GREENSBORO, N.C. – UNC Greensboro coach Eddie Radwanski has lined up an impressive schedule for his women's soccer team for 2009, as the Spartans will face six teams that competed in the NCAA tournament last season, including defending national champion North Carolina.
UNCG, which went 16-4-3 in 2008, including its third straight undefeated Southern Conference slate at 10-0-1, opens the season with three straight ACC teams, all of which took part in postseason play. The Spartans will kick off the 2009 campaign by hosting Wake Forest on Aug. 23 at 8 p.m., then will take on perennial top-10 teams Duke and UNC in the Nike Classic in Chapel Hill, N.C., on Aug. 28 and 30, respectively.
The Spartans then return home Sept. 4-6 to host the UNCG Spartan Classic, which will feature 2008 national semifinalist Stanford, 2008 NCAA tournament participant Virginia Tech and Virginia Commonwealth. With UNCG taking on Stanford in its first game of the tournament, the Spartans will have opened the season against four straight teams that finished 2008 in the top 25. UNCG will also face VCU in its home tourney.
UNCG and the Hokies will not meet until the following week, however, when the Spartans participate in the Virginia Tech Tournament on Sept. 11. UNCG will also take on Duquesne in that tournament (Sept. 13).
After that, the Spartans open up a three-game homestand with a game against High Point on Sept. 18 before opening SoCon play against Furman a week later. UNCG will take on Wofford on Sept. 27, before hitting the road for matches at Davidson (Oct. 2), Georgia Southern (Oct. 4) and Western Carolina (Oct. 8), who advanced to the NCAA tournament last season after topping the Spartans in penalty kicks in the SoCon championship game.
Another three-game homestand follows that, with Appalachian State (Oct. 11), Samford (Oct. 16) and Chattanooga (Oct. 18) coming to town before the Spartans make the swing to Charleston, S.C., to take on College of Charleston (Oct. 23) and The Citadel (Oct. 25).
The Spartans wrap up the regular-season slate with a home match against Elon on Oct. 29. The Southern Conference tournament will be Nov. 6-8 at the site of the league's top seed, with the top four teams in the conference qualifying.
- UNCG -