The Pacific men's soccer team released its 2015 schedule Tuesday, with seven home games at Knoles Field in Pacific's second season under head coach Ryan Jorden.
"We're really looking forward to the second season of Pacific men's soccer and building on the foundation we laid last season," Jorden said. "Last season we primarily focused on the development our young team from a philosophical and fundamental standpoint, and we are ready to take another step forward this season."
The Tigers will open their second Division I season with an exhibition at Cal on Wednesday, August 19, debut at home with an exhibition against UC Santa Cruz on August 23, and hold the regular season home opener on Sept. 13 against San Jose State at 7 p.m.
Pacific will also hold home contests against Grand Canyon (Sept. 25) and San Diego State (Sept. 27) in non-conference play.
Road games on the non-conference slate include a trip to the midwest to face Drake (Aug. 28) and Omaha (Aug. 30), prior to a tournament in Las Vegas where the Tigers will meet Utah Valley (Sept. 4) and UNLV (Sept. 6).
Pacific will square off at Northern California opponents Sacramento State (Sept. 18) and UC Davis (Sept. 20) before the home weekend against Grand Canyon and SDSU. The Tigers will close non-conference play at Bakersfield (Oct. 4) before the West Coast Conference campaign gets underway.
"In putting together our non-conference schedule, we wanted to build a tradition of fixtures against the programs in the state of California," Jorden said. "At the same time, early road trips to Drake, Omaha and to the UNLV Tournament are not only adding quality matches to the schedule, but also foster team bonding and team chemistry, which is important with our new program."
Pacific opens WCC action at Saint Mary's (Oct. 11), and then visits San Francisco (Oct. 16) and Santa Clara (Oct. 18).
The Tigers will welcome San Diego to Knoles Field (Oct. 30) and play host to Loyola Marymount (Nov. 1) before a road contest at Portland (Nov. 8).
The regular season finale will be at Knoles Field against Gonzaga (Nov. 14) to wrap the seven-game WCC slate.
"The WCC is one of the top-10 conferences in the country, yet we held our own last season," Jorden commented. "Our goal is to use the foundation that we laid last year as a platform to compete at an even higher level that we achieved at the end of last campaign. There are often fine margins in the results in college soccer, and we hope that the work that we have done allows us to be better positioned to win games this year."
The Tigers finished in the top 50 in the nation in home attendance in their inaugural season at Knoles Field and will look to rally behind the impressive community support the raucous crowd has shown.
Full 2015 Men's Soccer Schedule