Following a brief 2-0 preseason, the No. 18 men’s soccer team kicks off its 2009 campaign this weekend with a pair of contests in Tulsa, Okla.

SMU will face the No. 4 Akron Zips Friday evening before playing Seattle University (0-1) Sunday afternoon at the Radisson Tulsa Airport Classic.

After compiling a record of 10-6-2 (3-4-1 Conference USA) last year, head coach Tim McClements sees many reasons to be optimistic heading into this season.

“If we’re at the top of our game technically, we can compete with anybody that we’ll face up against,” he said.

McClements added that he thought the team has “more depth this year.”

Last season, the Mustangs opened their schedule with two difficult games against Old Dominion and Virginia, and they did so without a trio of top players.

“Last year was kind of a difficult year because we lost three players before the season started,” McClements said, “But we got off to a great start.”

After wins over both Old Dominion (2-0) and Virginia (3-1), SMU went 3-1-1 before dropping consecutive games to Tulsa and Memphis. Senior forward Paulo da Silva led the team with seven goals and 16 points.

“I think when we played together and we had all of our players, we were pretty good,” McClements said. “Unfortunately, we lost some players through the year, and it obviously effected out results.”

For his efforts, da Silva was named to the 2009 CollegeSoccerNews.com preseason All-American team. He was also named to the C-USA second team in 2008.

“Paulo is a big part of our team,” McClements said. “He’s a proven goal scorer and if he’s healthy, then he’s very good.”

Sophomores Diogo de Almedia and Arthur Ivo were the team’s iron men last year, each playing in all 18 games. De Almedia racked up five goals and 12 points and Ivo collected three goals, three assists and nine points.

At goaltender, junior Craig Hill made 63 saves and recorded six shutouts.

“We have a good group of players,” McClements said. “We’re just trying to find the right nix. There are a lot of different guys that contribute in different ways.”

With no long-term injuries as the season approaches, the head coach hopes to utilize his team’s depth and expects to see results from a number of different players.

“I don’t think it’s going to be a team where you see one starting lineup game in and game out,” he said. “I think there’s going to be more people involved in the results. We have 15 or 16 guys that all could start, and then we have guys who can come off the bench that are very confident players as well.”

Against No. 4 Akron on Friday, McClements will prepare his team just as he would for any other game.

“Whenever you play someone of that caliber, the most important thing for us is that our players are on the top of their game and they’re ready to compete. We just go one game at a time,” he said.

Kickoff against the Zips is set for 5 p.m. Friday at the University of Tulsa’s Hurricane Soccer and Track Stadium.