NORMAL, Ill. - Illinois State women's soccer head coach Drew Roff is spending the summer preparing for his first season with the Redbirds in the fall. The Redbirds 2007 schedule is complete and they will face some tough competition in the program's 12th season, including a pair of 2006 NCAA Tournament teams. Illinois State has a 16-game slate in 2007, seven of which will be at home.
The Redbirds open the regular season and the Roff era at home against UW-Green Bay on Friday, Aug. 31, at 4 p.m. Central Michigan (Sep. 7), Morehead State (Sep. 16) and Oregon (Sep. 23) are the other non-conference home games for the Redbirds. The Eagles and Ducks will both be making their first trips to Adelaide Street Field.
Other non-conference games include road dates with Valparaiso (Sep. 2), Western Illinois (Sep. 14), Ball State (Sep. 21), Oakland (Sep. 30), Loyola-Chicago (Oct. 7), and Eastern Illinois (Oct. 31). Oakland is the defending Mid-Continent Conference champion, now known as the Summit League, and qualified for the NCAA Tournament in 2006.
"We have a very challenging non-conference schedule," Roff said. "Oregon was second in the Pac-10 last year, a very strong conference. The teams we play early on will prepare us well for Valley play, which is always tough. We are fortunate to have three of the top teams in the conference at home, which should put us at an advantage."
Illinois State has six Missouri Valley Conference games lined up in 2007. Redbird fans will get to see some of the best teams that the Valley has to offer when Drake (Oct. 28), Creighton (Oct. 14), and Evansville (Oct. 21) come to town. Those three teams finished at the top of the Valley standings in 2006. Drake beat Evansville in the conference championship game and qualified for the NCAA Tournament. Illinois State visits Indiana State (Oct. 5), Northern Iowa (Oct. 12), and Missouri State (Oct. 26) to round out its Valley action.
The State farm MVC Tournament has the same format as years past. Two play-in games will be played at the field of the higher seed on Nov. 3 and 4. The semifinals are Friday, Nov. 9 and the final is Sunday, Nov. 11, at Michael G. Morrison, S.J., Stadium in Omaha, Neb.
The Redbirds have two exhibition games in August. They host UW-Milwaukee on August 19 and visit IPFW on August 24. It marks the second-consecutive year the Redbirds will face the Panthers in exhibition play. UW-Milwaukee beat Michigan in the first round of the 2006 NCAA Tournament before losing to national finalist Notre Dame in the second round. The Redbirds beat IPFW in a regular season game last season, 4-0.
