After playing eight matches inside Cupp Stadium a season ago, the Radford University women’s soccer team will increase that number in 2018 with nine matches at home, as head coach Ben Sohrabi released the 2018 schedule on Thursday.
Four of the first five matches of the regular season will be in Radford, Va., along with two preseason exhibition matches. The exhibition matches begin with fellow Commonwealth foe, James Madison (Aug. 9) at 7 p.m., and end with Concord (Aug. 12) making a trip to Cupp Stadium.
“I think we have a very balanced schedule of home and away games that will be challenging for us in 2018,” Sohrabi said. “We take each game one at a time but I think our non-conference games will be great preparation for our always-competitive Big South games. Starting at home with 2017 NCAA Tournament participant, St. Francis (Pa.) will be a tough test and traveling to American Athletic Conference foe East Carolina will be a challenge. After that each game will be a different test that will help prepare us to reach our goals in 2018.”
The regular season kicks off with St. Francis (Pa.) (Aug. 16), who went 11-7 and won the Northeast Conference Tournament. The tournament victory led them to an NCAA Tournament berth against Virginia.
Following the season opener, the Highlanders will travel to Greenville, N.C., to face East Carolina (Aug. 19). After that, Radford will return home for a three-match stretch including two that end the month of August. Wofford (Aug. 23) and VMI (Aug. 30) take a trip to the New River Valley, before Mount St. Mary’s (Sept. 2) ends the homestand. The Highlanders outscored the trio of opponents 10-5 last season and picked up three victories.
The Highlanders take their talents back to North Carolina and visit Appalachian State (Sept. 8) and Elon (Sept. 10) to close out the non-conference schedule. Conference play gets underway at Cupp Stadium when Charleston Southern comes to town on Sept. 15. Campbell follows the Buccaneers for the first Wednesday night matchup of the season on Sept. 19.
Radford will have its first road test in the Big South traveling to Boiling Springs, N.C., to face Gardner-Webb on Sept. 22. September ends with back-to-back home games against Longwood (Sept. 26) and reigning Big South Tournament Champions, High Point (Sept. 29). The Panthers went 13-8-1 last season and posted a 7-1-1 record in conference play. High Point was the Big South’s representative in the NCAA Tournament losing 3-0 to North Carolina.
October features a travel heavy schedule as four of the final five regular season games are on the road. The Highlanders travel to their first state besides North Carolina on Oct. 6 with a trip to Rock Hill, S.C., to face Winthrop. Sohrabi and company will then travel east, but will stay in the Commonwealth of Virginia to take on Hampton (Oct. 10). The Highlanders final home match will be on Oct. 13 as they battle USC Upstate for the fourth consecutive season. The regular season will conclude with road matches at Presbyterian (Oct. 17) and UNC Asheville (Oct. 20), two teams looking to improve in 2018.
The top eight teams make the Big South Tournament and the top four seeds will host the quarterfinals. The games will be held from Friday, Oct. 26 to Sunday, Oct. 28. After the first round matches, the semifinals and championship match will be held at the Sportsplex at Matthews in Matthews, N.C. The semifinals begin Friday, Nov. 2 and the championship match is on Sunday, Nov. 5.
–RU Athletics
