One common theme for Friday's soccer alumni games was facility upgrades. The Tiger and Lady Tiger soccer team s welcomed back a combined 34 alumni Aug. 20 for the annual alumni games, played this year at Finley Stadium for the first time.

"This is a really nice field to play on," men's soccer alumnus Lee Brothers (1995-99) said. "We played on a different field three of the four years we were here."

Men's soccer head coach Adam Preston, who helped start the alumni games when he took over the program, entertained the alumni and crowd while serving as public address announcer for the men's game.

"The alumni appeared to have a good time and enjoyed being back on campus. I got several comments on the difference of being here instead of playing on church fields," Preston said.

Tiger and Lady Tiger soccer is moving to Finley Stadium and playing on the new synthetic turf beginning this fall. Most of the alumni game participants played at CU before the Tigers had their field next to Alex Montgomery Chevrolet and were impressed with the overall improvements in facilities the past few years.

The Lady Tigers started the night with 14 alumni returning to campus, as the current players fell to the alumni, 1-0. Well, that was the result if you believe 2009 graduate Danielle Yannelli, who scored the lone alumni goal.

The real result was 8-1 Lady Tigers, but Yannelli had fun going up against her younger sister Cassie, who is a starting midfielder for the Lady Tigers.

"It was fun. We were a little rusty, but it was good because there were some people I hadn't seen in at least four years," the older Yannelli said. "I'm incredibly jealous (of the new field). They are lucky to get to play on this. It is really good for the program."

Brothers, who coaches soccer at Nelson County High School, said he hopes to return for the Georgetown College game in October and enjoys coming back each season to see the improvements in the men's program.

"The younger guys are making it fun for everybody and Adam, of course, welcomes everybody in and makes it fun for everybody," said Brothers, who was a Tiger teammate of Preston's in the '90s. "It's really fun to see how far the program's progressed over the years. When we first started here you had a few solid players and the others were not nearly as rounded. The entire team is well rounded now ... I feel like they're going to be pretty good."

Both soccer teams open the 2010 season at home Friday, Aug. 27 with Freed-Hardeman University coming to campus. The women start the night at 6 p.m., followed by the men at 8 p.m.

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