Tribe Men’s Soccer Releases 2007 Schedule

W&M will meet six NCAA Tournament teams from a season ago during the 2007 slate.

07/10/07 3:15PM

Williamsburg - Head men’s soccer coach Chris Norris released the William and Mary schedule for the 2007 season. The ledger will include matches against six NCAA Tournament teams from a season ago and nine matches at the friendly confines of Albert-Daly Field.

W&M opens the season against Southern Conference foe Elon on Sept. 1 at Albert-Daly Field. It will mark the first ever meeting between the Tribe and Phoenix. From there the Tribe will take part in a pair of regular season classic.

The College travels to University Park, Pa., for the Penn State Classic. The Tribe will meet the host Nittany Lions, who have won two of the last three Big Ten Championships, at 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 7. Another Big Ten foe will await W&M in its final match of the tournament on Sept. 9, as the College meets the Ohio State Buckeyes for the first time since the 1995 season.

The Tribe will then take part in the Stihl ODU Soccer Classic in Norfolk for the seventh straight season. Last season, the Tribe claimed the Classic title for the first time since the 1998 season. The College is 24-12-4 all-time at the event. W&M will meet Temple in the opener on Sept. 14, before battling Ivy League foe Dartmouth on Sept. 16.

The first midweek game of the season will be a trip to Chapel Hill, N.C., to face the North Carolina Tar Heels on Sept. 19. UNC defeated W&M, 2-0, in the season-opener at the Wake Forest adidas Classic in 2006. The 2007 contest is slated for a 7:30 p.m. start. The Tribe will continue its ledger against another ACC foe in Virginia Tech on Sept. 22 in Williamsburg. Last season, the Hokies tallied a 1-0 win in Blacksburg on their way to earning a spot in the NCAA Tournament.

W&M will host former CAA opponent American on Sept. 25. It will mark the first meeting between the two schools since the 2004 season. For the second straight season, the Tribe will take on Stony Brook, traveling to battle the Sea-wolves on Sept. 29.

The College will open the 11-match CAA portion of the schedule in October. The early part of the league slate will find the Tribe at home. W&M will host defending CAA Champion Hofstra and Northeastern in the opening weekend of the conference on Oct. 5 and Oct. 7. The Tribe will then welcome James Madison (Oct. 12) and VCU (Oct. 14) to Wil-liamsburg the following weekend.

The Tribe will find the going a bit rough over the next three weekends with five of its six contests over the stretch on the road. The first two matches of the road trip will be against Towson (Oct. 19) and George Mason (Oct. 21). Both teams earned spots in the NCAA Tournament last season as part of the CAA record four league representatives. Tow-son was seeded No. 15 in the NCAA Tournament and advanced to the Round of 16 after completing an unblemished CAA regular season (10-0-1).

On Oct. 26, the Tribe will travel to Atlanta to battle Georgia State. The College notched a 4-2 win over the Panthers last season. Two days later, W&M will host UNC Wilmington (Oct. 28) at 2 p.m. in Williamsburg. W&M also knocked off the Seahawks last season, 2-0, in Wilmington.

W&M will wrap up its road ledger with matches at Drexel and Delaware. The College will meet the Dragons on Nov. 2, before traveling to face the Blue Hens on Nov. 4. The Tribe will wrap up the regular season slate by hosting Old Dominion on Nov. 8. Last season, W&M and ODU met as part of the NSCAA Fox Soccer Channel TV package in Norfolk and the Monarchs notched a 2-1 victory.

The CAA Tournament will be Nov. 13-18 with the top six teams in the 12-team league earning a spot in the tourna-ment. The top two seeds in the CAA receive byes to the semifinals, while the other four teams will meet in a pair of quarterfinal matches at campus sites on Nov. 13. The semifinals are set for Nov. 16 with the championship game on Nov. 18. The semifinals and championship will be played in Virginia Beach.

2007 Men's Soccer Schedule (PDF)
2007 Men's Soccer Schedule (HTML)