2009 Schedule
A trip to Hawaii and eight home games highlight the 2009 Titan women’s soccer schedule, announced head coach
Mike Lupenec.
“It is a very solid schedule that has us playing some of the best teams in the Midwest,” said Lupenec. “We return a young, but talented, team with 10 sophomores and with six freshmen coming it, the schedule allows us to really work on our game and get all the kinks out before conference play begins.”
A pair of in-state exhibitions opens the season as Detroit welcomes Madonna University on Aug. 21. The Titans will then hit the road to face Saginaw Valley before heading home for its Annual Alumni Game on Aug.29.
The regular season will then get underway with a two-game home stand featuring Notre Dame College and Bowling Green on Sept. 2 and 4, respectively.
The Titans will then hit the road for five straight starting with a trip to Ypsilanti to battle Eastern Michigan (Sept. 8), followed by a weekend affair in Indiana where the red, white and blue will visit IUPUI (Sept. 11) and IPFW (Sept. 13).
The final two games of the road swing will see UDM square off against Michigan State on Sept. 15 and Central Michigan on the 18th.
Detroit will return to the friendly confines of Titan Field to face Oakland on Sept. 22, before departing the mainland for a two-game series at Hawaii. With both games set for a 7 p.m. local start, the contests will actually begin at 1 a.m. (EST) on Friday, Sept. 25, and Sunday the 27th.
“The trip to Hawaii is going to be a lot of fun for us and is great for the program, but it is a business trip and that is how we need to approach it,” added Lupenec.
Horizon League play will then fill the last eight games of the regular season, starting with a trip to Cleveland State on Oct. 2, before Youngstown State comes to the Motor City on the 4th. The following weekend, UDM heads back to Indiana for a pair of road contests at Butler and at Valparaiso.
Detroit ends the season with three of its last four games at home starting with a weekend showdown against the conference’s Wisconsin schools in Milwaukee (Oct. 16) and Green Bay (Oct.18). The last regular season road game will see UDM make its way to Chicago for a match against Loyola on Oct. 23, while the season finale will have Wright State in town on Senior Day, Oct. 25.
The Horizon League tournament will then start on Nov. 1 with quarter-final action, with the semi-finals on Nov. 6 and the championship match on Nov. 8. A change in the conference tournament format will also be introduced in 2009 with only the top six teams advancing to post-season play. The top seed will host the semi-finals and the championship and receive a first-round bye, while the second seed will also earn a first round bye. The quarter-finals home matches will be hosted by the third and fourth seed.
UDM returns 15 letterwinners, including their top two point scorers, from a squad that finished 8-9-1 overall and fifth in the conference with a 4-4 mark last season. Junior
Selena Stanski (Tecumseh, ON/St. Anne's Secondary) led the team with 16 points on four goals and a team best eight assists, while senior
Trina Kochanski (Royal Oak, MI/Kimball) was second with 13 points on a team-high six goals with one helper.