Thursday, May 01, 2008

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (May 1, 2007) - East Tennessee State University women's soccer head coach Heather Henson has announced the Buccaneer soccer schedule for the 2008 season.

The Buccaneers look to improve on their conference record in their fourth season in the Atlantic Sun while adding to their non-conference slate of teams.  With the addition of the Summers-Taylor Soccer Stadium on the ETSU campus the Bucs' schedule will include eight home matches.  This year is also marks the first time the Bucs will face SEC foe Vanderbilt while they will face South Carolina for the second time.

"Vanderbilt is a very good team that has winning tradition at the national level.  It is wonderful that they would come to us in the first year of our completed stadium. We are also pleased to be playing the University of South Carolina again this year. They had a great year last year and could be even better this year," said Henson.

In addition to the two SEC opponents the Bucs will also be traveling to Texas to take on the University of North Texas and Texas Christian University in September.

"We added a trip to Texas this year to help us in our regional rankings.  Both TCU and the University of North Texas have NCAA tournament experience and have been very successful in recent years," added Henson.

The Bucs will face their first Atlantic Sun opponent on the road as they take on Jacksonville on Friday, Sept. 26. The first Atlantic Sun match at home for ETSU will be against Lipscomb on October 3. The Atlantic Sun Conference Tournament will again be hosted by Kennesaw State November 5-8.

"We are very excited with our upcoming schedule. We had a good season last year and know that there are higher expectations for the coming season.  The schedule we have prepared will expose us to a high level of competition as we will be playing against teams from the top conferences in the nation.  We feel that this schedule should prepare us for a tough A-Sun schedule," said Henson.

ETSU will open their season at home in an exhibition match against Francis Marion on Friday, August 15 at 5:30 p.m. before officially opening their season on Sunday, Aug. 24 at UNC Asheville for a 2 p.m. match up. The Bucs' home opener will be on Sunday Aug. 31 when they take on Morehead State at 2 p.m.