SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Coming off the 10th West Coast Conference title in program history, Santa Clara women's soccer announced its schedule for the 2014 season. The Broncos will open up with six straight home games before hitting the road. Conference play opens with three road games and the regular season wraps-up with three straight home contests.
"Our non-conference schedule this year has some new nuances," said Santa Clara head coach Jerry Smith. "We have Notre Dame at home and we've had a great relationship with them so we're very happy to have them here. We also have a few teams on our schedule that we haven't played a lot, which is always exciting. Another anomaly is that we play Cal once here and once on the road. It will be interesting to have a series like that and see who comes out on top."
The regular season opens with a two-game weekend Fri., Aug. 22 at Buck Shaw vs. UC Irvine and vs. Cal on Sun., Aug. 24. Santa Clara will also face Notre Dame and Fresno State during the six-game home stand. Santa Clara will also face Florida International for the first time and UC Davis for the first time since 1990.
The first two road games will provide a huge test for Santa Clara as they play at Cal on Sun., Sept. 14 and at Stanford on Fri., Sept. 19. After returning home for one game the Broncos hit the road for two more games before the start of conference play.
"It will be fun to try and defend out title in the WCC," said Smith. "We start out on the road which is always a little bumpy but we finish with three at home. There are always tough matches in the conference. We'll have some really tough road matches but finishing at home will be good. Hopefully we'll be fighting for another title in the home matches at the end of the season."
WCC action begins Fri., Oct. 3 at Pepperdine and Santa Clara doesn't play its first home conference game until Oct. 19 vs. Pacific. After five of six road conference games, the Broncos come home for the final three games of the regular season starting with a Halloween matchup vs. Gonzaga. On Sun., Nov. 2 Portland comes to the Mission campus and the season wraps-up Sat., Nov. 8 vs. Saint Mary's on Senior Day.
The NCAA Tournament begins Nov. 14 at campus locations and the College Cup will be held in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Dec. 5-7. The Broncos are looking to make their 25th NCAA Tournament and 11th College Cup.
