UConn soccer teams unveil 2023 slates

UConn’s two soccer programs released their 2023 schedules on Thursday, featuring a combined 21 home games at Morrone Stadium.

Women’s soccer

Led by sixth-year head coach Margaret Rodriguez, the Huskies’ women’s soccer team will play 17 games, including 10 at home games.

Women’s soccer typically plays the first regular season contest of the athletic year, which will take place August 20 at home against Boston University following a pair of exhibitions against in-state foes Fairfield (home on August 9) and Quinnipiac (away on August 13).

Non-conference home games include Army (August 31), New Hampshire (September 3), Marist (September 6) and Buffalo (September 16). UConn will travel to a pair of Ivy League teams in Harvard (August 27) and Yale (September 10).

The Huskies face all 10 Big East schools in regular season play, five of which will come at home. Creighton (September 21) will serve as the league opener, followed by St. John’s (September 24), Marquette (October 1), Xavier (October 8) and Villanova (October 19).

UConn will play on the road against Georgetown (September 28), DePaul (October 12), Butler (October 15), Providence (October 22) and Seton Hall (October 26).

The Big East Tournament, which will be conducted entirely at campus sites, will begin with first-round games October 29. The semifinals and finals will be November 2 and 5, respectively.

Five teams on the Huskies’ schedule earned NCAA Tournament berths last season, including Big East foes Georgetown and Xavier. Buffalo and New Hampshire earned automatic berths out of the MAC and America East, respectively, while Harvard received an at-large bid.

Story continues below schedule.

Men’s soccer

UConn men’s soccer also has 17 regular season games with 11 of them are at home.

After exhibitions against New Hampshire (Aug. 12) and Rhode Island (August 19), Chris Gbandi’s team will travel to UNC Charlotte (Aug. 24) to open the regular season. This breaks with recent tradition, as the men’s and women’s teams often play a doubleheader the Friday before classes began. However, UConn will come home and play its home opener against Holy Cross that Sunday (Aug. 27)

LIU (Sept. 1), Siena (Sept. 4), Manhattan (Sept. 11), CCSU (Sept. 19) and Vermont (Oct. 3) will all come into Morrone Stadium for non-conference battles, along with Division II Assumption (Oct. 10). The Huskies will get on the road in non-conference play just once more after the season opener, heading down to New Haven for a date with Yale (Sept. 8).

With the addition of Akron to the Big East, the league is split into East and West divisions. The Huskies are in the East along with Georgetown, Providence, St. John’s, Seton Hall, and Villanova. They will get a crack at each of those five schools, along with Creighton, Marquette and Xavier in the West. UConn won’t face off against Akron, Butler or DePaul in the regular season.

St. John’s (Sept. 15) will come to Morrone Stadium and will serve as the Big East opener. The Red Storm will be joined by Villanova (Sept. 29), Marquette (Oct. 14) and Xavier (Oct. 28).

UConn will travel to Seton Hall (Sept. 23), Georgetown (Oct. 7), Providence (Oct. 18) and Creighton (Oct. 21).

The Big East Tournament begins Nov. 4 with the first round at campus sites, followed by the semifinals (Nov. 9) and final (Nov. 12) at the Maryland SoccerPlex in Boyds, Maryland.

There are four teams on the schedule that appeared in the 2022 NCAA Tournament, three of which are in the Big East in Creighton, Georgetown and Seton Hall. Vermont also made the field out of America East as an at-large team and reached the Elite Eight.