Moline's Musings

Illinois Soccer Schedule (so far)

Posted by: Brian Moline

Wednesday, June 10, 2009 11:26 AM

As you saw on IlliniHQ earlier today, the Fighting Illini Soccer team will open its season at home against Illinois State on Friday August 21.  That news came today from Illinois State, as the Illini have yet to release their 2009 schedule.  That brings about the question, why not?  Well, in talking with head coach Janet Rayfield a couple of weeks ago, it's mostly because of some changes that were made to the Illini Challenge Cup.  Originally, the Illini were scheduled to play both UCLA and Florida in the second annual event.  However, Florida and UCLA wanted to play each other in the event, so the Illini will instead be playing UC Santa Barbara on Sunday September 6.  Because of those changes, they had to resubmit the schedule to the NCAA for approval.  Here's what we know for sure so far, based on information from other schools' websites:

Friday August 21 vs. Illinois State

Friday August 28 vs. Colorado (at Denver University)

Sunday August 30 at Denver

Friday September 4 vs. UCLA

Sunday September 6 vs. UCSB

Friday September 11 at Portland

Sunday September 13 vs. Washington (at Portland)

Friday September 18 vs. Loyola (IL)

Sunday September 20 vs. UW-Milwaukee

Sunday September 27 vs Minnesota

Friday October 2 at Purdue

Sunday October 4 at Indiana

Sunday October 11 vs Wisconsin

Saturday October 17 at Iowa

Thursday October 22 vs. Ohio State

Sunday October 25 at Penn State

Michgan State

Michigan

Northwestern

Okay, I admit I'm cheating a little bit with the last three games.  None of those schools (MSU, Michigan, Northwestern) have officially released their 2009 schedules either.  We know those three teams are on the Illinois schedule, as the Big Ten plays a full round-robin.  Illinois should be officially releasing their fall schedule in the near future.

As far as our radio coverage goes, we're hoping to carry five matches this season.  We're still waiting for the volleyball schedule to be finalized as well, which will impact which soccer games we can carry.  The ones that look to be on our broadcast schedule for sure right now are the games against Wisconsin (10/11) and Ohio State (10/22).  I hope to have more details on the broadcast schedule within the next couple of weeks.

In the meantime, I'll do my best to keep you informed about Ella Masar's results with the Chicago Red Stars and other Illini playing in the W-League this summer.  Thanks for reading.

bmoline@wdws.com

Comments

Be the first to share your opinion!