June 4, 2009
LAS VEGAS - 2009 UNLV women's soccer schedule
A three-game stretch in the month of September against teams from the ACC and Big 10 conference highlights the UNLV women's soccer team 2009 schedule, which was released by the athletics department on Thursday. The Rebels, who will open the season with three straight at home, will play an 19-game regular-season slate that includes two contests against teams that played in the 2008 NCAA Tournament.
"We're looking forward to the fall, I feel this is one of our most challenging schedules, and it should test the team right out from the start," said head coach Kat Mertz. "For the first time ever we're going to face teams from the ACC, while the schedule is also loaded with games against teams from the Big 10, Pac-10, and two of the top soccer conferences in the country in the Big West and the West Coast. I feel playing teams of that caliber will prepare us well going into the start of our league season."
UNLV will have the earliest start date in program history as it will begin the season on Aug. 21 by hosting Loyola Marymount. The following weekend will be the UNLV Nike Classic, at which the Rebels will face off against Illinois State (Aug. 28) and Cal State Bakersfield (Aug. 30).
September will see the Rebels make their first-ever trip to the state of North Carolina, with UNLV first taking on NC State of the ACC (Sept. 3), marking the first time Mertz will coach against her alma mater. The Rebels will stay in the Tar Heel State to take on ACC power Duke on Sept. 5. UNLV then returns home to play a mid-week contest against the Big 10's Ohio State (Sept. 11).
It will be back to regional play for the Rebels for the rest of the season, beginning with three straight games against California schools. UNLV will host UC Irvine (Sept. 11) before a two-game road swing at San Francisco (Sept. 18) and St. Mary's (Sept. 20). The final non-conference home game will come against Southern Utah (Sept. 26), while the following weekend will see the Rebels play in the San Diego State Classic, with a contest against Seattle University (Oct. 2) and Oregon State (Oct. 4).
UNLV will begin the Mountain West Conference portion of its schedule with two straight at home, as it will host Utah on Oct. 8 and 2008 champion BYU on Oct. 10. The Rebels will also host TCU (Oct. 23) and San Diego State (Oct. 25), while playing three MWC road games, at Air Force (Oct. 15), at Wyoming (Oct. 17) and at New Mexico (Oct. 31). This year's MWC Tournament will be held at BYU in Provo, Utah on Nov. 4-7.
The Rebels return eight starters from last year's squad, which finished with an 11-7-3 record.
