DePaul University Athletics
DePaul Women's Soccer Announces 2015 Schedule
6/3/2015 12:00:00 AM | WOMEN'S SOCCER
2015 Schedule | Printable Schedule
CHICAGO -- DePaul women' soccer announces its 2015 schedule Wednesday that will feature five teams the Blue Demons will be facing for the first time.
After opening the season Aug. 15 with an exhibition game at Wish Field against Big Ten team Northwestern and playing at Cincinnati on Aug. 21, coach Erin Chastain's side will take on Utah on Aug. 23 at Wish Field in the program's first test against a program from the powerful Pac-12 Conference.
The next two matches take place at Loyola Soccer Park where the Blue Demons will encounter Eastern Michigan on Aug. 28 and St. Francis (Pa.) on Aug. 30---both teams for the first time. The other first-time challenges are Army on Sept. 4 at Wish Field and Long Beach State on Sept. 20 at home. Long Beach State will be a Big West vs. BIG EAST showdown.
"We are really excited about our 2015 schedule," Chastain said. "We've added some good teams from competitive conferences and different regions that will test our group.
"Our match against Utah will be the first time our program faces a Pac-12 opponent which is exciting given the success that conference had last year. The Pac-12 had nine teams compete in the NCAA tournament with Stanford advancing to the 2014 Women's College Cup national semifinals."
Also featured among DePaul's 11 nonconference games are Big Ten foe Nebraska, Western Michigan, Central Michigan and North Side rival Loyola.
The Blue Demons will begin defending their BIG EAST Conference regular-season and tournament titles with a Sept. 26 match at Xavier which will be followed by an Oct. 1 showdown at Creighton---site of the 2015 BIG EAST Championship.
Seton Hall (Oct. 4) and Butler (Oct. 8) visit Wish Field before Chastain & Co. take off for a road match Oct. 11 at Villanova.
DePaul finishes up the regular season with four consecutive matches against teams that advanced to the BIG EAST Championship last season.
The challenging stretch run opens with an Oct. 18 matchup against BIG EAST semifinalist St. John's at Wish Field. On Oct. 22, the Blue Demons journey to Providence before returning home for showdowns against NCAA tournament qualifier and BIG EAST runner-up Georgetown on Oct. 25 and BIG EAST semifinalist Marquette on Oct. 30.
"I'm expecting a big challenge from all of our BIG EAST opponents as most teams have a majority of their talent returning," Chastain said. "I believe the BIG EAST will be even stronger and more competitive next fall, and we will need to be prepared for that."
DePaul topped the BIG EAST with a 7-0-2 record last fall before defeating Marquette on penalty kicks in the tournament semifinals and knocking off Georgetown 2-0 in the title game.
The Blue Demons had a record-breaking season in 2014 going 16-1-4 and compiling a 20-game undefeated streak that was snapped in a 2-0 loss at Wisconsin in the NCAA tournament opener.
DePaul has not lost a regular-season match since Nov. 2, 2013 at St. John's---an amazing span of 578 days. The Blue Demons are 29-7-6 over the last two seasons while making back-to-back NCAA tournament appearances for the first time in program history.
