Utah State Soccer Releases 2007 Schedule
Utah State women’s soccer head coach Heather Cairns released the Aggies’ 2007 schedule Wednesday. USU is scheduled to play a 19-match regular-season ledger, including eight home matches at Chuck & Gloria Bell Soccer Field. The Aggies will open the 2007 season by hosting an exhibition match against Dixie College on Saturday, Aug. 18.
Admission to all USU soccer matches at Bell Field is free to the public. USU’s schedule includes four teams that played in last season’s NCAA Tournament, in Idaho State, Brigham Young, Utah and Western Athletic Conference foe and defending league champion Nevada.
“Our schedule is such that we have a very competitive non-conference schedule, and in that past that has really helped us come conference time,” Cairns said. “We have a great mix of teams that made the NCAA Tournament and teams that were in the running for the NCAA Tournament in our non-conference portion of our schedule, and that tough competition is going to play a vital role in preparing us for WAC play.”
“Starting out with so many of our non-conference matches on the road will be challenging, and it will really test us, not only on the soccer field, but how we are able to adjust and adapt to the mentally toughness that we’ll need to be successful,” Cairns said.
The Aggies’ 11 games on the road include their first two matches of the season and four overall at teams which ranked in the top 40 in average attendance last season, led by BYU on Oct. 4 (No. 3, 2,069 per game), as well as TCU on Sept. 2 (No. 11, 1,254/game), Fresno State on Oct. 21 (No. 18, 936/game) and Texas State on Aug. 31 (No. 40, 645/game).
“Any time you play in front of large crowds, it gives you a little extra zip in your step,” Cairns said. “When you progress through the season, you want to make sure that you are playing good soccer and you’re improving on the field, but there is also a lot of mentality and mental growth that go into it. Certainly, early in the season when we’re playing in Texas and dealing with the environmental conditions there, and then playing those matches in front of these attendance leaders, you have that added mentality of a hostile, rowdy crowd. So you look for that mental growth as well as what’s going on the field. That will all bode well in testing us and preparing us for our WAC matches.”
Utah is the only team on USU’s schedule that was ranked in the final NSCAA/adidas Top 25 Poll last season, with the Utes being ranked No. 23, but Oregon was among others receiving votes.
After the exhibition, USU opens regular-season action with five matches away from home, opening the season at San Marcos, Texas against Texas State on Aug. 31. The Aggies continue their Lone Star state tour with a stop at Fort Worth, Texas facing the Horned Frogs of Texas Christian on Sept. 2. Utah State has never faced Texas State and the Aggies have only played TCU once, back in 1996 which was USU’s first season of soccer., with TCU winning, 4-2.
“The Texas trip will be great for Shannon Ross (junior-to-be midfielder and Fort Worth native) to be playing in her hometown and in front of her friends and family, so we’ll have a lot of energy and have a lot of support on that trip,” Cairns said.
USU heads to Flagstaff, Ariz., on Sept. 7-9 for the Northern Arizona Tournament, opening with UC Irvine on Sept. 7, before tangling with host Northern Arizona on Sept. 9. UC Irvine is a former Big West foe of USU’s, and the Aggies are just 1-7-1 against the Anteaters. Utah State and Northern Arizona haven’t played since 2003, and USU is 3-2 vs. NAU.
The Aggies play the first of three in-state foes against Weber State on Sept. 12 at Ogden, Utah.
USU hosts Oregon on Sept. 14 in the Aggies’ home opener, before hosting NCAA Tournament team Idaho State on Sept. 16.
A trip to the Pacific Northwest is in store for USU on Sept. 21 and 23, facing Gonzaga on Sept. 21 at Spokane, Wash., and then heading to Cheney, Wash. on Sept. 23 to face Eastern Washington.
The Aggies return to the friendly confines of Bell Field to tangle with the Lady Griz of Montana on Sept. 27.
Back-to-back in-state foe matches are up next, with USU heading to Provo, Utah to face NCAA Tournament participant BYU on Oct. 4, before returning home to host Utah, who also made the NCAA Tournament, on Oct. 6.
“It is great to have the relationship with BYU and Utah they we have, that we can play them every year,” Cairns said. “They are two of the top teams in the Mountain West Conference and both have a great history of going to the NCAA Tournament, and that is what we are striving to become, a team that is consistently successful and regularly gets into the NCAA Tournament. So those matches give us a great tests and shows us what kind of level we are going to need to be playing in order to achieve those goals.”
The Aggies open WAC action on the road, at Idaho on Oct. 12 at Moscow, Idaho.
Boise State comes to Logan to take on USU on Oct. 14, before the Aggies head to WAC Tournament champ and NCAA Tournament team Nevada on Oct. 19 at Reno, Nev., and at Fresno State on Oct. 21.
A three-game homestand to close out the season kicks off with Hawai’i on Oct. 26, followed by San Jose State on Oct. 28 and the Aggies wrap-up regular-season action with Louisiana Tech on Nov. 3.
The WAC Tournament is Nov. 8-11, hosted by Boise State at Boise, Idaho. “Finishing up the season with three home matches is great and having the WAC Championships in Boise is a close trip for us,” Cairns said. “In 2006, we were away from Logan for four of our last five weekends and that was very tough to do. This year’s schedule keeps us closer to home and we’ll be able to keep our energy up for our crucial matches in the WAC Tournament.”
The 64-team NCAA Tournament begins Nov. 16, with the College Cup on Dec. 7 and 9 at College Station, Texas.
Utah State returns nine starters and 23 letterwinners from last season’s squad that posted a 10-8-2 record, tying the most-ever wins in the program’s 11-year history. The Aggies’ 5-0-2 WAC record tops the previous program-record marks of four conference wins, done four times, most recently in 2005, and the .750 conference winning percentage is a new school record, topping 2005’s .643 (4-2-1). Utah State’s 10 wins matches the 2003 squad for most-ever wins in a season, while the .550 winning percentage (10-8-2) is just behind the program record mark of .579 in 2003 (10-7-2).
Cairns also announced that senior midfielder Dana Peart and junior midfielder Shannon Ross will be the 2007 captains, along with an additional captain, who will be voted on and named during fall pre-season training. Peart and Ross were two of seven Aggies to both play and start in all 20 matches last season.
Peart ranks just out of the top 10 in matches played with 58, but needs just 14 matches to crack the top five and needs 19 matches to take over the No. 1 spot of 76 matches set by Sierra Smith this past season. With 24 career points, Peart ranks ninth on the Aggies’ career points list (seven last year) and is tied for eighth with eight career goals, including three last season.
Ross has played in 38 career matches with 25 career starts and has one career assist, this past season in USU’s 1-0 win over Eastern Washington on Sept. 30.