May 18, 2005
LAS VEGAS - Click here for the full 2005 UNLV women's soccer schedule
The UNLV women's soccer team, under first-year head coach Katherine Mertz, will take on four teams that played in the 2004 NCAA Tournament on their 2005 schedule, released on Wednesday. The schedule also is highlighted by the Mountain West Conference Tournament, which will be hosted by the Rebels on Nov. 2-5 in Las Vegas.
Mertz hopes the team will build on the momentum they had last year, as the Rebels won their first-ever MWC regular season championship, and earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history before finishing with a 12-5-1 record.
"We have a very competitive schedule and we're excited about the teams we're going to see this coming season," said Mertz. "We have several tough road games to begin the year at Arizona State and a tournament on the east coast against Virginia Commonwealth and Richmond. Our home slate is challenging as well, but I like finishing out conference season with three straight at home. To have the conference tournament on our home field as well should really help us get back to the NCAA tournament. We only lost once at home last year, so it's obviously a big advantage for us to be able to host the conference championship. We'll also see a new challenge in TCU this year, and the girls are looking forward to the new addition to the MWC."
UNLV opens the season at home on Friday, Aug. 26 with a match against Cal State Northridge, and follow with a Aug. 28 match against in-state rival Nevada, Reno. The Rebels then take to the road for a two-game swing at Utah State (Sept. 2) and Arizona State (Sept. 4), before taking off for Richmond, Va., where they will take on Richmond Spiders (Sept. 9) as well as host VCU (Sept. 11).
UNLV will hosts two tournaments this year, the first being the UNLV adidas Classic on Sept. 16 and 18, featuring Fresno State, Long Beach State, and Sam Houston. The second tournament, on Sept. 30 and Oct. 2, will include Creighton, Northern Arizona, and Utah Valley State. In between the two tournaments is another two-game road swing, this time to Pepperdine (Sept. 23) and UC Irvine (Sept. 25).
UNLV will begin defense of its Mountain West Conference championship at Air Force on Oct. 7. The Rebels play four conference games on the road, but will host BYU, Utah, and San Diego State, who all finished in the top four last year with UNLV. UNLV then hosts the MWC Tournament, the third time the Rebels have hosted the conference championships. The last time was in 2002, when UNLV advanced to its only championship game appearance, a 2-1 loss to BYU.
