Rich Manning will lead his team into a challenging schedule in 2008.

Utah Soccer Announces 2008 Schedule

Manning's Utes to play exciting, challenging slate

April 28, 2008

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SALT LAKE CITY - The 2008 schedule for the University of Utah women's soccer team promises to be one of the most exciting in years. The Utes will host 10 games at Ute Field and will face teams from the many of the best conferences in the nation during the upcoming season.

"Great competition and great environments," Utah head coach Rich Manning said. "That is the theme of our fall schedule. We are playing teams from some of the top conferences in America. The West Coast Conference, Pac-10, ACC, SEC, and the Big West are a Who's Who of the best that our sport offers."

Utah will open its 2008 campaign with a road trip to the State of North Carolina. The Utes will lift the lid on the season August 22 at Wake Forest. Two days later, Utah will travel to Greensboro, N.C. for a matchup with UNC-Greensboro.

"We open on the road in two of the most beautiful stadiums in the country," Manning said. "Wake Forest has a gorgeous facility and UNC-Greensboro hosted the College Cup in 1997 and 1998. We've got some other challenging trips in store as well."

As high as he is on the road schedule, Manning is equally as excited about his team's home schedule for 2008.

"At Ute Field, our fans will love seeing some great new faces as we host Georgia, Long Beach State and Cal State Fullerton for the first times," Manning said. "We have some quality familiar faces in Arizona, Utah State and the Mountain West Conference teams as well. As usual, our game with BYU will be one of the most exciting nights of soccer in the country. Fans will want to get tickets locked up for that match right away."

Utah's home-opening weekend will feature opponents from the Pac-10 and Southeastern Conferences. August 29 will be the first home match for the Utes, when they host Arizona. Two days later, Utah will host Georgia.

September brings three home matches and three west coast road trips for the Utes. Utah will play at Oregon and Oregon State to open the month. A home match with Utah State will be followed up by a matchup at Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles. Home matches with Long Beach State and Cal State Fullerton precede road games at Washington and Cal Poly to wrap up the month.

The Mountain West Conference schedule gets started in October and opens with a bang. Utah hosts arch-rival BYU in the MWC opener at Ute Field on Oct. 4. The Utes start with a three-game homestand to start league play, also hosting San Diego State and UNLV. A pair of matches at New Mexico and TCU is sandwiched in between another pair of home games. The Utes play their final non-conference opponent of the season on Oct. 24, when Seattle University visits Ute Field. Wyoming will be the final home opponent of the season on Oct. 26. The regular season wraps up on Halloween at the Air Force Academy.

Utah will travel back to Colorado Springs for the MWC Championship Tournament less than a week after the regular season ends. The conference tournament will be held Nov. 5-8 and will be hosted by the Air Force Academy.

Utah was 12-5-4 overall and 3-2-2 in MWC play last season.

-UU-