Virginia Women's Soccer Announces 2009 Schedule
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CHARLOTTESVILLE – The Virginia women’s soccer team announced its 2009 schedule, which includes 10 home games at Klöckner Stadium. This season, the Cavaliers play nine of their 18 games against teams that participated in last season’s NCAA Tournament. Three of those opponents reached at least the quarterfinals, including reigning national champion North Carolina.
“In putting together the 2009 schedule, we felt it was extremely important to challenge our team as much as possible, particularly early in the year since we know how difficult the ACC is each year from top to bottom, and because of the added challenge of revamping our entire back line,” said head coach Steve Swanson. “We will need to see how our players react under pressure away from home and in the non-conference. Our two exhibition games against Notre Dame and Georgetown, will test us early as well. This will help prepare us for the combination of both the challenge of the ACC regular season and the non-conference games in preparation for the post season. Historically, this will be one of our toughest schedules, but we are excited about the opportunities it offers all our players since they will be competing consistently against the best teams in the country, which is our goal every year.”
The regular season begins on Aug. 21 as the Cavaliers visit Penn State. Virginia opens its home schedule on Aug. 28 and 30 with matches against Liberty and Hofstra. On Sept. 4-6, the Cavaliers will play their first ever games in the state of Arizona, playing Arizona and Arizona State at the Sun Devil Desert Classic in Tempe. Virginia returns home on Sept. 11 and 13 to host the Virginia Nike Soccer Classic, meeting Big East foes West Virginia and Seton Hall. The Cavaliers close out the non-conference schedule on Sept. 20 when they host American.
In ACC play, NCAA Tournament participants Florida State, Miami and Virginia Tech, along with Clemson and Maryland will visit Charlottesville. The Cavaliers will visit NC State, Boston College, North Carolina, Duke and Wake Forest.
In the preseason, the Cavaliers will play a pair of exhibition contests. Virginia will play NCAA runner-up Notre Dame on Aug. 14 in Traverse City, Mich., before returning home and hosting Georgetown at Klöckner Stadium on Aug. 16.
Last season, the Cavaliers had a 15-5-3 record and reached the round of 16 of the NCAA Tournament.
2009 Virginia Women’s Soccer Schedule
Aug. 14 vs. Notre Dame (ex) (Traverse City, Mich.) 1 p.m.
Aug. 16 GEORGETOWN (ex) 7 p.m.
Aug. 21 at Penn State 7 p.m.
Aug. 28 LIBERTY 7 p.m.
Aug. 30 HOFSTRA 1 p.m.
Sept. 4 vs. Arizona (Sun Devil Desert Classic, Tempe, Ariz.) 4:30 p.m. PT
Sept. 6 at Arizona State (Sun Devil Desert Classic) 1:30 p.m. PT
Sept. 11 WEST VIRGINIA (Virginia Nike Soccer Classic) 6:00 p.m.
Sept. 13 SETON HALL (Virginia Nike Soccer Classic) 2:00 p.m.
Sept. 20 AMERICAN 2 p.m.
Sept. 24 at NC State 7 p.m.
Sept. 27 CLEMSON 2 p.m.
Sept. 30 VIRGINIA TECH 7 p.m.
Oct. 8 MARYLAND 7 p.m.
Oct. 11 at Boston College 1 p.m.
Oct. 17 at North Carolina 1 p.m.
Oct. 22 at Duke 7 p.m.
Oct. 25 at Wake Forest 1 p.m.
Oct. 29 FLORIDA STATE 7 p.m.
Nov. 1 MIAMI 2 p.m.
Nov. 4-8 at ACC Tournament (WakeMed Park, Cary, N.C.)