men's program and it truly is exciting to watch these men play.

The 2021 schedule has been released with exhibition games against Liberty and Davidson. First game of the season, Feb. 12, will be in Durham, NC against the Duke Blue Devils and home opener Feb. 20 against UNCW.

Women's Soccer

The 2019 season saw a decent run by the 49ers Women's soccer team as they finished the season 13-6, but losing in the conference final 3-2 in 2 OTs. This is history and now all eyes are on the future with Charlotte ranked 2nd in C-USA East, the 49ers hope to fulfill their expectations of greatness this season.

This season, the Women's team will be taking on big names such as UNCG, South Carolina, and Virginia Tech, but all eyes are on the conference title to get back to their winning ways.

After a strong 2019 Freshman season, Julia Patrum looks to fulfill her preseason All-Conference title and lead the 49ers to glory this season. A strong roster will put the 49ers up against anyone in conference and much is to be expected from this team.

The schedule is available for the season here. Opener against Kennesaw State on Feb. 5 and home opener on Feb. 21 against UNCW.

Tennis

For Men's and Women's tennis this season, expectations are high as the 49ers rosters are stacked with strong upperclassmen players. With Men's staring 2-1 and Women's starting 2-2, it will be interesting to see how the season plays out with teams sweeping opponents in double headers and starting the Spring 2021 for all sports strong.

Player to look out for are Women's Sophomore Ruxi Schech, who with a strong game against Wake Forest, has proven to be quite the talent for the 49ers. The German native is one of a few foreign players and signees to the women's program who have truly attracted the interest from around the globe.

Men's Henry Lieberman defeated No. 81 Raphael Lambling of South Carolina for the second year in a row, showing a lot of promise for the upperclassmen for the Men's program. The mens team have added two more players to come in the future seasons.

Both schedule have been released for Men's and Women's as the season is already underway!

Overview

As we move farther into this new year and the battle against Covid-19 continues, we will be seeing 49ers sports this Spring with loads of promise and experience coming. From our rising Baseball and Softball programs to the expectations of the Soccer programs, the 49ers are looking strong in conference and nationally.

Also to mention, the dominant programs "run" by our track teams will definitely be on display as multiple conference titles have been won by our track teams.

Here is to the 49ers and a new 2021 Season! #RollNiners

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