Villanova University

May 18, 2005

VILLANOVA, Pa. - 2005 Villanova Women's Soccer Schedule

Head women's soccer coach Ann Clifton unveiled Villanova's 19-game regular season schedule today, and the Wildcats will open the 2005 season on August 26 with a home game against La Salle. In total, Villanova will play nine home games, seven road games and three games at neutral sites during the regular season.

The 2005 schedule features 11 games against Big East conference opponents, the highlight of which will be a road contest against defending national champion Notre Dame. The Wildcats faced the top-ranked Fighting Irish at home last season, and were defeated by a narrow 1-0 margin. Villanova will play five Big East home games and six conference games on the road.

"The game against Notre Dame will be a great challenge for us," Clifton said. "They are the reigning national champions and they return the majority of their team, so it will be exciting for us to go out and compete against them. We are going to be a young team in certain areas this season, and hopefully by the end of the season we will have grown up and be able to handle that kind of a pressure situation."

The Wildcats home conference opponents are Rutgers (Sept. 25), Cincinnati (Oct. 7), Louisville (Oct. 9), West Virginia (Oct. 14) and Pittsburgh (Oct. 16). Villanova will travel to play conference games against Georgetown (Aug. 31), Seton Hall (Sept. 23), Syracuse (Sept. 30), St. John's (Oct. 2), Notre Dame (Oct. 21) and DePaul (Oct. 23).

The games against Cincinnati, Louisville and DePaul will be the first chance for Villanova to face the five new members of the Big East Conference. Marquette and South Florida are the other two teams that will join the league.

"It is going to be a neat challenge for us to play against some highly respected programs," Clifton said of the new conference teams. "It is a battle when new teams are welcomed into a conference, because the existing teams want to hold a stake to the league and challenge the incoming teams. Cincinnati is a team that has been to the Sweet 16, and DePaul is a program on the rise. We have a tough schedule."

The Wildcats will also participate in a pair of tournaments that highlight the eight-game non-conference schedule. Villanova will play in the University of Maryland Tournament on September 8 and 11, with games scheduled against the host Terrapins as well as California-Santa Barbara. One week later, the squad will play in the Dartmouth College Tournament and have games against Arizona State and Minnesota. The other non-conference contests are against La Salle (Home, Aug. 26), St. Joseph's (Home, Aug. 28), Lehigh (Home, Sept. 2) and Vermont (Home, Sept. 4).

"The four tournament games we play in are all going to be very competitive," Clifton said. "Maryland is one of the most competitive teams in the ACC, and we are going to be playing on their home turf. We are the premier matchup of the evening (7:30 p.m. start) and it is going to be a great atmosphere. Santa Barbara is a team that is on the rise. It is an exciting challenge to see an opponent from the West Coast. We have faced Santa Barbara once before (2-0 Villanova win in 2000 season) and had a great game against them."

"I am also really looking forward to the Dartmouth College Tournament," Clifton added. "Arizona State has one of the top coaches in the country, and hopefully the time change for them and a brisk fall day will be in our favor. Minnesota is a Midwest team with a great coaching staff, and we are hoping to possibly get a return with them in the future. It is going to be a neat experience to go to Dartmouth and see an Ivy League campus. We have played against some Ivy League teams in the NCAA Tournament the last few years, and we wanted to be able to go to an Ivy League campus for a couple of games."

With a total of 16 teams now making up the Big East Conference, the league will align into two divisions. Villanova will be in Division B along with Cincinnati, DePaul, Georgetown, Louisville, Notre Dame, Rutgers and Seton Hall. The conference tournament will also be adjusted to include 10 teams. The top three teams in each division will receive a bye in the first round, while the fourth and fifth place teams will have play-in games hosted by the fourth-place team in each division.

"With three of the incoming teams playing in the same division as us, we are setting the stage for traditions and rivalries right away," Clifton said. "One of the other exciting things about our schedule is that because of the size of the conference in recent years, we played a minimal conference schedule. The Big East is one of the top soccer conferences in the country, and it makes the season more exciting to play such a big part of the schedule against conference opponents."

The play-in games for the conference tournament will be contested on October 26-27, with quarterfinal games being played at campus sites on October 29-30. The semifinals and championship game will be hosted by Marquette University on November 4 and 6 in Milwaukee.

NOTES: The August 26 start date will mark the earliest season-opener in team history ... It is just one day earlier that last season, when the Wildcats opened against Charleston on August 27 ... The 2005 schedule features three teams that played in the 2004 NCAA Tournament (Maryland, Notre Dame, West Virginia) ... There are four teams on the schedule that Villanova will face for the first time (Arizona State, DePaul, Louisville, Minnesota) ... Villanova's combined all-time record against the other 15 schools is 84-43-11 (.649).