Field Hockey Announces 2010 Schedule
6/1/2010 9:47:30 AM | Field Hockey
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SYRACUSE –The SU women's field hockey team has solidified its schedule for the 2010 season. The schedule includes six 2009 NCAA Tournament teams, as well as 14 teams that were either ranked or receiving votes in the final Kookaburra/NFHCA Division I Poll of the 2009 season.
The team is slated to open the season with a pair of scrimmages against Albany and Cornell on Aug. 21 and 23. SU won its 2009 regular season match, 1-0, against then No. 20 Albany. The Great Danes finished the 2009 season ranked No. 18 in the nation.
Syracuse will open its regular season against Northwestern on Friday, Aug. 27, as part of a three game series featuring SU, Northeastern and Northwestern. Saturday will feature a match between the Wildcats and the Huskies, and Northeastern will play the Orange in the final game on Sunday.
For the next two weekends, SU will take part in similar series, traveling to Ohio State on Sept. 3 to play the Buckeyes. The following day the team will stay in Columbus to play Kent State. In 2009, OSU played the Orange into overtime before SU captured the win, 3-2.
The Orange will then travel to Old Dominion to play ODU and Virginia in consecutive games on Sept. 11 and 12. UVA finished 2009 as the second-ranked team in the nation and played into the national semi-finals before losing to North Carolina, 3-2.
SU opens BIG EAST play on Friday, Sept. 18 at Rutgers, a team which SU defeated 6-1 in 2009. The following day, SU travels to Princeton for a match against the only team which was undefeated against the Orange in 2009. The Tigers defeated the Orange in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, as well in an early season match which was played into overtime before Princeton claimed the victory by the score of 3-2.
After spending the entire month of September on the road, the Orange will close out the first full month of the season by returning home to face BIG EAST foe Louisville on Sept. 25. The team then commences a four game road swing to begin its October slate. The Orange continues conference play on Oct. 2 at Providence.
SU will then face UMass, a top ten team in 2009 which the Orange defeated 5-2 in a game played in Syracuse. After revisiting Albany for a regular season match on Oct. 10, SU concludes its road trip neutral site games against Stanford, at Albany and Georgetown, at American University in Washington, D.C. Stanford lost to Princeton in the first round of the 2009 NCAA Tournament. The Orange handily defeated the Hoyas in 2009 by a margin of 10-0.
Syracuse continues BIG EAST play with on Saturday, Oct. 23 with a key match against rival Connecticut. Syracuse won a critical regular season game between the two teams in 2009 which was played in double overtime. The victory paved the way for the team's regular season BIG EAST Championship. UConn responded in the finals of the BIG EAST Tournament with a victory against the Orange to claim the postseason conference title.
The following day, SU hosts Boston College, the team which handed the Orange its second and final loss of the 2009 regular season. The Orange defeated BC in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, 6-2.
SU closes out the season with its final BIG EAST match against Villanova before heading to UConn for the BIG EAST Tournament Semi-Finals which begin on Nov. 6. NCAA Tournament action is scheduled to begin on Nov. 13.
