Long Island Announces 2007 Fall Schedule

4/23/07 -- The Long Island University women’s soccer team announced its 2007 schedule on Monday afternoon. The Blackbirds will play a total of eight home games as they set out to defend their Northeast Conference championship.

Long Island, which finished last year with a 13-8-1 record, will open the regular season on Friday, Aug. 31, at Rutgers in a 7:00 p.m. game. The Scarlet Knights, out of the BIG EAST Conference, advanced to the second round of last year’s NCAA Tournament.

LIU will open its home slate against NJIT in a 1:00 p.m. game at LIU Field on Sunday, Sept. 2. The Blackbirds will then travel to Albuquerque, N.M., for a pair of tournament games at the University of New Mexico. Long Island will play New Mexico on Sept. 7 and Utah Valley State on Sept. 9.

Long Island will round out its non-conference schedule against regional opponents. The Blackbirds host Lafayette on Sept. 14, followed by Columbia on Sept. 16, before taking to the road to face Binghamton (Sept. 22) and American (Sept. 28). Long Island concludes the non-league schedule against Siena at home on Sept. 30.

The conference opener for the Blackbirds is at Monmouth on Friday, Oct. 5, in a rematch of last year’s NEC Championship game won by LIU. Long Island will then travel to Mount St. Mary’s on Oct. 7 and Wagner on Oct. 12, before playing its first conference game at home against Fairleigh Dickinson on Oct. 19. LIU will then host Sacred Heart on Oct. 21.

Long Island closes out the road portion of its schedule against Central Connecticut State on Oct. 26 and at Quinnipiac on Oct. 28. LIU finishes the regular season with home games against Robert Morris (Nov. 2) and Saint Francis (Pa.) (Nov. 4).

The NEC Tournament will be hosted by the regular season champion, with the semifinals on Friday, Nov. 9, and the championship on Sunday, Nov. 11.

The Blackbirds will play a pair of preseason scrimmages at Northeastern (Aug. 21) and Hartford (Aug. 25). Hartford played in last season’s NCAA Tournament, while Northeastern finished with a 9-6-4 record.