Aug. 20, 2009
The Big Ten women’s soccer season officially opens on Friday, Aug. 21, with 10 conference squads in action throughout the weekend and nine of those teams opening the 2009 slate in front of home crowds.
Friday’s home matchups include, Indiana taking on Wright State, Iowa squaring off against Missouri and Illinois facing in-state rival Illinois State. Northwestern welcomes Milwaukee to Lakeside Field on Friday, while Michigan and Ohio State play host to Arkansas and Bowling Green, respectively. Penn State kicks off the 2009 campaign by welcoming Virginia to Happy Valley, while Purdue and Minnesota prepare to host Ohio and South Dakota State, respectively. Wisconsin is the only conference squad scheduled to begin its season on the road and will travel to South Bend, Ind., to face Notre Dame on Friday evening.
To conclude the opening weekend, four teams hit the road with Northwestern and Purdue traveling short distances to face DePaul and Butler, respectively, on Sunday. Also on Sunday, Ohio Sate heads east to face West Virginia while Michigan travels for its first away game of the regular season against Valparaiso. That evening, Wisconsin returns to Madison for a home matchup against Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Michigan State begins its regular season at home versus Oakland on Wednesday, Aug. 26.
In 2008, nine of the 11 Big Ten schools posted a record of .500 or better prior to conference play. Four of those teams advanced to the NCAA Championship, with two advancing as far as the third round of tournament action.
Read season outlooks of all the conference's 11 teams by clicking below.
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Michigan
Michigan State
Minnesota
Northwestern
Ohio State
Penn State
Purdue
Wisconsin
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