The men’s swimming and diving team will face its first opponents of the season Saturday, as the Wolfpack hosts UMBC and Miami at 1 p.m at home. UMBC will face the Pack in both swimming and diving, while Miami will compete solely in diving. The team has been hard at work in practices to prepare for the season opener, as well as its first ACC opponent. The progress the team has made in preparation for the season, evident in Friday’s Red and White scrimmage, impressed associate men’s coach Christopher Woodard. “In practice, we’ve been laying the foundations, just getting things right with a lot of gruntwork. The scrimmage helped show us where we’re at right now,” Woodard said. “They swam relatively well, so now we’re looking forward to our first true meet.”Woodard praised redshirt senior Stephen Mellor and junior Mason McGee, both named captains in late August, as standout athletes, as well as senior Austin Hampton, who will lead the divers as captain. But the team is loaded with promising talent and many other players to look to. “We had several guys at the Olympic trials over the summer. And we’re counting on Kevin Woodhull-Smith at backstroke and medley, Dan Forsythe on breaststroke, Andrew Lester as one of our seniors — and several other guys that are going to be heavy hitters in our conference,” Woodard said.Veteran leadership isn’t the only factor that Woodard hopes will propel the team to success this season.”The rookies are making things interesting. We’ve got a great deal of raw talent, they bring a lot of positive energy to the pool – and hopefully they’ll bring the speed,” Woodard said. Jon Vorpagel, a senior in history, mirrored Woodard’s high expectations for the team, especially the newcomers.”We’re definitely going to be a lot better than last year. We got a lot of fast freshmen that can help us out at sprint events, mainly in the freestyle,” Vorpagel said. “It’s going to be awesome to have 200 relays that will be competitive in the ACC, because in years past, it hasn’t been that way.”McGee, a junior in biology, has been able to see the results of the team’s efforts in practice and expects the team will continue to meet their goals.”We’ve been pushing to get yardage, getting our swimmers in gear for conference play — we’ll focus more on speed for the later matches of the year,” McGee said. The first meet of the season will serve as a constructive tool to help the team prepare for upcoming October meets, which include matchups against conference foes Duke, Maryland, and Virginia Tech. McGee said the team will focus on its own progress, rather than its opponents, on Saturday.”This weekend is about helping us to see where our team is at. It’s not going to be as big of a challenge in terms of the meet teams – its more of us stepping up and building on what we’ve accomplished so far this year,” McGee said.Vorpagel has taken advantage of practices to expand his skill and competitive edge. “I’m getting the opportunity to do more breaststroke. At the Red and White [scrimmage], I swam the 50, 100 and 200 meter breaststroke for the first time since I’ve been in college. But I’m still focusing on my freestyle,” Vorpagel said.Woodard attributes much of the excitement surrounding the team to the success of many swimmers in the Olympics. “We’re following up to the Summer Olympics, so everyone is really jazzed up to get the season going.”