SAN ANTONIO – UTSA head soccer coach Derek Pittman announced the Roadrunners' 2018 schedule on Wednesday, which features six home tilts and a 10-match Conference USA ledger. It also includes contests against four programs that reached the NCAA Championship last season.
"We are very excited about this upcoming slate of games," Pittman said. "We feel this schedule gives us a great balance of opponents in the non-conference portion that will prepare us well for what we will see in Conference USA this fall."
UTSA will begin the year with three exhibition matches at Park West Athletics Complex against Sam Houston State (Aug. 5), Houston Baptist (Aug. 10) and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (Aug. 12).
"First and foremost, we will use our three exhibition matches to find out what we have and get things settled as we head into our season opener," Pittman said. The 2018 season is a fresh start for our entire program, with a brand new staff, so we want to give every one of our players the chance to compete for playing time and our coaches the opportunity to evaluate the roster in order to put the best team on the field."
The Roadrunners will embark on a four-match road trip to start the regular season. Pittman will make his official debut for UTSA on Aug. 17 at Northwestern State. The Birds also will travel to I-35 rival Texas State two days later. UTSA will make stops at Oral Roberts (Aug. 24) and Colorado (Aug. 31) before returning to San Antonio to open its home slate against Grand Canyon on Sept. 2.
A five-match road swing with three tilts against 2018 NCAA Championship participants follows the home opener.
The Roadrunners will face defending Southland Conference champion Lamar on Sept. 7. Two days later, UTSA will travel across the city to face Incarnate Word. The Conference USA schedule begins on Sept. 16 with a road match versus Middle Tennessee.
Pittman's squad then will return to Texas to face the top two returning squads in C-USA – Rice (Sept. 23) and North Texas (Sept. 30).
The Roadrunners will open the month of October at home against Florida Atlantic (Oct. 5) and Marshall (Oct. 7).
The final road trip of the regular season takes UTSA to Hattiesburg, Miss., to face Southern Miss on Oct. 12. The squad then stops in Ruston, La., for a contest with Louisiana Tech two days later.
UTSA will wrap up the regular season with a three-match home stand against Old Dominion (Oct. 18), Charlotte (Oct. 21) and UTEP (Oct. 26).
Conference USA will hold its postseason tournament Oct. 31-Nov. 5 in Norfolk, Va.
"Conference USA is a quality league and it showed last year with both North Texas and Rice getting into the NCAA Tournament," Pittman added. "That's where we want to be, competing against the best and we will measure ourselves very quickly against those two opponents as we open up conference play. The nice thing is that five of our last seven games are at home and it comes at a crucial time as we will be pushing to achieve our goal of qualifying for the Conference USA Tournament.
"We have the talent on this team to be successful and our players will play with a relentless passion, intensity and preparedness that will be a new standard for this program moving forward. There is a huge buzz here at UTSA and our soccer program is definitely going to be part of that in 2018 and beyond."
HIGHLIGHTS
• Three exhibition matches at home versus Sam Houston State (Aug. 5), Houston Baptist (Aug. 10) and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (Aug. 12)
• Pittman will make his debut as the Roadrunners' head coach at Northwestern State (Aug. 17)
• The Park West Athletics Complex opener is slated for Sept. 2 against Grand Canyon
• The Conference USA opener is scheduled for Sept. 16 at Middle Tennessee
• UTSA will host Florida Atlantic (Oct. 5), Marshall (Oct. 7), Old Dominion (Oct. 18), Charlotte (Oct. 21) and UTEP (Oct. 26) in San Antonio
• The Roadrunners will play four teams that earned NCAA Championship berths a year ago on the road – Colorado (Aug. 31), Lamar (Sept. 7), Rice (Sept. 23) and North Texas (Sept. 30)
• UTSA also will make short road trips to I-35 rival Texas State (Aug. 19) and cross-town foe Incarnate Word (Sept. 9)
• The 2018 Conference USA Championship will take place Oct. 31-Nov. 5 in Norfolk, Va.
Click here for the full schedule.
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