Valparaiso women’s soccer head coach John Marovich announced today the Crusaders’ schedule for the upcoming 2014 campaign, a slate which features nine home matches.

The Crusaders open exhibition play on Friday, Aug. 15 at Cincinnati before coming home two days later for exhibition action against Saint Joseph’s [Ind.] at 10 a.m.  The regular season opens up Friday, Aug. 22 at Brown Field versus Belmont at 7:30 p.m., with another home fixture against IUPUI two days later at 1 p.m.

Among the rest of the non-league slate is a pair of contests against 11-win teams from a season ago, as the Crusaders play at Northern Arizona on Aug. 31 and host Ball State on Sept. 5.  Other non-league matches include home games versus Evansville (Sept. 14) and Loyola (Oct. 4), while Valpo will also travel to play Grand Canyon (Aug. 29), Western Illinois (Sept. 7), IPFW (Sept. 12) and Eastern Illinois (Sept. 19).

The challenging Horizon League slate begins for the Crusaders at Brown Field on Sept. 24 against Oakland, one of three league squads which won at least 10 matches last season.  During league play, Valpo will travel to Cleveland State (Sept. 27), UIC (Oct. 8), Wright State (Oct. 18) and Green Bay (Oct. 31), while hosting Youngstown State (Oct. 11), Milwaukee (Oct. 22) and Detroit (Oct. 25) in addition to the Grizzlies.

The Horizon League Championship runs Nov. 3-8, with the winner earning the league's automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament.