June 27, 2006
IOWA CITY – The Iowa women’s soccer team has released its 2006 fall schedule, which is highlighted by seven regular season home matches. Five of the seven home contests will be played during October, including the final three regular season matches of the season. Iowa will play a total of 19 matches during their 10th season of varsity competition.
The Hawkeyes will host an exhibition against Winona State at 3 p.m. on August 19 before hitting the road for their first four matches. Iowa will open the season in Columbia, MO, at the Missouri Invitational Tournament. The Hawkeyes face Missouri (Aug. 25) and South Carolina (Aug. 27) at the Invitational.
Iowa will compete in the second annual Big Ten/Big XII Challenge at Nebraska (Sept. 3) and then travel to Chicago to face Loyola (Sept. 8) before returning to Iowa City.
The Black and Gold square off against Eastern Michigan (Sept. 10) in their home opener, but return to the road for five straight matches. Iowa will face intrastate rival Iowa State in Ames (Sept. 12) for the first event in the third annual Hy-Vee Cy-Hawk Series. The Hawkeyes then travel to Minneapolis for the Gopher Invitational. Iowa will meet Northern Colorado (Sept. 15) and Dartmouth (Sept. 17) in the Gopher Invitational.
Iowa opens Big Ten play on the road against Northwestern (Sept. 22) and Wisconsin (Sept. 24) before hosting its first conference home match against Penn State (Sept. 29), who advanced to the NCAA College Cup in 2005.
The Hawkeyes step out of conference play for the final time at Drake (Oct. 1) and return to the Iowa Soccer Complex for a pair of league matches against Ohio State (Oct. 6) and Minnesota (Oct. 8). Iowa will play its final regular season road contests against Michigan (Oct. 13) and Michigan State (Oct. 15).
The Hawkeyes return to Iowa City for the final three regular season home matches against Indiana (Oct. 20), Purdue (Oct. 22) and Illinois (Oct. 27).
The top eight teams in the league will advance to the single elimination Big Ten Tournament, held this year at Penn State, November 2-5.