June 5, 2009
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Twelve home games including matches against Saint Louis, Belmont, Oklahoma and Tennessee highlight the 2009 Vanderbilt soccer scheduled released on Friday.
“I think we have a competitive schedule that features three Big 12 teams (Oklahoma, Texas Tech and Missouri) as well as the defending Atlantic Sun Tournament Champions (Belmont), in addition to our always difficult SEC schedule,” said Vanderbilt head coach Ronnie Coveleskie Woodard.
The Commodores will have matches against eight teams that made the 2008 NCAA tournament and will start the year with an exhibition against Western Kentucky on Aug. 15.
Vanderbilt opens the regular season with a five-match homestand starting with Saint Louis on Aug. 22 at 7 p.m. The Dores will face Mercer (Aug. 28), Murray State (Aug. 30), Belmont (Sept. 4) and Oklahoma (Sept. 6) to close out the skein.
“One of the good things about our schedule this year, is we play a lot of our non-conference games at home for a change,” said Coveleskie. Last season Vanderbilt played five of its eight non-conference games on the road.
The Dores will close out the non-conference portion of the slate with contests against Texas Tech (Sept. 11) and Missouri (Sept. 13) at the Auburn Soccer Classic, followed by a home game against Tennessee-Martin (Sept. 18).
“We have added some new teams to our schedule this year in Mercer, Murray State and UT-Martin,” said Coveleskie Woodard. “Those are three teams that we have never seen before, so I think they will be exciting to play.”
Southeastern Conference play kicks off with a road contests against South Carolina (Sept. 25) and Florida (Sept. 27) to close out the month of September.
VU’s home conference opener is against in-state rival Tennessee on Oct. 2 at 7 p.m. It is the first of a four-match homestand with Georgia (Oct. 4), Arkansas (Oct. 9) and LSU (Oct. 11) set to come to the Vanderbilt Soccer Complex.
The Commodores will make their second trip to the state of Alabama to take on Auburn (Oct. 16) and the Crimson Tide (Oct. 18).
The final two weekends of the regular season starts with a home match against Mississippi State (Oct. 22) and a road one against Ole Miss (Oct. 25) before the home finale against Kentucky on Oct. 30.
The SEC tournament will once again be held in Orange Beach, Ala., and will start on Nov. 4.