June 13, 2007
IOWA CITY – The University of Iowa women’s soccer team has released its schedule for the 2007 season. The Hawkeyes will compete in a total of 20 matches, eight of which will be in Iowa City. Head Coach Ron Rainey is excited about what the upcoming season holds.
“We’re playing seven teams that made the NCAA Tournament last season,” Rainey said. “It will be a challenge for our players to play at a higher level.”
Iowa opens up the season with a home exhibition contest against Western Illinois at 1 p.m. on August 25 before they travel to DeKalb, IL, to participate in the Northern Illinois Tournament. They will play Navy (August 31) and Northern Illinois (September 2) before returning to Iowa City to host four-straight home matches. The homestand includes a contest with Missouri (September 7), along with intra-state rivals Iowa State (September 9), Drake (September 14) and Northern Iowa (September 18).
The Hawkeyes finish off the pre-conference slate with road matches against Creighton (September 21) and South Dakota State (September 23).
“We have some quality non-conference opponents on our schedule that will challenge us before we head into conference play,” said Rainey, who is in his second year as head coach of the Hawkeyes.
The Black and Gold open conference play with consecutive home matches against Michigan State (September 28) and Michigan (September 30). Iowa then steps out of conference play and travels to UW-Milwaukee to take on the Panthers (October 5).
The Hawkeyes will continue on the road with three-consecutive road contests at Illinois (October 7), Purdue (October 12) and Indiana (October 14). Iowa will host its final two homes matches of the season against defending Big Ten champion Penn State (October 19) and Ohio State (October 21) before finishing the season on the road at Wisconsin (October 26), Northwestern (October 28) and Minnesota (November 2).
With pre-season camp beginning August 15, Rainey is looking forward to getting the season underway.
“This season will be interesting to see if we can take the success we’ve had from the spring and translate it to success this fall,” Rainey said. “If we can take that next step, I think we can be successful.”
The top eight teams in the conference will move on to the Big Ten Championships, held this year Minnesota, November 8-11.