July 6, 2009

LAS VEGAS - 2009 UNLV Men's Soccer Schedule

The UNLV men's soccer team, under fourth-year head coach Mario Sanchez, will face a challenging schedule this fall as the inexperienced Rebels will play a 17-game schedule that features games against four teams that reached the NCAA Tournament in 2008, as the season slate for 2009 was announced on Monday.

The Rebels, who lost seven of 12 starters from last year's squad because of graduation or the MLS draft, will open the season on Sept. 1 at Cal Poly, a team that reached the second round of last year's NCAA Tournament. The other teams on the slate that reached the NCAA tournament include Illinois-Chicago, which advanced to the third round, while UCLA and Denver were both first-round participants.

UNLV's home opener will come the weekend of Sept. 4-6 when it hosts the UNLV Nike Invitational, which will include Robert Morris, Central Arkansas and UC Davis. It's then back to the road for the Rebels with a pair of games in the Oral Roberts Tournament in Tulsa, Okla., with UNLV facing the host ORU Golden Eagles on Sept. 11 and Centenary on Sept. 13.

For the third straight weekend UNLV will play in a tournament, as UC Riverside, Florida Gulf Coast, and Illinois-Chicago come to Las Vegas for the UNLV Rebel Classic on Sept. 18 and Sept. 20. UNLV will close out its non-conference schedule with two straight games in California, at UCLA on Sept. 27 and at UC Riverside on Oct. 2, before finishing up with a home contest against Houston Baptist on Oct. 11.

UNLV will begin its conference schedule by hosting a pair of teams that will be in their first year as members of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. First up will be Cal State Bakersfield on Oct. 16, while Seattle University will visit on Oct. 18. The Rebels will then play four of their last five league games on the road, finishing up at New Mexico on Nov. 7. For the first time since 2003 the MPSF will have a conference tournament, which will be held on Nov. 12-15 in Denver, Colo.