Women's Soccer Schedule
The Rider University women's soccer team will begin the 2010 season August 27 against the host Catamounts at the TD Bank Classic, hosted by the University of Vermont.
"In the hot days of August I always prefer to head north rather than south," said third-year head coach Drayson Hounsome, "so I'm excited to be attending the Vermont tournament for our opening weekend."
Rider will also play the University of New Hampshire at Vermont before the home opener September 5 against Saint Francis (Pa.).
The Broncs will be led by seniors Lauren Musumeci (Annandale, N.J./North Hunterdon) and Alex Post (Chalfont, Pa./Central Bucks West). Musumeci scored a team-high seven goals last season and enters her senior year with 36 career points. Post has played 50 games in the Rider net and has compiled 264 saves and six shutouts.
"We have a talented group of players as part of the program this fall, so preparing for conference play will be our goal throughout the opening matches," Hounsome said. "Vermont and New Hampshire will both provide challenges, while allowing us the opportunity to tweak things positionally."
Rider's new turf field also has lights and the first home night game in program history will be September 10 against cross-state rival Fairleigh Dickinson University.
"FDU will be our first match under the lights so that will be an exciting evening for the program," Hounsome said. "We have had two contrasting matches with them over the last two years and a competitive rivalry has developed."
Rider defeated FDU in 2008 before losing to the Knights last year.
The Broncs will look to improve on last year's encouraging season "The non-conference schedule has several matches against teams that beat us last year, so we'll be hoping to reverse those score lines," Hounsome said.
The all-important Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference games will be played in October, beginning with home games against Niagara and Canisius and ending with defending champion Loyola.
"The MAAC was very close last year," Hounsome said, "but Loyola should once again be the team to beat so it is great that we have 17 games to prepare for them, as we face them on the very last regular season game. We made a big stride last season in the MAAC and we'll be looking to continue that in 2010."
-RU-
