Monday, April 09, 2007

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (April 9, 2007) - East Tennessee State University women's soccer head coach Heather Henson has announced the Buccaneer soccer schedule for the 2007 season.

In their third year in the Atlantic Sun Conference, the Buccaneers look to improve on their conference record while adding to their non-conference slate of teams.  With the addition of the new stadium on the ETSU campus the Bucs' schedule will include 11 home matches.  This year is also the first time the Bucs will face SEC foe South Carolina and new conference opponents Florida Gulf Coast and South Carolina-Upstate.

Coach Henson is excited to play the new opponents. "We are excited to host 11 games in our new stadium. We know that the A-Sun is not an easy conference and we will have two new teams to face and we expect them to be as strong as the rest of the conference. We are utilizing our non-conference games to prepare for our strong conference season. This is why we are very excited to have an SEC team like South Carolina on our schedule as well as former Southern Conference foes like Furman and Western Carolina," said Henson.

The ETSU soccer team will also be hosting the first ever ETSU Invitational Tournament from September 14-16. "ETSU is also proud to host our first ever East Tennessee State University Invitational Tournament for the fall of 2007.  We are extremely excited to be able to host this first ever tournament in our new stadium on our campus," said Henson.

"We are bringing in teams from the Atlantic Sun Conference, Southern Conference and the Ohio Valley Conference.  These match ups of ETSU, Stetson, Western Carolina, and Tennessee Tech will provide very competitive and entertaining matches," added Henson.

The first A-Sun match up for the Buccaneers will be a home match against North Florida on Friday, Sept. 28. The Atlantic Sun Conference Tournament will again be hosted by Kennesaw State November 8-10.

ETSU will open their season at home in an exhibition match against Furman on Friday, August 24 at 2:00 p.m. before officially opening their season on Friday, Aug. 31 at home against MTSU for a 4:00 p.m. match up.