Ole Miss Soccer Announces 2007 Schedule

OXFORD, Miss. As Ole Miss prepares for another exciting season of women’s soccer, head coach Steve Holeman announced on Monday the 2007 fall schedule, which is highlighted by 11 home matches and seven contests against teams that advanced to last year’s NCAA Tournament.

In addition to an always-demanding SEC slate that includes five of last year’s NCAA participants, the Rebels have put together another strong non-conference schedule with some of the top teams in the Central Region, including a pair of NCAA Tournament squads in UAB and Colorado College.

Ole Miss is looking to return to the “Big Dance” itself, after missing an at-large bid last season. The Rebels have made the tourney three times in the last five years (2002, 2003 and 2005).

The Rebels will host 11 home matches during the fall, in addition to hosting a pre-season exhibition against Samford on Saturday, Aug. 25 at 1 p.m. Ole Miss ranked 28th in the country in total attendance last year with 7,873 fans attending 11 games at the Ole Miss Soccer Stadium.

The regular season opens with a Friday night matchup against the Miami Hurricanes of the powerful Atlantic Coast Conference on Aug. 31 in Oxford. The Rebels will host the BIG EAST’s South Florida Bulls on Sept. 2.

A string of six straight Conference USA foes, several of whom are highly ranked in the region, concludes the non-league slate. The Rebels travel to Southern Miss (Sept. 7) and UAB (Sept. 9) before returning home to host Rice (Sept. 14) and UCF (Sept. 16). The annual showdown against Mid-South rival Memphis will take place in Memphis on Sept. 21, while the Rebels welcome Colorado College to Oxford on Sept. 23.

“We feel like we have a very competitive non-conference schedule,” Holeman said. “It will certainly prepare us for the SEC, which is our main objective in the non-conference. From top to bottom, I think this is the most well-balanced. We don’t have any Notre Dames, but everyone we have is a quality opponent. And several of those are at home.”

Each year the SEC continues to improve its stature among the nation’s elite women’s soccer leagues, and last year five squads received bids to the NCAA Tournament, including Auburn, Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee and Vanderbilt. The Gators and Lady Vols both advanced to the Sweet 16.

“The SEC just keeps getting stronger and stronger every year,” Holeman said. “This year is no different. It will be very competitive.”

The Rebels begin SEC play with road matches at Arkansas (Sept. 28) and LSU (Sept. 30) before returning to Oxford for a four-game home stand against Auburn (Oct. 5), Alabama (Oct. 7), Florida (Oct. 12) and South Carolina (Oct. 14). The Rebels travel east to face Tennessee (Oct. 19) and Georgia (Oct. 21), followed by a home match against Vanderbilt (Oct. 25), a road game at Kentucky (Oct. 28) and the regular season finale against in-state rival Mississippi State (Nov. 2) in Oxford.

“We have a better schedule than we did last fall,” Holeman added. “We have a better balance in terms of home and away games. Last year we were on the road five of our last six SEC games and we ended up being on the road the last five weekends in a row. All that travel made it tough at the end of the season.”

The SEC Tournament, which invites the league’s top eight finishers, will be held Nov. 7-11 in Orange Beach, Ala. The first four rounds of the NCAA Tournament will take place on campus sites from Nov. 16-Dec. 2, while the Women’s College Cup will be held in College Station, Texas, on Dec. 7 and 9.

Ole Miss returns the majority of its squad from last year that finished 8-7-5 overall and just missed a second consecutive Southeastern Conference Western Division title with a 4-2-5 league mark.

Among the returnees are All-SEC selections Chrissy Strini (first team midfielder), Jennifer Hance (second team midfielder) and Danielle Johnson (second team defender), as well as six more returning starters.

For ticket information regarding 2007 Ole Miss home matches, fans should contact the Ole Miss Ticket Office at 662-915-7167.

The University of Mississippi Athletics

Related News

Related Videos