ALBANY - The College of Saint Rose has announced its women’s soccer schedule for the 2010 season. The Golden Knights will play their inaugural campaign on the Dr. R. Mark and Kathleen Sullivan Field at the Plumeri Sports Complex. Saint Rose will participate in 18 regular-season contests, 15 against Northeast-10 Conference opponents, with 11 dates on its new home synthetic turf surface.
The Golden Knights will host league members Southern New Hampshire, Le Moyne, Adelphi, American International, Bentley, Merrimack, Saint Michael’s, and Southern Connecticut State. They will travel to UMass Lowell, Assumption, Stonehill, Pace, Saint Anselm, New Haven, and perennial rival Franklin Pierce.
The non-conference slate is comprised of home dates versus Holy Family, Mercy and Queens. The NE-10 Tournament is scheduled to get underway with quarterfinal action on Sunday, October 31. The semifinals are set for Thursday, November 4 with the league championship match on tap for Sunday, November 7.
Four teams on the docket advanced to last year’s NCAA Tournament including Holy Family against whom the Golden Knights open with at home on Friday, September 3 at 4:00 pm. Mercy arrives on Monday, September 6 for a 1:00 pm Labor Day matinee.
Saint Rose then begins its quest towards a fourth straight conference title with an encounter at UMass Lowell on Friday, September 10. The River Hawks advanced to the NCAA Tournament a year ago before falling in the opening round via penalty kicks to league foe Merrimack.
After returning from UMass Lowell, Saint Rose will close out the month of September with five of its remaining six contests at home. October proves to be a different story though as the Golden Knights don their road black uniforms four times within the first two weeks.
A pair of key dates will then remain on the schedule. Merrimack arrives for a 1:00 pm encounter on Saturday, October 16. The Golden Knights then head to Franklin Pierce, which won seven straight conference titles between 2000 and 2006, on Saturday, October 23. Saint Rose defeated the Ravens 2-1 in last year’s NE-10 Tournament championship match and upended them 1-0 in the third round of the NCAA Tournament.
The Golden Knights, who are coming off of yet another historical campaign, then close out their regular-season schedule on Wednesday, October 27 when Southern Connecticut State visits.
Saint Rose finished 24-1-0 overall and 15-0-0 in league play a year ago. The Golden Knights made their second consecutive NCAA Tournament national semifinals appearance, came one victory shy of tying an NCAA Division II single-season record, and established a school standard with 18 shutouts. They also qualified for the NCAA Tournament for the seventh time within an eight-year span.
2010 SCHEDULE