March 21, 2012
The Southeastern Conference has announced its 14-team conference schedule for women’s soccer for the 2012 fall season Wednesday.
With Missouri and Texas A&M entering the SEC on July 1, the league will have 14 schools that sponsor women’s soccer. Missouri will participate in the Eastern Division and Texas A&M in the Western Division.
Vanderbilt’s 2012 slate includes home games against Alabama, South Carolina, Ole Miss, Texas A&M, Auburn and Florida. The Commodores’ travel will include a game in Columbia, Missouri to round out a four-game road trip that starts the conference season.
“We are very excited to have our SEC schedule finalized for 2012,” VU Head Coach Derek Greene said. “Adding two new teams to our conference has made scheduling difficult for our administration and for the SEC office, but we appreciate the effort they put into doing the best they could with the short time they had. When you have the chance to add two outstanding institutions like Texas A&M and Missouri, you have to take the short-term issues that come along with that change. The addition of these two programs will help us solidify ourselves as we continue our quest to be the top conference in the country.”
According to league officials, the 2012-13 schedules are not based on any other previous or future scheduling formats. The SEC Athletics Directors have announced that they are currently formulating scheduling principles for the 2013-14 season and beyond.
“We will certainly face some challenges with this schedule, but we are excited about it,” Greene said. “We will be the only team opening SEC play with our first four games on the road again this fall, and that is a tough thing to do in this conference. Being on the road for eight out of 11 days presents some real challenges for our players. Hopefully our staff and team can take something positive from the fact we did this last year, and put together some positive results in those first four league games.”
The non-conference portion of the Commodores 2012 slate will be announced in the coming months.
2012 SEC SOCCER SCHEDULE
Fri., Sept. 14 at Georgia
Sun., Sept. 16 at Tennessee
Fri., Sept. 21 at Mississippi State
Sun., Sept. 23 at Missouri
Fri., Sept. 28 vs. Alabama
Sun., Sept. 30 South Carolina
Fri., Oct. 5 at Arkansas
Sun., Oct. 7 at LSU
Fri., Oct. 12 vs. Ole Miss
Sun., Oct. 14 vs. Texas A&M
Fri., Oct. 19 vs. Auburn
Sun., Oct. 21 vs. Florida
Thurs., Oct. 25 at Kentucky
