UC Irvine Men's Soccer Announces 2011 Schedule
IRVINE, Calif. --- The UC Irvine men's soccer team, led by head coach George Kuntz, has announced its 2011 schedule and will play three NCAA Tournament qualifying teams this season.
"Our schedule this year is outstanding," said Kuntz. "It will provide our team an opportunity to measure ourselves against some of the best teams in the nation from various regions in the country. The Big East, Big Ten, West Coast Conference, MPSF, Missouri Valley Conference, Horizon league, as well as the Big West have had teams in the Top 20 during recent years and many of the teams we will play will be vying for the top spots in their respective conferences. Our objective is to prepare our team for what we will face in our conference as well as increase the level of our schedule," continued Kuntz. "We look forward to playing outstanding competition this fall with a team that finished a strong spring schedule with favorable results. Our UC Irvine Men's Soccer faithful should be in for some exciting action watching the Anteaters, who were in the top 10 statistically last season in goals scored (7th), scoring offense (5th), goals against (6th), shutout percentage (7th) and won-lost-tied percentage (9th).
UCI will host its Alumni Match, Aug. 20 and opens the season against San Diego in the home opener, Aug. 26.
The team then travels to Omaha, Nebraska for a single game against Nebraska-Omaha (Aug. 28) before returning to Anteater Stadium to face Gonzaga (Sept. 2) and Drake University (Sept. 4).
The Anteaters return to the road at Wisconsin (Sept. 9) and University of Illinois-Chicago (Sept. 11) before traveling to the South Florida Tournament. UCI faces Florida Gulf Coast (Sept. 16) and NCAA Tournament team, South Florida (Sept. 18).
UCI then tackles UNLV (Sept. 23) at home before opening the Big West schedule against Cal Poly (Sept. 28).
Big West champions collide Oct. 1 in Santa Barbara as the Anteaters, the regular-season champs, face off against conference tournament winners, the Gauchos.
The team then travels locally to Cal State Fullerton (Oct. 5) prior to hosting Cal State Northridge (Oct. 8). UCI travels to UC Riverside (Oct. 12) and then makes it second trip to Omaha to take on Creighton, which won the Mountain Valley Conference and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
UCI plays two straight at Anteater Stadium against UC Davis (Oct. 19) and Cal State Fullerton (Oct. 22) and then takes on the Matadors (Oct. 26) for the second time in the season.
The Anteaters will play its final Big West home match against UC Riverside on Oct. 29 and concludes the conference schedule at Cal Poly (Nov. 1).
UCI logged its fifth winning season in the last six years, registering the second-highest number of wins with 14 (14-3-3). The team returns six starters in 2011 and are led by All-Big West honorees, Miguel Ibarra, Andrew Fontein and Everett Pitts.
